jeff singer photography BLOG

A couple months ago I visited New York City. It was my first time in New York since about 1984. I would have been 12 at the time. I was surprised by how much I liked the city. I guess the image of New York I had in my mind had no basis in reality. I found myself liking New York so much that I wondered what it would be like to move there.

Moving when you have a real job is usually not a big deal. Either you get moved to a new office by your company or you move for a new job. But when you work for yourself it’s a bit more tricky. It’s as if you would be starting over from scratch.

Quite often for editorial work, with both new and old clients, I get called on because they need a photographer in the Bay Area or Los Angeles. With editorial work I rarely get called to travel outside California. I’d love to travel more for editorial work, but so far that hasn’t been the case (That isn’t true of commercial work… for commercial work I’ve traveled all over the US and Europe)

I’m not suggesting I have some great name recognition as a “San Francisco Photographer” or potential clients instantly think of me when they have a shoot in the Bay Area (I hope they do). It seems that most of my new clients tend to call when they have a shoot in the area and find me on sites like Workbook, Blackbook, Photoserve, or they have been receiving my promo pieces and finally have a project for me. So, does this mean getting new clients after a move is as easy as updating my location information in the places I promote myself and sending a move notice to my current clients? Will my existing clients start sending me on shoots close to my new location just as they would at my old location?

So how do you do it… how do you pick up and move and start over as a photographer? Especially when you’re in my position: someone relatively new to photography (about 4 years now) who is constantly seeing an increase in work, types of clients, size of jobs, and actually discovers people do already know who and where I am when I contact them. Is this constant progress due to a response to my work and my promotional efforts? Or, is it because of where I live? Will I loose that if I move or will it continue in my new city?

I’m not suggesting I’m moving any time soon… or ever for that matter. But it has been on my mind and New York would be first on the list (in the U.S. anyway).

And I know you come here not only for your photography related information, but also political commentary, so… Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

While setting up for a shoot in front of Moscone Center last week, I was greeted by a loud and dedicated protester.  Inside the center was the annual Mortgage Brokers Association Convention & Expo.  Outside was the lone protester.  He was protesting the government bailout of the mortgage and financial industry.  What he lacked in numbers, he made up for in heart.  The fact there was only one of him didn’t stop him from taking the opportunity to disrupt the mainstream media (I guess that would be me) from glorifying the mortgage industry and the government bailout (again, me?).

Unfortunately for him we weren’t quite ready to shoot and were only in the setup phase.  Sadly, he was ushered away by the time the shoot was ready to begin.  I didn’t want him to feel like he didn’t accomplish anything, so I went ahead and snapped this shot of him in action.

Fight on lone protester, fight on!

Over the last month or so I’ve been batting .1000 on my ad campaign estimates… which, as anyone in this business knows is pretty much unheard of (at least for me anyway). Maybe it has to do with the fact that my (relatively) new reps over at Wonderful Machine have been handling the estimates. Maybe the key to getting me more work keeping me away from the clients for as long as possible. Probably. I received another request for an estimate today. Here’s to hoping the streak stays alive.

Tomorrow I’m off to shoot an editorial job in the Moscone Center. I’ve shot there before and its usually a logistical nightmare when dealing with a lot of equipment.

The shot above is a shot of my assistant friend and assistant (she got on me for that one) Emily from a couple weeks ago while on a week long shoot for SPM Advertising in San Diego.

I’m not exactly a celebrity photographer. Not that I wouldn’t want to photograph celebrities, but I just don’t seem to get many calls for celebrity shoots. They say if you want to shoot celebrities you need to already have celebrities in your portfolio. Quite the catch-22. However, the few times I have received a call to photograph a celebrity it seemed to be the same story: “we can’t pay much…. But hey, you’re going to get to photograph <insert b-list celebrity here> and you’ll get photo credit!”

I’m not sure why they think I would accept less money just because I’d be photographing a celebrity. I always want to ask, “would you do your job for 50% less pay just because Janeane Garofalo was in the cube next to you?” Probably not.

