jeff singer photography BLOG

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.

Miguel Migs is a San Francisco based DJ I photographed for Remix Magazine. This shot is actually an out-take from the shoot that the magazine didn’t use. The magazine wanted shots of Miguel in his studio, but I knew there was an opportunity to get some great shots of Miguel on the roof of the building where his studio is located.I immediately knew I wanted to get a shot with the sun going down behind the buildings in the distance with Miguel in the foreground. It was too early in the day to get that shot so we got all the indoor studio shots done while waiting for the sun to set. Of course, the indoor shots took a bit longer than expected and when I casually wandered outside to check on the sun I was surprised to see it was already beginning to set behind the buildings.I yelled to Miguel and my assistant Emily to get up to the roof NOW! Emily grabbed my gear and Miguel got up there just in time to get a few shots off before the sun went completely behind the building. Half blind from looking into the sun through my camera it was hard to tell if I got the shot, but I was pretty certain I captured what I was looking for.Any time I do a shoot I’m always looking for the best shot that the client is looking for. But, I’m also on the lookout for shots that I’m interested in. As it turned out, the magazine ran with the shot of Miguel in the studio but also ran some of the rooftop images as well.On a side note, I just read about a service that will stop junk mail… not SPAM, but actual physical junk mail coming to your home. Check it out and sign up. Its only $15 and they will even plant a tree in your honor. The website is GreenDimes.Here are some more pics from the Migs shoot:

Someday I may be as tough as Roz Savage , but I doubt it. You see, Roz Savage is a 40 year old woman who can’t be more than 5′2″ tall, and as of today she is in the process of rowing from the San Francisco Bay to Australia. She will be the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.Come to think of it I’m not all that impressed… she is after all stopping in Hawaii. But, I’ll cut her some slack. The trip to Hawaii alone is expected to take about 70 days. And, she is doing this all on her own with no “safety” boat staying close at hand. She will literally be in the middle of nowhere should anything go wrong.Strangely enough a couple days before I got the assignment to photograph Roz for 7×7 Magazine I went kayaking in the bay. I haven’t been kayaking in years. Isn’t it strange how things happen like that. Anyway, I didn’t feel the need to mention it to her. I doubted she would have been too impressed considering after about 45 minutes of fighting a light breeze in the bay I had just about all I could handle. Hey, I didn’t have the equipment she has. I’m sure I would have lasted at least an hour with her gear.On a side note, it seems like the issue of bottled water, which I wrote about last month is a popular topic these days. I was reading the New York Times this morning and read a new article about the backlash at people who drink bottled water. It was in the New York Times Style section, so I guess this means that if you don’t drink bottled water you’re stylish. They even mention that the cool new accessory is the reusable plastic Nalgene bottles. Hmm, I wonder if those fit in the Hummer cup holder?

Unfortunately I’m a fairly simple minded and easily persuaded person… I’m the type that reads and article or sees a dateline segment and thinks “yeah, that’s terrible, lets do something about it!” A friend of mine works for Current TV which is Al Gore’s TV network. So, of course my friend had the new issue of Fast Company with Al on the cover.One of the articles in the decidedly Green issue was about bottled water. Now, I know the last thing you came here for was to get the views of another idiot spouting information you either already know or don’t care all that much about, but hey, this is my blog so I’ll say what I want. I have no doubt bottled water has had a positive effect on society if only for the fact that there was a time it wasn’t available and people instead were likely drinking a bottle full of sugar in some form or another. But when you learn about the effects all these bottles of water have on the environment from creation, transportation to disposal it makes you wonder why the hell you’re drinking the bottled water. After all, we all (especially for those of us living in San Francisco) have equal quality water coming right out of our taps. Just about everywhere we buy our bottled water will also have perfectly good tap water for us.I’ll end my little diatribe and let you read the article and decide for yourself. So, how am I going to bring this around to photography? I’m not, directly anyway. Only to say that over the last few months I’ve done a couple of shoots for 7×7 Magazine that were on the green side. The picture above is Sarah Weiner of Slow Food USA which is an organization that wants to reach out to consumers and demonstrate to them that they have choices over fast food and supermarket homogenization and to create a movement that protects taste, culture and the environment as universal social values. You mean, I shouldn’t be eating this Big Mac right now? Well, at least I went with the tap water. On to the next cause.