I recently had the rare honor of spending time at the studio of one of my favorite photographers and philanthropists, Russell James.  I have followed his work ever since I got into photographing people.  For anyone unfamiliar, he’s the photographer who shoots all those iconic Victoria’s Secret images we’ve come to know and love, as well as countless magazine covers and the whole lot.  Here and there over the past few years he’s seen and sometimes evaluated my own work online through his photo contests as well as engaged in conversations regarding charitable efforts.  It was he that inspired me to actively participate in whatever way I could find myself useful toward helping organizations that help others.

I was at the studio one day and met him passing by.  Expecting a normal friendly hello, I was surprised by his marked enthusiasm.  I greeted him with, “Hey Russell, I’m  Matt Timmons, it’s an honor to finally meet you.”  His face lit up with a big surprised smile once recognizing me and his response was, “The honor is mine!  Do you have a few minutes?  Can you come into the studio and take a few photos with me?”.   Again, I was blown away by his kindness and generosity.  He and the team were shooting the 2012 Victoria’s Secret Valentine’s Day ad campaign (yes, six months in advance) and he was inviting me in to take a few pictures as well as meet the folks that make all that beauty so perfect.

I saw a couple of familiar faces that I had met before, and met a few new ones.  Alex, his first assistant, is one of the first people I met upon moving to New York and is always ready with a genuine huge smile and sincerity in his handshake.  I was soon surrounded by crew members all shaking my hand and gathering around for pictures.  His digital tech Andrea was there.  She’s so sweet and so very skilled at managing thousands of those all-important photos that in a few months will be gracing the catalog covers and huge store displays around the world.  I also got to meet and have my picture taken by the legendary Muz, the Aussie assistant who operates those uber-expensive Briese lighting systems as well as handles countless other responsibilities.  I have to admit, it was incredibly cool to have my picture taken on the same set with the same lighting and the same camera that was being used for the shots with professional model and VS Angel, Lais.  Although I somehow don’t think that my shots are going to turn out as good as hers, but we’ll see in February.  These folks are all so nice and they love talking to anyone who appreciates their work, plus they all get along so well.  Alex described them as, “We are all just like a family.”  We chatted for a little bit about photography as well as Russell’s personal project Nomad Two Worlds, and then Russell had to shoot the next look with VS Angel Miranda Kerr.  He invited me to hang out and leave when I was ready.

I can attest to the level of responsibility that it takes to work in this environment by observing the crew first hand.  Russell will tell you himself that he’s only one factor in the equation of these shoots, and after observing these folks at work you can really understand why.   When it’s time to shoot they are busy in an instant.  The sets are pre-readied, the lighting is perfected, everything is metered and ready to rock.  When the model steps onto the set, there’s no waiting around- she walks onto her mark and the show starts.  These folks are and have to be so on top of what they are doing because millions of dollars are being invested to get the results of these shots.  They have to have their job done right, slack delays can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour.  The studio is enormous, more like a movie sound stage.  The sets are constructed specifically for each campaign with multiple sets made for all kinds of different shots.  The being the Valentine’s Day campaign, there were lots of giant red hearts, huge fluffy ‘lip’ shaped couches, and general ‘love’ themed sets.   The crew works long hours, and can work over 25 days in a row with no days off.  However, the environment is conducive for long days with gourmet catered meals, lots of relaxation areas and a frequent amounts of down time to catch a break.  All in all there’s about 25 people performing specific tasks each day.  It was eye-opening to see such professionalism, and I’m thankful to have been asked in.  Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, yes the models are absolutely gorgeous in person.  Tall, in perfect shape and of course look incredible in those bras and panties.  I think everyone would agree that their part is the easiest to set up- they just put on the garments, a little hair and makeup and voila, they’re perfect.

That’s the typical scene in the Victoria’s Secret studio.   It’s comprised of some great artful set construction and some of the most skilled and professional people you can ever meet, as well as being so welcoming.  My warmest thanks to the entire crew for being so nice, to Andrea for taking the time to send me these pictures, Alex for all his helpfulness and advice, and of course to Russell who’s kindness and generosity (as well as quick humor) is known by so many and now known by yet another.  It was a great day and I’m thankful for the hospitality.

Andrea at the digital workstation, Myself and Russell.

