my new fridge

just in time for 09 i finally got a mini-fridge for all my film! now my real fridge upstairs will have room for actual food and groceries. yay!


there are about 150 packs of polaroid in there!

evolution of a portfolio

this is awesome: the evolution of erik almas' book and promos over a decade span. it's great that he took the time to compile this material to show younger photographers how his book and marketing pieces evolved. it's nice to see that everyone starts out with less polished work/presentation and that over time the images, portfolio, and promos become more sophisticated and professional. thanks to rob haggart for putting all the slideshows together!

apa something personal gallery

check out the apa something personal 2008 gallery. my image is near the top and won third place. the something personal event was really great with about 1200 people attending. i got a chance to say hi to all the people that i don't get to see often enough. all in all, a great way to wrap up 2008 with the sf photography community

working for free

i just read this great quote from a recent strobist post on the ever-prevalent discussion about working for free:

"When a company or organization asks you to work for free they may be (okay, probably are) taking advantage of you. When you are in control, no one can take advantage of you. You have the ability to offer your work for free, but you retain the ability to decline a request to work for free"

genius, and so well stated. i often find myself wobbling on the fine line that is between getting an estimate in that compensates me for my work while still fitting the (oft very low) budget. and while i generally purport the idea that devaluing my work lowers bar for the whole industry (and thereby my ability to get future jobs), i think i've come around to a new way of thinking. i am responsible for my own wobbly fine line and will walk it responsibly. i already feel liberated by the empowering idea of offering my work for free to people i want to collaborate with. first on my agenda: food runners (check them out, they rock).

now this is just too cool

when this comes out on the market i'm seriously going to consider forking over every portable electronic i own to these people (really, watch the video). then i'm going swimming, with my phone.

fuji swoops in

fuji just announced the instax 200 camera. it's no polaroid 690, but it's better than nothing!

photographer of the day: jeongmee yoon

check out jeongmee's work, she makes my little sociological heart go thump thump. the work she does on the intersection of identity and culture makes her interesting, the way in which she explores this subject is brilliant. here's one of my faves from 'the pink and blue projects"

image copyright jeongmee yoon

photographer of the day: anja niemi

today i'm highlighting anja niemi. i don't know her but my friend meigan knows anja and pointed me at her website. woah. anja is super talented. her work is a bit haunted but gorgeous. and really, i would kill for her locations. here's a lovely photo of hers:

image copyright anja niemi

the cocktail umbrella

a few weeks ago our art directors club meeting was postponed thereby giving me reprieve from my cocktail umbrella assignment. that was a few weeks ago and now it is imminently upon me. we're meeting on tuesday and i have nothin'. this weekend will be full of thanks giving (literally, giving of thanks), hanging out with family, and plenty of cocktail umbrella brainstorming.

design inspiration

due to the genius that is link-sharing on facebook, i came across this link the other day. i've been keeping it open in my browser just to look at every few hours as creative inspiration. i personally love business cards and this blog is a collection of the best! check this one out, it's my current favorite

something like home

my new project that i've been talking about for months is officially up! it's called something like home. It is an ongoing series focusing on pieces of homes and americana. my intention is to deconstruct shared american memories by distilling them into iconic details that represent and evoke emotion which is tied to our collective conscious.

you can also check out my other ongoing project which explores the use of my iphone camera as the new polaroid.

i hope you like them!

alas, no obama inagural tickets

since my senator has probably recieved her share of 30k requests (or more) for inagural tickets, i figured these two photo sites are as close to obama as i'm gonna get.

this website is just so great. i'm in love with how these journalists captured the background of the campaign. i wish more intimate work like this made it to the mainstream media.

this is also another great photostream of behind the scenes obamamania. i was told some of these photos were taken by el presidente himself while campaigning. how cool!

burried treasure: an update

i developed 5 rolls of the mystery film: 3 rolls of 110, 1 roll of 116 and 1 roll of 126. one roll had vague photos on the contact sheet of an unidentified woman but unfortunately all the writing from the paper had exposed onto the film. the other 4 rolls were totally blank. i don't think i'll be processing the rest of the film which requires super pricey c22 processing. oh well. at least one of the blank rolls was awesomely dark sea green (seriously). and yes, i'm keeping that one! any ideas on what to do with three clear strips of 110 film?

