Hola Peru!

What an experience it was being in Peru. After getting back into the swing of things I have sometime before heading to Canada to write about the quick 10 day tour. I hope to produce a few blogs a day before the holidays chronicling the trip. (but don't hold your breath)

Ironically trying to get everything done before leaving for the trip was more than a small task. I don't think I got to work out for three weeks previous to the trip which was a concern but an unnecessary thought. Having trouble with high altitude in one of my favorite places, Steamboat Colorado, I took as much caution and advice from friends and family. I didn't want to have to take Diamox, the over the counter drug for altitude sickness while in Cuzco. So my great friend and fellow Photographer Adam Weintraub who has 10 years experience of traveling and living in Peru (he should, he married one) suggested to do like the Peruvians while in Peru. Eat, drink, chew "the Coca leaf". I was happier than a nerd in a tech store. Some folks don't like it but I felt like million bucks, and I didn't mind the taste.

Just to mention that Adam is the creator of the photoexperience.net work shops. You should check them out.

Back to Photography...The decision to packing camera gear differently was a two month task. Still and video in one bag. Which one, did I have to, need to, bring a back pack, could I roll the bag. Decisions decisions. And did it work? Well, well enough.

Couple of factors other than the ones mention above, carry on size, safety, stability of the case. Normally I use a big rolling Think Tank bag the "Airport Security" bag. Not the v2.0 the older one. I took it to Bali in 2007 and it fit in every overhead compartment even international flights. This time was going to be different traveling meaning more movement and without a home base per say and I would always need different lenses and so on.

I settled on the Think tank Airport Ultra Light. Now you have to be careful because Think Tank no longer sells the one I was using. I also purchase a Hardgig Storm Case 2500 in which the Airport Ultra Light fit it. The combination was advertised to go together but I do not see it that way on the Think Tank site now. This gave my back pack wheels in a sense, cuz if I am in an airport the ground is flat and I do not want to carry anything especially heavy camera gear. So this solved the transportation problem.

I quickly go tired of the back pack to be honest and switched to the Adventure Vest after my shoulders got sore the second day and was happy after that. I trimmed down the gear to essentials and went with what I needed and was able to get to my equipment much faster than taking the pack off every time. I like the roller hard case for the price, it is great protection for gear and makes a great chair in the airport. But I might go with a smaller Roller that has emergency shoulder straps for over all equipment as I did in Bali. With the new airline bag regs you will have to go with something more of the size of the Think Tank Airport International.

TSA locks are advisable in the states but don't use them internationally. Use zip ties. That way if you bag is searched while at an international airport they will not have to cut your nice TSA locks. Happened to me this trip. Really, it was only to keep the Pisco safe. More on that later.

Story of Stuff

This little website; www.storyofstuff.com was sent over to me by a friend. It is quick and simple video on consumption and economy that is very interesting in our current economic times. Take a look and see what little things can make a difference fast.

Taking Names...

As we swing into fall I wanted to create energetic, sensual photos that related well to agency's and advertisers wanting their products in the minds and hands of teens and twenty somethings. Ironically the thirty and forty folks want to look this way too.

Evelia was available and so was Big Willie. We quickly took on a short time span of beautiful light last Saturday the 28th of Sept. We ended up waiting around for the dense bright light to soften. The waiting lead to only having about 45 minutes of shooting light. Good if you know what you are doing and bad if you don't have a clue.

It didn't take long to notice we had something very special so we all worked quickly and squeezed three changes of clothing in. I ended up with over 140 keepers out of all the photos and span about seven different genres.

Though the shoot was not to come up with so many different aspects from just a few changes of clothing. But I am so glad that with our collaboration that day, we were able to succeed in so many ways with out even trying. That is what made it special.

The photos above were the second of three changes of clothing and are my faves from the entire shoot. I know there are other amazing shots from the take (don't mean to toot my own horn) but these captured the essence of my first instincts for the shoot.

Big Willie

Such a busy fun summer full of shoot after shoot and a little boating. (What recession?) We had such a great shoot yesterday with Eveaila and of course Big Willie Frankangela H&M (on his knees as usual)and designer Kelly Flynn (not pictured).

The interesting thing about this shoot was that we were not only rained out of our location but the concept was done in about five minutes on the spot. Yes, we came in blind. Now if you know me or anything about the way I work there is always a concept faze that usually happens over a period of two weeks, sometimes a month. Well that didn't happen. Everything had to be done on the fly that day which isn't entirely out of the ordinary. I just like structure when it comes to concepts and photography and even respecting the time and efforts of people I am working with.

Here is my question to all of you? What do you prefer? Wingin it? or storyboards and concepts. How do you work? or is it the combination of the two that brings out the best in you and others you are working with?

MySpace, Flickr, Face Book, Photo Bucket...

I have known for a while about this disturbing News on rights grabs but this ridiculous. It is imperative that we all copyright all of out images ASAP...

Below is an email that I received from fellow ASMP colleague Jeff Caven.


Hello Colleagues,

I think it is important that as our peers fight for our copyrights in
Congress and the Senate. We support them by making everyday people and
fellow professionals aware of the blatant rights grab by image services like
Flickr.

