nickonkenShoptalk

Mammoth

Up here in Mammoth with a fun group of photog buddies. Some of who I just met for the first time. This is my first trip to Mammoth ever, and it's amazing. I can't believe how vast the countryside and mountains are. We'll be riding for the next couple days.

I'm still loving the Canon SD 750 for a point and shoot. I've been throwing it in my pocket when I'm out and about. I don't have to drag the MKIII around everywhere.

Here are a couple shots with the 750

The Art of Waste

Just read this article in the nytimes on a fine art photographer Chris Jordan. His latest collection is on the consumption of goods in America. It really puts things into perspective. American stats put into a photographic representation. Check it out the work here.

Il Dolce Cafe

Omri and I found a great little breakfast spot this week across the street from the Fathers Office. It's called Il Dolce Cafe. It's a nice little spot that's well designed, and the food was great. It has a somewhat unique menu that's not so Americana traditional. We had a great server who was friendly, as most actor servers are around here.

I revisited it today while reconnecting with an old friend.  Again, the service was good and contrary to the reviews I just read. It's almost up there with my other Santa Monica fave breakfast spot the Bread and Pouridge. Still going on the list of good restos in LA, since they're so hard to find.

Custom Portfolio Bags

It's always great to see what other photographers are doing for portfolios, promos, and such. I just had these custom portfolio bags created that I'm pretty excited about. We'll give 'em a whirl and see how they fair through fedex and being manhandled over time. My favorite touch is the nickonken tag to tie in my brand continuity.

Net News Wire- Are you RSS Savy?

My boy George Huff over at Eleven 3 turned me on to this little app called Net News Wire. If you are reading this blog, you're at your first step of learning about RSS feeds. Or, you're web 2.0 savvy and already know how to use them.

Basically you can have all your favorite blog content feed straight to your browser, or in the Net News Wire case, it's a separate application specifically for RSS feeds. You can stay up to date with feeds coming in, usually the instant someone makes a new post. Learn more about RSS here.

Net News Wire is going to be my new reader instead of Safari's native reader. Check it out!

Canon's Iris Watermarking

Pumped through the pipe of APE, I saw this article this morning. Canon just filed a patent on a new copyright protection system that watermarks your images by appending an image of your eye's iris in the metadata of an image.

Pretty nutty. Read more about it here on Photography Bay.

The S Curve

I was recently asked about how I get such poppy colors and saturation. There are a lot of factors and variables involved from the type of camera, lighting, lenses, exposure, raw, capture one software and such. The most general variable is your contrast adjustments in photoshop. I usually create a curves adjustment layer and make an S curve by clicking two points on the line. One point in the darks and one in above it in the lights. You can drag the darks down to make them darker, and the lights up to make them lighter which creates contrast. Contrast pops your colors a bit more. You can see what the curve looks like in the above sample. You can adjust it to how it visually looks, and to your liking.

Unasked for Advice...

to Writers about money, Parlays straight into the rest of the creative world like us photographers. I found this article on the Whatever  blog via APE this morning, and it's a pretty good one. 10 bits on writers(artists) and money. They are all really great points, a lot of which I live by.

Point number 8 though, he talks about not living in LA/NY/SF unless you have a compelling reason. For me, having moved to LA was a beneficial one(besides the ridiculous cost of living), especially in the start of my career. Funny enough, I haven't actually worked much here. Most of my work has been in other places of the world. The great thing here is access, energy, great weather, great locations. Production access here is amazing. You can get anything any time, gear at midnight, access to great models. Another great thing is being able to mesh with other amazing talent. Not that you can't in any other city, but it's just easier here. The best of the best typically mecca here or NY to further their careers. Why? Because of the opportunities in this city. You can rub elbows with the best of the best. I can't say I love the city as a city like my first born child, but it has more pluses than minuses. One of them is driving the PCH at sunset. One of the most breathtaking parts of this place.

That said, I'm not saying you have to be here to make it, but it helps in the development process. I know very successful photographers who do it well (Chase Jarvis) without living in a mecca city. I don't think I could live here for the rest of my life. I just know it has benefited me thus far. With the digital era revolutionizing photography right now, it ups the anti for talent. I think being surrounded in competitive talent it pushes one to perform at a higher level, as well as have more access to the things that will help get you there.

After all... It's all about MAKING BETTER PICTURES!

Cody Who?

Last night I got a call from an old friend whom I haven't spoken with in at least 3 years. My friend Koti Hu, an amazingly talented musician, with some serious dance and martial arts skills was in a terrible car accident about 6 months ago. He is now paralyzed from the chest down. Koti is a standup guy and resilient individual, someone whom I admire and respect. I can't even begin to think of how I'd handle being in his shoes.  He is strong and hopeful and that is inspiring.

It definitely is a strong reminder that life is short. You never know what will happen tomorrow. It makes me want to be even more productive, and be thankful for the small details of life I'm blessed to enjoy. Especially the use of my fingers.

Koti was one of the first few subjects I saw through my lens. You can see how active he was in these photos I dug out from my archives from a few years back. (yes, I do believe that top photo I was using a fill flash. wow. Can't even stand the thought of that now.(BTW, What is Dave doing in the back anyways?)) Koti now looks back on these images with gratitude of the memories and hope that he'll be able to walk again.

Learn more about Koti at his website: http://www.codywho.com Get a taste of Koti's music at this post: http://codywho.com/post/22071109

Last minute replacement

It's always a wonderful feeling when you get a call half way through the day before a big shoot that the shoot is canceled due to the celebrity's illness, especially after the shoot has been rescheduled once already. There is quite a bit of pre-production involved just with harnessing a crew and location (on a very low magazine budget). We were on the track to shoot Rachael Taylor from Transformers for an Australian magazine cover. My good friend Fred Egan even flew in on his way from Taipai to Dallas to hang out and help me out. It happens, what are you going to do? It's been a nutty week needless to say.

We ended up scrambling around wednesday afternoon to throw together a last minute test shoot instead. My stylist had some clothes already pulled and we had a beach permit in Venice that we already paid for. So we scrambled for a model and rest of the crew.

We shot the beautiful Megan, who was a fantastic replacement. Click to see the story here.

Here are a few Behind the Scenes shots. Compliments of Fred Egan: