Subways into the sea form artificial reefs, by Stephen Mallon.

The Endeavor launch from an airplane, by Stefanie Gordon.

- Denver Post

(see more images, here.)

Here is J Crew’s April cover, along with a selection of zexy boy photogs. They are all on on the internets too, but I can’t find you, Michael.

Dear J Crew, are lady photographers next? We can carry tape and “film cameras” too.

http://www.chriscragoe.com/

Do I spy an X-Rite Color Checker?

http://kenisyourfriend.com/

Dude, I can't find your website. There's some other guy with your name crowding google??

http://www.markchampion.com/photography/main.html

http://stasmayphotography.com/

We love lady in red.

Hi Lincoln! It’s been a while since we checked in with you. Tell us what you’ve been up to.

Well, I’m happy to report that I survived the Great Recession and actually had a slightly above average year in 2010. It was a little scary there for a while, but things seem to be on the ups. If it weren’t for my local client base, I would have totally gone out of business. So, I’m really grateful I’ve built that core group of clients and I treat them like gold.

Now that things are picking up, I’m focusing my career towards my three favorite subjects: Food, Home/Interiors, and Lifestyle. There’s an inherent connection between them in that life at home often revolves around cooking tasty meals. It’s my trifecta for a happy times. I feel my style and approach to photography is really suited for this kind of work. I’m a very easy going person, love creature comforts, but I’m also a camera nerd. I shoot as natural as possible, but I’m also very technical when I’m behind the camera. I mix available light with Profoto strobes, Arri hot lights, Photoflex LiteDiscs, foam core, etc.. And when I shoot, I create conditions that allow for real life moments to happen and capture them as they do.

Also my biggest 2011 resolution was to be more diligent on my marketing. I’ve been blogging since 2007 and I’m on Facebook and Twitter, but the email/print promos I’ve always done sporadically. This year I have a plan: email blast once a month, follow up with a hand addressed print piece to buyers who clicked through, follow that up with a personal email, and then do a big mass print mailer twice a year. I’m going to then set up portfolio trips to NYC, LA, San Francisco, and Chicago throughout the year. I’m advertising on Wonderful Machine, FoundFolios, Dripbook, and Google. I also have portfolios on ASMP, EP, and APA. It’s a lot to manage and I would say about half my time is dedicated to it.

I hear you’re starting to shoot some food photography… tell me how you got interested in that, and what the process/learning curve has been.

Two years ago, the then Creative Director of Portland Monthly (Hector Sanchez) gave me a feature assignment to shoot the Best Breakfast of Portland. He had a philosophy to give photographers assignments that were outside their comfort zones. I had never shot food seriously, but I’ve shot a lot of architecture and landscapes. I basically took the same approach to the assignment and ended up creating images I was really in love with. It was like seeing what I like about photography for the first time in my own voice. It was exciting and I wanted to do more of it. The problem is I had no clients in need of food photography. So, for the past two years I’ve been slowly building up a solid food portfolio and now that it’s ready, I’m pushing it really hard.

What was your favorite shot from last year?

This one. I shot it for Willamette Week’s 2010 Restaurant Guide to Portland. Art Directed by Carolyn Richardson, she saw my food and lifestyle work and had a vision for this shot. It was a really small budget shoot, but all the elements came together. Cool people, beautiful food, a great environment. If there’s one shot that describes what I am as a photographer, this is it.

How awesome is this??

Can you share with us the process of making a photo? Perhaps choose an interesting shot and walk us through its inception to the final product.

The process is a little different for every shoot and very different if I’m shooting food, interiors, or lifestyle. So, I’ll run you through a general scenario. First step is to define what I’m shooting and how I’m going to shoot it. Is it on location or studio? Are there people in the shot? What kind of approach are we going to take and how many shots can we do in the time we have? After the details are squared away, it’s time for the shoot.

On an average sized production, I’ll bring all my gear which includes Canon 5D Mark II with primes, tilt-shifts, macros, and a pair of zooms; a pair of tripods; 4 Profoto Compact 600 Monolights, 4 Arri 650 Watt Tungsten Lights, 6 Arri 150 Watt Tungsten Lights, a dozen oval Photoflex LightDisc in either Translucent, White/Silver, or White/Soft Gold, a big case of grip, and about 20 light stands. I also bring a MacBook Pro and shoot tethered whenever possible.

