jeff singer photography BLOG

Seems that I made the cut over at Rob Haggart’s A Photo Editor slideshow of photographers he likes. You can head over to the Fickr page or the slideshow website and check out a lot of great work.

Just remember to come back here and hire me.

They say you can learn as much about the photographer who takes a picture as you do about the person being photographed. I was never really sure about that, especially when it came to my work. What did my images say about me?Then one day my friend and assistant Emily Merrill said something that struck a chord with me. She said that I’m always trying to make people look cool. I never really thought about it, I just did what I did. But in looking back at most of my photographs, I can see some truth to it, for the most part. I’m not talking about some kind of ultra-look-at-how-cool-I-am kind of cool. To me its a subtle cool. My subjects tend to look like they don’t give a crap. And in particular, they don’t give a crap about being cool. Because, anyone who gives a crap about being cool, isn’t cool.If pressed, I would say that this subconscious desire to make people look cool stems from my lack of coolness. I mean, I think I’m cool, but doesn’t everybody think they’re cool? Unlike a lot of people, I can admit that outside my own head, I’m not cool. Usually it’s high school where people become paranoid about coolness. I wasn’t unpopular in high-school. I wasn’t one of the kids that all the cool people made fun of. I wasn’t one of the cool kids either. I wasn’t particularly anything. I was pretty shy back then and I had my few friends and that was about it. So, not a dork, not cool… just, there.Oh, don’t think I’m trying to pour my heart out here and get sympathy for feeling left out in high-school (who wasn’t… and I’m not talking to you Johnny Tango, we know you were cool in high-school). But if I had to pinpoint where my preoccupation (if you can call it that) for coolness began, that would be it.So now that I have this realization about my images, how will this affect the way I work? Will I now attempt to knowingly make people look cool, when before it was just the way I worked. If I do that, things may seemed forced. And anytime something is forced, it doesn’t usually work. Who knows. Maybe I should do the opposite, maybe I should make people look uncool or quirky. I just don’t feel like that would be me. So, maybe I should just get out of my head and do what I do.What I listened to last week:The Rolling Stones, Exile On Main St.What I watched last week:Mad MenWhat I read last week:Image Makers, Image Takers

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, I’m just one of a million other bloggers out there thinking my opinion matters. Which, as anyone who knows me can attest to, it doesn’t.

What I listened to last week:
Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed
The Killers, Sam’s Town

What I watched last week:
Californication

What I read last week:
Sunday New York Times
A giant W with far to many ads

I thought I’d post a link to a blog entry I read recently on John Loomis’ Blog about the bidding process and low priced photographers. It was a coincidence he posted about this subject when he did because not a week before his post I was confronted with the same exact problem he writes about and was discussing it with some other photographers. I guess all photographers who value their work and bid on projects accordingly run into this problem all the time. The problem of course being photographers who bid next to nothing for a shoot and give away all their rights to the images.

As a client, I would be worried about hiring the lowest bidder for fear that they don’t really know what they’re getting into. If you’re dealing with a larger production and someone says they can do it for a quarter of what an experienced photographer can do the job , chances are they don’t really understand the complexity of the shoot. Once you’ve hired this photographer, you may not know how badly things are going to turn out until its too late. Not only that, there is usually a reason the low priced photographer is low priced and even if it isn’t a big production you can’t be sure of the quality you will get.

Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world and quite often it is the lowest bidder, and thus lowest quality, that is chosen. Not only that, often times “good enough” is good enough as can be seen by the abundance of visual crap we see on a daily basis. I remember not too long ago, after i submitted an estimate for a job I was called by the potential client asking if I could come down in my price. They told me another photographer was significantly lower in price. I asked who the photographer was and looked at his work online. As politely as I could, I let them know why that photographer was so cheap. Clearly they would have been getting a lower quality photograph. The potential client’s response to this was… and I kid you not… “how much would you charge to take a bad photograph?” I laughed and told him I just didn’t think it would work out.

Here is to the clients that want to produce something better than”just good enough.” Thank you!

I’ve never really pursued having my work shown in galleries or exhibits. Its not that I don’t want to show work in galleries, it just hasn’t been my primary focus so far. However, starting on August 6th and running until Augu19th I will have four pieces in a group exehbition at the Space Gallery in San Francisco. The exhibit is being put in by Yelp and The Space Gallery. The theme of the exhibit is Reflections on City Life & Community. There will be an artists reception which is open to the public on August 16th from 7:30pm to 11pm. You can follow the Space Gallery link to find more information.

I was contacted by Southwest Airlines to do a shoot for the in-flight magazine Southwest Spirit. They were doing an article on “Vintage San Francisco” and they wanted it shot in B&W. It sounded like a great project and I was excited to get it. Then the Photo Editor said something I couldn’t believe… she said that it was ok to shoot digitally.

As she was describing the project I was already envisioning how I was going to shoot the project. Getting a request for a B&W shoot is rare enough now days, but a story about Vintage San Francisco that contains primarily architecture and wanting it in B&W is even rarer still. I thought there is no way I’m going to shoot this with a 35mm digital camera! (which was the equipment I had at time) Don’t get me wrong. I’m no “anti-digital” purist. I am a tech nerd through and through (yes, I got the iPhone days within release). Tech was even what I used to do in a past life before photography. I am fully digital, 35mm to Medium Format and Large Format. But if there was ever a project that called for using a large format View Camera and Polaroid Type 55 film, this was it. At the time i didn’t have a View Camera and had never used Type 55 film, but it was something that I’ve always wanted to use. So, I went out and bought the equipment and learned on this shoot. It was great traveling all around the city and looking at places I’ve seen every day in a whole new light.

The Photo Editor loved the results and I think the images were far better than a 35mm digital camera could have produced. I know its not the equipment that makes a photograph, but there is something a little more soulful to taking a picture with a View Camera and Polaroid film. For me, its like the difference between Vinyl and an MP3… sure there are pops and scratches on the vinyl but it gives a different mood and warmth that can’t be matched, even if it is just in my mind.

This week I’m shooting a series of image for San Francisco Magazine. Normally I’m hired to photograph people, but they liked my beachscapes of the Santa Cruz area. So, for this shoot I’ll be photographing Costanoa, which is just south of Pescadero. So, weather permitting I’ll be heading down the coast the next few days.

I’ve been a bit busy the last couple weeks. The most time consuming thing is my move to a new location and studio in San Francisco. I also shot a small campaign for the Franciscan winery. This image was actually the image that made them want to hire me. You can see the ad running in Esquire soon. Well, back to unpacking.

I’ve been busy working on a few different projects and some fun things like promotion… I thought I’d at least update some pics even if I’m not saying much! These pics were from another personal project I was working on. I would photograph interesting looking older people in the park. I love these guys… I call the one on the left the “latin lover.” I can just picture him driving many women at the senior center crazy!

Author Christopher Hitchens for the Village Voice. Christopher was exactly what I’d expect him to be like… if you’ve seen him on The Daily Show and other news shows you know what I mean. Chain smoking and very dry humor. I primarily photographed him around the yard and house but I ended up liking this shot which was taken in front of his garage. This is the image used in the Village Voice as well. Well, I’m off to the airport to catch a flight to Dallas.