You might have seen my earlier post about watching the Express Holiday 2011 Ad campaign being shot in Times Square.  I just saw the November issue of Vogue and the ads are finally starting to run.  I thought it would be fun to show what it looked like from my perspective.  So here’s the official ad shot by Greg Kadel, and my shot from the sidelines.  Express holiday store window displays always get me in the Christmas spirit, and it’s funny to me now seeing these ads come out knowing that it was over 100 degrees outside and something like 90% humidity when these were shot.  I remember how the models were baking in those clothes!

January 2009. I had just finished having lunch at the Olive Garden when one of the employees caught my attention. Blonde super curly hair, high cheekbones, graceful face and neckline. I always hate walking up to women and asking if they would be interested in trying modeling because it seems like such a schmuck thing to do, but when you are trying to build a fashion and beauty portfolio in Albuquerque, NM you have to seize any opportunity to find subjects that have “the look”.  Amy was very nice, with the standard amount of apprehensiveness that any smart young woman should have when a guy walks up and asks if she would be interested doing a photo shoot. I gave her my contact info and she called me a few days later with interest in shooting. She was still cautious, waiting for the part where I either bushwhack a way to charge her money or some other “catch”. But there was no catch. I just had this idea for a shot where a model is holding the moon and Amy really had a great, very unique face that I thought would capture well. From there she didn’t need experience, just the ability to follow direction.

We scheduled the shoot and she came down along with her Dad for support to the studio I was renting. I remember how nervous but willing to try she was. The shoot went great and she seemed to really enjoy the creative process. She was very easy to work with, had enough confidence and a great look on camera. I was quickly interested in working with her more in kind of a developmental way. The only problem was, she wasn’t interested in modeling. Amy was a decorated high school varsity athlete who’s scholastic sports career was abruptly ended due to a broken back injury. She’s a person who is focused and driven toward goal achievement, with her strongest competitor being herself. You tell Amy she can’t do something, you better prepare to be proven wrong. I think she was mostly interested in doing this shoot to test herself to see if she could do it. Even her Dad didn’t watch one minute of it and couldn’t care less about this silly thing his daughter was dragging him away from Sports Center for. Her sights were set on a useful career in nursing, with no interest in prancing around in front of a camera or on a runway. But that all would change.

A year and a half later I called Amy to see if she would help me update my swimwear portfolio. I didn’t think she would be interested in this one iota, but I had to try. To my surprise she was cool with it, as long as it was classy. There was no problem there- if it’s not classy and sophisticated, I don’t want anything to do with it either.  We set up a test shoot to try it out, and again she was able to get past the shyness and produce the expressions that I was directing- just like acting. We set up the real shoot in the Jemez mountains a week later and it went really well. We shot some beautiful island-style looks in the waterfalls, and even when I wanted to have her completely covered in mud, which grossed her out entirely, she allowed it and proceeded to hit some of the most beautiful and perfect looks in my work to date. I could sense that again, she was looking at this task from a challenge point of view, and that’s how it was working for her. It may look easy at a temporary glance, but it’s not, especially when you are inexperienced. When a photographer casts you to model in his project and needs you to think and feel a certain way so that your eyes and body language can tell a story, it becomes more far difficult than a portrait session. Many hours are spent on getting the right shot, so for Amy, this was a new level to achieve. I discussed with her that I really thought that she had the ability to do this, and that a modeling career is not only a great job but also a great way to pay for the expensive education that the medical field requires. Even if not in fashion, then definitely in swimwear. But again the answer was the same- no interest in modeling.

In December of that year, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show made it’s annual appearance on TV and one can’t help but be entranced by it’s production value, beauty and positive energy. The very next day, I got a call from you know who. Amy was a re-invented girl on the phone. She was obsessed with becoming a model. She wanted to know where to get started and what to do. I could hear the drive in her voice and it was even inspiring me. “You saw the Victoria’s Secret fashion show didn’t you- and now you’re hooked!”  I said, laughing.  But you know what?  Amy is someone I could see doing it.  My standards are high, and if I think she can do it, maybe someone else out there will too.  So we took some simple no-makeup test shots for agencies and I helped her with a few online resources of what agencies to contact and how to go about it- and better yet, how not to go about it. Now there was a new problem. At 5’7″ and 3/4″, Amy is 1/4-inch below most of the the pro/legit agencies’ height requirements. That’s like trying to get into medical school with a 4.0 average but without a degree- close but not enough. It was going to be hard for her to beat that. During the same time I had a client that I was shooting a jewelry ad campaign for. They didn’t have a big budget for pro models and asked if I could recommend two girls from my experience who might be interested in shooting it. I immediately recommended Amy and told them that I believed in her ability to pull off a great shot, plus she could use some good ad tear sheets for her portfolio and as well as experience shooting for a client- something that is more critical than a portfolio shoot.

