(And send your pics in, too!)

Featuring the work of:

J. Wesley Brown
Amanda Friedman
Zack Herrera
Ryan Schude
RJ Shaughnessy
Tim Simmons

Here are some of Amanda’s images. Beautifully strange.

Catch the show on Saturday, April 16 at Edgar Varela Fine Arts.

Thanks, GH.

Andy McMillan has some great work, called PTL,about the parishioners who are still left behind twenty years after the fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Baker’s kingdom.

Greg Stimac’s Recoil is frightening and beautiful.

Gabriela Herman continues to rule the world with her photo projects, now getting great pick up on her Bloggers work. Look, that’s me!

And that’s the Scanwich guy, IN ACTION!

Jake Naughton has been making some beautiful work in Kenya, at a girls soccer academy.

Have a great weekend!

These are lovely and clever and completely non-cloying. Which as we know, is very hard to do with this topic. Bravo!

This picture was taken with a G10, which floors me. I have a G9 and it doesn't do that.

See more from Pierluigi Riccio,

Here is Ross’s account of one of his images (each week will bring a new story and photographer)…
I had an assignment to cover a historical reenactment in Norfolk. It was billed as an event with scores of people, but in reality, there were only three reenactors and few visitors. There wasn’t much to document as far as moments and the other two reenactors to me weren’t that striking visually.

But to me, this boy was. I thought he looked interesting, and that he could make for a striking portrait.

I pulled him off to the side and requested he stand in front of a white wall for a portrait. I started making portraits of him, taking dozens of pictures. After more than 5 minutes of making his portrait, I could tell he was becoming a little uncomfortable with the attention, so I stopped.

I didn’t like the picture, and thought there was possibly more to look for – so after 15 minutes, I went back to the boy and asked if he could stand again for me. He was a little nervous but he agreed. I made dozens of more pictures but I could tell he was tense and it showed in his facial structure.

You can see the tenseness in his jaw.

It’s a common in portraiture – people bear a lot of tension in their mouth area. It’s clearly visible here.

I kept trying to help him relax but everything I did wasn’t working. I felt at this point I was asking too much of
him to keep standing for a portrait, so we parted.

I shot other aspects of the re-enactment for more than 30 minutes, but I kept thinking of the boy. I hadn’t made an image that was reflective of his unique appearance. I also knew, however, if I asked him to stand one more time that he would be very tense. His father was there, and I thought perhaps having his dad around would make the child more relaxed.

I asked the father to stand behind me and then asked him to just talk with his son, to help him trust me, and
the process.

I noticed immediately that his jaw was more relaxed and his face seemed to open up. I began making pictures of the son and showing it to them. They both liked it and at that point everyone was much more loose. It became much easier to photograph him at this point.

I finally made this image which was the one we went with for the newspaper the next day – one of close to 300 images.

This image was made in broad daylight with no flash. It was a partly cloudy day and I took the image when the sun would go behind the clouds. I photographed him with a 85mm lens shot at 1.8 in front of a white brick wall. I also overexposed it some to give it a white-washed look, which helped wash out the texture of the bricks.
See more of Ross’s work. See more of The Image, Deconstructed.

Yeah, what did you do that was so productive during the blizzard? I found some old packets of saltines and went to town. Jamie Stuart made a movie that received critical acclaim from Roger Ebert. So I think he wins.

Here’s what Roger has to say, and some quotes from his correspondence with Stuart. Amazing this was all done in one day with a 7D:

This film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject.

(1) Because of its wonderful quality. (2) Because of its role as homage. It is directly inspired by Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent classic “Man With a Movie Camera.” (3) Because it represents an almost unbelievable technical proficiency. It was filmed during the New York blizzard of Dec. 26.

You can tell from the cinematography he knew exactly what he was doing and how to do it. He held the Vertov film in memory. Stuart must already been thinking of how he would do the edit and sound. Any professional will tell you the talent exhibited here is extraordinary.

I wrote Jamie Stuart asking how in the name of heaven he made that film. He e-mailed in return:

“The simple answer as to how it was done so quickly: practice.

Most of the work I’ve done for the past half dozen years has been improvised online press-related shorts, which by nature requires a fast turnaround. Before that, I used to storyboard all my work — so I had a strong sense of film language. The trick is to step into situations, often without a plan, and try to make it look like it was all planned. For instance, when I first started doing work for Filmmaker Magazine, I had just done my NYFF44 series, and Scott Macaulay asked if he could see the scripts I used for the episodes; I had to tell him there weren’t any.

Technically, for “Idiot with a Tripod,” I shot with my Canon 7D and edited it with Final Cut Pro. Early on, I was able to vary things a little more — I used macro diopters for the close-ups during the day shots, my portable slider for the dolly shots and also, a 75-300 zoom for the rooftop shots. I was more limited at night because of the weather conditions, so I stuck with my 24mm, 50mm and 85mm — all of which are manual Nikon lenses. Which meant that in the middle of that maelstrom I was changing lenses, wiping off the lenses and manually focusing/adjusting each shot.

The funny thing is, for the first part of the shoot I felt early uninspired and almost stopped. But I kept going. And it ultimately turned out really nice.

I started shooting around 1pm for about 30 minutes outside. Went out for another 15 minutes around 3pm. Meanwhile, I intermittently grabbed shots through my apartment window. (Lunch occurred around 2:30. Dinner was around 7:30. Can’t remember what I ate. Maybe pasta.) Then, the main nighttime shoot began at 9pm and lasted until about 10:30.

I wasn’t that cold — I was bundled, had a hat, gloves and scarf. The one stupid thing I did was to forget my snow boots and wore my Adidas, which, along with my pants, were soaked by the time I got in.

