Category: Video

Posted on

A Sunday Photo Talk Plus Extra!

In this Photo Talk Plus Extra, Lotus Carroll and I talk with photographers Billy Wilson, Olav Folland, Doug Kaye, Todd Green and Helen Sotiriadis.

In this discussion we talk about Olav’s aerial photography this week and his photos from a Cessna airplane of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We recap Lotus’ San Antonio photowalk yesterday and share photos from the walk.

We talk about a new Christmas based photography series Billy Wilson has started.

We talk about 10 photography based films for photographers to watch and review my personal Amazon.com wishlist for photography related items that I want for Christmas this year. 🙂

We also share the photos of Helen Sotiriadis and talk about some of those.

Todd Green joins us for his very first hangout ever and Doug Kaye stops in and updates on his movie plans tonight. 😉

Towards the end Mark Esguerra joins us, but too late as we already were over the 1 hour broadcast mark.

Braden Carroll makes a brief guest appearance to remind us all that he loves us.

Thanks to our +Photo Talk Plus sponsors +SmugMug and +Drobo Check them out at http://smugmug.com and http://drobo.com.

Posted on

Introducing Photo Talk Plus, A New Weekly Videocast Launching Tomorrow Night at 8pm PST

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104987932455782713675/posts/Kgfh9PTjBrU"/

**INTRODUCING PHOTO TALK PLUS, LAUNCHING TOMORROW NIGHT 8PM PST**

Well, after months of behind the scenes work, +Lotus Carroll and I are happy to announce the arrival of Photo Talk Plus.

What is Photo Talk Plus?

Photo Talk Plus is a new weekly hangout videocast hosted by myself and that awesome +Lotus Carroll that will broadcast live every Wednesday night at 8PM PST on +Keith Barrett’s +Vidcast network.

The show is dedicated to all things photography and photographers on Google+.

Each week a group of different panelists will talk about some of the top hot photography related stories, trends, memes, etc. appearing the previous week on Google+, as well as interview a prominent Google+ photographer about their work.

For our very first episode we are pleased to have the one and only Jarvie!!!! aka +Scott Jarvie as our special guest. Jarvie promises to let us in on all the secrets that make him one of the top wedding Pros shooting today.

Photographers/Panelists +Brian Rose (Google Photos Community Manager) +Amy Heiden and +helen sotiriadis will join us on the show as well.

The show is sponsored by +SmugMug and +Drobo (you should totally follow them both on Google+ here if you are not already).

SmugMug is a great place for you to host your photos if you want to sell prints and other types of photography items. You can set up a free trial account here: http://www.smugmug.com/ +Lotus Carroll uses them and will have more to say about that on the show tomorrow night.

I’ve been using Drobos myself for years (I’ve got 5 now and they are an integral part of my backup strategy). You can learn more about Drobo here: http://www.drobo.com/

We are super excited about the new show and hope that you will join us tomorrow night at 8PM PST. We’ll also have a follow up video on Keith’s site that you can watch later as well if you can’t make it live.

After the hangout recording is done, we’ll open the hangout up to the public and field photography related questions from the broadcast chat room live as well.

Hope to see you there tomorrow night!!! Did we mention there will be prizes?

If you can help us get the word out by resharing our new show announcement we’d sure appreciate it. 🙂

To stay on top of our latest episodes, be sure and follow our Google+ Brand page as well here: http://goo.gl/ebS0D

Posted on

My Pummelvision

My Pummelvision from Thomas Hawk on Vimeo.

My friend Lee turned me on earlier today to this new site called Pummelvision. It converts your entire flickrstream into about a five and a half minute rapid fire slide show and then posts it to your YouTube or Vimeo account. Pretty fun stuff. Mine is above. It’s a bit disorienting, but interesting.

Posted on

Marc Silber Interviews Me for silberstudios.tv

Marc Silber Interviews Me for silberstudios.tv

This past weekend I had a great opportunity to co-host a photowalk with photographer Marc Silber down at the Peninsula School in Menlo Park. We put the photowalk together as part of a video interview that Marc was doing with me about my photography including lots of tips, techniques and comments by me on my own personal photographic style.

SanDisk is sponsoring Marc’s show and in addition to my own interview, Marc has 29 other great interviews up with some of the top photographers out there shooting today in pretty much every genre. The interviews are generally short, 5 to 10 minute in length and offer you wonderful insight and tips on how to improve your own photography.

Thanks again Marc for having me on your show. You can check out the video we did together here. If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll answer them there.