Flickr's legal verbiage:


However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion
on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant Yahoo! the following
worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

1.

With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on
publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute,
reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content
on the Service solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the
specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available.
This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include
such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or
Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.
2.

With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make
available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other
than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify,
adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service
solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made
available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to
include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you
remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.
3.

With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video
you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of
the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the perpetual, irrevocable and fully
sublicensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish,
translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or
in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or
medium now known or later developed.

SCARY HUH?

While I belong to Facebook for friends and networking, they have a similar
verbiage. Other than my ugly mug, I post no images on Facebook. The wild
attorney above coined a new phrase "sublicensable License" It's a "Goliath"
(Yahoo!), so they probably had a school of attorneys. They must have been in
a feeding frenzy when they wrote this. Both My Space and Smugmug have
excellent "terms of Service" regarding photographers rights.

It's a new world in realm of intellectual property. ASMP is more important
now that ever.

We must all hang together,
or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
- Benjamin Franklin


Cheers,

Jeff

Phase One 60 MEGAPIXEL digital back!!!

I am not the biggest fan of 6x4.5 digital format for medium format cameras. Maybe that is why I have only rented them for shoots.

Phase One have recently came out with its new 60 Megapixel destroyer. With a wide ISO range (50-800) and 8984 x 6732 pixels with 1 frame per second Phase one has taken another stride to stay ahead of the competition. This just days after Hasselblad made the 50 megapixel announcement. With a price tag of just under $42,000 thats $1440.00 per megapixel, I don't think I will be reaching for my check book just yet but! I will try the Phase one out on my Hassy as soon as I can. Now if they can just make an actual 6x6 format (8984 x 8984). Let the Pixel wars continue...

MyLoss My decision

A difficult decision had to be made last September when I started to hear my 1 terabyte external hard drive start to click quite a bit.

I discovered that it was failing and the drive with which I had 110,000 photos on was destroying itself. Two weeks later my second Back up external failed too! At that point I was not the biggest back up proponent in the world but I am now!

Ironically just before the drives failed I was complaining about how much time I was spending on the computer and not behind the camera. During film days you drop it off and you pick it up the next day. No big deal. Well technology has now allowed us to be the individuals we have always wanted to be and that comes with a price. The price of hanging over a computer for more that a few hours at a time.

Again I never really liked doing post work. But after I was lucky enough to have all of the photos recovered I never looked back. Why you might ask. Because I had about $40,000 bucks worth of photos that had not been delivered to my clients yet. Let alone the rest of my photos saved on those dam drives.

Post production has never been more of a joy for me because of the care I put in to them. For those of you that do not enjoy it get some one else to do it or build a system so that it goes faster for you.

Be thankful for what you have, because it can disappear in a flash.

Chase Jarvis: "We Are Independant, Yet We Are Somehow The Same".

Grant Haller, photographer for the Seattle Post Intelligencer once told me, way back when I was starting in the photo biz, that every photo has already been created. I couldn't believe what he said. I had the mind to think I was the ultimate creator and was going to come up with new interesting photos that would capture and hold viewers' attentions for hours.

I recently read on Chase Jarvis's blog his thoughts of how other photos looked like his and how ideas have sat in his notes and have not come to fruition for him. I think this is the same for most intelligent creative people and somewhat normal. There are only so many hours in the day. I recently shot photos that were an idea 4 months ago. Some might say they look like others photos but the idea popped up in my head way before I ever saw similars. Interestingly enough I just saw my website copied by another prominent photographer down to the color on the blog and the logo gradation.

Notwithstanding, it is our (my) intent as a photographer(s) and creator(s) to find, shoot, create and dream up interesting shots whether someone has shot it already or not and to make better photos through our own intent. I don't ever remember looking at photos and thinking "I want to do that or copy it". But sure as rye bread, I have seem similar work to mine that is not as good, that is for sure.

As I was discussing this same situation with Ken Sheppard of Azzura Photography last night over Mexican, he too expressed that the Internet has allowed the inundation of speed that spreads like wild fire. Post something, and bingo another amateur copies it.

Interestingly enough, we are all connected to one another in one way or another so I am no longer surprise to see parts of my ideas in some one elses photos. How many times have I seen my photos miss aligned in my portfolio after picking it up from an agency. We all know that they make copies of the photos they like just in case they need a fresh idea or to keep me on the front of their minds for the next project.

As for holding attention...We have created our own short stick with the bombardment of rapid fire society needing more, faster. I am not including "better" in this statement because I always want better from myself.

Hair fly

Talk about having a lot of energy, Lacey was awesome in creating these fantastic photos with me in Portland. It was a great excuse to do a shoot in Portland while having sometime off at the Monaco hotel. I have been wanting to do something like this for three months and just let everything hang out with no preconceived out comes. Just create. Let me tell you it felt fantastic.

Modern Seduction

©2008 Loren Callahan

Can I say I love Dawn Tunnell!!! Yes. The wizard makeup artist, and no you can't blame her for other peoples genetics (inside joke), pictured in the background with model Claire Z., created master pieces yesterday for our "Modern Seduction" shoot in Hunts Point.