Again, Amy did quite well and I could see a maturity in her movement, her understanding and her ability in front of the camera- she had been studying modeling. The client was pleased and the ads ran. However, the 1/4 inch was keeping Amy out of agency interest, and therefore her own interest was starting to fade. Growing taller is a goal no one can achieve through any amount of hard work or study, and when girls that are competing for the same job are 5′ 11″, it’s even more bleak. But Amy’s key aspect is not her height, it’s everything else. Features, fitness, personality and intellect are the first things that come to my mind- and that goes a LONG way with an agent who needs to send over a girl to a big client who’s looking for someone new- someone unique. So we talked a few times, and I just encouraged her not to give up. If you want something, you have to pursue it, not wait for it.

This summer I moved to New York City and kept in touch with Amy with small nudges of encouragement so that she would still at least continue to submit to agencies. One night I had a dream that she came to NYC and went running around to all the agencies here. That was a weird dream because when I told her about it, she replied with a plan to actually do it. A couple of weeks later I met her and her Dad again, fresh off the plane in the heart of NYC in the pouring rain- a long way from the Jemez mountains. Over a slice of pizza, her Dad asked me, “Do you really think she has a shot at this?”. “Absolutely”, I replied. “I wouldn’t advise you to have spent a lot of money to come to New York of all places and run around here for a week if I thought it was just a lucky shot.  You’re going to get turned down by a lot of agents here, but you don’t need a lot, you only need one.” She did see a lot of agencies, and as it turns out, one of them called her back. They obviously saw more potential than a quarter-inch deficit could affect. After months of trying with no results and only a fading glimmer of hope of ever becoming a working professional model, Amy was signed with Major Model Management in New York City.

That’s what believing in yourself applied with an intelligent approach can do. I wished I could have just picked up the phone and told my agent colleagues to make it happen, but I can’t.  She did it on her own with no help. I think that’s really cool, and a testimonial for anyone who doesn’t believe in themselves enough to try- you should. Even when you don’t necessarily fit the rules, then break the rules.

Now the journey begins. Getting signed is just the first real step, developing a career is the next maze to navigate. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted, “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the next step.” I have all the confidence in Amy now as I have before to find her way to success.  It takes the kind of person that doesn’t believe in the odds, only in themselves. Welcome to the next chapter Amy, now show us what new goals you’re capable of reaching.

I should have posted this about a month ago, but in my desperate method of dropping myself in here and hitting the streets to find a place to live, this blog post got moved to the waaay back burner.  What I thought would only take a few days to find a place ended up taking a month.  I’m a deal shopper and I learned quickly that there aren’t a lot of deals to be found on places to live in Manhattan (they’re out there, but you have to leave no stone unturned).  Basically what you can get for a mortgage payment in New Mexico will get you a closet space here- in an old building with bad water pressure.  So I searched and searched until finally two weeks ago I moved in to my new, really cool apartment with a nice view.

A change of venue like this means a change in my productivity as a commercial photographer.  One doesn’t just show up as the new kid on the block in the most competitive and high-standards photography market in the world and just start taking over photo gigs.  It’s a world of difference in how things work here, but I knew that coming in.  I’m here to learn and reach a higher level as a photographer, and to work with other professionals to create visuals that I could not achieve in New Mexico.   I still have my clients that I earned before the move, but now it’s more of a commute schedule to work out.

On any given day there are more than 30,000 working photographers here doing photo shoots for various commercial and editorial projects as well as video.  Some would see that as a glass half empty, but I see it as a good thing- it means that there are clients here and an economy for good photographers.  Just need to jump into the mix and start somewhere.  New York is a fashion photographer’s playground anyway, so at the very least it’s a great place to shoot for portfolio- just ad models, makeup, hair, styling…..wait what’s that?  Where does one get those people?  Well, if you want professionals or at least people who know what they are doing, that indeed is a task in itself.  If you want to see what a professional set looks like, see my previous post on the Express label shoot in Times Square that I attended.

