HAMBURGER EYES

Photo by Thatcher Keats

In last the post, we discussed the idea that publications may get spoiled with social media. But we came to the conclusion that it doesn’t spoil anything.

Then the conversation found it’s way to cooking times. How long do your images bake before ready for consumption? It’s obviously different for everyone and it also depends what your working on.

Sitting a little longer on photos could lead to things like tighter processing, smarter edits, bigger ideas and concepts.

In school we would work 6 months on a portfolio. On assignment, you could shoot 10 days for a 3 page editorial. More like 1 or 2 pages and then work with multiple editors to get it right.

In today’s world you shoot it and post it within seconds. I have lost my way in this rabbit hole, a lot of people have, which is why I like to have open dialogues lately.

It’s our job/duty to shoot stuff in our own particular way and communicate our messages and way of life before the Kardashians take over. Actually we are already way too late.

Therefore, speed and volume seem to be great allies to us.

On the other hand, a slower more methodical approach may be more effective.

Again, depends what you’re working on. I’m sure we will have to use a combination of both.

Photo by Mike Vos

I was blogging the other day about IG again. I know I know we heard it all before.

In summary, I was saying that I think I figured out one the main problems for me. That is spoiling my prints, zines, and books by showing the photos first on Instagram.

The easy solve is to only post photos that have been published already.

The whole concept of social media is to be sharing in real time though, so this defeats the purpose. But what is your main purpose is what I’m getting at it.

Nick sent me a message talking about the fact that back in the day, magazines didn’t want your photos if they have been seen before.

He was submitting to Transworld who published skating, surfing, bmx, and snowboarding magazines. Coincidentally, I worked there in the mid 90’s as their darkroom guy.

And he is right. If you sent photos in, it was assumed you have never shared them anywhere with anyone.

Even after publishing, photogs might use a different frame for an ad or even reshoot something differently but this was heavily frowned upon. It was considered “double dipping”.

Of course the internet changed all this. And we are talking about action sports, where new tricks were still be invented and new spots discovered every day back then.

For H.E., I post only photos that we have published. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t already been posted or published somewhere else.

For my personal stuff, this is where the tension is. If I am visiting NY, it’s fun posting my adventures in these foreign lands. But when I get home and wanna make a new book, oh shit all that stuff is already on IG and thus spoiling the surprise.

It probably isn’t ruining it really, but when editing layouts it is kinda deflating, for me anyways.

Again, I figured out that I’ll just post stuff after I published it, or use story mode more often. This is a pointless conversation if you aren’t printing and publishing on a regular basis. (Which you should be if you are reading this.)

I’m an over thinker. But the sooner we can figure out the flow, the sooner we can get to work.

The sooner we can figure out the outcome, the sooner we can figure out the income.

I think I just wrote my first quotable nugget.

Photo by Adi Segal

We’ve talked about it before but I wanna get back into it. What’s your favorite daily driver setup?

Of course we have different setups for different occasions. But I did some flying around the country this past month and it made think about alot of things.

I try to pride myself as a simple one lense one camera guy, but times are changing I guess.

I have a whole dslr setup for assignments, commissions, and client based work but that usually sits in a bag in the closet most days.

When I’m leaving the house on a daily basis, for the past few years, it’s usually my phone and a point and shoot that I don’t really like and am about to return, or my heavy dslr with a giant lense.

Recently, I have fallen in love with an M43 setup. Specifically, the Panasonic Lumix GX85.

I don’t want a zoom and I don’t want a bunch of extra lenses, so I think the next time I get in a plane, its gonna be the GX85 with the 20mm (40mm equivalent) plus Ricoh GR II or III.

I finally got to play with a Ricoh, its great. The III with no flash doesn’t bother me if I have the GX85 close by.

What are you guys feeling these days?