Review: Instant The Story of Polaroid
Ever since Polaroid announced that it was done with instant photography and the Impossible Project started up, I’ve been obsessed with instant photography. I had some of the last packs of Polaroid film and still have one pack in the fridge that, most likely, I should use pretty soon. Anyhow, when I heard about Instant: [...]
Review: Life is a Gift: The Zen of Bennett
Most people know of Tony Bennett as the amazing musician, but he’s also a painter and does watercolors. I had just come from checking out a watercolor show of a high school friend, Iain Stewart, when I decided to crack open this book and start on it while visiting my family in Alabama. Right off the [...]
Book Review: Garbology
Being a Green business, we are always looking at ways we can keep a minimal footprint while still providing excellent service and photography to our clients. Recently on NPR, I heard Pulitzer Prize winning writer Edward Humes being interviewed about his latest book, Garbology, and finally got to read it. It’s a fascinating piece of [...]
Review: The Art of Being Unreasonable
The title of this business book by Eli Broad appeals to my creative side. As a small business owner and a creative, we know that being unreasonable can result in breakthroughs or at least original thinking. Broad is probably most known for his business and philanthropic success including KB Home, but in this book [...]
Movie Reviews: Chasing Ice, More Than the Rainbow
Two recent documentaries we’ve watched focus on two very different photographers. The first is Chasing Ice, which follows James Balog and tells the story of the Extreme Ice Survey which he’s been doing for many years and follows the travails of Balog as he works to tip public opinion on climate change so that people [...]
ASMP Releases iPhone app review
Software to manage model releases are a great tool for photographers and there are several options on the market already like Easy Release, but now ASMP has got their version out and available for free! Anyone who’s a professional photographer no doubt is familiar with ASMP and all the great education and advocacy work they [...]
Leadership and ISES Eventworld
Coming off attending ISES Eventworld, it was fortuitous that the book I brought to read on my flight was Leadership Gold by John Maxwell. As a board member of the ISES-NCC chapter, we attended the conference early for some of the leadership training and I found that to be very useful. The best thing about [...]
Shooting with the Gigapan
I remember first seeing/hearing about the Gigapan when David Bergman shot with it at President Obama’s inauguration (see the photo here and read about his experience shooting it on his own blog posting). Recently one of our clients hired us to shoot a group shot with it and it was a lot of fun to use. [...]
Review: My Kid Could Paint That (documentary)
Having seen Amir Bar-Lev’s other work including The Pat Tillman Story, I was compelled to finally check out My Kid Could Paint That. The title of the documentary was interesting to me, even when all I knew about it was something about Marla Olmstead being a kid who paints similarly to Jackson Pollack. But the [...]
Book Review: What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There
Successful people have little reason to change… makes sense doesn’t it? That’s sort of the gist behind Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There”. It’s a great read for anyone who works with others and/or is a leader so it really hit home for me. As a small business, one of [...]
Art Basel is not the only thing going on in Miami’s art scene
On my most recent trip to Miami, I had the fortune to actually get out of South Beach (where I typically am for shoots) and head into Miami proper, this time checking out the Wynwood Arts District. This area has undergone a renaissance of late, and anyone who’s been to Art Basel Miami has no [...]
Review: Herb & Dorothy – A Film by Megumi Sasaki
If you don’t know who the Vogels are (and even if you do) you should definitely check out the award-winning documentary Herb & Dorothy, directed by first-time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film tells the story of a charming couple, postal clerk (Herbert Vogel) and librarian (Dorothy Vogel), who built a contemporary art collection with very little. [...]
Book Review: Tell to Win
As a small business we’re always striving to improve and this occurs on several fronts. We are always looking at what trends are going on in the photography world (and hopefully helping set some) as well as looking inward at how we can better improve our business . The book I read during my most [...]
Documentary review: architectural photographer Julius Shulman
Case Study House #22 is perhaps the most iconic and famous of Julius Shulman’s photographs and it is one of the many subjects in the documentary Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman. The film is quite educational and many iconic buildings that Shulman photographed are described with details on his creative process as well [...]
Go see Bill Cunningham New York now! (Film Review)
Photography is something that many people are passionate about (like us!) but even if you are passionate about something else, you will identify with parts of Bill Cunningham New York, the excellent film about the legendary New York Times photographer. The film takes a fascinating look at Cunningham’s life/style and the choices he’s made throughout [...]
Interview: Alan Bamberger
If you’ve been attending art openings in San Francisco then no doubt you have probably seen Alan Bamberger taking in the shows. He’s almost omnipresent and we lucked out and got to ask him a few questions about what he does and his perspective on all things art here in San Francisco! We’re going to [...]
Book Review: Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Seth Godin should be a familiar name if you are a photographer and/or marketer. He has been writing books and speaking for some time now and I finally got around to reading one of his earlier texts: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. The book was published in 2003 and it discusses a pretty [...]
Canon 300mm 2.8 review and what I learned about shooting soccer (futbol)
Sports photography was something I thought could be my dream job when I was a kid. I was always interested in who took the shots that were on baseball cards and other sports cards. Then I recall seeing Walter Iooss‘ images and really thinking that it would be sweet to be a sports photographer. This [...]
Movie Review: Art & Copy (psst, just watch it!)
As photographers we are often in the same boat as the creatives who work in advertising – with similar clients, similar goals, and we’re often working together on projects. Having come from an agency background, watching Art & Copy: Inside Advertising’s Creative Revolution was a joy. Kevin here at the studio recommended it and the [...]
Polaroid SX-70, Impossible Project films and sparking creativity
I’ve always loved the Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera and finally found one in great condition on eBay so bidded on it and won. I had been saving some Impossible Project Fade to Black Film 10/09 film just to use with this and did a personal project with it to see how it’d turn out. Of course [...]
Chip Conley’s new book
If you work in hospitality in the Bay Area then you most likely know (or should know) who Chip Conley is. I won’t go into his back story but he’s the founder of Joie De Vivre Hotels, one of the top boutique hotel chains around(and based here in San Francisco). A while back my business [...]
Lego Cameras!
We love using film cameras, plastic cameras and other novelty type bodies so this LEGO Digital Camera is pretty awesome and something that’s probably more novelty than anything else but we think it’s pretty cool. Too bad it’s not in orange, but I guess since it’s Lego’s we should be able to make an Orange [...]
Best Business Practices for Photographers book review
Recently during a flight to and from a shoot in NYC I read John Harrington’s book: Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition and it’s got a wealth of great information for all photographers and small business owners. He also had covered some of the info in his presentations at ASMP’s Strictly Business 2 – [...]
Point and Shoot Digital Camera Review: Samsung SL620
This camera takes some amazing pictures even when using the flash indoors in the evening. My friend J Zubiere, a makeup artist, had the Samsung SL620 during a shoot out in Las Vegas, and I was really impressed by how great the shots came out in all kinds of environments. She also used it poolside [...]