A Life In The Day Of

Las Vegas resorts

2011-12-17T19:13:00.007-05:00

Back in the desert again last month, this time in Sin City.

Again, not my usual thing, I'm used to beaches, ocean and humidity, but this assignment came directly from the shot of the W in Scottsdale I posted a little while back. Not too often that things like that happen, but when it does it feels that all is right with the world.

November in Las Vegas isn't warm, especially hanging off a terrace 25 floors up on a windy evening. The noise, crowds and hookers are all way down below. all I can hear is the sound of Stan Getz playing Bossa Nova from the room and Astrid Gilberto's sweet voice accompanying him. Perfect music to be shooting the Bellagio fountains to. We also did a number of stitched panoramas from this terrace that turned out quite well, although we were way off the twelve shot panos that Peter Lik did from an adjacent location with a Red Epic. But, that's Peter for you.

The new(ish) City Center is the largest private construction project ever undertaken in the U.S., and it is mighty impressive - hotels,casinos,shopping,entertainment and residences all rolled into one massive development.You could spend a month shooting the place and still have missed something, it's just that big - and worthy. Although I must admit that the Veer Towers gave me the willies - twin towers leaning in the opposite direction to each other. Reminds me of a hotel we did in Atlanta that didn't have one right angle in the whole place. Just doesn't feel right somehow.

A special thanks to the guys at the Sony Store in the Forum Shops in Caesars Palace for coming through when we had a technical issue. Not too often we find service that good anymore and more's the pity.

Cape Cod in the Fall

2011-10-13T11:11:00.006-04:00

It's been over twenty years since I've had a job on Cape Cod. In the meantime, we actually owned a summer place in Hyannisport for a number of years. So, I've shot a lot here, but this is only the second time that I'm getting paid to do so.

These two shots are typical Cape in mid-September. One glorious sunrise and one dreary cloudy day that was also very interesting, but unusable for commercial purposes. I didn't even notice the cloudy scene because I was facing the other way toward the resort and the ocean and muttering about the crappy weather.

Deciding to call it quits and pack up for the day I looked over my shoulder across the saltwater inlet and marsh behind me and voila! Nice little scene and very Cape Cod like.

It's unusual for us to be working outside of the Sunbelt and the tropics, but it's not for lack of interest on my part. It just rarely happens that way, and when it does, I can't think of a place I love to be more than this.

Summer in Scottsdale

2011-08-05T16:45:00.005-04:00

This is a personal shot and an unusual one for me because I usuually don't work in urban surroundings.

It was taken during a break on a resort shoot in Scottsdale, AZ. I decided to go downtown and explore the air-conditioned cocoons called shopping malls. Sitting at a traffic light, I saw the newly opened W Hotel out of the corner of my eye, on the cross street. I zipped over and parked on a side street and watched the scores of twentysomethings come and go from the W. They all seemed to be dressed in baggy surfer shorts and garish T shirts, proclaiming "Acapulco Beer Champ", and the like.

Starwood like to brand the W as a hip brand but I doubt that this is what they had in mind. Must be happy hour, I thought, as the music blared from the rooftop pool deck and I could see the silhouettes of their bodies milling around against the setting sun.

I quickly and somewhat absent mindedly shot off about a dozen frames and didn't bother to go inside because it looked like a zoo. Besides, I was on a mission and going shopping before we started to set-up for the evening's shoot.

Later that night, I started to process the day's take and when this shot popped up on the screen I became dissapointed that I hadn't spent more time or given it more thought. I liked it and wished that I had more to choose from.

All that I can say is that I blame it on the heat. It was 115 degrees for seven days in a row and even the usual cool night air of the desert didn't materialize. The first day, I just thought that the heat was a little crispy. The second day, I started muttering, "son of a bitch", but by the third day, I was going mental. Even the cameras and lens barrels were hot to the touch and when a gust of super-heated wind hit my face, it just sucked the breath from my mouth.

I've worked in the desert before; here in Scottsdale, as well as Las Vegas and in Cabo San Lucas, Baja, a number of times, but I have never been as debilitated as this. My usual stomping ground is the Caribbean and Mexico and I rarely work north of Miami. Not only do I have no problem with the heat, I love tropical weather and feel that I was born for it. All I can say is that it's a good job I've been doing the Cancun shuttle lately and my skin is already well tanned, because I would have fried otherwise.

