jeff singer photography BLOG

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.

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 So, there may be references in my entries like “last week I…” or “in the current…” which are out of date.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

Anna was thrilled to see herself on my blog. And now, I’m sure she will be even more happy to see that she is here twice while her sister Sara is only her once.

So, I received a call from Anna’s Aunt. Apparently she was distraught at the fact that her sister Sara made my website and blog and she didn’t. So, without further ado, here is the Beautiful Anna.

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.

This image was a shot for the Financial Post Business. The magazine was doing their annual CEO rankings and John Feltheimer, the CEO of Lions Gate Films was on the list. I photographed John in the back yard of his Los Angeles home, a very nice home as I’m sure you can imagine. John had just about the tiniest dog I’d ever seen. I wanted to photograph him holding the dog in one had. Unfortunately his “people” didn’t think it would be a good idea because they didn’t like the image of him with such a “less than manly” dog. Next week will be a busy week for me. I’m shooting a campaign for Country Wide. I’ll be spending a couple days at their Dallas offices and then a few more in Los Angeles.

I recently shot a cover image for the Canadian magazine Financial Post Business. The shoot went well and everyone involved was happy with the images. Hair and makeup was done by Diane Catorc and styling was done by Patricia LaCava. This shot was an outake, my favorite from the shoot, but of course not the images chosen by the magazine.