© Gizmodo

I have two predictions on what 2010 will bring that I wanted to share with you as we are about to close the book on 2009:

1. 2010 will be coined the “Year of the Tablet” as different hardware and software companies offer a new platform and delivery system for the media.   This will happen only if print publishers get their act together (this would be a minor miracle given their total ineptitude to date) but I’m cautiously optimistic that we may just witness a noticeable revival of the print industry as it finds a way of delivery that is not dependent on decimating forests.

There have been many rumors, slipups of some of the major print powerhouses getting ready to provide content for an unnamed “Apple Tablet” or “iSlate” - I’ve heard rumblings from The New York Times, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Wired, GQ and others that their teams were approached by Apple more than 6 months ago…

Apple is not alone in getting tablets ready… Yet they are in a perfect position to capitalize on the print industry’s weakness right now - and become the GO TO provider for print content as they have done with the music industry (remember how they revitalized the ailing music industry?  When was the last time you purchased a CD?   I predict that they will do the same with print media and that we’ll be saying the same thing about purchasing a newspaper or magazine 3-5 years from now…) (more…)

I just wanted to point you to a cool series of posts from some notable photographers on Robert Hanashiro’s SportsShooter site that he’s been sucessfully publishing (and sharing generously) with others out there for a decade.

Here is an excerpt of my post:

I’ve always found it interesting to study how a career takes shape. It’s a very interesting mix of things you try to make happen, things that fail to happen, and a convergence of events often completely out of your control that many call luck.

When I was 15, I was naïve enough to send my work over to Cornel Capa at ICP to ask him for his advice on what to do with my career. He sent me a very kind handwritten letter basically telling me to keep at it – and that things would inevitably happen. I cherish the letter to this day.

At the age of 19 I was rejected thirteen consecutive times during my first round of internship applications. I then sent out a half-hearted application to the Reuters News Pictures Photo Desk in Washington DC – to work as an editor – at the behest of my placement counselor late in spring – only to have it turn out to be one of the most important internships of my career.

Many of the other breaks that have happened in my career were more picture-driven. I’ve made maybe a dozen images throughout my 20-year career that I am proud of, of which maybe 3-4 are sports images.

Most of them were a result of a very special secret formula that I have learned by watching many of the very best sports photographers out there…

Please continue to read this article on SportsShooter here.

The Story Beyond the Still - Behind The Scenes from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

I’m very, very, VERY excited about this!

I’ve been working with Canon & Vimeo for close to six months on getting this going and they’ve responded with a pretty resounding show of support!

I shot an ad for Canon a little over six months ago and got to talking with some of the creatives on the team at Grey Advertising.  I told them that 2009 had been a pretty amazing year for me following the release of Reverie - and that I wanted to find a way to share some of that excitement and energy with others.   We came to the conclusion that launching a nationwide film contest would do the trick.

As we all know - there are a LOT of film contests out there - but I believe this one is DIFFERENT.

There is A LOT OF POTENTIAL here for something very special to come out at the end…  each video chapter will start with and end with a still image… you need to interpret the previous photographer/filmmaker’s still to start the (your) subsequent chapter (those are pretty much the ONLY rules/guidelines (outside of the obvious))… should make for a pretty unique series of chapters in the end!

So watch the video above and find out more!  I’m on vacation with family and I’ll get rolling with regular updates and much much more information early next week!  For now - start charging those batteries… it’s your turn!

Judges for the contest include:

Philip Bloom - Director/DP

Russell Carpenter - DP - “Titanic”

Rodney Charters - Director/DP - “24”

Nick Childs - Director/Producer /VP Grey Advertising

Shane Hurlbut - DP - “Terminator Salvation”

Stu Maschwitz - Senior Visual FX Supervisor - “The Spirit”

Rick McCallum - Producer - “Star Wars”

Blake Whitman - Director/Editor - Mr. Vimeo himself.

I’ll be a judge as well of course.

Nocturne is up on Canon USA's site - Vimeo & SmugMug

Just in time for the Holidays - Nocturne is up for all to see.   You can see it on Canon’s site, Vimeo, or in full 1080p on SmugMug.  Also tonight marks the PREMIERE of the Behind The Scenes video of the shoot.

Expect an even bigger announcement within the next 48 hours - that will involve you all! (hint…it’s a BIG film contest…)

The entire short film was shot with available light (practical lights) in an industrial part of downtown Los Angeles over two nights.  Not a single artificial light was added.  The footage was shot at 6400 ASA. (We did use a reflector just for kicks on the shot of the little girl - to see if we could bounce sodium-vapor light

A HUGE Thank you to my co-directors Stu Maschwitz and David Nelson and the amazing crew run by Road Trip Films for an WONDERFUL job!  Thank you as well for the amazing post-production work by Pictures in a Row and the score by Jeff MacDonald at Louder Productions.

Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes video by my friend Joseph Linaschke:

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT IN FULL 1080p on SmugMug

Nocturne from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

For some of you that may be following me on Twitter - you may have seen some video from a little over a week ago of our takeoff that I sent from my iPhone during the flight.

Here is a video that my pal Robert Caplin shot and that Laia Prats edited.  I’ve got to admit that I fell to the ground laughing when I heard their choice of music… that combined with some great onboard audio reminded me so much of the epic helicopter scene from “Apocalypse Now.”