I’m always usually willing to work with clients to meet their budgets, but if it comes down to getting a good rate and photographing a nerd in Los Angeles (Seriously, I just did a shoot for Psychology Today… they called and told me they wanted me to photograph a nerd) or a low rate and photographing Brad Pitt, I’ll take the nerd every time.

This week Photoshelter began testing a new print service for limited edition prints. One of my photos was chosen to be in the trial run of the service which will be going on through October 1st.

I recently did a shoot with cyclist Liz Hatch for Bicycling Magazine. Liz was gracious enough to come to San Francisco’s Chinatown for the shoot even though she was in a pretty bad crash about a week before the shoot. She could barely lift her hand to shake mine when we met. And yet despite knowing she was in agony, I asked her to heave her bike onto her shoulder (yeah, the bad one). Without complaint she obliged, although I did feel bad as I watched her struggle to find a comfortable position for the bike…. hey, you’re supposed to suffer for your art, right? Oh wait, it’s me that’s supposed to suffer… right?

Needless to say Liz is a lot tougher than I am and could probably kick my ass even with her injuries.

So far I haven’t made any posts about the technical side of photography, topics like equipment for example. This is actually quite amazing given that I am such a tech/equipment dork. It had to happen eventually so here I am with my first equipment post. And in true tech dork fashion, its a complaint.

I’ve been shooting with the Phase One P25/P25+ for about a year now. Before that I was shooting with a Canon 1DS MkII, which I still have and use for certain shoots. I’ve been mostly happy with the Phase One back, with one major exception: backlit scenes. When shooting into the sun or an artificial light, image detail is lost on a “strip” of the image near the light source. Here is an example:

Here is Phase’s response to the issue:

“the light is hitting the ccd at such a strength that is goes way above and beyond the dynamic range capabilities of the sensor. The anolog electrical signal produced in the pixel is more than it can handle and it gets passed to the next photosite in progression, hence the straight line. A similar thing happens in silver hallide crystals of film with the exception that they pass energy in all directions.”

Not very helpful to someone who likes to shoot with heavy backlight.

The problem I have with the response is, I never experienced this with my Canon 1DSmkII. So, I’ve sent off an email to Leaf to see if their digital backs would exhibit the same problem. I fully expect an email touting how great the Leaf back is and that it will not have the problem. If that is the case I’ll blindly buy the Leaf back and live happily ever after… yeah, right. In reality, if I do get a response saying the Leaf back won’t exhibit the problem I’ll have a Leaf tech come to my studio and prove it does in fact work well in backlit scenes. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

If anyone reading uses a Phase, Leaf, or another MFDB and sees or doesn’t see this problem, let me know.

Unfortunately for my friend Jennifer (hey, this is her second blog entry in a row), she asked me to pick her up from her family’s Christmas to take her home… I say Unfortunately because on the way home, while driving along on the highway, we were greeted by an out of control car… The other car suddenly lost control and veered right into us. I had no time to react beyond a quick (and apparently futile) attempt to avoid the car. I’m not sure what things looked like on the outside, but on the inside we had a long and terrifying ride, most of it upside down. According to a very kind witness who stopped to help, we flipped 3-4 times. I can tell you that whatever was going on, it seemed like it lasted forever.

Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt… But as you can see by the pictures, my car didn’t fare so well. Even the firemen were amazed we just got out and walked away.

Some other nice people, possibly feeling the Christmas spirit, helped by stopping and gathering all of our things that were scattered about the freeway.

Needless to say I feel very grateful that Jennifer and I were not more seriously hurt than we were. After many hours in the ER getting patched up and after a brain scan (with which the doctors could find no conclusive evidence of my having one) they let us leave the hospital. Head and neck pain and some cuts are what we are left with today and hopefully that will pass soon.

Here is the fine print for you lawyers and insurance adjusters out there: (please read in very fast unintelligible legal disclaimer voice) I am in no way stating that we have no permanent life altering injuries. I am not a medical professional and have no way of knowing the true extent of our injuries. I am in no way relinquishing any claims for any damages caused by or because of the wreck. . Odds of winning are 1 in 3,000,000,000. No participation necessary. May cause dizziness, headache or leaky bowels. Offer not valid in Ohio or Maine

I figure i had to say something like that because you know lawyers and insurance people would just jump at the chance to use this entry as an admission of some sort.