When we arrive to set/location, my assistant will unload and set up the camera, laptop, and a couple lights to get us started. I compose the shot in my head first, then I’ll get the camera and put it on tripod to find the shot I saw in my head. I then do Live View to show the client where we’re at. After refining the shot, I start to light it. I see what we have working for us available light and then start adding strobes for fill and/or to create shape. My go to technique to bounce a strobe into a wall or reflector that is between 45° and 90° from the camera. I taught a class on architecture last year and have a PDF about some of these techniques here.

While we shoot, the client will sign off on the shots he/she sees on the laptop. At the end of the day we do a quick review and make sure everyone’s happy. Then we pack up neatly and restore the location to what it was before we showed up. When I get back to my office, I download and process everything in Lightroom. I then show proofs and deliver finals through my Photoshelter account. It’s hella fast.

Which other photographers are making work you’re excited about right now?

I’m part of collective of photographers called PhotoForce and I’m really excited by the work everyone in the group does. Besides me, it’s Daniel Root, Brian Lee, Steven Scardina, and Stuart Mullenberg. We all have our specialties and we collaborate on pro bono and for-profit projects throughout the year. On our site right now is a project we all shot for the Oregon Food Bank. We just finished up a project for Big Brothers / Big Sisters and will get more images up there soon. PhotoForce is still in its infancy, but I’m really excited to be a part of it. All the photographers are incredibly talented and by committing to working together, reviewing each others’ work, we create a great support network that all pushes us forward and upwards. I highly recommend it for anyone struggling on their own.

photo by Daniel Root

See more from Lincoln Barbour!

Have a look.

Kabul:

United Arab Emirates:

Western Front:

See much more from Lauren Lancaster.

UPDATE: as our commenter so aptly put it:

Doh, it’s the last launch of the Discovery orbiter. There are still  two flights left for Endeavour and Atlantis.

The divers were shot with Profoto packs.

Here’s how he did it:

Below are photos that I did for Interview Magazine on Olympic divers. They were done on an RZ with four 2400w/s Profoto packs, which is what you need if you want to nuke out the Florida sun. These are beautiful photos, some of my all time favorites, but with the shutter synch at 1/400th, there is a tiny bit of edge blur in them.

We are constantly doing these sort of light experiments. 9 out of 10 will never get used in work that I show, but if I don’t do the 10, I won’t discover the 1. But the point isn’t even the discovering, it is searching. If one is not always searching, one is not creating, and that, my friends, is why I got into this in the first place.

The skaters were shot with Speedlights.

Here’s how he did it:

I was recently introduced to a new way of doing high speed flash synch. By using a Canon 580EXII with an ST-E2 infrared transmitter, I as able to synch at 1/1000th of a second. The fastest I have ever previously used had been 1/750, and that was on a medium format leaf shutter camera, like an H series Hasselblad. If one is working in studio, then all the light is coming from the flash unit, so by using a pack like one of the new Pro8 packs with very short flash duration, any motion can be perfectly frozen. However, working out doors when using flash mixed with daylight, there is the added component of the ambient light. Even if I am using a high speed pack, there is a limit at what the camera will synch at, and there will sometimes be a bit of ghosting around the figure.

The light tests below were done with a Canon 580EXII, and on the top 2 shots, an infrared transmitter. The camera was a Canon 1DSIII, set at ASA 400. On the top 2 shots, the speedlight is on a monopod being held by my assistant about 6 ft from the skater, with me about 100 ft back tracking on autofocus. The third shot is flash on camera with the lens prefocused. My skate buddy Byron is totally crispy frozen, which I find fascinating. The other thing I love is how totally low tech this was to do. Super simple plug and play.

There is something unique about the character of light from a speedlight, something about how the super short flash duration gets recorded that doesn’t look like anything else. Of course you are not going to be overpower sunlight with a 580EXII, no way.

Read more of David Harry Stewart’s blog.