The day after I left, Phoenix and Scottsdale were hit by a massive sandstorm, hundreds of feet high, driven by searingly hot winds, that pummeled the city and brought it to a standstill. Whew. Close one.

Yucatan memories

2011-04-28T08:52:00.005-04:00

I recently returned from back-to-back projects in Mexico - a week in Cancun and then we drove south to the Riviera Maya for the second shoot.

Fourteen consecutive days of 5am starts and 7pm finishes seemed like child's play when I returned and faced editing about 8000 frames. "You've got to learn to be more selective", I said to myself. As if that's going to happen, because I always say that to myself. Ah well, old dogs, new tricks and ne'er the twain shall meet. (Apologies to Kipling).

I used to live around here in the 1970's and although much has changed it still feels like home to me. At one point we were a short drive from Belize, where I also lived, but I resisted the temptation of a trip down memory lane because we were on a schedule. Cancun didn't really exist then, it was just a big spit of white sand which curved out 15 miles into the sea. Local fishermen would ferry people across to Isla Mujeres for a few pesos and Cozumel for a few pesos more. Now, huge catamarans ferry hundreds of people at a time to these islands and Cozumel even has an international airport.

Playa del Carmen is supposed to be the fastest growing town in Latin America, but it seems to decay as fast as they build. Even the building seems to be half-assed, unfinished this, unfinished that and there are more potholes than in the old part of town. Maybe they're actually constructing potholes? Hmm. Still, it has a charm that even the hordes of English louts roaming the streets can't dent.

Playa is definitely more Mexican than Cancun and although I usually go for more "authentic" myself, there's something about Cancun I really like. The Riviera Maya is completely the opposite of Cancun's large, multi-level resorts, and intimate, low-rise buildings spread over large, mangrove covered, properties prevail. If heaven on earth exists, this is it.

Location laptop for photographers

2011-03-16T12:30:00.003-04:00

As anyone who has read this Blog will know - yes, both of you - I'm a reluctant Blogger at best and am never to sure what to write about. Why anybody would be interested in me, I have no idea and I'm not that egotistical or insecure that I need affirmation from others.

This is different though. I have finally found something that I would like to share. While it's not earth-shattering, I do believe that I have found the Holy Grail, for me, anyway. Lugging computers around on location is an absolute pain, and also absolutely vital. I've tried numerous and different combinations of gear and always had too much, or too little - until now.

Two months ago I started the search for the perfect location laptop for the way that I work. I have a lovely Sony with an 18.5" screen and a fully calibrated monitor that's just too big to be as versatile as I need on location. I shoot tethered infrequently and rarely have a client looking over my shoulder at the capture, so the Sony was overkill and took up a lot of valuable, carry-on luggage space. On the bottom end I have a little Asus R2 Ultra Mobile PC, the predecessor of Netbooks. It has a useless 7" screen and is completely underpowered. However, it has a bunch of USB ports and I could attach a card reader and two external drives and securely copy my work as I went along. Not entirely satisfactory, but I had redundant copies of the work, which was the most important thing.

When the iPad came out, like many others I had high hopes that were dashed because of its lack of USB ports and the lack of ability to attach peripheral drives - partially remedied by the Hyperdrive unit, but not totally satisfactorily. I have an iPad version of the Hyperdrive and like it, but I use it for on-the-fly backup prior to my nightly back up to a laptop. I consider it to be another backup of my backup and carry it in a separate place to my other drives, just in case.

So, I went in search of something in the middle of what I already own - just what I need, more gear! After a long search of every manufacturer that I could find, who was also credible and had a firm reputation, I settled on the Fujitsu TH1000, a Laptop and Tablet convertible, responsive to both fingers and stylus. While it only has an 12.5" screen,it is big enough for Lightroom. To compensate for the i3 processor, I put in a 250 Gig solid state drive that is lightning fast. The 4 Gigs of RAM are more than sufficient and Windows 7 makes full use of it all.

Here are the key factors that sold me on this unit: four USB ports and an Express Card slot that I can put a card in that accepts two eSATA connections. The DVD drive pops out to make room for an additional battery module with which I get a solid 8 hours of use from. It has an internal SD card slot which I use as a 32 Gig Cache drive to speed up Lightroom - keeping the C drive as clear as possible is very important if you want Lightroom to be responsive and as fast as possible.

