This Image Retrospective comes from a photo shoot I did in the summer of 2006 of some good friends and band Telfaire. These guys are super talented and it’s been a pleasure to know them over the years. We were able to get access to the under construction and now completed Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento and we had a blast. This place used to be an old office building, built in 1926,  and it hadn’t been touched since the late 70’s. Opening the door to some of these offices was like walking into a time capsule. Papers, phones, and pens all still in their original spot. It looked like every one evacuated on the same day and nothing had been touch since then.

Came across these images recently and thought I would share them. I really like doing this kind of work every now an then.

I’ve been on a lot of adventures in life, but nothing has been as exciting as brining a life into this world. Our sweet Norah was born on October 13th, on the eve of two weeks overdue. Lindsey needed to be induced on Tuesday morning and ended up going into labor late Monday night – and 8 hours later she was out. Lindsey delivered our 7.8 lb, 21 inch, gorgeous daughter naturally; Lindsey was absolutely amazing.

As you can imagine, there will be more photos coming!

Trying to land in Sudan during the rainy season probably isn’t the best idea, but what else are you going to do. A year before this, I couldn’t get a fight into the country because all the landing strips in the region I needed to get to, were flooded or just too muddy to land and ended up having to drive in. 

This weeks Image Retrospective comes from Sudan, shot just before I landed a remote landing strip. It took quite a bit of extra time by the pilot trying to find a suitable landing strip. As you can tell from the photo, a pretty gnarly storm system was moving through the area and most of strips were flooded, all the while getting farther and farther away from my planned rendezvous point with my contact. As the pilot kept ascending and descending to look at different landing spots, I kept referencing his moves with my map; even if we could land, catching up with my friend on the ground was still in question. 

I personally like this image, just because it brings me back to the moment and I can remember all the logistics running through my head. The pilot told me he had to leave as soon as he landed because of the strong cross winds picking up as well as another column of water, like the one in the image, just behind us. He was also the same pilot who would be picking me up a week later, but at a different landing strip, which one? where? what if it’s raining then? what if it’s raining for the next month? Normally, I would be ok riding out whatever came to be, but I had an assignment back in the States, soon after this trip. So my calendar didn’t account for rainy season unpredictability. 

In the end, the landing was smooth, I caught up with my friend on the ground, I completed my Sudan assignment, and I made it back to the States just in time for the other. 

Nikon D2x - Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8

1. Humility is paramount to growth – No matter how good you think you are, you always have a tremendous amount of room to grow. More than in most professions, mentorship can be immensely valuable, but having a know-it-all attitude will not get you anywhere, especially as a freelancer. Mentorship has been the single biggest growth factor for my photography and approach and success in the overall industry. I’ll never forget sitting down at the New York Times offices and going through a recent assignment of work with a mentor of mine. Having someone with experience articulate your own work will help you see your work in a whole new light. You will start to see your strengths and your weaknesses in a new way, maybe even for the first time. For me, mentors told me things that I needed to hear; things that your closest loves ones will never tell you. Mentors have also been able to open doors I never thought possible. For established photogs or editors, it’s simply a phone call or email away to get your foot in the door of a magazine or news agency.

2. Equipment only gets you so far – Most working professionals don’t dwell on gear. What’s funny (a lot of times not) is that hobbyist spend more time focusing on gear and talking about it, than becoming a better photographer. The thing is hobbyist have day jobs and having the latest equipment is more of a fun luxury rather than a cost of doing business. Most professionals are too busy on assignment to keep up on the latest and greatest in the market. Most pro’s can take good photos with pretty much anything. So just a quick word of advice, pro’s hate talking gear with hobbyist, or any one for that matter. Odds are, you know more than they do.

My usual travel set-up

3. Your work will not sell itself – In today’s market, learning how to sell your work is just as important as how to create it. Research shows that it takes 6-8 times for an editor to see your work and correlate it to your name. How often are you hitting the pavement, the phone, and sending emails – don’t hope that some editor is going to call you out of the blue and offer you an assignment because they saw a photo of yours somewhere. You need to be strategic about being strategic. Set goals. Get a mentor. Put in the necessary time and expect way more rejection than support – it’s part of the game.

Hitting the street

4. Experience is key to getting your foot in the door – The point is, get out there and just do it. A friend of mine was a recent J school graduate and didn’t have any real world experience. His solution; he did his homework, saw potential in going to Kenya 2 months before the elections, started writing for local Kenyan papers, next thing he knew he was writing daily for Reuters getting published around the globe. After that experience, he was able to come back to the states and get his foot in the door with editors because of his experience. It gave him a certain ‘field credibility’ that most 23 year-olds rarely have. The older you get, the more field credibility becomes expected. So do it while you’re especially young with nothing tying you down.

Getting experience - Darfur Refugee Camp

5. You don’t have to travel to far away places to take good photos – Subject matter is everything, but exotic isn’t what it used to be. With photographers in every corner of the globe, work in exotic locals are being uploaded all the time. Which means quality storytelling should be your biggest focus, even if it is in your own backyard.