If you want to see a slightly more “serious” version here’s New York Magazine’s video on this same shoot - if anything fast forward to second 0:46 for a shot of us flying less than 20 feet off the deck - now that shot is SICK. (more…)

I just wanted to point you towards a great project that photographer Tim Mantoani has been working on since 2006.  ”Behind Photographs” is a series of portraits of “historic photographers and their images” shot with a 20X24 Polaroid camera.   The Polaroid camera he uses is a rare and mammoth view camera that is not easy to transport - let alone shoot with.  To date Tim has photographed more than 100 photographers.   Somehow I made it into that group which obviously questions his entire selection process.   I’ve got to say that this is to say the least - a very ambitious project - as you know that getting any photographer IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA - is close to impossible (let alone some of the best photographers in the world who are sure to be critical of your work!)

I  had a fantastic time for two reasons:  First, they scheduled my portrait session right after James Nachtwey - which was a huge honor for me on a number of levels.   Second - I NEVER have had a portrait made of me (unless I’m goofing around at the end of a shoot) in close to a decade - and definitely never with a 20X24 Polaroid.   On average Tim shot 1 maybe 2 Polaroids of each photographer - period.  So forget shooting at 10 frames a second or thousands of frames in a portrait session.  It brings it back to the ways things once were - and where they should be… nail the portrait in one, maybe two frames.

Check out Tim’s site here.

Mystery Gear...

Mystery Gear...

I sometimes wonder if it’s fair to others to share some cool stuff that’s being worked on - without giving them all of the details.   Definitely feels like a bit of a tease for sure.

Then I remind myself of how excited I feel about these things and how a smile is plastered on my face when I get to work with people on these things,  and I’m hoping to share some of that glee with others - albeit without ALL of the information.

Here is a collection of such pictures of prototypes that you’ll see out in the market prior to NAB.

I obviously can’t tell you exactly what these things do, what they will cost, exactly when they will be available - but I have gotten clearance from the people working on them to share these with you w/o a single additional word.  Hopefully you can take it for what it’s worth - and let your imaginations run wild.  I know my imagination is exploding to think of what you all will be able to do with this stuff once it becomes available!  Note that there are many companies working on these types of solutions at once - so it’s an exciting time.

I’m gearing up for a big shoot tonight and tomorrow night in LA and hope to be sharing more about the reason behind the shoot and how it involves you within a week from now. (more…)

Support Help Portrait today!   I’m doing something to support this on my own - but I would like you all to think about a way that YOU might be able to help others with your photography/video.

Remember - wonderfully lit photographs are beautiful - but the effort and connection even with a simply point and shoot or iPhone would work!  BE INVOLVED - HELP OTHERS.   Check out the Help-Portrait site to find out more about this project.

Perhaps you could photograph / film people who need a new headshot or video profile so that they can find a job… there are endless ways to give back - frankly: even if it’s not today!

Decade from Hell? NOT! Maybe for magazines though...

Wow so much to say.  Some Key announcements below.

Time’s latest covers call the first decade of the new millennium “The Decade From Hell.”

Wow… I thought the world was supposed to end on Y2K…?  We made it didn’t we?

Sure - we’ve lost 90,000 print jobs this year (BRUTAL - especially to see the excellent photo team at Newsweek slashed. These were forward thinking photo editors who had us blogging from Beijing as an equal priority to shooting for the mag… )

OK so some news:

First - I’ve got 3 commercial/video+still jobs in a row over the next 2 months - so that’s going to make it hard to post. That’s why this blog has been a little quiet (I’ve been tweeting too - which is a bit easier)

Second - I’ve got a pretty major announcement coming - that will actually potentially involve all of YOU.  Something to do with a  nationwide film contest over an 8th month period w/ 7 winners - just dotting the “I”s right now before I make the official announcement - hope to announce it within the week.  I’ve been hard at work on it since July.

That means I’ll be posting a LOT more of course - so disregard the first thing I said.

Also - I’ve wrapped shooting the example videos for my DSLR instructional video - despite all of the work I was fortunate enough to be awarded this week - the plan is still to release it within the next 1-2 months.  I will pretty much share everything I know / have learned as it relates to HD DSLR video, gear, theory, workflow etc.  Not holding anything back.  If you would like to be notified of the video (downloadable) release (before the end of the year) pls e-mail me at production@vincentlaforet.com - with the word “NOTIFY” in the subject and I’ll ping you when it’s available.  We are currently in pre-production on the series.

As I’ve mentioned on twitter - there are some extremely exciting pieces of gear coming out early next year.  I’ve been working with quite a few companies with the current HD DSLR cameras (5D MKII, 7D) and we’ve been measuring the 1D MKIV as well… expect to see a bunch of pretty much the most interesting developments in HD DSLR accessories in time for NAB in April.

2010 will be the year where HDDSLRs come of age in my opinion.  So many companies have been hard at work making the necessary pieces of gear to make these cameras truly production worthy.  I just shot a network television opening credit sequence a few weeks ago and it went absolutely, perfectly, smoothly - even though we had 3-4 prototype pieces of gear in the mix.   A veteran Steadicam operator was so impressed with these HDDSLR’s camera’s performance that he put in an order for a 1D MKIV the very next day and started to make custom mounts for his rig as well.

Lastly - I’m looking for potential advertisers for this blog.  If you are interested please send me an e-mail directly at studio (at) vincentlaforet.com.   As many of you know - I’ve been incredibly resistant to putting any form of advertising on this site.  I’ve loved the fact that it’s ad free and revenue free.  But lately - I’ve become a bit too busy to edit the videos etc. to put up on this site as often as I’d like.  I need some help in terms of aggregating and editing the content for this blog.

I intend to take the income from advertising on this blog and put it right back into producing original content for the blog.  If there is anyone in the LA area that is interested in volunteering for now - and getting paid when we get advertisers - please e-mail me at the same address.  Video shooting skills and editing are obviously a pre-requisite.

Well that’s about it.  More to come very soon.