I didn't put Photoshop on this machine because I don't do any post production work while still on location and I want lots of free space on that C drive. Lightroom is so fully featured now it's all I need until I get back home.

I attach two Seagate Go Flex Pro drives with eSATA, the Pro units are 7200 RPM and worth the extra. Lightroom doesn't use a lot of RAM, but it sure likes fast drives and an eSATA connection. If I'm being really paranoid, I make an addiitonal copy on my Guardian Maximus Mini - a RAID 1 storage unit using 2.5" drives, from OWC - highly recommended and quite inexpensive for what they are.

My main criteria was small, very portable, multi-functional, long battery life, flexibility of use and lots or ports, and I got it all. However, dressed up as I finally did it doubled the initial price, so it isn't a cheap machine, but it's the most flexible and usefully compact thing I could find, without any major compromises.

Biscayne Blvd

2010-11-25T15:05:00.004-05:00

Working in Miami again. Where else but downtown Miami can you see a sight like this?

I've watched this place grow over the space of a few decades and unlike much development I've seen, this place gets better and better. I even like it in the middle of summer!

Bumped into Chris Opel, an American fashion shooter living in Switzerland and had an enjoyable evening with him in South Beach. He's here for a month, updating his book. Now, if that isn't an investment and commitment. He's completely changed the look and feel of his work and going for a very natural, unscripted look. This was interesting to me because I'm going the other way - don't care so much about the reality, it's my perception of it that counts. Made for an interesting evening's conversation. Good luck to you Chris.

Meanwhile my job went well and I picked up another one for the start of the New Year. Even with a shaky economy there's so much development activity here that I'm looking around the distressed properties and foreclosures with an eye to buying a "pied a terre", while the prices are so low. As Deepthroat said to Bob Woodward, "follow the money" and if the new hotel and art gallery openings are any indication, the money is in Miami.

Was it something I said?

2010-10-14T16:17:00.003-04:00

Working with Vlada again and realized that I've never shot her fully dressed.Hmmm, wonder what that means? Anyway, not only is she my "go to" body model, the attached shot shows why I enjoy using her. Always easy to work with and a real pro.

Westjet into the sunset

2010-08-09T17:28:00.005-04:00

Somewhere over Fargo, ND.

Heading west and it's going to be a long night. Infant in front is screaming. Kid next to me keeps bumping into me as he keeps falling asleep and then is abruptly woken up again by the baby.

Oh mama. Are we there yet?!!

Look Ma, we're in Business Week!

2010-04-28T15:57:00.004-04:00

This week's Lifestyle section has a travel piece by reporter, Venessa Wong, entitled "Beware: your hotel may not be a nice as you think.", for which yours truly was interviewed for and quoted in.

Overall, it's a resonably well balanced piece about retouching shots of hotels and resorts and the ethics therein. While I wasn't exactly profound, I don't think I sounded like a schlub either. It's funny to see an hour and a half interview reduced to a few sentances of quotes. While the context was a little off on a couple of them I'm reasonably satisfied enough to bask in my Warholian fifteen minutes.

I think a lot of myself. How about you?

2010-03-12T08:00:00.006-05:00

I recently had the unfortunate experience to watch Platon being interviewed by Charlie Rose. I like Charlie Rose, not so much Platon, whose work I find to be overbearing in it's pomposity. His self deprecating manner in the interview - "if I have any talent, and I'm not sure I do" - was just too much.

He's riding high at the moment, Portraits of Power was a huge success for him and he was being interviewed about his New Yorker essay about the remaining 1960's civil rights leaders. It changed his life, he claimed, and from now on he will devote himself to honorable undertakings. Jesus, what a bunch of claptrap.

The Emperor Platon has no clothes. I find his work to be predictable and banal and his technique of producing Gothic-like imagery is a cover for his lack of vision. Anybody who has achieved the status of being known by only one name has achieved some kind of status in their given world: think of Avedon and Penn, even think of Cher and Bowie, and now Mr. Platon has designated himself to join their ranks.

Sour grapes on my part? I think not because I'm really indifferent to how much success or money he has garnered - what do I care? On one hand I think good for him if he can pull the wool over people's eyes and get away with it. On the other hand, and this is the bit that galls me, how bloody stupid are the people who fall for it and fawn all over him? I can't decide if these Photo Editors and Art Buyers are like lemmings or sheep because there's a slight difference in these two analogies, and they both seem to fit.

