JEFF SINGER BLOG - SAN FRANCISCO EDITORIAL & COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER » editorial

Canadian Magazine Cover Of The Year Nomination

Jeff Singer — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:19:33 +0000

I just found out a cover I shot for Globe & Mail’s Report On Business Magazine was nominated for a National Magazine Award in Canada. Alas, since I’m not Canadian I couldn’t be nominated in the portrait category. Maybe if they knew I lived in Canada for a couple years and I got started in photography there that would change their minds. Either way thanks to Clare Jordan for hiring me to do this shoot and congratulations to everyone over at ROB Magazine. Good luck!

The cover was of Jeff Mallett and the article was about his investment in Major League Soccer. You can see more pictures and some behind the scenes video on this past blog post.

Larry Kurzweil & Bart Simpson

Jeff Singer — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:34:41 +0000

I got to head down to Universal Studios Hollywood a while back to photograph the President of Universal Studios, Larry Kurzweil for Carnegie Mellon’s alumni magazine. The one requirement, not imposed by the magazine, was that one of the Simpson’s characters had to be in the shot. Universal PR was insisting on this one point and the magazine was ok with it so I obliged. The studio originally wanted Homer in the shot but the costumes are so enormous in real life that Larry was dwarfed next to Homer, so we went with Bart.

I think the best part of the shoot for me was that I was given a “VIP” pass to the park. That meant unlimited access to all the rides with no waiting in line. So where did I head first? To the Universal Studio tram tour of course; to confront a childhood terror. You see, when I was about seven, my dad took me to Universal Studios like any parent with children would do when visiting Los Angeles. And this included the studio tram tour which I enjoyed quite a bit… that is until, we came across Jaws.

If you’ve never been on the Universal Studio tram tour, it takes you through the studio lot where you can see actual sets used in many movies. It also has staged “exhibits” based on Universal movies. One of those exhibits was for Jaws. The tram pulls up to (what looks like) a serene scene with a man in a fishing boat. You then see a fin come out of the water and approach the boat and eventually the boat and fisherman get dragged under. But the danger isn’t over yet… the fin starts heading towards the tram. When it gets closer, BAM, a shark slams into the tram tracks and the tram falls towards the water and gets stuck. The shark goes around for another pass at which point it bolts out of the water with it’s jaws chomping as if it was trying to eat someone on the tram. It just so happened that I was seated EXACLY where the shark was at it’s closest to the tram, so that someone was me. Needless to say I didn’t take it well because as far as I was concerned, it was a real shark. I don’t remember anything else about that day other than the shark attack and balling my eyes out when it happened. To this day, I hate going in the ocean too deep.

Not having been on the tram ride since that summer as a kid, I was actually a little nervous when we pulled in to the Jaws scene. However now that I’m older, he doesn’t look so menacing (and they don’t do the whole tram falling into the water thing any more… probably got sued for mental anguish or something). I was happy to confront one of my childhood traumas and survive:

Joe Sullivan – Facebook CSO

Jeff Singer — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:27:18 +0000

As I mentioned in my Rebbeca Van Dyck post, I headed over to the new Facebook campus to photograph CSO (Chief Security Officer) Joe Sullivan for the cover of CSO Magazine.

I was hoping to get a shot that had a dark mysterious mood to it and after walking around Joe’s building in I knew I found my spot in this unfinished area. I felt like I was on an alien space ship with all the cables and tubes coming out of the ceiling. Of course, it could all be for the new Human Harvesting & Cloning Division of Facebook (Possible tag line: “Why does there only need to be one of you checking in to your favorite restaurant?”) Look for that feature in your Timeline soon.

Sorry, I didn’t get any Facebook security tips or ways to make sure that hot girl you’ve been chatting with isn’t really a 58 year old man in Russia.

The highlight from the shoot was possibly the free gourmet french toast they give out in the morning to Facebook employees (they made an exception for me).

And to show what a small photography world it is, just as I was preparing this blog post I noticed Bay Area photographer and friend Timothy Archibald just posted about his shoot with Joe Sullivan.

