RRRICO

Assisting

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:17:00 -0700

Recently, I’ve been scouring local and national magazines, awards annuals, CAPIC directories, and photography blogs looking for photographers to assist for in the future. Most of the photographers I’ve found are based in Toronto, a few in Montreal, then there’s a pretty even spread of photographers from Calgary and Vancouver, and a couple in Edmonton. Now, my search has been focused on commercial and editorial photographers so I’m sure I could find a many more wedding and industrial shooters who are closer to home. I don’t want to be assisting for very long so I’d prefer to be more targeted in who I work for. Having said that, assisting for anyone would (likely) be more enjoyable than retail sales.

It seems like photographers who hire assistants look first to people they’ve worked with before, then to assistants recommended by other photographers they know, and then to those people on their contact list with no references or experience. Right now, I’m sitting pretty close to the bottom of most shooters’ lists to call for assisting. I need to not be at the bottom of that list. Jake Stangel recently wrote about how to get meetings with magazines, which is a great model of how to get in contact with most people in the photo industry. In addition to sniping key people with emails and phone calls, I think an over-the-top promo project could be in order. I like the idea of something portraying me as a “super assistant” or as one who works so hard and I think it would appeal to those people I’m trying to reach. Obviously this would have to be accompanied by actually working hard, but the fact that I’m putting together a promo for them should be some indication of my work ethic.

Reboot

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:53:42 -0700

This post is the one where I start something different; something more focused and more personal. The majority of the content is about my recent trip and how that motivated this change, but the info about what’s changing is all in the last paragraph.

At the end of October I flew to New York City for the PhotoPlus Expo and Conference. Before returning home I stopped in Toronto to see some studios, galleries, and just see the city. From the beginning I knew that this trip was somewhat of a starting point, being the first trip I have taken on my own and the first trip not taken for pleasure. My main purpose was to learn more about the creative and business aspects of photography, and to confirm that my vague plan of how to “make it” was possible.

Being my first time at an expo/conference and first time alone in another city, I had no idea what to expect other than that I’d be more outgoing than usual (which I wasn’t). Over the next few days I talked to and listened to some photographers I look up to, including Jay Maisel, Joe McNally, Andrew Hetherington, and James Pomeratnz. I also missed some things, like James Nachtwey and Greg Heisler speaking, some galleries, and museums. You’ll always miss something on a trip to NYC; an extra day or two in the city might have solved that, but I’m content with what I did get to see. What I did catch instilled excitement in me. Being able to see and hear about where I could be or what I could be doing in the future was absolutely inspiring.

This excitement was only amplified by my stop in Toronto. With no conference to attend, I had more time to see the city. I was able to go to the Flash Forward Emerging Photographers exhibit, step inside Edward Burtynsky’s Image Works, and walk over to his gallery showing of Oil. I also stopped in at Westside Studio, took a (short) tour, and talked with the studio manager, Jamie, who was very friendly and open to questions. I inquired about assisting for Westside and if someone like me (who doesn’t have photographic education, but does have knowledge and excitement about photography) could hope to support himself assisting in Toronto. This has been my plan to learn the trade as of recently and I was encouraged to hear that, with persistence and hard work, it can be done.

With some attainable goals in sight, I have a more firm idea of what and where I want to be. Now is the part when I make plans to reach those goals. I want to be assisting and learning from photographers at the top of their game in Toronto. I also want to take advantage of the great community that I already have access to in Edmonton. The key ingredient to both of those is to get up and go. Go talk with other photographers here, go shoot more often, go email people in Toronto. For the last year or so I’ve been sitting and staying, just reading blogs and magazines and not doing anything with that great deal of knowledge I’ve been ingesting. Now it’s time to do something, 2010 will be a productive year.

This time around I will write consistently about the things that inspire me and about experiences more directly relating to my photography. To do this I’ll have to be constantly doing things instead of watching movies and TV at home. Hopefully, this blog can chronicle my adventure, starting from scratch and eventually realizing my dream.

"For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be...."

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:18:23 -0700

“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit… start whenever you want… you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”

- Benjamin Button

The Ultimate Personality Test

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:27:09 -0700

via bullshit

It’s not strange to disagree about movies that are wildly different, and there are surely a few random movies that are very polarizing. What I find most interesting is which movie people consider the best movie from a particular director, as it is usually very telling and polarizing in a different way, so to this point I will propose a new personality test where you reblog your favorite movie from each of these directors:

Joel Coen: No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, etc

Wes Anderson: The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, etc

Hal Ashby: Being There, Shampoo, Harold and Maude, etc

Kevin Smith: Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Clerks, etc

Quentin Tarantino: Grindhouse, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, etc

kottke added:

Stanley Kubrick: 2001, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove, Lolita, etc.