Of course, the world has always been as such, hence the story of the Emperor who had no clothes, but I feel it is getting worse. Society produces larger than life people so we mortals have someone and something to aspire to, which is a positive thing after all. It's the self-proclaimed ones who get my goat though.

Gear n' stuff

2010-02-10T18:31:00.004-05:00

One of the most common questions from one photographer to another is, "what are you using?"

While there's lot of talk about creativity, gear lust is when the conversation becomes really animated. I'm not so much an equipment junkie as I am a gadget lover. Ever since I was a kid I have been a sucker for them. Show me a 7 in 1 screwdriver and turkey baster and I drool and want one. The dumber the gadget the more I like it.

It occured to me that those who read this blog - that's right, both of you - might be interested in my stuff. I've just finished reading about someone else's, so I thought I'd be a copycat.

Camera - I switched to the Sony a900 last year, with a couple of a700's for back-ups/spares. Love the 900 and the superb Zeiss glass that comes with it. Had to almost sell a kidney to buy those lenses, but they're worth it. I have to force myself to use a tripd, but when I do it's an Induro. Lights are Elinchrom fired by Pocket Wizards, as well there's a whole bunch of wireless Sony speedlights. For location scouting I use a little Canon G9, which apart from being cute is actually very good.

Computer - PC all the way. There's no way I'm paying those inflated Mac prices. The desktop is a 64 Bit Dell Quadcore i7 with 12 Gigs of RAM and a couple of 1TB Seagates. I have a nice 4 bay, eSATA box from Sans Digital housing four 2TB Seagates. My main laptop and also my office machine is an 64 bit, dualcore,18.5" Sony that's just a beaut. It came out a little over a year ago and was specifically aimed at photographers with a rich display that shows 98% of Adobe RGB (almost unheard of in a laptop), as well as many other photo friendly features not found in many desktops even. It cost a bundle and is no longer made. Was I the only one who bought one of these things? I thought they would take the world by storm. Ah well.For on the road I have a little 12" Sony running XP that I've had for years and still runs Lightroom and CS4 just fine. I have a whole bunch of little external drives for the laptops running from 250 gig to 500 gig - Seagate Free Agents - highly recommended. There so cheap now, I'm actually not even formatting them for re-use. I leave the RAW's from a job on the initial drive as one extra step of insurance and file them away after I have copied them to my desktop.

With the exception of the portable Free Agent drives, every drive is "Mirrored" in a RAID 1 configuration. That means for every drive there is another one coupled to it and they both read and write in unison. Should the primary drive fail, the ghost drive kicks in automatically for seamless operation. That's the first backup. The second, is a networked HP Media Server, running Windows Home Server with 8 TB of storage, and it backs up daily, keeping three months of backups all of the time.

Lightroom is the backbone of my business, not just for processing, but the asset managment tools make life so much easier. Don't know how I lived without it. For the heavy lifting, beyond Lightroom's capabilities, I use CS4 with a full suite of Nik plug-Ins and Noise Ninja for noise reduction. Initial processing is with DXo which I prefer for the Sony.

In addition, I have more software from more vendors than I can count and most of it is rarely used. Smart FTP,Skype and Dropbox are really my only regulars.

It's only when you make a list like this, and there's so much I've left off, that you realize how much you have invested and wasted. Quite sobering actually.

Miami Image

2010-02-01T16:45:00.007-05:00

Miami Images - Images by Andrew Ptak

I spent last week working in Miami and took an extra day to spend an always educational day with Seth Resnick. Time with Seth is always well spent, but as an extra bonus, Eric Meola dropped in at lunch time. I've admired his work for 3o years, or more, and it was a real treat to meet him in the flesh.

This is a personal shot I took in South Beach one night. I should have a few in my Stock site in a week or so - just got to find the time to edit and process them.

Yes, South Beach was the usual zoo, with Superbowl coming up shortly, adding to the fun and games. Big sound stages and scaffolding for TV crews being built on the beach. Kind of glad I'm going to miss it though, it would be hell to try and work around that.