burried treasure: 32 year old film

the other day my boyfriend's mother found a bag full of exposed film from 1976 which was taken by a now-deceased family member. you can imagine my excitment at being handed a cache of extinct film and put in charge of discovering what's on it and if it can even be processed/printed.

the mission commences: i'm having 4 rolls attempted by new lab in the city and another 2 done by gamma if they can figure out what to do with it. the other bunch of rolls are c22 process (seriously?) and there's one roll of kodachrome which may not even be develop-able. i'm checking into rocky mountain film lab to see if they can do the c22 at a reasonable price. there's one other roll that has a wacky name that they lab guys didn't even recognize. imagine how cool i felt piling my rare film onto the counter at new lab and having a couple of people fly over saying "ohmigod where'd you find that!?"

i'll keep you posted about what develops. yes, pun intended.

photographer of the day: henry dombey

i had a lovely afternoon today talking shop over coffee with a good friend of mine. henry and i talked about our work until we were nearly blue in the face. we ended up looking at photos for almost 3hrs instead of the 1hr we planned on (there's no better way to spend an afternoon!)

henry is stellar. his ability to tell stories is unrivaled in anyone i know who shoots portraits with a photojournalistic tendency. his work is subtle, gentle and a tiny bit heartbreaking in the best way. here's one his images that i love:

image copyright henry dombey

what price beauty?

sometimes i forget what i participate in by shooting "fashion". this is perhaps one reason i find myself more and more attracted to portraiture and fine art....



...but then again, sometimes advertising gets it right:

photographer of the day: matt shain

today i'd like to highlight the awesomeness that is matt shain. his images are beautiful and haunting. they speak of sadness, loss, hope and of the awkward in-betweens in relationships, families and personal aloneness. i can't encapsulate all that he is, but i know i love it. here's one of my favorites:

image copyright matthew shain

todd hido's "a road divided" and the avedon exhibit

yesterday i went to the opening of todd hido's new show: a road divided. the show was beautiful and it was great to say hi to todd again. he is so ridiculously talented, i just can't get enough of his work. if someday the sky dropped down a big load of money on my head and there was extra left over after helping my family and doing good things etc., i'd go straight out to buy a hido print... or ten. here's a gorgeous image from the show:

image copyright todd hido

if you haven't been to 49 geary lately, take a peek. this exhibit is phenomenal as is the current avedon exhibit at the franekel gallery. a worthy way to spend an hour or two of your afternoon.

a myriad of things

i've been MIBA (missing in blogging action) for about week or so... let me attempt to catch up:

the end of my la trip was great. after my last meeting with C magazine on wednesday i did a great shoot on thursday. it was very up in the air until about 1hr before the girl (jessica) arrived, but once she was there it was smooth sailing. we went very low profile - no stylist or hair/makeup. jessica was delightful and gorgeous, having her au natural was excellent. (see below for a blog post devoted solely to jessica)

on friday i hung out with chloe for the day and had her take some portraits of me. they're not back from my retoucher yet (she shot polaroids, they're being scanned) so i can't show them, but they may be the only photos of myself i dare show other people. bravo chloe. that night we went to see my friend damon castillo and his band play at hotel cafe. they just released an album and the show was a ton of fun. i flew home that saturday and crashed out on sunday.

since then, life post-la has been all about catching up. last week i worked on jessica's images, did other administrative stuff and worked two days with one of my favorite photogs from nyc, michael moran. we were photographing the new east asian library designed by tod williams and billie tsien. i worked with michael on this building when he was in town shooting it in the spring so it was nice to be back there at it again. michael is just lovely and he's fun and mellow to work with. i'm looking forward to when he's in town again.