Because the 7D shoots H.264, which is a web format and not meant for editing, I made selects from the footage and converted the selects into ProRes 422. I started it that night, but it takes a while to do. Went to bed my normal time around 1:30 am. Got up my normal time around 10am. Finished converting the footage. Then, I edited until I finished around 5pm. (I took a regular lunch break at around 2:30 — chicken noodle and Saltines.)

The final shot, where the camera pulls back from the window, was done around 1pm. I uploaded the video just after 5pm, after I finished burning a Quicktime, and sent the link around. “

Here is the The Man with a Movie Camera, the original inspiration:

See Ebert’s full post here.

More about the work:

A poor beautiful woman is rescued by a wealthy prince. Before they can happily live together both protagonists have to go through many obstacles and deal with many evil people. The plot is known as the “Cinderella” story, and Telenovelas are the Latin American soap operas that endlessly apply this plot to a hugely successful form of entertainment.

Called The Factory of Dreams, no one produces more telenovelas than Mexican’s Televisa studios. Telenovelas and its protagonists are a powerful vehicle to understand contemporary Latin American culture and its society. Stefan’s photographs of the factory of dreams and the people working in it disclose this secret world to us with humor and affection. All Images are shot in the Televisa Studios, Mexico City.

This is René Casados, in character for the soap Corazones Al Limite (Hearts’Limit). He’s Mexican but he was ‘discovered’ by the producers in a café in Paris. He has worked his way up at Televisa to a position of influence. He has a lot of say in what happens there and his liking us meant we got a lot more access than we would have had otherwise. As well as acting, he also worked as an image consultant for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Mexico’s last president. He likes his cigars.

Televisa Studios, in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City, is called ‘The Factory of Dreams’ and is best known for its telenovelas – its soap operas. These fantasies of love, wealth and betrayal are one of Mexico’s largest exports, popular throughout Latin America but also in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. Former Televisa stars include Selma Hayek and Gael García Bernal. Rogelio Guerra who starred in Los Ricos También Lloran (The Rich Also Cry) – a show whose finale was watched by 70 percent of the population of Russia – once delivered the Russian New Year’s presidential address when Boris Yeltsin couldn’t make it.

All the images were shot 4×5 and hand-printed (real c-prints!), so they’re a treat to see in person. Check it out!

F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
646.239.8834

The show is curated by Caroll Taveras and Meagan Ziegler-Haynes.

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Somewhat related? The new cover of W Magazine. I just don’t know what to think…. I guess the point is that the picture looks like a Sears portrait?

I’m not convinced, Patrick.

Mr. Marley shoots a lot of action and athletes; his clients include Nike, Cadbury’s, and The Olympics (do the games count as a client? We’ll pretend they do).

Here we go!

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Tell me a little about your background. How did you start shooting?

Since I was a kid I always saw myself as becoming a photographer, so in about 1998 or so I ended up taking a college course in photography and later did a degree at Chelsea School of Art which was a great chance to learn more about different parts of being a photographer. I ended up shooting editorial and working full time from then really.

What’s your favorite/strongest body of work (or the work you feel most defines you)?

I absolutely Love shooting movement, whether it’s sports people, athletics or any moving things really! I think as a subject working with speed, form and action are the most exciting things and combined they can give you such exciting outcomes. As a subject it’s great because however much preparation you put into the shoot there’s always an element that you cannot plan for, especially with explosive energy, it’s this very thing that makes it so great to shoot.

Share some photos of yours that you particularly love.

The rebel runners shoot was probably my favorite project to work on and the still of Harry Aikines-Aryeetey the British Sprinter is probably my fave out of the shoot, it was such a nice project to be involved in because the client and I bounced some ideas around and we were very much on the same page with how we perceived running, which was great and there was quite a lot of room to take the idea in any direction too, so it was a lot of fun work on.

Whose work do you admire?

I think Nadav Kander’s portrait work is spot on, it is difficult to choose one photo but I’d say his photo of Stanley from Brixton is pretty cool, I especially like his color fields work too. As a whole I think his work has a style that is very much his own, you can recognize his portrait or landscape work and where both subjects are quite different he still manages to put his own stamp on them and you can tell his work. He manages to add that stamp to all of his subject matter, which speaks volumes of his work as a whole.

Nadav Kander, Stanley from Brixton

Nadav Kander, from Color Fields

Nadav Kander, from Color Fields

What’s next for you, in 2011 and beyond?

I plan to carry on shooting and working on new things and enjoy it!

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Thanks, Dom.

Read more about Profoto‘s Assistant Contest.

See more about Profoto’s Pro-8.

See more about Profoto!

The image is pretty neat.

Full coverage from The Daily Mail:

This is the moment when Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain found himself in the line of fire at the Ryder Cup – and for a brief moment brought the mighty Tiger Woods to a juddering halt. The American world No 1 was partnering Steve Stricker and attempting to chip his third shot on the final hole of yesterday morning’s fourball against Europe’s Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher on to the green.

But Woods hit the ground behind the ball and duffed the shot straight at Pain. The man from The Mail on Sunday didn’t flinch, however, and captured this extraordinary picture just before the ball hit his camera, bounced on to his chest and came to rest at his feet. Woods was furious about his blunder, but neither he nor caddie Steve Williams objected to Pain’s position.

The Americans accepted that the ball had hit the intrepid photographer only because Tiger’s effort, from rain-soaked rough, had been so badly struck. But it did enable Pain to pull off a much better shot than Woods had made – and nothing could stop Tiger and Stricker from completing a decisive victory over their European opponents.

* For camera buffs, Pain was using a Nikon D3S camera, with a 24-70 mm lens and a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second.

Here is our shutterbug pal, making a break for it.

And here are some notes I made, in case you missed that amazing Wes Anderson character actor in the corner.