Anyway, I hope everyone else had a good (and safe) Christmas… Here is to a great new year.

I’ve never really done nudes before. Once back in school they had us do a nude assignment. The school provided us with models to use for our shoots. My girlfriend at the time refused to let me photograph another woman naked. And yet, at the same time she refused to let me photograph her naked. Knowing that I had to complete the assignment she eventually caved. I guess the thought of me photographing another woman naked left a worse taste in her mouth than posing for the assignment herself.At a workshop I recently attended we were given a model to photograph. Everyone in the workshop proceeded to photograph her naked. Each photographer had a few minutes with the model and they did their thing. With 15 people in the workshop, the poor model was poked and prodded as if she was a piece of cattle on the way to slaughter. It was now my turn. I don’t really like to be watched by a lot of people when I take pictures (if I can help it, which often times, I can’t) so I went last. As I walked up to the model I said to her “Ok, I’m going to ask you to do something really weird.” The model had a horrified look on her face as if I was about to ask her to do something even Larry Flint would blush at. Instead, I set her mind at ease by asking “would you mind putting your clothes back on?” She laughed and obliged my not-so-deviant request. Everyone else in the room thought I was some sort of weirdo for having the naked woman put her clothes back on.So why nudes now? I’m not quite sure… My assistant Emily does nudes, so maybe rather than my style rubbing off on her as is often the case with photographers and their assistants, it is her that is rubbing off on me. Either way, I had been thinking about exploring nude photography for the last few months, so when given the opportunity I decided to give it a shot. And what better opportunity than when my friend, the lovely and beautiful Jennifer, despite her reservations (something about the pictures ending up on the internet… which I assured her would never happen), let me photograph her one chilly morning last week.Jennifer isn’t a model so having her photo taken isn’t exactly a routine event for her… let alone having her photo taken while undressed. Despite feeling a bit uneasy at first, she did a great job and quickly became relaxed in front of the camera.I do realize these aren’t technically nudes since Jen is covered up for the most part. I didn’t really do anything different than what I would do shooting a clothed woman. I guess thats a good place to start until I figure out what it is I want to do. Maybe next time I’ll try something outside my comfort zone. That’s what this personal work stuff is all about after all… trying something new and different.

It seems like talking about assisting on your blog is all the rage right now. It started over on “A Photo Editor’s” blog and now has continued over on “Whats the Jackanory.”I never really did much assisting. A few years ago I got a late start in photography after many years in the tech field. I was 32 at the time and I felt like I was too old to be assisting and didn’t really want to do it. Not because I thought it was beneath me, but rather, I felt the need to get to work on my own career having had such a late start. It surely wasn’t because I felt like I had all the knowledge and skills and was ready to be a professional photographer… quite the contrary. I mean, at the time I had literally only been using a camera for little more than a year. What the hell did I know?I assisted a few San Francisco advertising and editorial photographers on a few shoots but soon discovered that I was a.) really bad at assisting and b.) really didn’t like it. So, partly due to my own stubbornness and largely due to my own ignorance I stopped trying to get assisting work and decided to focus on my own photography. Another reason for my decision not to assisist (aside from nobody hiring me) came on one of my last attempts at working as an assistant. I emailed Timothy Archibald, another great blogger, to see if he needed an assistant. Thankfully, rather than hiring me, he gave me some encouraging words. I hope he doesn’t mind my quoting his response (which I can only imagine having been made while highly intoxicated):

I just got a chance to visit your site, your work is wonderfull. the portraits are very human and introspective, important qualities that are hard to find together in one shot.that said, i would discourage you from trying to find work from me. you clearly should be supporting yourself being a photographer! currently i am not in need of anyone as an assistant, but i will keep you in mind. tho i’m quite sure you will be on your way as a photographer by the time i’d ever get around to giving you a ring. ha.keep up the good work and do not sell yourself short.

