Posted by Foto Care Editor | Posted in Business and Marketing Tips, Featured Photo Blogs & Websites | Posted on 06-09-2010

Welcome to FotoCare’s featured Photography Blog Series, where we explore interesting examples of  how photographers  are creating more immersive experiences to share their work and/or vision with their friends and fans, clients and prospects, and photo enthusiasts. Ways that are more engaging then the standard static portfolio website. We hope you find this inspiring. We welcome your suggestions for Photography Blogs that you love. Just reply via comments below and maybe your suggestion will be our next FEATURED Blogger.

Nathan Kensinger Photography
The Abandoned & Industrial Edges of New York City

Nathan Kensinger publishes two photo essays a month that capture the lower depths of New York’s urban landscape giving us a backstage pass to places that are typically off-limits to the general public.  Often times he “finds a way” to access these places. Essays range from a sneak peek into underworld of Grand Central Station to traces of life under the Coney Island boardwalk, images of the worlds oldest subway tunnel, to an array of happenings at Gowanus Canal. These are just a few examples of the city you will explore through the lens of Nathan Kensinger as he leads us to the abandoned and industrial edges of New York City.

This type of photography blog takes hours of time, effort, planning and production. As a documentary photographer, on top of shooting and editing, Nathan writes up intriguing blog posts to share the background story on his subject, his experience, and thought provoking commentary. One would have to imagine his essays are a successful path to securing editorial assignments.  It is a good idea to consider establishing an easy-to-execute eMarketing effort to ensure the right folks know about your work and the site so you can share new posts with fans, key clients and prospects (email newsletter).

We have put together a slide show of the work you will find on the site. But do visit if you have the chance, the stories behind each photo are as compelling as the work.

Posted by Foto Care Editor | Posted in Photography Workshops & Lectures | Posted on 03-09-2010

Our friend Neal Slavin, photographer, director, filmmaker and all around artist, will be teaching at The Cooper Union. The Cooper Union has been offering educational classes in art and science since 1859.  It now not only offers classes but has become, over the years,  a meeting place for artists groups of all kinds. Below is the course description and registration information.

The Photographer’s Signature (Reg #4000019)
October 21st – November 18th
Thursday, 6:30PM – 9:30PM
Register at The Cooper Union or call 212-253-4195

Course Description
Everyone has a signature, but good photographers have unique visual signatures. A signature style is essential for successful work in commercial, editorial, or fine art photography, whether in print or electronic media. This course shows participants how to take the existing “handwriting” they already possess and, using it, find a path to a personal artistic signature. During the five week class there will be class trips throughout New York, discussions of artists’ works and assignments with critiques.  At the end you will have a full body of work that will reflect your “signature” style.

Posted by Foto Care Editor | Posted in Photography Studios / Locations | Posted on 31-08-2010

For your next photo or film location shoot try The Country House Location. It is a beautiful location in Woodbourne, NY with over 15 acres of groves, deep woods, pastures, and mountain vistas.  It is the perfect place for a one-day shoot or weekend shoot.

Along with the incredible sights the owners, Michelle Brady and André Costantini, warmly welcome you with amazing food and drinks.  Let them cater you during your next production so you don’t have to worry.

With home cooked meals, picturesque scenes, charming home and strong coffee why wouldn’t you want to spend the day photographing there.

Review via yelp.com

“I was recently at The Country House Location for an editorial photo shoot. I was pleasantly surprised by Michelle and Andre’s warm welcome. They had nice strong Cuban coffee and fresh orange juice ready for us as well as some delicious local peaches and plums to hold us over until our fresh home made egg sandwiches (on croissants) were ready. We all headed over to the prepping room where we set up hair, makeup and wardrobe and got straight to work. After about an hour or so in walked Andre to check in on us with a pitcher of cucumber iced water and a bowl of fresh fruit. Back to work we went after a nice sip of refreshing water. When it was time to head out into the fields of tall grass I realized I didn’t bring my sunglasses with me. Michelle came to my rescue, she loaned me an extra pair she had. The shoot was well underway, under the hot sun. To our surprise we spot Michelle in the distance, as she approaches we notice she is carrying a plate of sliced watermelon and a bag. She check in on us leaving the watermelon and bag of cold beverages with us, making sure we have everything we needed before heading back to the house. At lunch time we went into the house and feasted on delicious homemade Mexican inspired meal. Guacamole, grilled chicken with grilled veggies…  Mmmmmmmmm… all washed down with sparkling lime water.  I’m in heaven.. Oh wait, I forgot about desert, homemade lime sorbet with a slice of grilled pineapple. There are no words to describe my state of bliss at this point in the day. The only thing that made it better was left overs I got to take home with me for the ride back to the city. If you are looking for a beautiful location to shoot your next story check out The Country House Location and make sure you say hi to Michelle and Andre for me.”

