Grading Chapter 8 at Company 3 in LA with my friend and incredibly talented colorist Alex Bickle on the DaVince Resolve - on a 25 foot screen.

Hey everyone – just wanted to check in and share a few updates with you all.

First I’ve been busy finishing up the post on the final chapter of the Beyond The Still film contest.  As I mentioned earlier the 6 winners from the competition and I came together to write the final chapter, and they were all on hand to work with me as I directed the final chapter.

We’ve graded the piece, done the mix and are now scoring the piece.   We will premiere the entire 8 chapters at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23rd.  You will also be able to catch each chapter airing from now until then on the Sundance Channel – pretty cool!  I look forward seeing you there and also invite you to a panel that my buddy Chase Jarvis will be a part of the night before at Sundance as well. (Details TK – he just told me about it today over lunch.)

We’ll get to posting a bit more on the blog in a bit – the post process for this and other pieces shot towards the end of 2010 has been very time consuming.

I am also currently at the madhouse otherwise known as the CES show here in Las Vegas.

My goal is to find time to continue to put good content on this blog – and as much original content as possible.  I appreciate all of your support and the close to 6,000,000 visitors in the past 2 years (yikes!!!)

We’ve been busy cutting together a behind the scenes video that we’ll launch on the day of the premiere.   Between all of this and  doing post on two commercials, prepping for one that I am shooting next week, and bidding on another for the end of the month – it’s been a busy 5 days since the start of the first business week of 2011!

I also appreciate all of the support you’ve given me with the iApp “VISUALS” that I launched 3 weeks ago.   It has been downloaded close to 30,000 times and was featured by Apple yesterday on their “New and Noteworthy” apps, and was the listed in the #2 spot as most popular iPad free app for photography on iTunes, and #11 for the iPhone. (And #176 for ALL free apps in ALL categories.)  Not sure how long being in that spot will last – but it feels nice.   I appreciate all of the positive feedback and suggestions very much.  Please keep in mind that as you check out the app – the meat of the app if you will – is in the 90 minutes of video that you get access to within – some people seem to be missing that pretty substantial part to the app as they try it out.  The app is free as is the initial collection of images – you will then be given an option to download additional collections within the app.  Please make sure to click on the “All Collections” button at the button if you’d like to purchase them collectively at a discount.

#2 after nearly 30,000 downloads in under 3 weeks! I'm enjoying it while it lasts - I have no idea how the weird science of ranking works on iTunes

So here’s to a wonderful 2011 for everyone!  I hope you’ve had as much fun as I have in 2011 so far!

Below you’ll find a few more images from recent days.   Click on the “More” button below!

Read the rest of this entry »

I am extremely excited to announce the launch of my iApp today (which runs on the iPad, iPhone, and iTouch).  Its been a labor of love that has taken well over 6 months to bring to fruition.  I sure hope you get  the chance to check it out here.  (You can download the app from your devices directly or of course from iTunes).  The initial application is free because I wanted to give everyone a chance to experience it and some of the new features (you will then be given the option to purchase additional individual image collections or al of them at a discount).  The app contains some of my favorite images from my day as a staff photographer at the New York Times, and each image is accompanied by a video of me sharing the story behind the images, as well as many technical challenges that I faced and how I overcame them.

There is something that I would like to emphasize in particular:  the impetus behind this app was not to have it serve as a self promotional tool, but instead to establish a direct connection with the photography audience and fans of my photography.  I believe that as we look forward, photographers are going to be sustaining their careers and body of work by connecting directly with their audiences and fans of their work – as opposed to the more traditional delivery platforms such as publications. In other words, I am not sure that the old world way of distributing your images through large publications will be as effective as trying to develop a relationship with your audience directly.  My goal is for his app to be a step in that direction, and perhaps even to lay the groundwork for others to do the same.

[vimeo video_id=”17934166″ width=”700″ height=”525″ title=”Yes” byline=”Yes” portrait=”Yes” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”00adef”]

I would like to share one example with you that I think speaks to the changes that are happening in the traditional publication model of our industry.  Prior to the economic/publishing-world meltdown two years ago, it was not uncommon for me to fly five times a month for editorial publications alone.  Since then, I have only flown five times in the past two years for editorial publications.  It has become clear to me that the only way to sustain the high level of expense for producing aerial photography (a helicopter is $2000/hr on average!) would be to get support from fans of the photography directly.  While fine art prints of these images have sold consistently over the years, I think the idea of getting fans of the work to make  contribution of a few dollars in greater numbers is the way of the future for all artists.

This distribution/commercial model will give all artists a greater and more creative future in connecting directly with their audience and selling greater numbers at smaller price – as opposed to going through an intermediary (studio, label, publisher, etc…) – a process which generally contributes to widening the rift between an artist and their audience.  My hope is that this new trend will open artists up to doing even more creative work that is focused on pushing the envelope, rather than meeting the commercial needs of the aforementioned entities.

Below  you will find a video that illustrates the features of the app.  I hope that you take the time to check it out.  I thank you for your support in purchasing some of the collections or all of them – as it will go toward future photography projects and perhaps a video application down the line.

There is also one more feature that I wanted to point out – this app allows you to share the photographs via email with others and save them to your device – which i hope promotes the idea of sharing work and opening up discussion.  I think that one of the main flaws of most publication applications to date is that they fail to embrace the idea of sharing their content and enabling their users to do so as well.

Thank you to Equity Incubator for helping make this wonderful app and for all the time they put into it.  Should you be interested in developing a similar app or a different photography app of your own, feel free to contact them HERE.

[vimeo video_id=”16627685″ width=”600″ height=”400″ title=”Yes” byline=”Yes” portrait=”Yes” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”ff9933″]

*If this video by the guys over at Cinevate pique your interest in the new Atlas 10, be sure to also take a look at the rest of their site for some really solid DSLR gear. While you’re there, be sure to check out their 12 Days of Festivus Sale going on now until midnight Dec. 31st for some killer prices just in time for the holidays!

And here’s another very very impressive use of HDDSLR and Cinevate gear that I saw weeks ago that I’m adding in now – I love it because it speaks to the strength of HDDSLRs and the new tools and techniques being invented to maximize the potential of the lightweight cameras:

[vimeo video_id=”17129677″ width=”700″ height=”500″ title=”Yes” byline=”Yes” portrait=”Yes” autoplay=”No” loop=”No” color=”00adef”]