Music’s Homage to Photography

For most of its infancy & adolescence photography has been considered a "minor" art, an afterthought when measured against more traditional ones. But as civilization embraces its influence & contributions, we have seen how it has permeated into every crevice of societies.

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Metropolis: 10 Traveled Cities

All the time I am asked the question “What do you like to shoot?” It is a lot harder to answer than you might think. Ultimately, I have to admit I just like to expose film. Whereas some people specialize in landscapes, architecture, animals, flowers or still life, mostly I photograph people. And the best place to find large concentrations is cities—big cities—metropolis.

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Guest Post:: Getting Started Giving Back

One of the reasons many photographers pick up a camera is to expose social injustices and confront inequalities. Like Lewis Hine and Sebastião Salgado, we have a desire to raise awareness through imagery. It is a way to use our talents to give back.
 

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Highlight Thursdays: Best from the Web

This week we have some great Behind the scenes videos, A creative spin on Pin-Up photography, and a stunning visual dance.

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Highlight Thursdays: Best from the Web

 This week we have a few inspiring videos including Irwin Wongs humorous music video about Copyright infringement and Possible proof that Nickolas Cage is Immortal.

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Long Exposure: Magic Blue and You

With long exposure you can cure a lot of ills
Remove choppy water, eliminate people in a scene

At the extremes, beyond the pale, on the periphery, above the rim are where you find the best stuff. 

Heaven/Hell

Hot/Cold

Mountain tops/ocean floors

War/Peace

Filene’s Basement

Middle of the road?  Anybody can snap a picture at 1/250@f/8.  That is a camera’s sweet spot.  But what you capture way out on the ends, at ten seconds or at ten thousandth piques the senses.

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Collecting Photographers: Yousuf Karsh

   
After so many years it is hard to remember the names of all your clients but certain ones stand out,   not because of who they are but for some other interesting circumstance.  It is hard to know sometimes how you get a job.  Who hired you?  Where did they get your name?  But the phone rang one day & we negotiated to photograph at the Kidney Foundation’s annual banquet.  It was kismet.

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Push Pins: Remnants of a Photographers Journey

Reminiscent of the gothic novel Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, downstairs in my photography studio, instead of a painting I harbor a world map.  Like the book’s protagonist I treat it with great reverence.  Over time & with every new escapade it changes, ie I scar it with another pushpin.  There are dozens.  Almost every inch of landmass is covered.  Only the oceans are vacant.  My memories substitutes pushpins for the adventure.

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Video: Speedlights Manual vs Automatic

Here at the studio we have started venturing into Video. Armed with new HD DSLR's we have decided to create short tutorials for you our audience. First is a series based on Speedlight use that is a sort of companion set to the book Speedlights & speedlites. We will also be shooting Behind the Scenes videos from time to time so check the video section on the right sidebar for new uploads or subscribe to our Vimeo and Youtube channels.

Each new video we produce we learn how to improve the process and bring you better content. We hope you will join us and please comment on what you have found helpful, where we can improve and what you would like to see us cover in the future.

So here is the newest Video Manual vs Automatic

One in a series of helpful online tutorials about the use of speedlights. In this video Lou Jones deals with the controversy between manual and automatic usage.

Speedlights: Manual vs Automatic from Lou Jones on Vimeo.

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Lou Jones Studio's First Twitter Contest: Get on Bored!

Contest Has Finished

Contest Has Finished

We have reached a milestone in our Twitter followers so to celebrate and thank all of you we decided to give away a bunch of Swag. Using the new technologies to reach out to an entirely new audience & pay homage to old supporters we have collaborated with Lowepro to institute a Twitter Contest. With very little effort on your part Lou Jones Studio will make your equipment arsenal and/or library larger.


What You Win

Grand Prize

Lowepro
Pro Roller Attaché x50

The Pro Roller™ Attaché x50 is a compact and modular solution for hassle-free international travel and work. Its inventive, two-bags-in-one design offers true versatility for the pro photographer. Use as a rolling attaché with your complete camera kit and laptop. More details Here

&

Final Exposure

Portraits from Death Row 

Giving himself the provocative task of capturing the candid expressions of death row inmates, Jones has used the power of his camera to present these inmates as real people and not just the dark side of humanity. His book, Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row chronicles his six-year odyssey documenting these men and women incarcerated in the U.S. More info Here

First Prize   
 

Speedlights & Speedlites

Creative Flash Photography at Lightspeed

This book seeks to inform all photographers about the smallest but most important advancement in photo lighting to date: Speedlights. Spearheaded by the digital revolution, lighting has acquired an entirely different set of rules which will be discussed in detail. More info Here


Second Prize

Final Exposure

Portraits from Death Row 

Giving himself the provocative task of capturing the candid expressions of death row inmates, Jones has used the power of his camera to present these inmates as real people and not just the dark side of humanity. His book, Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row chronicles his six-year odyssey documenting these men and women incarcerated in the U.S.

Two Honorable Mentions
Will receive a copy of Lou's new Chap Book entitled "Paris"

Contest Has Finished

How To Enter

Its as simple as 1 2 3...

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Switching from Feedburner to AWeber for my email newsletter

This is just a brief post to let my readers know that I’m switching from Feedburner Email’s service to AWeber to handle sending out my posts and other content via email. Why am I switching? Because AWeber offers countless features that we plan to use to better inform you our readers of the exciting new things we've been working on . This change will only affect email subscribers. My RSS Feed will still be handled by Feedburner.
With Feedburner’s email service for example, I have no control over the emails that are sent out. With AWeber I’ll be able to create a newsletter service that not only sends out the posts I publish on this blog, but it will also allow me to send out custom written emails. Emails with exclusive offers, dates for upcoming Workshops and info on new books we are working on.
If you currently subscribe to my email newsletter via Feedburner you’re subscription will automatically be imported to AWeber and you will receive an email asking you to confirm the subscription. Unless you click on the activation link in that email, you will not be added to the new newsletter service. This is because the new newsletter has a double opt-in confirmation feature enabled. Starting tomorrow Feedburner’s email service will be disabled, as AWeber steps in to take over.
I invite you to join my newsletter by providing your first name and email address in the email sign-up on the right hand side bar.
Thank you to all those who have or will sign up.