the big news for me is that this past monday i did a wonderful shoot with my new favorite crew. i worked with deborah dapolito from artist untied and cheryl dailey on makeup. my wonderful assistant was meigan canfield. we worked with a spectacular girl from ford named nichole. the shoot was fantastic. i'm currently pitching it to a rad magazine in nyc who shall remain unnamed until i hear back about whether or not they'll run it. i've been hustling all week working nearly around the clock to get the images turned around and they just went out in the pitch tonight. i have my fingers crossed.

this weekend is a baby shower and working on getting my new polaroid project onto the website. i also have to work on my next POI for my AD club meeting which is coming up shortly. charles gave me a cocktail umbrella for this round... i'm still scratching my head about how to use it as inspiration. stay tuned!

my image is in the APA holiday show

i just found out that i won third place in this year's APA something personal show! pretty exciting, huh?


last year i got two images into the show but neither of them placed. this year i only have one image in the show but i'm very excited that it won!

the show opening is also the apa holiday party. invitations are here. it's a really good time, come see the show and celebrate the season!

canon engineers rock

the guys over at canon must know me too well. i just read this post which describes how the new canon 5d mark II can read up to 6 battery's info including serial number, shots taken since last charge, battery life remaining and more. now i'll never get stuck on set with a dead battery even if it was fully charged. how cool is that?

rearranging furniture

today was my shoot. it was excellent, and i mean really excellent. jessica (the model) had angelic hair and skin and was a blast to work with. chloe and i spent the afternoon rearranging/moving/pushing most of the furniture in the house (ok, it's pretty sparse, there's pretty much only a couch and a rolling kitchen shelf and a bed in the whole place) i couldn't be happier with how the afternoon came together. stay tuned on my website to see the images when i get them up!

the good, the bad, and the gaff-taped glasses

today is wednesday, i flew into lax monday morning. my first three days here have been both awesome and terrifically frustrating at the same time. traveling is a lesson in patience, flexiblity and plain ol hard work.

before leaving on this trip i did major research on everyone i wanted to contact and spent multiple days making cold calls and sending cold emails. i didn't get nearly as many bites as in NYC in april (15 meetings in 5 days!), but my meetings here have been rockin' so far.

monday:

my laptop died in the middle of the night 3hrs before i was supposed to leave for the airport after just having it majorly overhauled at the apple store last week. i tried to fix it, wasn't able to, slept for 2hrs before leaving for the airport and thus relinquished myself to spending my monday evening at the apple store in century city instead of at a dinner with a friend. (apple was only able to tell me that the part they replaced last week needs to be replaced again. ugh.)

when i landed i grabbed the rental car, napped for 25min and then headed to my first appointment at m&c saatchi - i arrived without hitting any traffic on the 405 or the 10 (shocking!) and my meeting went really well! there are some pretty genius people over there and they couldn't be nicer!

meeting number 2 was at fit pregnancy in woodland hills. i was lucky to get out of the m&c meeting early enough to avoid traffic from santa monica to woodland hills. again, arrived early and was able to have a calm and productive meeting. the photo editor is a delightful woman who is quite the talent herself. i got good feedback on my book and hopefully we'll be able to work on a story sometime soon.

once i left fit pregnancy, i got to the apple store 2hrs earlier than my appointment. unfortunatly they couldn't see me early so i wandered around killing time until the apt. once that was over (another ungodly 90min at the apple store, 4th time in 10 days) i met my friend for a late dinner at an awesome vegan place called m cafe. other than the apple fiasco and only 2hrs of sleep, a good day ending in a wonderful catching-up-with-an-old-friend dinner. i went to sleep happy.

tuesday:

i hit the gym in the morning, shot a few 600 polaroids for the new project and then headed off to my meetings. meeting numero uno was at 72 and sunny. they do awesome work over there and they have a beautiful new office. the meeting was quick and good, no complaints.