I met a street artist selling his (awful) paintings outside of Starbucks on Ocean Drive. I didn't buy one of his paintings, but I did buy him a coffee and we chatted for a few minutes. Turns out he's from Provincetown, Mass. and "winters in Miami Beach every year. Guess you don't have to have money to have a winter residence.

Anyhow, we're great lovers of Cape Cod - had a summer place in Hyannis for many years - and I know P'town very well. I asked this fellow about Dixie, a flamboyant Queen who runs the Post Office Cafe and whom we've known for years. He always embodied all of the fun and the intelligence that the place possesses. Bummer of bummers, turns out that Dixie died when he fell down the stairs and cracked his skull. What are the chances of being far from home and meeting someone on the street who is also far from home and finding out something like this? Provincetown will go on but one small and vital piece will be missing.

EDIT - I notice that this image flickers on screen. Damned if I know why, the lighter version of the flickering image is actually the exposure of the real file. Hmmm.

Sunrise at the construction site

2009-12-12T13:40:00.003-05:00

I've come to really appreciate construction cranes, especially in silhouette. I hope it's not a Freudian thing, with these phallic symbols and all, but I just like the graphic lines.

We tend to think of the sun and the moon at opposite ends of the sky in our line of sight. but not always, as this shot attests. Both the sun and the moon actually wander around the sky from north to south a lot more than many people think and sometimes, like here, they line up quite closely.

It's a beautiful morning

2009-11-27T13:25:00.003-05:00

Apologies to the Young Rascals.

So far, this sight has been a rarity. The misers who run Toronto and the CN Tower (the place pictured) seemed to have deemed that lighting up public structures for any longer than the absolute minimum of time, is wasteful and unnecessary.

After spending millions of dollars trying to attract visitors to the city they make the night time view as boring as possible - just a bunch of black silhouettes against the sky. The clear message is, "you should be in bed by now, what the hell are you doing up at this hour?"

Glad to see that someone has had a change of heart, for the CN Tower anyway, and for the last couple of weeks it's been a full blown light show all night long. This was taken about 6 a.m. about forty minutes before dawn. I was out for my morning walk along the lakefront and was happy to see this.

Joe McNally

2009-11-07T10:22:00.003-05:00

My favorite photographer is Andy Anderson, but I think the best photographer is Joe McNally. Is there any genre that he can't shoot better than anyone else? I'm tempted to say something very specialized like food or architecture, but I'd be wrong - he'd still shoot it better than a specalist practioner.

In these days of specialization, Joe defies even gravity, never mind normal expectations. He's a throwback to the old "camera men" of the 1940's and 1950's,who no matter what the situation, always brought home the bacon. His technical expertise is daunting, his imagination is incredibly fertile and his sense of humor is as wicked as it is legendary.

I've met him a number of times and he's impossible not to like. I met an ex-assistant of his once and thinking I'd finally get the inside skinny I asked "what's McNally really like. Is it all an act?" No way, she says, "he's an absolute sweeheart." Damn! I thought I was going to get the scoop on a McNally expose.

I have my specialites and I stick to them, not because it's good business or even expected, it's just what I like. It's nice that Joe defies that conventional wisdom and even the business advice of the need to specialize. His talent and curiosity are just too big and wide to be constrained.

I think that Joe has a problem of perception though. He's such a joker - can't stop - that it diminishes his aura. Everyone knows he is amazing, but he hasn't reached (deserved) icon status. On one hand it's too bad. On the other, McNally would be the first to say "Yeah? And who gives a shit?" That's Joe, Groucho Marx with a camera - and lights, lots of 'em.

Yoga Image

2009-07-16T14:56:00.004-04:00

This is Alayna, a Yoga instructor and part-time model. For this resort shoot she was both.

This shoot had to be one of the funniest of my life, and hers. We were on a pier that jutted out into the water - kept the sand from the gear and all of that - and suddenly Alayna blurted out, "They're having sex!"

More than a little puzzled, I gave her a goofy look and she pointed to the beach behind me as her eyes opened wider and wider.

Sure enough. There's a middle aged couple going at it in full view of everyone on the beach. They made absolutely no attempt to hide what they were doing, as a matter of fact, I think they were showing off. A man came over to us and said, "do you see that?" I said that I was trying not to because I was trying to work, but my model couldn't get the surprised look off her face!

