Joerg Colberg

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Joerg Colberg. Joerg has been described as "one of the webs' most insightful photo-blog personalities, photographer, writer, and critic" (quoted from Assistant Professor at HCC Frank Ward.) Joerg Colberg is the author of Conscientious a fine-art photography blog. Frank gave me an advanced notice that Joerg was going to be speaking at HCC. I was very eager to meet him and hear his thoughts on photography. I sat in on an interactive lecture by Colberg and Ward today. Frank had explained to me that Colberg was living localy and that he was a very prominent figure in the blog o' sphere. I did not recognize his name, however, I did recognize his photographs and the series titled: "No Place Like The Cape" a body of work that he did at Cape Cod. I also recognized his other body of work, titled: "Higher Education". I listened intently as Colberg explained his body of work. "It is a comentary", reaction to what he has seen. As he says it, "it is a comentary as how we as a society are not treating ourselves well." He went on to explain that the conditions in which our people work, refering to the academic institutions and the conditions of the buildings. His photographs, as he put them, are geometric masterpieces. Images comprised of shapes that are equally composed into the photographs.

His photography aside, Colberg gave some very serious advice to the students that sat in to listen to him speak. I sat dilligently, lingering on his words, as he spoke softly with his german accent. It was within the first few minutes that I realized Joerg is a very brilliant individual. I jotted down roughly two (small note book sized) pages of words that he spoke to the students. What I came up with was a few great quotes that some people could find inspiring.

" At the end of the day what really matters is the photograph. It doesn't matter how you made the photograph or what camera you used."
Colberg went on to express that he is not completely partial to digital photography. He explained that it is to easy to make to many photographs, where as shooting with film gives you a more controled perspective on making a photograph. A way of being more centered and more thorough in your photography. Do not just shoot as much as you can, is the point being conveyed. Be more conscious of your image making.

"You can stifle your own work if you are to conceptual."
I found this quote to be rather intersting. His explanation was merely simple, your own ideas can get in the way of how people see your photographs. It maybe clear to you as to why your photographs exist, but how people read them, see them, and interpret them maybe entirely different.

"Whatever you want to do, do it, but be prepared to defend it."
This is a real no brainer. Basically, be able to explain your work, your thoughts, and interpretations of what the photographs mean and why they exist.

I had very high expectations previous to meeting Colberg. Expectations which had been shattered by his brillance and the way he addressed the students. Colberg was very interested in hearing why the students pursued photography and what compelled them to make photographs. Joerg took a look at some of the students photographs and gave them a professional critique. I was impressed that such a professional in the industry was able to take a few moments of his time and give his opinions and share his thoughts with a room full of students. Defined as being insightful, I find Colberg to be both infulential and inspiring.

I would like to thank Frank Ward for having invited me to meet Joerg Colberg.

Online Photography Magazines

Lenshare is still in its infancy stages by my standards. Lenshare is still less a year old and growing up very quickly. However, there are big changes in the works, some exciting new things to come.

When I come across online publications such as the list of Online Photography Magazines that Smashing Magazine has put together, I get very inspired. I see a lot more publications starting to form online vs. print. Print media has taken a huge change over the past few years, as some publications fold up, some new ones are starting up online. I am always excited when I come across a new photography publication. There is a mulititude of information streaming across the internet. Every day is a chance to learn something new. Check out the list of online photography magazines, you will discover something new in their pages.

Surrealist Photograph

I made this photograph over the course of this weekend. It is the first photo composite that I have made in a few months. This weekend was about including an international friend of mine into my life and the things I do, places I go, and what I do when I am not behind a computer or looking through the lens of a camera. That is the reason why I have not made a few posts since the beginning of the week. I have also been very busy the past 3 weeks setting up a new business. There will be a post about that to come very soon. Being that I have devoted so much time to the new business, I have been unable to make photographs like these for some time. But hopefully the new work I have been doing will also allow me a few creative breaks to make a few more surrealist photographs.

Here is my surrealist photograph. I made this photograph on the Historic Warf in Salem Massachusetts.