from there i went over to tbwa\chiat\day which was nearby enough that i had time to do some great polaroid 600 shooting before the meeting started. my meeting couldn't have gone better. the whole staff saw my book and if i'm not mistaken, some of them really liked my work. on top of that i got a tour of the building which is totally unreal: it was apparently modeled after a city - there is an actual park with trees, tables, benches and real crickets and also in the building a full-size basketball court... ridiculously cool. the only crazy part of this meeting was my glasses actually snapping in half right in the middle of someone looking over my book and having them fall off my face. driving for the rest of the week will be difficult, helloooo superglue and gaff tape...

meeting numero tres was with the owner of photocrew.com at susina bakery. we had a good long talk about all things photo and i feel good about future collaborations together. now i just need to get my butt on finalizing my photocrew profile.

today (wednesday):

again, gym in the morning and then one really great meeting at C magazine. the photo editor was just wonderful and i thought we really understood each other. i'm hoping that she hires me on something soon since C is a great book with a elegant clean look.

the rest of my afternoon was prepping my shoot for tomorrow. other than being annoyed that i got totally scammed on paying for parking at the grove, i'm very excited about the shoot. stay tuned for how it turns out.

lastly chloe and i had dinner with a friend from chiat. great food at father's office and super yummy sweet potato fries. fun conversation and a few more polaroids taken over dinner. i can't get enough of this 600 film! i'm looking forward to staying in touch with my new friend and *fingerscrossed* getting in at chiat sometime before i'm 40.

now it's 1am and i'm hitting the hay. can't wait for the shoot tomorrow!

our legal rights

ever think of taking a photo outside somewhere but stopped because you thought it might be illegal? i have.

now i've read this (which is thankfully clear and concise) and i have a much better understanding of my legal rights and boundaries.

woah.

this is amazingly cool. a medium format sensor in a 35mm body. look out canon, leica is back.

debate + skull + polaroid = cool double exposures

so if you haven't read back a few entries, let me start with a brief explanation that the skull referenced herein was given to me as a piece of inspiration (i.e. shooting homework) by my crit group. i have been strugling with it since. and no, i'm not a morbid skull lover, in fact it creeps me out even though i know it's made of resin.

this week watching the VP debates I started photographing the tv screen with my iphone. i then started doing the same thing with medium polaroid. i ended up trying double exposures with sarah palin and the skull. they're not technically amazing but i'm pleased to have finally made some headway with my skull project and to have incorporated the admitedly scary skull with a new photographic technique that i've never really played with. it's the best of both worlds: stretching myself in both technique and concept. more shooting with mr. skull to come, perhaps i'll have something even better for the crit group on tuesday.

the skull and i

we're becoming fast friends, mr. skull and i. he now lives *on* my desk instead of next to it, again in hopes that inspiration strikes me (and soon!) i'd say "speak to me, mr. skull" but i'd rather you didn't... just shoot some ideas my way, eh?

photographer of the day: chloe aftel

today it's chloe aftel. she's awesome and has a gentle feminine eye. she just sent me a new image (below) which i'm in love with. chloe just keeps getting better - every time i turn around she's producing work that continues to become more intimate and ephemeral. here are my faves (a classic on top and the new one on the bottom)

both images copyright chloe aftel

photographer of the day: kaylynn deveney

kaylynn deveney's book "the day to day life of albert hastings" is a touching and simple account of the last years of albert hasting's life. albert, in his 90s, was kaylynns neighbor and the two became good friends over the course of the project. kaylynn's work is always quiet, intimate and very personal. here are two of my favorite images of hers

both copyright kaylynn deveney

photographers of the day: ryan mcginley and serge leblon

i'm starting a new part of my blog today: the regular highlighting and discussion of wonderful photographers. for lack of a more genius title i'll be calling this "photographer of the day" even though there may be multiple entries on one day or none at all for a while. there are so many great artists out there i may include some non-photographers. really i just like to share great art.