In my own backyard

6. Mistakes are inevitable – Botched interviews, problems on assignment, being naïve, you name it, mistakes are inevitable and we all make them. Recently, I missed an assignment for the NY Times because I didn’t realize my phone was off – I got passed up on a good opportunity. The key to mistakes is learning from them.

Sleeping on the job - Central African Republic

Today, my story on Yemen’s many escalating problems publishes in the World Policy Journal. It’s an intimate look into the barrage of issues that plague the nation that perhaps the biggest imports last year were refugee’s and extremists.

Yemen may not yet be front-page news, but it’s a being watched intensely these days in capitals worldwide. A perfect storm of state failure is now brewing there: disappearing oil and water reserves; a mob of migrants with al Qaeda ties, refugee’s flooding in from Somalia, the, the failed state next door; and a weak government increasingly unable to keep things running. Many worry Yemen is the next Afghanistan; a global problem wrapped in a failed state.

Click here to see the article

I came across this blog posting and have wanted to share it for some time; it has always made me laugh - it’s a good one. 

Editorial photographers used to jump from one story to another. News was news — whether sports, conflict, celebrity or natural disaster. A photojournalist would shoot a head of state one hour and a celebrity the next. And he or she would do so with the same talent, the same intense dedication to quality.

Today, many photographers prefer to categorize themselves in self-assigned niches. News photographers hardly talk to sports photographers anymore. Everybody has their group, association, blogs, and forums.

Photography has its social classes, almost like a feudal society. It has its kings and knights, its jesters and courtesans, and of course, the peasants.

So where do you rank on the totem pole of photo-snobbery? Here’s a quick take, starting with the photographers most respected (by snobs) –

1. Conflict Photographer. The bigger the scarf around the neck, the more important you are. It’s like a medal of honor. Conflict photographers are treated as heroes, regardless of the quality of their images. It is not so much what they bring back that matters, but what they go through to get it. They even earn more credentials if, heaven forbid, they are wounded or killed. The path to legendary status is then almost a given.

2. Fine Art Photographer. If your works seems to carry a hidden message that no one understands, or is “disturbing,” or both — you’re in. The more academic titles you have, and the more awards (even unknown awards) you’ve received, the higher your ranking on the totem pole. Books, exhibits, and speaking engagements are a plus.


3. Documentary Photographer. Even one photo story on dying children in Africa goes a long way. It’s even better if you use multimedia. A crappy documentary photographer is 20 times more respected than the best red carpet photographer.


4. Magazine Cover Photographer. It doesn’t matter that the end product is highly retouched by on computer. Magazine cover photographers often enjoy privileged celebrity status; it helps to be a great schmoozer. Being a good photographer is irrelevant. It’s all about who you know.


5. Corporate Photographer. We’re heading down the totem pole now — but taking pictures of CEOs and lawyers still brings respectability. The longer you do it, the more respected you’re likely to be. Not for your talent, but for the mere fact that you have been around for so long.


6.  Commercial Stock Shooter. The higher the nose is pointing, the more important the photographer.


7. Sports Photographer. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.


8. Wedding Photographer. So plebeian.


9. Celebrity Photographer. If you are a photographer with a lot of talent shooting every day because people hire you all the time, then you are a “peasant,” a laborer. Especially if you work in the celebrity field. Although everyone will tell you that celebrity photography is what sells these days, it is considered by photo snobs a sub art form, a dirty job, like cleaning the sewers. Celebrity photographers are completely ignored at photo festivals, trade shows, photo museums and even workshops. They are like a family member you keep locked in the basement.


10. Paparazzi Photographer. The scum of the earth, right? How dare they take pictures of people without their approval! Of course, documentary photographers also invade privacy, don’t they? But I guess that’s OK because it’s in Africa or Afghanistan and not Hollywood.


11. Amateurs and Microstock Shooters. How dare they even make this list!


As a reminder, where you rank on this list has little or nothing to do with talent. After all, the “best” photographers these days don’t take pictures anymore and have assistants doing it for them. No one seems to mind.

I’m presenting at an event this Friday and was asked to show a brief overview of some of my recent work. So, I thought I would show it here as well. 

Enjoy

Every year I try to do at least one backpacking trip with my dad and brother and every time I want to go to the Eastern Sierra Nevada, CA. We decided to go to the Palisade region of the central Sierra in the John Muir Wilderness. This particular wilderness  is the largest contiguous wilderness above 10,000 ft. in the lower 48. In it also is the Palisade Glacier which is the largest in the state and the lowest in the hemisphere. We came to this area a few years ago in late fall, but got a few feet of snow dumped on us and made getting up to the glacier pretty tough.

Several people have seen these photos and can’t believe the color of the lake. I can assure you, this color is accurate. If you ever have a chance to go to to the Canadian Rockies, you will understand. The lake gets it color from the glacier and the moraine that it carves out as it moves. As you can imagine, the water is crazy cold too.