Lenshare Welcomes FreePhotoResources

I am pleased to welcome FreePhotoResources to Lenshare. FreePhotoResources is an outstanding site that I just discovered last week. I have read quite a few of the articles on the site and find it to be a great resource for photographers. The site is filled with news, interviews, tutorials, galleries, videos and more. Don't take my word for it. Go learn something that you have yet to see here on Lenshare.

Some Black and White Photographs

Holyoke, MA is a post industrialist city. Once a thriving, economically building city of factories and mills, Holyoke is seeing a lot of change as the creativity and talent flourish. Holyoke is beautiful. There are endless possibilities and prospects in Holyoke. Holyoke is a period of rebirth. Someday very soon we are going to see Holyoke be as strong and viable as it once was.

Northampton, Ma: This next photograph is of a Street philosopher in Northampton. Steve, AKA Philo has but one mission in life, and that is to “make things make sense”.

Shellburn Falls, MA

Photoshop Shut Down: A terrifying disaster.

I use photoshop regularly. By regularly, I mean obsessively. Photoshop to me, is what an enlarger used to be a photographer before digital took over the world. So naturally you can understand that if something were to say, happen to photoshop, it would be very crippling. Restoring the damage can be a very daunting task that might not even gurantee me the results I need.

So here is the problem. I opened photoshop and walked away to grab something. In the 30 seconds I was gone, a dialog box popped up. Never seeing the box before, "could not perform this action" is what the first part said. I hit ok and watched as photoshop open. Once and a while photoshop resets itself and opens all the boxes on the right side of the screen. Today, it did that very exact thing. Great! Now I have to go and restore this. So I go to the top, Window>Workspace>and looked for the very last time I saved my workspace. Now, if you are unfamiliar with what this means let me explain. Say you install a bunch of actions and set your tools to the specifications you want. Now in order to prevent from loosing all this you can go over to Window>Save Workspace>Title it the date (this is the best possible way remember when you saved it last) click the apporprate boxes, and hit save. This saves your information and your actions. So if photoshop ever resets itself, all you have to do is go to Window>Workspace>find the date saved and click on it. This would restore your last saved workspace.

Now back to my problem. I installed over 100 actions back in the fall. So very hard to find actions. I saved the workspace after loosing them once before. Tonight, as photoshop was opening, something happened. Some how, some where, all my actions and presets had vanished. I went to restore to the last time I saved the workspace, only to realized that the workspace I had saved no longer exsisted. So now I am sitting here wondering, where o' where are these actions saved on my laptop so I can reinstall them, if, if, if, that is I still have them on here. Wish me luck as I try and restore photoshop to the way it was...

Nikon New: Introducing the D5000

Nikon has done it again. Nikon has introduced the D5000. A very impressive little camera, nicknamed the D90 Lite. This camera is essentially the same thing as the D90 but with a few twists.

It houses the same sensor as the D90 as well as these key features.

• 12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor
• D-Movie Mode with sound Record 720p HD movie clips
• Vari-angle color 2.7-inch LCD monitor
  
• 19 Auto-exposure Scene Modes
• One-button Live View
• Continuous shooting as fast as 4 frames-per-second
• Low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200
• Built-in image sensor cleaning
• 11-point auto-focus system with 3D Focus Tracking
• Auto Active D-Lighting
• In-camera Retouch image editing
• Nikon 3D Color Matrix Metering II
• Durable, high precision shutter

I knew it was only a matter of time before Nikon would put an LCD screen (like the above pictured one) on one of their cameras. Nikon keeps putting out something new and exciting every few months or so. Check the Nikon USA site for a full list of Features and Specs that this little camera has to offer.

SBA: Shake Begins At

"Shake begins at" is a term that I have never really heard before until recently. Basically, this is referring to movement from your hands causing an image to be blurred. ShutterBug has a good article that goes in depth about SBA.