#1: i recently found ryan mcginley's work and it is really beautiful. he shoots with luminosity, grace and naivete while retaining a lot of fun and hint of the brashness that accompanies a wild teenager. one favorite photo of his is this one of kate moss

copyright ryan mcginley

#2: my second POTD is serge leblon. he is totally spectacular. i love his intuitive sense of voyeurism and his ability to make you feel like you caught someone mid sentence (or mid crisis? or mid silence?) here is a blog posting with a lot more of his images. one of my favorites from the blog. my all time fave of his is nowhere to be found but this one is equally beautiful

copyright serge leblon

my crit group (and the skull)

three of my amigos (rob, sonya and charles) and i started a crit group. we meet once every 4-6wks and do three things:

1. show general new work
2. trade a piece of inspiration (poi) with someone else
3. show the new work based on last month's piece of inspiration

this past month was our first meeting. we had it at wonderful farleys and it was great. we showed new and old work, caught up about our photo lives and at the end we traded our poi's (ie our homework to each other.) sonya and i brought tears from magazines, charles brought an awesome huge paintbrush that looked like it was 30yrs old, and rob accidentally forgot his but would bring it to whoever was his trade. as the cards fell, sonya took my poi, charles took sonya's, rob took the brush and i put myself in rob's trust for his future poi. the next week he dropped this off:


ack! a skull! it had been a long day and i actually wasn't sure if it was real (no, it's resin). i've been racking my brains for what a skull could inspire me to shoot. here are my ideas so far:
- the actual skull as a still life
- the skull somewhere on location with me
- something that represents death, or someone somehow posed in a way that is related to death/rebirth
- someone sleeping ("the long sleep?"
- someone lying down
- a haunted, empty person

i had a shoot yesterday and tried photographing the girl lying down. that's checked off my list so far as a no-go. it looked pretty bad and i felt uninspired.

so mr. skull sits on my window sill next to my desk and i look at him every day in hopes that i come up with something genius to shoot either of him or inspired by him. for the first week i was kinda freaked out by having a skull sit next to me all the time, but now i've started calling him mr. skull in hopes that a friendly familiarity with my skull engenders a creative spark instead of blatant discomfort. i'll keep you updated.

mr. skull, speak to me.

days with my father

phillip toledano is one of my favorite photographers. he has creativity coming out of his ears. i regularly peruse his website and i just came across his spectacular new project about his father. these images are exquisite and heartbreakingly human. the accompanying text only heightens my experience of the project. for the last two days i've kept it open in a tab in my browser so i can keep looking at it over and over.

george clooney, move over

there's a new heartthrob in my life. oh canon, thank you for finally releasing my new love, the updated and totally rockin 5D mark II. i will soon be plunking down a big wad of cash to procure one for myself. mmm.

IPA honorable mentions

i just found out that these two images won 4 honorable mentions in the prestigious international photo awards!

jill greenberg + john mccain = political statement

(image copyright jill greenberg)

dear jill,

bravo on sticking your neck out there to make a political statement with your photography. most of us wouldn't have the cojones to do it. i know i wouldn't. of course there will probably be a brutal backlash, and some will say you went too far, but at the end of the day, political expression is one of the fundamental uses of art. sure, it's over the top, a bit disconcerting, and possibly not the best career move, but someone had to do it and you did it expertly. if your regular work didn't make people remember you, this certainly will (and that's half the game anway). maybe we should start calling you michael moore.

gobama.

cheers,

lisa

city of sun here i come

my la dates are confirmed. i'll be there from october 20-25. i'm planning to spend the week having meetings, showing my book and shooting. i'll be collaborating a lot with chloe and other photographer friends when i'm there. i'm really looking forward to doing some personal shooting in a fresh city. i'm in the process of lining up a great crew and wonderful models. it will be good to push my boundaries to produce new beautiful images.