Here’s a few shots that I’ve taken along the way during my first few weeks in Manhattan.  Some are touristy post card shots, but some took quite a bit of late night subway rides across town to some dodgy areas, and a few with a special photo rig I had to use because tripods aren’t allowed on tops of certain buildings.

Here’s to new beginnings, cheers.

Walking down 42nd street the other day I saw a runway show being set up in Times Square for the label ‘Express’.   I came back for the show, which was in conjunction with a photo shoot for their fall catalog.  I love how productions are done in New York.  Everything is perfected- the sound, the lighting, everything is made to impress.  And that they did.  I’m not the most savvy of fashion experts, but I was very pleased to see the effort in designs for the fall season women’s line.  There was a large crowd, and overall the energy was there; with people clapping and cheering for various different models in styles that hit the mark.  I took some shots to show anyone who wasn’t there what they can expect to see in the malls in only a couple of months.

The thing is, the summer temperatures that night were around 95 degrees with ample humidity.  I mean it was hot.  The crowd was wearing shorts and T-shirts and wiping the sweat out of their eyes.  Most of the models were wearing coats, wool scarves and basic full winter gear.  They were absolutely baking but still kept their cool on the runway (in December there will be another outdoor show with the models wearing skimpy summer clothes in near-freezing temperatures).

Big ups to Express and the production crew for putting on a great show and for allowing the public access to view the set and to take photographs- which is something seldom ever allowed.  I’ll be looking in the mail for my catalog to see what shots made it in (as well as checking the stores for that 3/4 length mens wool jacket that the model was wearing in the shoot)!

I recently did a shoot involving a lot of location research, specifically targeting endless desert roads for a fashion editorial story titled, “The Mirage”.  The idea was that the viewer/reader was has the point of view of  being stranded along a desert highway, in the middle of nowhere, and enduring incredible heat.  Your (the reader’s) mind starts playing tricks on you, and mirages appear through the heat.  Instead of the mirages being water, or refuge from the heat, it’s chic styling being worn by a playful and seductive model.  She pulls you in closer, but becomes transparent and eventually fades away as you get within reach, only to reappear again further along the road, tempting you to continue.  Essentially she’s everything you want; beautiful girl, fresh fashion, a cold canteen or glass of ice water, but none of it is real.  You can see the works in my fashion gallery.

Finding the locations took some effort, even though the New Mexico desert has lots of great endless roads, it’s almost impossible to know where they are since maps don’t show you what they actually look like.  Enter the iPad with Google street view.   I could take my iPad and look around using Google satellite view, then zoom in to street view and see what the road looks like.  Once I made my selections to what locations I wanted to see, I could take the iPad and use it for navigation for seeing where what roads go without actually spending time and gas driving down all of them.  Although not all small roads in the middle of nowhere are available on street view, it gets you close enough to know whether you want to check it out or not.   I chose several locations, mostly around the old abandoned Route 66 highway complete with cracks in the road and faded paint, stretching to the horizon.  Theirs almost a magic in those areas, and when you’re alone out there driving around, you can almost feel the history still existing, and the spirits of those who used to be there watching you.  Very cool.

What wasn’t cool was the tremendous wind that showed up on every day that we wanted to shoot.  I needed sunny skies to produce the heat on the road and horizon, and on those days the winds were around 60 mph, gusting and blowing sand in everything.  I brought along a really sweet, patient and talented makeup artist named Stephanie Walsh, model Shannon Murphy whom I’ve shot with several times before, and my assistant Sarah.  We had to make use of every day as best we could, and the wind  caused a one-day shoot to turn into a four-day shoot.  Once it was all finished however, we were pleased with the results.  Here’s some behind the scenes shots from that shoot.  Enjoy!

