Black & White Magazine Excellence Award Winner

A little over a week ago I received a brief email from Black & White Magazine informing me that my work was chosen for an Excellence Award for their 2009 Portfolio Contest. Only 15 winners are chosen out of 837 entries, I have to admit I was floored. To be honest I had nearly forgotten about the contest and thought I had been passed over yet again which made the email and my subsequent reaction (I was literally jumping around my apartment and squealing like a little girl) so thrilling. I only wish I knew which photos they will print and I hope I get a Portfolio Spotlight in a future issue.

Special Issue #68 will be out the first week of June. I'm thinking about throwing a little party in early June to celebrate.

"Kira's Back" was one of the many photos submitted and regardless of whether it's printed or not is one of my favorites, all of the photos are on my Photoshelter site.

Oh, and a big thanks to Paolo Mastrangelo for helping me edit the portfolios.

Goodbye Portfolio

So long Portfolio, the only business/money magazine I ever liked. Media Bistro has the most in-depth info so far. Too bad a money magazine with style can't survive.

Dzul Dance and a new promo card

Been busy creating some new work and trying to get some...well...new work, the paid kind.

I did a wonderful shoot with few of the dancers from Dzul Dance last month and I'm very happy and excited about the results. This image will be used by Dzul Dance to promote their upcoming shows in Millbrook, NY.

I finally decided on a new promo card design which I had printed by the wonderful people at Modern Postcard. If you need to have some postcards made and image quality is of the utmost importance you can't do better than Modern Postcard, I can't say enough good things about the quality of their product and fantastic customer service. I will start mailing these out this week.

The simple joys of simple photography

A little over a week ago I went out for some late night shooting around my neighborhood in upstate New York. After walking around for nearly an hour and only taking one photo I was about to give up on getting a really great shot, you know that shot that gives you butterflies you know it's so good—I know I can't expect that every time but I'm always hopeful. The whole night I kept noticing the moon peeking behind the clouds over the river but I didn't come across a good scene to shoot it in unless I pointed the camera skyward but that's against what I want to capture so I was patient, I knew something would reveal itself to me. As I was circling back to my house I decided to walk further up the street past my house to where the street started to ascend up a hill and there I saw it, the moon peeking behind the clouds and the trailer home of a neighbor illuminated by a street lamp. I bracketed three four minute exposures (shot with Kodak Portra 160NC), one at f11 (which was more like three minutes since I had to get out of the way of a pickup truck), one at f8 and a final exposure at f16 which I left for an additional minute, again for a passing truck but on the opposite side of the road (covered the lens with my hand). All three exposures worked but the f8 won out. I'm considering cloning out the bright orange light peeking below the trees on the left but for now I'm leaving it as-is and enjoying the fruits of pure, simple photography.

What you see is what you get

Which one of your paintings do you consider to be the best?

The one I'm working on now.

What is the message behind all this imagery?

What you see is what you get.

-Mati Klarwein from www.matiklarweinart.com

Smoke fantasia

I am working on a photo essay inspired by my smoke series. I have been patiently seeking out night scenes around my house in upstate NY and these are the first two compositions. Although I am very happy with the mood of the first scene I was underexposed by a stop, I may try and shoot it again this week after the rain on Thursday.
I envision these as the first and last shots in the story, I already have the figures ready for the third scene but I haven't decided on a scene yet. I'm about to head out and finish off a roll of Porta 160 so I can develop it tomorrow before I head back upstate.

Terry Richardson’s Shoot With Natasa Vojnovic

Purple #11 from Purple Magazine on Vimeo.

Watching this makes me think twice (again!) about selling my Contax G2 kit. What's that flash he's using?

I used to hate, hate, hate Terry's work but now I really appreciate what he does. I can't think of any other photographer whose work I can identify right away. People easily dismiss his point and shoot style and talk as if anybody could take his photos but take Terry out of the equation and you wouldn't have his photographs. He brings something out of his subjects that no other photographer can.