Now, maybe this was his way of politely blowing off someone who would clearly be a horrible assistant, but the joke was on him because I took his comments seriously and it helped my push to do my own work.There are some aspects of the photography process that I feel I missed out on by not assisting. Andrew, over at “Whats The Jackanory” pinpointed exactly what it is I feel I missed. Here is what Andrew had to say:

I learnt so much [from assisting], but in the end I was more interested in the process then the technicalities, I enjoyed watching how people worked, their relationship with their subject whether it be alive or still didn’t matter. Everyone has a different approach and it always fascinated me especially my first time out with someone new, how did they tackle things differently from the others; were they calm, nervous, high energy, a talker, quiet, shy, did they like music, silence, were they a screamer, a shouter or were they in total control, was it all an act, a means to an end, or were they for real, what you saw was what you got, how did they interact with the client, the models etc etc.

Since I did little assisting I’ve never really worked with or watched other photographers at work. I always had this feeling in my mind that maybe I’m doing something wrong. Maybe the way I’m interacting with the subject isn’t right. “How would ’so and so’ do this?” Is everyone looking at me and thinking “this guy has no idea what is going on!!!!” Do I need to be more talkative, do I need to be more outgoing, do I need to shut up, do I need to be funnier, do I need to be more serious, and on and on and on.Over time this has passed, but I will admit to having the thoughts pop in my head every once in a while. I’m finally getting to the point where I realize that I just need to do what I do and go about my business. Its when you start trying to be like someone else or do things the way another shooter would, rather than the way you would do it that the results aren’t as good as they could be. If you were hired to do a shoot its because they liked YOUR work, so don’t try to be someone else, just do your thing and the results will be good.I’m still fascinated by how other photographers work, so any chance I get to hang out on a shoot and watch another photographer working I take it. But now I’m there as a peer rather than an assistant… which means, when they have me take in their dry cleaning after the shoot, I know no starch on the collars.

This is a shout out to my dear friend and assistant Emily Merrill. Emily entered the above picture into APA San Francisco’s Something Personal Exhibition and was notified that not only was she accepted, she has in fact won best image of the show! So suck on that all you big time San Francisco advertising photographers… my assistant can kick your assistant’s ass… and yours for that matter… and mine!Yeah, I had my entry accepted into the exhibition as well, but clearly the truly talented are the ones that get the recognition.Emily, I will be submitting my resume to you ASAP. I hope you will consider me for any assisting positions you may have open. It would be an honor and joy to work for you. And remember, all those times I mocked you in front of the clients and locked you in the car… I was totally kidding! (Why have you stopped returning my calls?)Congratulations Emily I am very proud of you. Can I tell people I discovered you?Here is a shot of Emily I took on a shoot last week. She often makes my life difficult because its next to impossible for the real subject to be as lovely and graceful as Emily is in the setup shots… you try sticking a grumpy business man in her place and comparing the results!

Its been a while since my last entry. I’m hoping I’m providing quality and not just quantity. (although I realize its likely neither) This weeks entry is in honor of Halloween.My friend Deirdre has what I consider to be one of the cutest dogs I’ve ever met. The dog’s name is Dingle (named for the port in Ireland, not the berry). Dingle is a small Hungarian Puli. As some (crazy) people like to do with their animals, Deirdre occasionally dresses Dingle up in strange costumes. Normally I find this practice annoying, but for some reason I enjoy seeing Dingle in her various outfits. Deirdre got the idea that Dingle should be dressed up as a Mexican in a sombrero and poncho for her Christmas cards last year (of course).I wanted a grimy border town feeling for the picture so we headed to a back alley in a not so savory section of The Mission. The alley had exactly the look I wanted, so we set up shop and begin taking pictures. During the shoot, I was approached by a “lady” (there is a reason for the quotes around the word lady). She walked up to me, looking around suspiciously, and asked me if I had any crack. She was asking in a way you would think is only done in movies, as if I or someone near by just might be an undercover cop. I had to let her down by telling her I in fact did not have any crack for her. Disappointed, she walked away. During our little shoot she returned quite a few more times to check back in, just in case my supply had changed. It hadn’t. I’ll give her this much, she was very persistent… or she just didn’t remember having already asked me… I’m not sure which.As we continued taking more pictures of the the siesta-esque Dingle we believe that the woman apparently found what she was after. Not thirty yards from where we were, we noticed her and some of her “colleagues” standing in a circle enjoying what we can only imagine to be what she previously was hoping to purchase from me. It was at this point we thought it would be a good idea to pack up the gear, grab Dingle and move on.Needless to say we were very happy to get out of there not only with what I think is a funny picture of Dingle, but also with our lives. And you’ll be happy to know that Deirdre won “best Christmas card” among her friends and family with the “Dirty Dingle” picture. Maybe I have a future in taking pictures for greeting cards… and with that thought, please excuse me while I go kill myself.I hope everyone has a happy Halloween.