They were very, very quick. The guy zipped up, the woman pulled the hem of her dress down and they just walked away without a care in the world. When Alayna and I had finished she helped me schlepp the gear back to my room and guess who we saw on the way? "He's paying her for chrissakes", I said. Sure enough, an over- the- hill working girl and her old fart John. Wonder if management knew about this, I thought?

Weird shoot. Turned out well though considering the distraction and all.

Hyatt hotel and Sony

2009-05-06T11:57:00.002-04:00

Whew! You have to love the combination of Sony and Zeiss glass. This is too small and the color space too limited to really appreciate just how snappy and bold this really looks - no PS tweaks.

The Sony a900 is an absolute joy to use and the Zeiss lenses are so crisp and strong they can give you a headache. What's not to love?

Downtown Hotel photograph

2009-04-29T17:07:00.003-04:00

Don't often shoot urban hotels and thought I'd try a new, (for me) technique. It's called Bleach Bypass, where you suck almost all of the color out, but leave a feint hue so it's not black and white either. I like it for this one, but not sure for anything else. Have to dwell on it for a while, I guess.

The role of photography in Hospitality marketing

2009-01-09T18:24:00.008-05:00

No photos this time. While I'm not exactly impartial regarding this subject, it doesn't mean that I can't have a valid point of view. So, here goes.

We've all heard of the common guest complaint that the photos represented a distorted view of a property - basically, they made it seem better than it was. Yet, I'm sure that the converse of this must be far more prominent . . . . . but who is going to tell their host that the place looked like a dump on Expedia and they only booked the location as a last resort, but were pleasantly surprised as to how nice it was?

The lost business because of poor photography is probably more than anyone can imagine. But it's a hidden reason and therefore, incalculable. It seems that paying for decent photography is considered a last resort, or an evil necessity, by some. The number of Resort Condo sales efforts that I have seen where the shots were taken by someone in the Real Estate Sales office, are staggering. I've seen numerous million dollar plus Condos featuring nothing more than underexposed snapshots from (presumably) the Agent's "Point and Shoot" camera. Ouch!

Decent photography should pay for itself many times over and the cost of such should be considered to be an investment, not a liability. Howard J. Wolff, a Senior VP at WATG (big deal Architects) recently Blogged about "Design as a Differentiator - What are the Drivers?", and his observations are as true of Photography as they are of Architecture and Design. I'm going to steal some of his points here and quote him.

"Today's travellers are looking for four things: a connection with people and places; physical and psychological comfort; a greater choice of guestrooms and amenities; and convenience. And they want to feel that they are getting these things at great value. Owners, operators and developers who understand the public's changing demands stand the best chance of capturing the lion's share of business in today's competitive environment. Successful destinations mirror the co-existing desires of their guests."

Well said Howard, and it is photography's job to provide tangible illustration to entice and satisfy a potential guest's desires from a location, as you have outlined. This is not to diminish the role of good copy. I think that photography is just a learned talent, while writing is a real gift. The ability to use words that allow us to conjure up mental images is an amazing ability and the perfect companion for good photography. They're like ham and cheese. Either one is good by itself, but put them both in a sandwich and they're even better.

Given the current financial debacle, new projects are being cancelled left and right, while some of the larger, long term ones like Cap Cana in the DR, are laying off and slowing to a crawl, and even swanky Destination Clubs like Lusso are going into Chapter 11. As one of the (near) bottom feeders in this food chain, Resort Photography takes a big hit too. It is only natural and prudent that companies start to cut back as they try to weather the storm. However, this situation is also a savvy marketer's dream. If my competition is going into hiding, and I continue my marketing efforts, unabated, I should really stand out from the crowd. Of course, that presumes that I believe that advertising and marketing leads to sales and if I don't, I shouldn't have been doing either in the first place.

While I wouldn't go as far as to say you can spend your way out of trouble, I do know that you can rein in so far that further trouble is almost inevitable. As for me, I'm long enough in the tooth that it really doesn't matter. It is nice to have a reason to get up in the morning though. I think it's called, going to work - for those of us who are fortunate enough to love what we do for a living. In the meantime, there's a new guy in the White House tomorrow, guess we'll find out what he's made of soon enough.

Empress Hotel Victoria BC Canada

2008-12-29T11:39:00.003-05:00

This is the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, Vancouver Island. The Grand Old Dame of the James Bay inlet, she looks out at the comings and goings of locals, visitors, Cruise ships and seaplanes, as they parade before the Inner Harbour, as it's called.