It’s the new “F” word. “Failure” is a word no one ever seems to want to mention or discuss, yet we all deal with it on a constant basis.  I get so burned out reading people’s Facebook status updates and 90% of the time it’s about how successful they want everyone to think they are, when you can easily see that they aren’t really getting anywhere.  When the only mouth you are hearing about someone’s greatness is from their own, you know they aren’t turning any heads.  No one can stand the idea of admitting, “I’m struggling right now.”  ”Times are tougher.” or “I didn’t get the job.”   But you know what?  It’s okay to admit defeat now and then.  No winner in life has a perfect record.  It’s okay to embrace failure, no one ever said you have to be prefect all the time.  Failure is a part of succeeding, and you might as well get used to it because there’s plenty of failures that are going to happen.  Victories and successes wouldn’t be worth striving for if all you had to do was apply for it.

If there’s one thing I learned from being a pilot, it’s for sure that when you screw up, you analyze the mistake, and apply the necessary corrections for the next time.  It’s the only way to get better.  But never admitting fault is a critical mistake all it’s own.  One has to be okay with saying they didn’t make the mark.  It’s what allows one to see the measure for improvement, or plan a strategy to meet the goal on another attempt.  It’s not cool nor progressive to just put on a fake personification that you are always winning.  It’s a diminishing quality, a sign of a insecurity and no one respects someone who has to lie to look important.

So stop worrying about what others think.  Everyone is in the same boat.  Everyone has stories to tell of failures.  Don’t be afraid to let people see the real you.  Life isn’t all about who is the most perfect, it’s more about taking the good with the bad, and building yourself into a better person with both.

Wow!  It’s been awhile since I last posted but it’s been a busy start to 2011.  Since a large part of digital photography these days is image retouching, and the over-use of it, I thought I would offer some insight into what my particular thought process and goal for retouching a photo is.  As you can see by my high-tech illustration above, that seeing a person in real life verses in a digital photograph are two very different things.  I was on a commercial shoot awhile back and the owner of the company I was shooting an ad campaign for was there to supervise the shoot which involved a model wearing the company’s products.  I had a monitor set up to show what the camera was capturing so the client could view as we went along.  After a few shots, the owner told me, “I don’t like the photos, she looks better in real life than in the pictures.”  Yikes! (pulling my collar)  Every crew member in the studio just looked at me at the same time- and the air in the room got real heavy and silent. I quickly had to give a short explanation to the client that the camera “sees” differently than we do, and that the post-production process fixes flaws that happen in camera.  It wasn’t a problem with the lighting or the camera settings, we got it right in camera, it was just the circumstances of the strobe lighting that resulted in different capture image vs. real life image.  Of course in other situations, lighting/exposure  can be manipulated to hide flaws in a subject, but this was one of those cases where it just was going to take retouching to fix the digital side effects of high-resolution capture.   Check this out.

“THE CAMERA DOESN’T LIE.”     Oh yes it does.  (FYI, it also loves to make you look fat.)

When we view a person, our eyes and brains adjust to the light we are in and we usually aren’t standing 6 inches from someone’s face examining them.  We just see them normally and they look fine in general.  However, when you put someone in front of a high-resolution camera, an expensive lens designed to magnify detail, a big bright strobe light (or multiple strobes) and zoom in on them for a closer, larger image; what happens in the 1/3000th of a second while that strobe light fires and the camera clicks is not in any way the same as what you and I see normally.   For that split second, the model or subject is in front of a magnifying glass and a super-bright light.  The camera is set to capture a normal exposure of that light, but it’s also capturing an enormous amount of detail that we don’t see when the strobe is off and there is normal light on the subject.  Skin pores, wrinkle lines, dark tones under the surface of the skin, makeup particles, red veins in the eyes, and small bumps and blemishes on the skin are just a few of the things that are brightly exposed like a dermatologist’s lab.  It’s not the way a person normally looks at all.  It’s the way they look with that much light power hitting them, a powerful lens taking in that light and putting it on a powerful digital sensor that records every detail and assigns it a binary number, then picks a color for each pixel and sends that all through a computer for more processing, then to a monitor where either LED’s, or phosphorus crystals render the digital numbers into electronic light amplitudes for you to see.  Not the same as just saying “hi” to someone in a room standing a few feet in front of you.