GQ options my Wired story

my wired story (scroll down, it's in the middle of the article) was optioned this week for 2 international syndications of GQ. now only if i could get my hands on copies of those issues...

the new project

friday was a good day. i finally got my new polaroid 690 camera from the repair shop in los angeles and tried it out! and yes i know, it's a completely vintage camera but it's yummy and new to me! i took my very first polaroids with the sexy 600 film i procured.

yay! the new project on real polaroid film has officially started. stay tuned for updates because i'll announce the name and focus of the project as it flushes out. until then, just be excited for my having started it and loving the first few images!

in the meantime, check out my current "new polaroid" project

i may need a second fridge

the second fridge is up for debate in my house due to my expanding amount of polaroid and film... i'm practicing my tetris-ing skills on the current kitchen fridge to see if i can make all the film fit in the back without edging out the food :)

my alternate career

my extremely talented amiga-in-crime took this spectacular photo... i'm just the lucky one who got to model for her for a moment :)

i'm your dslr, no wait, i'm your camcorder... no wait, i'm both!

wowzers! live view AND motion recording in a dlsr! and only for $1k?! thus far, live view has only been available on "professional" cameras but nikon may have edged their way back into the canon-rocks-my-world-who-cares-about-any-other-dslr-brand market with this slick puppy. the D90 (which has 15 megapixels, live view and the ability to record video) will clearly reinvigorate nikon's hummnua-hummuna factor.

stalking the wild polaroid 600

there's something about stalking film/polaroid on craigslist and ebay that makes me feel like i've just come off the hunt. my full bag of film feels so much more valuable and sexy having won it off ebay it or beaten the who-emailed-first-on-craigslist race than had i paid full price at just film or calumet. the prize has never been so sweet.

my images seem blurry

which is not really true, they're acutally quite in focus. they apparently just look fuzzy to me because i've shot enough days in a row now that my retinas are fatigued. i admit though, i did have a mini heart attack when i got home the other day, looked at the images and thought that i somehow mis-focused three jobs in a row. now i just have to convince myself to hold off on editing until my eyes are less tired.

i smell like perfume...

i'm not sure i've ever smelled quite as much perfume as i did tonight. seriously. tonight i was shooting a cologne product job which consisted of 9000 samples, all being sprayed everywhere, at the same time, for two hours. fresh air please?

starting the weekend

it's the start of the weekend for me:
friday: meeting in napa with art director
friday night: pick up gear, shoot for agency in chicago
saturday morning: shoot for a company's website
sunday: process/deliver above files
monday: shoot in berkeley for sf organization, return gear
tuesday: recover

when it rains...

...it pours. thank goodness.

it's been pretty slow lately but as soon as my friend asked why i wasn't busy i got 7 calls in 3 days! and i mean literally 8hrs after she popped the question the calls started rolling in.

if this is the outcome of being asked why i'm not slammed, then maybe i should pay someone to ask me that question regularly and write it off as marketing. food for thought.

i'm wired

well, not exactly caffeinated-wired per se, but i am IN wired this month (sept). check out the article about the red digital camera... my two images are on p. 133. what a sexy article to be part of; i love when that happens.

polaroid haiku

you go away from me so
fast, and so precious
now i pay big bucks. ebay.

oh so close!

polaroid introduces a teeny weeny 2x3in printer essentially the size of an iphone. it doesn't use ink, prints wirelessly, and the photos have sticky back like post-it notes. sounds awesome huh? yes, and i'm sure it IS awesome, but because apple doesn't disclose it's print profiles the iphone is not supported. at all. ever. well technically not ever, i mean, if apple decides to release its irongrip on iphone technology and share a little bit, then the pogo will be able to print from the iphone. come on apple, play nice.

sorry world. i'm not quite as cool.

...and upon actually reading accounts of photographers who are trying to do exactly what i was lusting after (find their own images to determine infringement) i have concluded that this WILL be really really cool one day when tineye can search more than a tiny percentage of the images on the web. so far all of my searches have turned up zero results, even for common images that don't belong to me. hopefully this technology catches on and some wealthy corporation decides to throw gobs of money at them and they get big and functional by next week... or next year. that'd be soon enough for me.

hello world. i'm cool.

hello world. my name is tineye. i'm cool. you should check me out.

finally! the tech industry has caught on and we officially have a functional online visual search engine! i'm way too excited about the realistic possibility of figuring out who sees/saves/posts my images and if/when they're being infringed upon.

now only if the u.s. copyright office could snag technology like this.

come hang out with me

i finally got my heiny in gear and started a blog. let's see if i can be sufficiently self-interested to update it regularly. stay tuned.