Posted on

365 Portraits, The Book

365 Portraits The Book

In 2007 Photographer Bill Wadman traveled around the United States and Europe with a single mission. Each day he photographed, edited and posted online a different portrait of a different person. It was a mammoth effort meticulously followed that resulted in one of the most authentic collection of portraits I’ve ever seen. The result, entitled simply 365 Portraits is a significant and beautiful collection of images. I was honored to have been included as a subject in Bill’s Project and think the photo that he took of me is one of the best I’ve ever seen. While Bill shot some famous people in his book (like Astronaut Buzz Aldrin) I found some of his most compelling portraits to be those of everyday people as part of their everyday lives. Here are some of my favorites:

Land Surveyor A.J. MacBrien
A nude of Sarah Lizbet
Teacher Barrie Mann
Writer/Poet Sarah Herrington
Lover and Contrast of Graph Paper Regina Sampels
Racer Beth O’Brien
Photographer Smoothdude
Baby Jonah Max
Octogenarian Hiker Betty New
Singer Songwriter Jocelyn Ryder
Overthinker Alexis Levinson
Video Blogger Ze Frank
Editor of Poz Magazine Regan Hoffman
Workaholic Amy Prole

Bill has now finally released his book of these portraits. The book will be an initial limited edition run of 500 numbered and signed copies. The book is hard cover with about 250 pages showcasing these amazing portraits and Bill is selling them for $120 each. There is a July 20th pre-order deadline. Here is your opportunity to own a unique and interesting early edition work of art from an emerging American photographer and to support an artist directly as well. I just ordered mine 30 minutes ago. Congrats on your project Bill and congrats now on the book — a remarkable work and a labor of love for sure.

Posted on

Aaron Draplin on the Death of the American Neon Sign

America Is F*cked…….(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.

Warning: The above video contains graphic language. If you are offended by profanity you might want to skip it.

My Motel America set was featured on Digg over the weekend. In the comments someone linked to this great video (above) about the death of a neon motel sign.

The video is a short interview with Aaron Draplin talking about a 28 foot motel neon sign that he recently purchased on eBay while he was drunk for $300. In his rant he cringes at the crappy $15,000 ugly plastic sign that the new motel owners put up in it’s place.

So much of American neon is disappearing every single day. Over the past few years I’ve literally watched dozens of signs disappear before my eyes. Personally I’m trying to photograph as much neon as I possibly can. My Neon Days and Neon Nights set currently has 2,656 images of neon in it. I’ve been trying to get out on the road as much as I can and travel to as many new American cities as I can to try and photograph as much neon as possible.

When I was in Chicago earlier this month I shot a ton of the neon in and around Chicago. I shot this one motel sign on a vacant lot. The entire motel had been razed and the only thing left standing was simply it’s old sign. The highlight of my trip was stopping by The Neon Shop, AKA Fishtail Neon, and spending time there with it’s owner Tom Brickler. Tom had some great signs in his store and invited me in to the back room of his shop as well and showed me some fantastic old signs that he had there. It was really a treat.

I’ve created a collection of my neon images as well that tries to break down neon signs by geographical areas. I’ve still got so much work to do in adding more neon images to my library, and unfortunately every day it seems like more and more signs are snuffed out of existence.

Earlier today I joked when I wrote about Hunch that the first question I wanted to ask Hunch was what City should I visit next to shoot neon signs in America? Tom Spaulding, a prolific neon photographer himself said Wildwood, NJ.

What do you think? Where’s the next City I should visit in America to shoot neon?

Posted on

Smoothdude Loves His Guacamole, Check Out His “Text to Movie” Review of Gloria’s Pushcart in Midtown Manhattan

My Pal Smoothdude made the above movie using xtranormal’s text to movie service. Apparently the free movie making site has been around for a while, but this is the first time I’ve heard of it. Looks like a fun way to make your own movies on for the web. I will say that adding guacamole for $1.50 does seem a little pricey for me, even in NY prices.

Posted on

Marc Silber Interviews Me

Whispering Secrets I Know I'm Not Supposed to Hear

I had a lot of fun a few weeks back out at the Golden Gate Bridge doing a video interview about my photography with Marc Silber for his new photography series Mark Silber’s Photo Show. We talk about my style, my equipment and what personally motivates me in photography. Thanks to Marc Silber for having me on his show and to Rocky Barbanica for doing a great job as usually filming and editing while out at Baker Beach at the Golden Gate Bridge. You can watch the video directly over at Marc’s show here.

Sandisk is sponsoring Marc’s new show and I think it’s really great that they are willing to invest in social media this way. I’ve personally used Sandisk cards for many years and think they’re great! You can follow Marc’s blog here and his great new video series here.

The shot above is one of the shots I got of the Golden Gate Bridge while out shooting with Marc.