Rebecca Van Dyck

Jeff Singer — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:05:29 +0000

Along with all the talk of Facebook’s pending IPO last week I had two of my own Facebook connections pop up. First, I was called to photograph Facebook’s CSO (Chief Security Officer) Joe Sullivan for an editorial cover shoot. And then, I read that Rebecca Van Dyck was just hired by Facebook to head up their marketing department. I photographed Rebecca a few month’s ago for AdWeek while she was still Levi’s Director of Marketing.

Now, if only I could get some of that pre-IPO Facebook stock.

Shoot Film

Jeff Singer — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:07:20 +0000

I’ve been shooting film on all my editorial shoots so far in 2012 and I plan to continue (unless things like deadlines call for digital). Whenever I mention that I’m shooting film to the Photo Editor or Art Director, they pretty much say the same thing; “Film? Cool! I love film!” A Photo Editor just the other day said to me: “Oh, you shoot film? No wonder I love your work!”

Then, when I get to the shoot and pull out something like my Mamiya RZ67, every subject has said just about the same thing; “Whoa, what kind of camera is that? You’re shooting film? Wow!” You know what I hear a lot when I pull out a Canon digital?

“Oh, I have one of those.”

Update:
Of course, the day after I post this, Kodak files for bankruptcy. Time to stock up?

Christopher Hitchens RIP

Jeff Singer — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:04:11 +0000

Christopher Hitchens died today. As I wrote here before, Hitchens has been one of my most interesting subjects to date. He was actually one of the very first assignments I received after becoming a photographer… my second editorial assignment to be exact. It’s intimidating enough to be a new photographer and working on only your second editorial shoot let alone having it be Christopher Hitchens (it didn’t help when his wife told me, during the shoot, how Annie Leibovitz photographed their wedding with a Holga).

I was familiar with Hitchens through appearances on shows like The Daily Show and Bill Maher and some of his writing for Vanity Fair. I knew going in I didn’t want to discuss politics with him since I would be far outclassed but given that there was an election coming up, it was inevitable. It was interesting to hear the perspective on the candidates (and their wives) from someone who actually knew them personally. When most people give their opinions on a candidate it’s based on what they see or read in the news, but when you’re with someone telling you about having dinner “at The Kerry’s”, it gives a different level of credibility to what they’re telling you.

The shoot probably went on longer than he anticipated but he was incredibly patient with me and made the shoot enjoyable. It was an honor to get to meet him.

RIP Mr. Hitchens.

Smile

Jeff Singer — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:01:28 +0000

Today over on A Photo Editor there’s a link to a Rodney Smith blog post about smiling in photos. Rodney doesn’t think smiling photos have substance. I don’t know that I agree with that, but I know I tend to like non-smiling photos. I have a total of seven on my entire website and only one in my portfolio (although it depends on what qualifies as a smile… there are some very slight smiles that I didn’t count). I tend to take things a bit further though… It seems I don’t even like people looking at the camera.

I posted about this a year ago, but looking over recent shoots I think I’m getting worse. I routinely choose the photos where the subject isn’t looking at the camera (I will say, the client rarely chooses those). I keep wondering what this says about myself.

Emily’s Army – Travis Nuemann

Jeff Singer — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:23:33 +0000

Follow up on my post a couple days ago, last week I photographed Cole Becker and Travis Nuemann of Emily’s Army for Guitar World magazine. Here is an outtake of the other guitarist Travis Nuemann.

More about the band and the shoot when the issue comes out.

License or custom prints of this image here.

Emily’s Army – Cole Becker

Jeff Singer — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:47:05 +0000

Last week I photographed Cole Becker and Travis Nuemann of Emily’s Army for Guitar World magazine. The issue won’t be coming out until September so I can’t show any of the pics yet but here was an outtake I shot for myself because I really liked this giant door at the shoot location.

More about the band and the shoot when the issue comes out.

License or custom prints of this image here.

Nick Zinner @ Public Works

Jeff Singer — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:59:48 +0000

Another shot of Nick Zinner of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs taken for Blackbook Magazine at Public Works in San Francisco.