It was starting to get dark and a storm was just clearing, making way for a peachy glow across the building facade which faces due west. It's a lovely spot and over a million visitors a year to the harbor must agree.

Toronto sunset

2008-11-16T09:17:00.003-05:00

Toronto has a few, small islands that have a great view of downtown. I came to capture the lights of downtown at night from my island vantage point, but like this one better.

The contraption sitting in the water on the left helps to guide the ferry into the dock on the island.

Golf Resort in the fall

2008-10-09T16:52:00.003-04:00

This one was from a few days ago. I love golf courses, some of the nicest landscapes you'll ever see.

You can hardly see the golf cart in the lower right corner and that's just the way I wanted it.

Hollywood test shot

2008-09-29T15:53:00.006-04:00

I like shooting Spa subjects, and no, it's not because of semi-naked women - I have kids older than this and I already went through my mid-life crisis without getting a Porsche and a young girlfriend.

I've always liked Hollywood "Glam" from the 1930's and this is from an attempt to re-create that look and feel. The original shot is quite straightforward and I spent a lot of time in Photoshop trying to create the mood and texture of those bygone days, but without looking too dated.

Now that I've worked out the technique, I just need a client who'll let me use it on their shoot. Might be a while, I think.

PS - Okay, I had a look at this after I posted it and you can't see the subtlety of that "airbrush glow". Needs more work, but in the meantime, call this a work in progress.

Photoshelter Collection is dead

2008-09-17T11:46:00.002-04:00

I was shooting in the Badlands in South Dakota (seen here) when a message on my Blackberry told me that Photoshelter was quitting the Stock business. I was dissapointed but not surprised.

They were/are good folks, who treated photographers fairly, but their business plan was more of a social movement than a real business. While we all want to change the world, we also have to eat in the meantime and that means compromise.

Henry Luce (the founder of Time Inc) was asked what the most important thing was for a magazine, and he replied, "To stay in business". Too true and too bad for the good folks at Photoshelter.

Now it's going to take me about a week to retreive my work and reorganize my files and life. Ah well.

Spa Resort photography

2008-07-22T12:36:00.004-04:00

This is a nice young Russian woman called Vlada. From Siberia of all places, so the nice hot sun down at the oceanfront of this resort was quite to her liking.

I tried to teach her Spanish while she tried to teach me Russian. Didn't work out for either of us, so we stuck to English. She is only 25 but has been working for 10 years already, mainly in Holland. Now she's crossed the Atlantic to the land of milk and honey, and very little corruption, as she pointed out. Knowing a bit about Russia, I presumed that she wasn't talking about Holland.

The guy that we cast for this shoot turned out to be a dork. We found out too late though, so he became mainly a prop rather than a principal and Vlada carried the day for us. Phew!

Sunrise at golf resort

2008-07-14T13:24:00.002-04:00

Not much to say about this except I like it. The sun was just rising above the tree line causing the very diffuse light in the background and the stronger light in the foreground, as beams of light made their way through the trees. Soon the warmth of the sun's rays would dry the dew on the grass and the golfers would be out in force. Right now, the place was all mine though.

I like golf courses. Even though the landscape is manufactured, they're some of the prettiest landscapes I've ever seen and the possibilities are legion. Now, if only I could play worth a damn!

Muskoka Resort

2008-07-08T09:18:00.004-04:00

This is Taboo Resort in Muskoka, a few hours north of Toronto.

The region is rock and Pine with lakes carved out of the Canadian Shield by Ice Age glaciers. Long a haven for artists, American industrialists and Toronto bluebloods, "The Muskokas" as the area is known, has now been discovered by Hollywood thanks to Kurt and Goldie.

Three major lakes (Muskoka, Rosseau and Joseph) and countless minor ones define this piece of Canadiana, which is now in a building boom of Condos and Fractional Ownership developments. Each new golf course is heralded as the best in the region and Mike Weir's home course is at Taboo.

The "old money" here must cringe as they sip their Claret and watch the onslaught of BMW's and Porsches every weekend. What's probably worse for them is that these "new" people drink Merlot, their wives drive Range Rovers, and don't even mention those obnoxious children of theirs. To one demographic, the area is booming, to another it's gone to hell in a hand basket.