P.T. Anderson: Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia.

Errol Morris: The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, Mr. Death, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Gates of Heaven, etc.

Since I have not seen any movies by 3 or 8, I added:

John Lasseter: Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bug’s Life, Cars

Ridley Scott: Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Matchstick Men, etc.

I chose: No Country, Royal Tenenbaums, Clerks, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, There Will Be Blood, Toy Story, Gladiator.

The Coens and Kubrick ones were probably the hardest to choose, likely because out of the ones I have seen, I have seen them very recently. Given some more time, I’m sure I may change, but who doesn’t?

2001: A Google Odyssey

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:11:38 -0600

2001: A Google Odyssey:

For Google’s tenth birthday, they dusted off the oldest available index (from 2001) and opened it up to the public.

At the time of launch, I doubt I was even aware of the internet, but if I remember correctly, my first experience with Google was somewhere around grade six or seven. I would have been about eleven years old, already have had my first hotmail address for three years, and would soon be starting to work with Adobe Photoshop 6.0

I hope I’ll be able to show this to my kids some day.

Recently, I have come across a buttload of new equipment, and...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:57:00 -0600

Recently, I have come across a buttload of new equipment, and this shot manages to include almost all of it. The new lens is a 24mm 1.4L, which is so nice, partly because up until now a 50mm was my only lens. I lit it with a new umbrella, which is huge, well built, and convertible (finally, a shoot though). Also, the new neutral density filter came in handy, letting me use the lens wide open while using flashes.

By no means is this a great photo — the background sucks and his face is out of focus — but I like how the light turned out. I tried the McNally method of skirting off the bottom of the umbrella, with another flash for a rim light. The light from the umbrella feathers off nicely, mostly just lighting his face.

To improve, I could definitely get out of the garage and find some interesting backdrops, work on focusing (maybe manual) with the ND filter, and use soft light for the rim light or at least get it up higher. But hey, it’s not bad for a set up and shoot within ten minutes.

New Stuff (on flickr)

Quite an inspiring commercial, for bread. While most other...

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:17:36 -0600

Quite an inspiring commercial, for bread. While most other companies insist on making boring and unfunny advertisements, Hovis steps up to the plate and blows them all away. (via Daring Fireball)

Epuron Ad - Investing in wind Energy (via iJamesFor3) Very...

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:03:31 -0600

Epuron Ad - Investing in wind Energy (via iJamesFor3)

Very creative ad, but it really makes more sense at the end.

This is MJ Peterman, he makes movies, start to finish, all own...

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:22:35 -0600

This is MJ Peterman, he makes movies, start to finish, all own his own (usually). My crystal ball tells me he’s gonna go somewhere with his talents.

: Strobist: 285HV camera left — you can see it :(

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:56:09 -0600

: Strobist: 285HV camera left — you can see it :(

(via bullshit)

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:26:49 -0600

(via bullshit)

: Quite possibly the start of a series of goofy shots with that...

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:27:59 -0600

: Quite possibly the start of a series of goofy shots with that helmet. Strobist: Bare 285HV camera right

But maaawwwm, the Teddy Grahams were just _calling_ to me. Besides, no one else called dibs.

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:02:31 -0600

But maaawwwm, the Teddy Grahams were just _calling_ to me. Besides, no one else called dibs.

43 Folders' Best of Summer 2008

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:44:44 -0600

43 Folders' Best of Summer 2008

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:25:54 -0600

Nikon D90 Sample Videos

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:27:09 -0600

Nikon D90 Sample Videos:

this is actually fairly impressive

Finding “secret” hot springs is much less extreme when the trails leading to them are...

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:49:50 -0600

Finding “secret” hot springs is much less extreme when the trails leading to them are semi-paved, and there are already people there.

I hope the people here aren’t as sucky, stinky, and snobby as I expect they will be.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:59:49 -0600

I hope the people here aren’t as sucky, stinky, and snobby as I expect they will be.

It’s all fun and games until someone brings your grandma.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:13:12 -0600

It’s all fun and games until someone brings *your grandma*.

I’m 8 years old again: played Force Unleashed demo this morning, saw One Man Trilogy this...

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:18:11 -0600

I’m 8 years old again: played Force Unleashed demo this morning, saw One Man Trilogy this afternoon, and now watching Empire Strikes Back.