I photographed Christopher Hitchens a while back for the Village Voice.   I just read that Hitchens will be going through chemo therapy for cancer.  Love him or hate him I don’t think you could deny he’s an original and speaks his mind regardless of the trouble it may get him in (read the comments at the linked article and I’m sure you’ll find equal number of people wishing him ill as wishing him well). He’s been one of my most interesting subjects to date and did not disappoint with what I was expecting (among other things, rolling out of bed at noon with a cigarette in hand and a constant flow of cigarettes thereafter).  I hope all goes well with the chemo therapy for Mr. Hitchens.

Hitchens’ memoir, “Hitch 22: A Memoir” was just recently released.  You can read an excerpt on Vanity Fair’s website.

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Still refusing to use one of those fauxlaroid apps that everyone with an iPhone & Facebook account seem to be using… but then again, I only have about 4 more sheets of TZ-Artistic left so I may succumb soon.

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Now that the US is out of the world cup I need something to make the rest of the games more exciting.  Because when watching the US matches, every minute was really exciting (especially with their tendency to go down a goal early).  But now I find that I’m just not that into the games.  They’re still fun to watch, but I have nothing vested in them.

So, to make the World Cup a bit more exciting for me I’m going be offering free prints via Twitter to randomly chosen people who retweet about the giveaway and my selected team loses.  This should increase my excitement a bit since I don’t particularly want to take the time to make and send out free prints.  So, stay tuned to my Twitter feed during select matches and maybe you’ll get a free 5×6 print of one of the images above.

More about my prints here.

Sunday June 27th Match:
Mexico vs. Argentina: Giving away 2 prints if Argentina wins.  Results: Argentina wins 3-1 (although it should have been 2-1).  2 prints given away.

Monday June 28th Match:
Brazil vs. Chile: Giving away 4 prints if Chile wins.  Results:  Brazil wins 3-0

Tuesday June 29th Match:
Spain vs. Portugal:  Giving away 1 print if Portugal wins: Results: Spain wins 1-0

Friday July 2nd Match:
Uruguay vs. Ghana:  Giving away 2 prints if Ghana wins:  Results: Uruguay wins in penalty kicks.  It was such an amazing finish I’m giving out one of the prints anyway.

Saturday July 3rd Match:
Argentina vs. Germany: Giving away 1 print if Germany wins:  Results: Germany dominates 4-0. 1 print given away.

Tuesday July 6th Match:
Netherlands vs. Uruguay: Giving away 2 prints if Uruguay wins: Results: Netherlands win 3-2.

Wednesday  July 7th Match:
Germany vs  Spain: Giving away 1 print if Spain wins: Results: Spain wins 1-0.  1 Print given away

Saturday July 10th Match:
Uruguay vs Germany: Giving away 1 print if Germany wins: Germany wins 3-2. 1 Print given away

Sunday July 11th Match… THE FINALS:
Spain vs Netherlands: Giving away 1 8×10 print if The Netherlands win:  Results:  Spain wins 1-0.

Final Tally: 6 Prints given away

Some rules:
* Only one entry per person per match
* Your retweet must have been sent before the match starts
* You must also be following me on Twitter
* These rules may change at any time

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Fresh out of the camera.  Sadly, I’m on my last box of Polaroid TZ Artistic.  I love the look of these.

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These are a couple pre-shoot shots of my assistants Tyler an Justin from a recent shoot.  A lot of times, the assistants are more photogenic than the actual subjects (but not in Justin’s case).

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This is a photo I shot for the article in San Francisco Magazine I wrote about the other day.  It was shot on location at the very cool restaurant Serpentine, which happens to be in the same building as my studio.  The photo editor for the magazine said this felt like an Edward Hopper painting.  Edward Hopper is a favorite of mine, so I liked that.

Here is the image in the opener for the article:

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Last month I photographed a project for San Francisco Magazine on “Reinvention.”  The article was about eighteen people who have recently reinvented themselves, most of them going from a more traditional career to something they are far more passionate about.  It was a great project to work on and I met a lot of interesting people over the four days of shooting.

I thought it was appropriate when I got called to shoot this project;  I did my own reinvention not long ago.  Before I was a photographer I was a network engineer in the Silicon Valley for six years after studying Computer Science in college.  In a long and not terribly interesting story I won’t bore you with here, I left my job and randomly ended up studying photography in Victoria British Columbia.  In 2005 I moved back to the Bay Area and was foolish enough to think I could be a professional photographer.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve  been a photographer as long I was an engineer.  Still to this day I tend to consider myself a tech geek more than a creative type.  It took a long time before I could actually call myself a photographer;  If someone asked what I did for a living I would say something like “Well, I used to be an engineer… but now I’m giving photography try.”  As if the technical background would somehow justify it if they really hated my work.  Now, if anyone asks, I say I’m a photographer… but there’s always a little thought in my head about my tech background making me wonder what the hell I’m doing posing as a photographer.

Check out the article in the June issue of San Francisco Magazine.  The article isn’t on their website yet, but here is a PDF copy:
Reinvention

Who else out there has reinvented themselves?  Leave a comment if you’ve got a story.

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Back in December I did a shoot for Wine Spectator magazine, photographing French Laundry’s owner and chef Thomas Keller.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to eat at French Laundry while we were there since it was early in the morning, but they did provide us with some of the best pastries I’ve ever had in my life.  And, the gift bag they gave us full of freshly made desserts was gone within minutes of arriving home.

As often happens, the magazine didn’t choose any of the pictures I actually liked.  I don’t have the entire article, but here is the opener:

This is another image they used in the article:

And, a couple more of my favorites from the shoot that didn’t get used:

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The winner of the first annual 2010 I’m A Photographer And Need Your Approval Photo Contest (aka, The Free Useless Photo Contest) is John Darwin Kurc.

According to John:

“I shot that last week at 0400 in the AM. I was using a Nikon D3 with a Nikon 50mm 1.8 lens. It was with available light (street lamp). The model’s name is Sara and that was her first fine art shoot. The photo was not altered.”

Check out John’s website here where he has some great musician and concert images.

In his comment, John stated:
“If I win, I will be having a party. It will be a big party with women and liquor”

Well John, I better get an invitation to that party.  And I promise, it had nothing to do with my decision.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  I just hope you got your money’s worth.

And now, I’m prepping for the eighteen other photo contests I’m about to launch… stay tuned for details.

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Well here’s something I wasn’t even aware of until people started telling me the saw my blog featured in Photoshelter’s Blog Handbook.  So after thinking “Huh?!?!” to myself,  I looked it up and sure enough there I was on page 23 as a case study.  To my surprise the title wasn’t “Blog Case Study: What NOT To Do With Your Blog, Jeff Singer Is A Loser”

You can download your copy of Photoshelter’s Blog Handbook here.

What’s going on … not to long ago Adbase had a similar feature on my blog.  Maybe it’s not just my mom reading my blog.

Anyway here is what Photoshelter has to say about my blog:

Specialty:
Editorial portraiture

Goal:
To appeal to potential clients by showing them the personality behind the camera.

Audience:
Potential editorial and commercial clients who want to learn more about their photographer.

Key Elements:
• Personal, opinionated content
• Fully integrated brand presence from blog to portfolio
• Links to his social networking sites as well as a live twitter feed on the site of his blog
• Good presentation of images and videos
• Frequent references back to his portfolios

What makes it successful?
Jeff ’s blog is successful because you (and photo editors) get to know him through reading his posts. Jeff shares his many opinions, anecdotes about typing on his iPad, and about how his love of guitars lead to a personal project photographing a guitarist.

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