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31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 2

 To read Part one of this series go Here...

"I only know how to approach a place by walking.  For what does a street photographer do but walk & watch & wait & talk, & then watch & wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner."

                                                    --Alex Webb

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31 Street Photography Tips and Tricks: Part 1

When my father was alive he used to tell me the hardest feat in sports was to hit a 95mph fastball.  I am not sure I agree but it certainly takes an immense amount of coordination.  The equivalent feat in art might be street photography; more difficult than painting, writing, dancing, even music.  Anyone can hit a single once in a while but it requires combining a lot of skills & techniques to “hit” for average as well as home-runs.

Photographing strangers is a challenging undertaking.  Being confronted with the moral dilemma of “stealing” a picture of someone without their permission or to engage them, alter the reality &, therefore, lose all veracity, is comparable to juggling several balls in the air.  At the same time trying to fashion a reasonable but provocative image, is almost existential.

"Street photography is an age-old tradition, and also a solitary undertaking. It has been elevated by such luminaries as Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.

Street photography is an active, confrontational art form where the objective is to see and react to life around you. It is ground zero. No rules".

Street photos are small, quixotic segments of a larger urban landscape.  They are bits of a city—metaphors.  You are developing small narratives with little beginning or end.  Equipment is usually minimal.  Rather it is the heart & mind behind the camera that makes compelling street photographs.  Traditionally we have seen examples by Robert Frank, Eugene Atget, and Andre Kertesz but a new wave is represented by Alex Webb, Martin Parr & Constantine Manos who have changed it forever.

The most adept have so many things to consider every time they point their cameras at something.  As said before it is like juggling.  Besides shutter speed & aperture, you are balancing light, composition, momentum, emotion, etc.  And as you get better you add more balls.

In many places there is a de facto “war on street photography”.  There is a lot more pressure on us.  It is a wonderful tradition but suspicious minds attach some kind of perversion to it.  So as practitioners we have to be more capable to deal with all these factors.

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Stock Photography And The New Getty Images Contract

Back in the 1980s I traveled down to New York City & met with THE IMAGE BANK.  Although stock photography had been around a long time, this new iteration revolutionized photography forever.  From what had previously been outtakes, the new idea was to combine the best photographers, the best photography & the best marketing.  It treated good photography with respect & I wanted some of that.  A new era was born.

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Local News Shows Boston Street Photographers as Perverts

They tell me timing is everything. I was writing a blog about street photography when WBZ-TV(CBS Affiliate) did a piece on the eleven o'clock news about photographers in downtown Boston. I could not believe my eyes & ears. They did an entire piece on male photographers taking pictures in Downtown Crossing. They surreptitiously videotaped several men on an afternoon. They questioned a couple of them too. The station made no overt accusations. No one was breaking the law but they brought into question how creepy this practice seemed.

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15 Movies Every Photographer Should See

The early predecessor to modern films were similar to what we call stop motion today, stills fixed to a round drum and hand cranked to create an animated picture. It makes sense then that hundreds of films have been made paying homage to photographers and photography. This is by no means a comprehensive list and it is mostly based on opinion, so I'm sure people will have films they feel should be listed. So by all means add any films you think should be added in the comments.

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8 Causes Of Bad Photography

A pet peeve amongst veteran photographers, albeit condescending, is how many neophytes approach the craft expecting someone to paint an “X” on the ground where they are supposed to stand, instruct them what f/stop & shutter speed to use & exactly when to push the button. That is not photography. It is painting-by-numbers. Photography is a moving target. And it requires repetition similar to practicing piano scales. Therefore pundits talk ad infinitum about the lonely learning curve necessary for taking “better pictures”: composition, rules, technique, tricks, etc. But lost in the discussion remains all sorts of significant factors that conspire against you & keep you from making Good pictures. Nobody talks about that.

These “maladies” plague everyone: amateurs & pros. And they never abate. For our whole lives we have to fight them.

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Salt and pepper

Certain things are always found in pairs: shoes, peanut butter & jelly, Fred Astaire/Ginger Rodgers, hydrogen atoms, yin & yang.  Salt & pepper.  Ubiquitous.  Inexpensive.  They compliment each other well.  But it was not always thus.  Until recently they were rare & valuable commodities.  Though they have varied origins their modern day relationship is in tandem.

Since before history, salt & pepper have been objects of desire.  The matchup began in the days when salting was the only way to preserve meat & fish.  Pepper was added to make the salty food more palatable.  Besides being condiments, they were used as currency, even salaries.  Over time trade routes were established, cities were founded & continents were discovered to satisfy the taste.

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Lou Jones Interveiwed

One year ago we traveled to New York City to be interviewed by James Sullivan of 1PROPHOTO. James teaches a compact and complete course called Photo Assistant Boot Camp for photo assistants & digital assistants and runs the website 1PROPHOTO.com featuring online tutorials, industry links, and photographic resources.

We were videotaped at SANDBOX STUDIOS on a pleasant day in Manhattan. James asks questions about my entire career, from my transition from science to photography and the struggles that I faced, to finding my professional voice and making an impact on the industry.

Its a Four part video Posted up at 1PROPHOTO.com here is the 1st part...


Lou Jones interview part 1 from 1ProPhotoCom on Vimeo.


To see the other Three parts of the interview please go HERE...

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