I just read a post over at Michael Surgre’s blog about traveling for work. This is something I think about all the time, but on the opposite side: personal travel. I find it hard to take photographs when I travel for myself. If I go somewhere for a job or a personal project I don’t have this problem. After all, that is why I am there. But if I am in a new location for personal travel I find I don’t take many photos. And I usually feel guilty about it. I feel like “Hey, I’m a photographer, I should be taking pictures!”I was in Prague on a shoot for Eleven Inc. The shoot only lasted a day, but I stayed in Prague for a couple extra days. My flight also took me through Paris, to which I had never been, so of course I stayed a few days in Paris as well. Outside of the photos taken on the shoot, I didn’t take many photographs of either city.Now, if I were sent to Paris or Prague on assignment to photograph the city things would be different. I wouldn’t be in tourist mode. I would be looking for locations, finding the right light in the right spot and going back to these locations at the right time for that light… even if it means getting up at 3am to get to the location and set up. But when I’m in a new place as a tourist, I want to take my time walking around, exploring, eating, seeing, and being a tourist… and I damn sure don’t want to get up at 3am (and in Prague, thanks to some of the client and crew and some Absinthe, we didn’t even get home until after 4am)Sure, on vacation I’ll take some pictures along the way. But to me, I have different mentalities when at a location for a job and at a location for a vacation. I don’t remember who it was, but I read a comment by a travel photographer who, when on personal vacation, doesn’t even take a camera. I don’t think I’d ever go that far because I do like taking pictures (I’d hope so, its what I do after all). But it’s nice to be at a location and not have to worry about getting the great shots and finding the perfect locations and being there at the perfect time.So, if someone wants to send me back to Paris for a job I would be more than happy to photograph the city for you and I won’t need to be a tourist this time. And if someone wants to send me to a city I’ve never been to, I’d happily forgo my personal itinerary to get the perfect shots for you.The photo above is one of the pictures I did take while in Paris.

I just got back from spending a few days in Montana visiting my Dad. I’ve lived in a big city of some type all my life, so visiting a place like Montana was a bit different for me. Nothing but space, space and more space between… well, everything. This is a shot of my dad on his “ranch.”

While exploring an area near near Quake Lake in Montana we came across a boat coming to shore with a few duck hunters. One of them was a young girl who apparently got a couple ducks. Being a city boy I’m not used to seeing blonde girls holding any type of carcass, so I thought it would be a good photo opportunity. The girl obliged and as her family looked on with bewilderment I took some pictures of the girl, her boat and her dog.

The other day I was talking to someone about junk mail and I couldn’t remember the name of Greendimes. I knew I had mentioned it here recently, so I said something like “oh, its on my blog.” Right as I said it, I thought to myself, “how lame does that sound?” I mean really, who the hell am I to have a blog? Who in their right mind would want to read my blog (Hi Mom).Ok, if I constrain my blog to photography then I have some (small) reason to have a blog. I read other photographers blogs all the time and find some of them interesting. They range from the self aggrandizing to the completely pointless to the downright informational. I will say that I’m not that thrilled when “photography” bloggers start talking about non-photography related subjects (no Mr. Photog, I don’t want to know your opinion on the Republican candidates for the 2008 election). Admittedly, I’m somewhat guilty of this myself.Oh well, you know what they say: “opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one.”  Unfortunately, unlike ass holes, people have way too many opinions.I’ll try to keep things on topic… starting tomorrow. Bonus points if you know what the hell the title of this post means.You can stop reading now Mom.