Street Photography and a new site: FreePhotoResources

As mentioned below I spend a great deal of time searching for new things related to photography. I came across this site last night called FreePhotoResources. One of their newest, top articles is on street photography (which I think is a well constructed article discussing Street Photography). Street photography is a fun way of shooting. When I am not working on a project or shooting a job for a client, I often turn to the streets to make photographs. I love photographing people and doing so in ways that engage the viewer. Its a way of using people to interest people in my photographs. Shooting street photography requires a great deal of intuitiveness. You have to be able to connect with people and know what they are going to do. You have to be able to anticipate their next move. Some times you only have 1/125th of a second to be able to capture what they are doing and what it is that you see interesting.

Here are a few examples of some street photography that I did when I was in New York City.

    

Photographers: A list of new names.

I came across a great site that has a list of photographers from all over the world. The site has a list of polish photographers that I found to be very interesting. I spend a lot of my time (time invested for lenshare) searching out photographers and their unique styles. Exposing ourselves to new ideas and images gives us the ability to grow as photographers and artists. I think it is a valuable learning to tool to view as much photographs as possible. This includes exposing yourself to as many photographers as possible. Not everyone is capable of being a teacher, but that doesn't mean they don't have something new to teach you.

• Ankon Photography
• Robert Laska Photography
• Roberta Urbanskiego Photography
• Marek Waskiel Photography
  

Boston Globe: Photo shoot with speed.

Here are a few photos from a shoot I did this past week. The photos were needed for the G Force section of the Boston Globe. This was one of the fastest shoots I’ve ever done. After shooting I literally had less than an hour to edit and turn over the images to my client. I love working on short deadlines like this. They always have some sort of challenge that when it presents it’s self makes the job that much more thrilling and worth while in the end.

  

Light Stands

If you are shooting inside with a light stand and or umbrella than you do not need to worry about this type of situation. However, if you are shooting outside than you might want to take a minute to think about this.

Say you have a shoot lined up that has to be shot outside. You have a nice set up, strobe, umbrella, light stand, wireless receiver, but you get a nice small breeze or a gust of wind. Before you know it and can move fast enough, your equipment is hitting the ground. Damages to your equipment can ruin your shoot and even put a complete end to it. Not only will your equipment be damaged, so could your reputation. Not being able to complete your clients shoot could hurt your chances of working with them again or potentially loosing business via word of mouth.

The solution to this is a sand bag or a weight that would prevent your stand from toppling over.
Here is one product that I have found. Bogen - Manfrotto G100 Sand Bag Weight
Lately there has been a growing trend of Do It Yourselfers hitting the market with their ideas to producing products for a lot less than the cost of buying them. Some of the products that people are making are worth the try. Here is a site that I found that offers a Do It Yourself way of making light stand sand bags/weights.

DIYPhotography Light Stand Sandbags

Make sure you are prepared to when you are going to your shoots. Having the right gear really helps and makes things go smoothly. Of course, accidents do happen and some times you can not control these things no matter how hard you try. Be rest assured, being prepared usually prevents disasters from happening. Keep these products in mind when purchasing your first light stand or if you are doing out-door/location work.

Emailing Photographs

One of the best email services that I have found is Yousendit.com You send it allows you to send files for free or you can sign up for their services for a monthly fee. They offer four different levels of services. Lite, Pro, Business Plus, or Corporate Suite. Pro is the most affordable at $9.99 a month. I use the Pro account, let me tell you, it makes life very easy when it comes to emailing clients their photographs. If you prefer to use Lite, or do not generate enough business to need a Pro account, Lite only allows you to send one file at a time, UNLESS you zip your folder and send the entire fold.

If you are running a bigger studio or plan to in the near future an FTP Client might be something you will want to look into. There are a number of FTP Client programs available. You can do a google search to find the one that is right for you.

Getting your photographs to your clients quickly can make a world of difference when it comes to doing business with them again. Having a fast turn around time shows your clients that you're reliable and dependable as well as fast. This will allow them to entrust you to work on quick deadlines and produce images fast. More then ever clients are looking for a fast turn around time. Having an email service that can allow you to send large files helps satisfy your clients needs. I recommend using Yousendit.com You will not be let down.