Me? I like it here and think that the contrast between the old money and the nouveau riche just makes it more interesting. Taboo is a nice place just to hang out and being out on the dock front (seen here) at dawn was very soothing to the spirit.

Never, ever assume

2008-06-26T14:33:00.004-04:00

This shot cost me $1400 to make. Ouch.

It was taken on the last afternoon of a week long Resort shoot in Cancun. I had checked out of the Resort and all of my gear was packed and in the trunk of the car. My flight was in two hours.

I had a rather large, 16 gig card in the camera and my laptop and extra portable hard drive were already both full and in the car. The laptop and extra drive carried redundant copies of the week's shoot, 150 gigs in all.

When I got back home, I copied all of the shots from the 16 gig card to the folder I had created on my Desktop, together with the Laptop files and went to bed exhausted. The following morning, I booted up the Desktop and discovered that the hard drive had crashed. A real nuisance, but I still had everything on my Laptop and extra hard drive, right? Not so, for my last few hours of shooting on the 16 gig card. After I had verified the copy to my Desktop, I had formatted the card!

Enter the computer nerds and their Clean Room as they dismantled my drive and slowly brought the data back to life. Three days and $1400 later, I had my 16 gigs back. Then I upgraded the drive in my Laptop to 500 gig and bought an additional 350 gig external drive for a backup, so I'll never run out of storage again while on location.

Never, ever assume that your hard drive isn't going to crash right now.

Photoshelter

2008-06-25T10:31:00.005-04:00

This was my first sale from Photoshelter Collection. It went for a bus wrap for a mobile communications company.

I thought I'd give Photoshelter a try because I won't participate in the Micro Stock market and with Corbis and Getty buying up every one in sight for the last few years, the number of venues is shrinking. Alamy do well for me, but Photoshelter is still new enough that the jury is still out. Their editing is very inconsistent and they dislike shots that are "commercial" - isn't that where the money is? Instead, they favor funky and artsy is good.

This could be a very bright move, or they may be forced to change. Time will tell. In the meantime by the look of their Blog http://blog.photoshelter.com/, the arsty fartsy look is firmly in place for now. I find it strange that a Stock Photo Agency's blog is mainly about Photo Art and Galleries. Generally speaking, Art Photography leaves me cold - lacking technical competance and requiring too much explanation as to meaning. The greatest artists in my mind are folks like Avedon, Rebecca Blake and Newton, who were masters of their craft and didn't require an interprator to tell you what the work signified. It was/is just brilliant and stunning and leaves one wanting more.

The Stock industry is in such a sorry state these days, becoming just another commodity fueled by weekend shooters who just want to see their name in print and are fine with earning pennies a piece. It took us years to move people away from the perception that Stock was the crap left over from an assignment (thank the Image Bank for spearheading that effort) and no sooner did Stock become established as a source of commercial grade quality, then the MS sites came along and lowered the bar.

Change is good and should be embraced, and when disruptive change like this comes along one needs to be a seer to see how things will eventually shake out. But shake out it will, just watch out for the falling debris and try not to get hurt.

In the meantime, we'll see about Photoshelter. Another photographer mentioned to me that he had gone with Digital Railroad and was disappointed, so he was considering Photoshelter instead. I'm sure the Stock industry is full of disappointed photographers, but switching isn't the answer. Finding new avenues for your work is.

First Post

2008-06-25T08:38:00.006-04:00

Because this is my first post I'm sure I'll make a number of mistakes and wish that I had learned more before I started. Ah well.

I've hesitated in starting because, quite frankly, I don't know who'll bother to read this or why. There are a number of Photo related blogs that seem to have achieved stardom - Strobist, Chase Jarvis, A Photo Editor, Joe McNally and everything Scott Kelby related. It's interesting to see the "attaboys" that they give each other as if they're a closed circle of cognoscenti, all of whom, not uncoincidentally are in the workshop business too. Andrew Hetherington's Blog is the one that confuses me the most, mainly picture after picture of himself and someone else at an artsy function in New York. Does this man ever work, or does he just hang out with a drink in his hand and wait for someone who'll pose with him for a snapshot? Hmmm.

To be frank, the only reason that I started this is to increase my visibility and get more work. There, I said it - no meaningful highbrow - just plain old commerce. I'll try to be interesting along the way, hopefully more interesting than this post has been. But you have to start somewhere right?