Much thanks to Garth the owner of the amazing water front home. Who had the smarts along with the state to put a video camera in one of the oldest trees in Bellevue to record the bald eagles living in it!!!. And the mother just had little ones three days ago! So on Garth's big flat screen we watched the mother feed her chicks during lunch. Amazing!!!

Another big thanks to big Glen for giving us the use of his new '08 Bentley GT. Sweet car. Ya should have stuck around Glen!

And last but not least the crew:

On hair we had Will (Big Willie) Francalangia, simply amazing "don't take the black out" style and so funny, funny man!!!

Lindsay Baucsh was our awesome sassy southern bell wardrobe woman.

Tuan lesoleil designer, thank you so much for your beautiful dresses and the help around set!!!

And our wonderful models Clair Z. and Maria B. We couldn't have done it without you!

A 12 hour day full of laughter and professionalism. I love the art we were able to create because of all of you. Look for the photos on my website within the next two weeks.

John Marzano Dies

I took this photo of John Marzano way back in 1996 when I was freelancing for the P-I in Seattle. It is a shock to read that he died on April 20th. The article from the Tacoma News Tribune is linked. He was 45 years old. I am glad that I was able to capture this great photo of him. It just shows how loyal he was to his team. Paul O'Neill is in the head lock.

Adventure Vest Short Video

This is a cool little short I made for the Adventure Vest on Animoto.com

Another Anniversary

Photo by Loren Callahan, ©2008 Loren Callahan


"ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the
delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness
they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of
sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not
going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything
else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know
and brings to light many differences between things".-- Aristotle, 350 B.C.
I love this excerpt. It is so true for me and the way my senses are and react within my daily life.

Today of all days is tax day. It is more importantly the day my father passed away three years ago. I am very happy I got to spend the amount of time with him that I did before he died. I took this photo of him about 7 years ago. I am so glad he is with me in spirit.

Dali Lama at Quest Field

Photo By Matt Freedman

A BIG thanks to Matt Freedman for taking this photo of me. Having the opportunity to photograph the Dali Lama at Quest Field in Seattle was quite an experience. I truly enjoyed seeing some old friends from the Seattle Times, Seattle P-I and the likes. Too many to name but you know who you are. You can see from the photo we were packed in pretty tightly but that is part of what makes it great is that everyone worked very well with one another. Even helped out one another when things came crashing down, meaning cameras and tripods. From my experiences this is not typical. I suppose it might have been an effect of the Dali Lama who creates peace just by being in his presence. More photos to come of the events and the Dali Lama in the near future. Oh, yes I am manually focusing with my thumb. :)

Of course I have to mention the Adventure Vest that I am wearing. I was the only one to come into the stadium with out the need of a bag lugged over my shoulder and I had a chair I could sit in too. Check out the video about the Adventure Vest.

Profoto Compact 600R and Innovatronix invertor

©2008 LorenCallahan

A quick shot of the set up of the test with Whitney Egbert from Ryan Agency in Portland. Ended up not using the XT 1200 innovatronix power pack with my Profoto Compac 600R's. Just plugged them in to the wall. You can check out the site, www.innovatronix.com. I realized with the help from fellow photographer and ASMP V.P. Ric Peterson and the guys at Glazers that the Profoto Compac 600Rs having built in Pocket Wizard remotes some how don't work perfectly with this particular battery. On the other hand the 600's without the built in P.W. remotes seem to worked great as is Ric's experience. GO figure, technology...

Do you know?

Photo by Loren Callahan ©2008
Getting away is always great for the senses. And did I ever need it! So the passed weekend headed up to Whistler B.C. and took some R&R on the slopes. This photo has not been manipulated in anyway other than adding color correction and saturation. I always like to to create or find a photo within the camera instead of manipulating it in Photoshop. So the first person to correctly guess how this photo was shot will receive a new 2 GB Compact flash card from Sandisk. Happy guessing!!!

The V-Man turning 37

Heading down to Portland to do a couple of quick go sees with agancies like Nemo and Wieden Kennedy are a useful and have to's in my industry. And when I can couple the short trip with dear friends and family it is all the better. When one of your best friends turns 37 and his youngest son turns 2 within 2 days of each other you know there is going to be a great celibration. So I must say Happy Birthday to my great friend and his beautiful son (my nephew). Ya gota love the chest hair. Ironically that is my old Descente one piece ski suit.

ASMP Strictly Business 2

Traveling down to LA is always a lot of fun for me for assignments. This time I went for a business update at the American Society of Media Photographers "Strictly Business 2" seminar. If you are an amature or a seasoned pro photographer this two day event will give you an immense amount of updated knowledge of how to run, market and promote you photography business. It is well worth it and is is very inexpensive. The speakers in LA were Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua, Blake Discher, John Harrington, Judy Herrmann, and the quarkie and amazing artist Sean Kernan.

For more information visit:
http://www.asmp.org/sb2/index.php

ATLANTA: FEBRUARY 22–24
PHILADELPHIA: MARCH 7–9
CHICAGO: APRIL 11–13