–Maribel C., Brooklyn, NY

Posted by Foto Care Editor | Posted in Foto Care Interviews | Posted on 29-08-2010

Devo released its first album in 20 years on June 15^th, Something for Everybody.  Our friend and producer Dawn Silverstein of NYDK Productions Inc. was the head of photography production for the album cover and advertising.  We are pleased to have the opportunity to share her experience and some of the challenges during the production of creating the incredible images.

Dawn Silverstein/ Producer NYDK Productions Inc.

In January the photographer, Josh Dalsimer contacted me to be the producer for the project.  After speaking with him I created an estimate for the entire job to propose to Mother, New York agency for the new Devo album.  The job was awarded to us in February, which gave us about a month to get ready for the shoot.  I was very excited because I knew it was going to be a challenge but an extremely fun, interesting project.

The project ended up being on a tighter budget than our original planned advertising budget. This meant our original 3 day shoot was cut giving us only 2 days to set up, strike, light and shoot 8 main shots with talent plus multiple shots needed of the band.  The budget affected everyone but they were greatly accepting and even cut some of their fees.  We were all just so excited to be involved in a Devo project it didn’t seem to matter.  During the time I created the estimate I did a lot of my research for location, crew, casting and prop production so I was prepared before it even began. The agency had a very specific idea of what and how they wanted to shoot and in the end our final images looked very close the original swipe.

Casting for the different characters was pretty strange and a little difficult but extremely fun (and funny).  We knew from the mock-ups what we were looking for so all the people had to act as if they were in the scene during the casting. For example the “sexy woman” had to crawl around on the ground so we could see what she would look like once she was inside the dome where all we saw were their butts and legs in the air. Or the old woman we were casting to hold and lick a large Jell-O mold.  During the casting it was extremely funny to see these old women sticking their tongues out in the air.

Many people ask; how did you make the mold of the Devo energy dome?  Actually, there were 4 different size models made of the dome.  They ranged in size from 1 ½ inch to 4 ½ feet all of which had to be made to scale of the original hat. Our 4 ½ foot form was made out of Styrofoam and had to be sturdy enough to hold a climbing baby as well as having a large hole cut in the bottom for the woman to climb into. It was later retouched to look translucent as if it were made from Jell-O.  The tiny 1 ½ inch form was made from a hard plastic. It needed look like a piece of candy so this was the best solution.  The other forms were made from a Vac-U-Form and then painted blue.

Josh’s expertise in lighting, direction and retouching was key to the success of the shoot.  He would lay images over each other to mock up the final shots as he was creating them, making sure the hat forms were all shot in the same perspective.  This was important in making sure the post work looked realistic.  With his experience he knew exactly the best way to approach shooting and was extremely successful in making it happen.  He was very hands-on during the entire process, which was great and completely necessary on a shoot like this.

I would like to thank and give credit to:

Joshua Dalsimer, Photographer, www.dalsimerphoto.com
Paul Malmstrom , Creative Director
Bill Moulton, Art Director
Amita Sehgal, Art Producer
Impossible Casting, Casting Production
Clockwork Apple, Model Maker
Signe Yberg, Wardrobe Stylist
Stephania Parent, Makeup Stylist
Christy McCabe, 2^nd Makeup Stylist
Nina Sheffy, Prop Stylist

Posted by Foto Care Editor | Posted in Business and Marketing Tips, Featured Photo Blogs & Websites | Posted on 26-08-2010

Bloggers – you find them everywhere these days. Technology experts, political mavens, fashionistas, foodies everywhere, and of course Photography Blogs– tons of them. However, some really do stand out and attract a loyal crowd. We invite you to share with us your favorite photography blogs. Just comment below and we’ll take a look. Perhaps it will make our next Featured Blogger.

We will feature blogs we find interesting on a monthly basis, and hope you find of interest too. A photo blog is a good example of how a photographer migh move away from a static portfolio-only web site to a more engaging dialog with fans, clients and prospects. This can be done as an addition to your web site or as a stand-alone Blog.

We begin our series with IsoticaEVERYDAY.

IsoticaEVERYDAY is published by Chris Altorf and Jessica Hayes, a photographic team based out of Toronto.  Since the summer of 2005 they have maintained this award winning photoblog which receives thousands of daily visitors. Their skills include film-making, photography, graphic design, photo-retouching, web development. They are also coordinators at WhipperSnapper Gallery,
a not-for-profit space aimed at Canada’s young and emerging art scene.

The blog is short on words. Instead it features a visual library of their work; some with titles some without.   A daily time-line appears across the top of the page. I could be wrong but I would imagine a user could click on a day of the month and an image would appear– this wasn’t working when I visited the site (perhaps it is only a design feature and not part of the functionality of the site. You can follow them via an RSS feed and/or on Flickr.  Here is an example of their work you will find on the site.

© IsotoicaEveryday

© IsotoicaEveryday

© IsotoicaEveryday

© IsotoicaEveryday

© IsotoicaEveryday

© IsotoicaEveryday