Furthermore, I can swear that the camera makes stuff up and throws it in as well.  You’ve heard of that word “photogenic” right?  Or “the camera loves you”.  It means someone who looks good in pictures, versus someone who doesn’t.  How can it be that some people don’t look as completely accurate in a photo as they do in person?  It’s beyond science I think, but it is a real phenomenon.   I think that somewhere between the lens slightly distorting the light passing through it, the camera capturing and recording that light into pixels or the computer’s handling of the image, a person’s image can become misrepresented.  I’ve seen it thousands of times.  When I shoot with a beautiful model with perfect features and in the photos her nose looks like a potato, even with the most pleasing focal length and lighting, something’s up.

Ok, so what do we do about it?

Digital retouching is the only viable solution for these instances where the subject’s digital images, whether due to to technical side effects or mysterious gremlins in the camera, end up looking less accurate than the actual subject does in real life view.  Retouching has always had a sort of negative reaction from people, mainly because it’s mostly used to make certain people (mainly celebrities) look better than they really do.   Furthermore, now that the internet has enabled all the amateur and hobby photographers to learn quick and easy retouching methods, everyone is out there snapping away pictures and over-glossing them up like crazy, to the point that it’s not even about the photo anymore, but more about how much retouching was done.  That in turn makes the market flooded with photographer/retouchers, and lowers the aesthetic and monetary value across the entire board since everyone does it, and the quality is the same (poor).

When I retouch a photo, I’m essentially interested in just putting things back to the way I see the model with my own eyes, and removing all the digital flaws associated with the capture process.  Unless there is a specific look in mind for the retouch work such as a Dior ad where the models are supposed to look futuristic and sort of plastic, I want the retouch to not reveal retouching.  I find that to be one of the biggest giveaways of a non-pro photographer, is that they use massive retouching for their signature style and that’s it.  You know it as soon as you see the photo, and people even commonly say “That looks so Photoshopped.”.  Sure, I do plenty of post-production work such as compositing several images together, and special effect stuff, but as far as work on people, I just want the image to meet fashion standards but still keep the model real in the image’s final form.   I’ve found that the best way to capture a subject and not have to deal with abnormalities, is by using natural light.  Most of the time, it just looks great as is and very little post work if any at all is required.  However, if I’m required to use strobes either for creative effect or job purpose, then I’m aware that there could be some artificial additives that are part of the capture process.  It’s a mixed bag of elements that can determine how much or how little retouching is needed, but the best strategy is to avoid things that you know are going to lead down the path of a photo ending up looking fake.  For instance I follow a few simple rules:

1.  Use models with great skin.  Bam.  Done.  In the bag, no retouching needed when you have great skin.

2.  Whenever possible, use natural light.

3.  A few flaws are ok- leave them in.  I’d rather have a photo look perfect with flaws in than artificial with every flaw removed.

4.  Don’t ever follow formula-matic retouching methods. Meaning, don’t retouch every photo with the same procedure.  Each photo is different, retouch it to retain it’s individuality.

5.  Retouching isn’t what makes a photo compelling.  If you think it is, then go right ahead and keep thinking that it is.

So there ya have it, I prefer a cleaner approach to the whole retouching thing when it’s my choice.  What goes in the camera isn’t always what the human eye sees, so retouching can get it back to normal.  When used properly retouching is a great thing, but when used excessively for any other reason than creative vision, it can get pretty ugly.

There I was, eight months ago standing in line at the Apple store on the morning that the iPad was released.  Not because I wanted to be the first to own one, but because I didn’t want the store running out of them before I went down later that afternoon to pick one up as originally planned.  It was (and is now even more) a pretty cool little gizmo.  I could jump online, do some emailing and a couple of other fun things, but not at all a necessity.  I only wanted one because I had the big idea of replacing my print portfolios with the iPad so that I could show off my photo work anytime anywhere, without having to carry big portfolios with me or constantly re-organizing my prints.  That really is a good thing about the iPad.

Eight months ago, the iPad was just kind of a novelty item that only die-hard Apple deciples had to have.  It didn’t do that much.  Now, the tide of the entire print industry is changing because of this one device.  Magazines, newspapers and books are all reconfiguring their distribution to include applications for hand-held media displays such as the iPad, Kindle, or Nook.  In fact, an entire new industry is being born on the idea of bringing mass amounts of information and images to the public in the palm of their hand, instantly.   I could research numbers and facts ‘n figures, but it’s enough to say that some, if not all, of my favorite publications are now available exclusively for the iPad.  They also include really cool extra content such as buttons overlaying the images that when pushed, activate behind-the-scenes video from the photo shoot, or interactive information that can take you to where you can find and purchase the items used in the photos.  With all this changing current sending the print media into a frenzy to get their iPad apps developed and available, it looks like it could mean the beginning of the end of actual printed material.  Or is it?

The one thing that these hand-held computer monitors cannot and never will be able to reproduce is the beauty of a well-produced print magazine.  My attention to this fact was made apparent when I saw the December 2010 issue of British Harper’s Bazaar featuring super model Natalia Vodianova on the cover.  It is a work of art in it’s own right, with not only beautiful photography and styling, but the cover features a thick high-gloss paper stock, gold foil typesetting and a variety of colors and textures that reflect light in a way that a computer screen cannot reproduce.  Simply put, it’s gorgeous.  In fact, many of the ads inside this issue as well as many other fashion magazines I frequent include gorgeous glossy three-page foldouts, smooth color gradients applied to specialty paper and brilliant color renditions to make the ad “pop” off of the page.  Great amounts of money are paid by advertisers in fashion magazines to make their ads more like a art pieces in their presentation to the reader, and I for one applaud it.  Sometimes holding the magazine in your hands, flipping the pages and feeling the smooth paper, sampling the scents of the included cologne samples, and being able to look closely at the images without pixelation is worth the price of the magazine.  It makes going to the local magazine or book store somewhat of an anticipated adventure to discover what ads and editorials are going to be featured and how they look.  This is especially true with large-size magazines like V, Interview, W and WWD.   Those are even more fun sometimes because you can clip out the pictures and it’s like having a poster!  In fact, I have several folders full of magazine clippings that I want to keep just because they are so beautiful I can’t bare to throw them away.

While I can’t speak for newspapers and books, (and yes, it does look like the end for those if electronic media takes over in the next few years), I can say that as long as magazine publishers continue to display their products with regard to ascetic presentation, class, and include an inherent value for the product itself, I will continue my patronage.  The price of each issue may be a little more expensive, but I think that it’s worth it.  Some magazines are in fact produced so well, that they are coffee table books in my home.   It’s just something that an iPad cannot replace.   -M

Today I had the honor of having one of my photos hand-chosen by world class photographer Russell James for his themed photo entry, “Giving Back”.  Russell hosts a friendly photo submission contest on his Facebook page which he created to give photographers a place for their work to be seen.  He will create a topic to be represented in photographs and then open his page to the public to post their photos on how they interpret that theme.

The theme this time was “Giving Back”, since the Thanksgiving holiday was approaching and I believe the idea was to generate more awareness toward giving as opposed to self-indulgence.   I wanted to create and enter a photo that represented “giving back” in the usual ways that one thinks if giving back.  Perhaps a photo of someone shaking hands with a military person, or volunteering at soup kitchen or helping out at an animal shelter.  It can be  a real challenge to come up with a compelling image in a short amount of time, especially when you want it be a real capture of giving and not something “posed” or otherwise conjured-up.

I decided on an image I took in Pistoia, Italy of two older women walking down a street, one with a cane needing assistance from the other.  They were unaware I was taking their picture, but to me it represented a glimpse of a story.  I entitled it simply, “A Daughter Now Helps Her Mother”.  In this case, it fits “giving back” perfectly.  I realized that one area we don’t often think of when it comes to giving back is our own parents.  They help us throughout our lives, and there comes a day when they will need our help.  To me, this photo represents that change.  I’m proud to have it chosen among thousands of entries to be one of the final 30.

The public votes on their favorite photo, and the winner gets a copy of Russell’s new V2 book. I’m not going to go fishing for votes though, because as much as I would love to have the book, I want this contest to be more about generating momentum in people to give, rather than me winning a contest.  I’m grateful and appreciative to have my photo chosen to represent this topic by the eyes of such a master as Russell James.

I hope that this holiday will start becoming more about giving rather than just a day of excess.  Gatherings of family, friends and love are important reasons for holidays, however I hope that we can start giving of ourselves as well.  When a whole bunch of people do this, it will really turn the world in the right direction.

“Giving Back: A daughter now helps her mother” Italy