I’ve been reading interviews with a few of the leading fashion/editorial/advertising photographers working today. These are the photographers taking the cover photos of the top fashion magazines. Photographers shooting the latest ad campaigns for top designers. These are the photographers that are likely known to people who know nothing about photography. Whenever one of the the photographers was asked about the extent of retouching done to their photos they would say they do no retouching to their images.I had to laugh at that. Are these photographers, who are clearly at the top of the photographer food chain, so vain that they can’t admit that their images have had work done to them? What is it about their ego that can’t let them admit that their images need work after the photo has been taken. I think that we’ve seen more than enough evidence to the contrary. I’ve seen images from great photographers before any work was done to them, and trust me, they all needed post production to get them to their final state. Why do some think this is a bad thing?Maybe when they say “they” don’t do any retouching to their images they’re playing a game of semantics. Because, I’m quite certain that they don’t do the actual retouching. These are photographers that have people to do things for them (one even seemed to take pride in the fact that he didn’t even know the type of equipment he was shooting with). Maybe the magazines/clients are getting the top retouchers to do it for them behind their backs.Who knows. Whatever the reason, its silly they don’t want to admit their images have had work done. Of course, none of my images are retouched at all.What I listened to last week:The Kinks, Muswell HillbiliesWhat I watched last week:Entourage Season FinaleWhat I read last week:Chasing CoolPhoto hair/makeup: Veronica Sjoen

A lot of times I write these blog entries well in advance, just in case I run out of ideas (which is very likely). Sometimes things get pushed back because I want to post something different at the time. So, there may be references in my entries like “last week I…” or “in the current…” which are out of date. This entry is like that. So if you ever read a comment like “Man, that new Bel Biv Divoe album is great” you’ll know it probably wasn’t written recently (and there must have been something wrong with me for liking the BBD album).

It seems like I’ve been inundated with articles about crowd sourcing lately. I know this isn’t a new phenomenon, but for some reason the last few weeks I’ve become more receptive to these stories. First, I was looking through Maxim (I usually only look at it for the girls) and there is an article titled “You Suck” about the crap that You put out there every day (You of course meaning Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year: You) Then, I open up the latest Wired and found an article about newspapers turning to “Citizen Journalists” to bring them the news rather than experienced journalists. Also, a friend of mine had the book “Wikinomics” on his coffee table, which is about the economics of the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Finally to complete the cycle I’m standing in line at a book store waiting to buy yet another magazine and I see the book “The Cult of The Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture” by Andrew Keen. At that point I decide its a sign so I buy the book.

I think the title of the book says it all. We are flooded daily with media brought to us by amateurs, where once it would have only been professionals. Be it news, reviews, music, video, photography, etc, etc. The biggest gripes the author has are with sites like Wikipedia and the ubiquitous blog where many people get their information and news. Thousands of people writing their opinions and providing information, all possibly with dubious intentions or a complete lack of knowledge of what the truth is. Of course, I do fully grasp the irony of writing a blog entry about a book discussing the pointlessness of such blog entries.

This phenomenon is a problem in the photography world as well. A lot of clients are under both deadline and financial constraints. And, at first glance finding a photographer or image on a site like Flickr or one of the many micro-stock agencies may seem like a cheap and easy solution (of course, it may not be cheaper in the end). But if you need something that is truly unique and will differentiate you from the pack in order to stand out and grab a viewer’s attention I doubt something produced by an amateur will suffice. Digital technologies such as high end digital cameras and Photoshop allow anyone to take a great shot. But to do it consistently and under the time constraints that most photographers are put under is a different thing all together. Putting together a shoot with a large cast, crew and location is also something your typical amateur with a digital camera isn’t likely able to handle. The end result will likely be what they weren’t hoping for.

But hey, I̵