Month: October 2012

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I Made a Book!

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Hey!  I made a book!

 

In fewer than 2 months, a handful of things will happen: Christmas pandemonium will be upon us, I will engage in my first “holiday break” in years without molecular bonding between myself and a Zelda game, and I will participate in a portfolio/career show – where I will be presented to prospective contract-ees much like a slab of cow-meat is waved at overweight Americans on the 4th of July.

But I suppose I’m clinging too strongly to my personal feelings about the whole thing.  In the end, I could wind up in a contract with Diesel Jeans or something… I guess we’ll see.

The super-awesome-fantastic-great-plus side of the whole ordeal is that it has forced me to finally make the portfolio book I’ve been avoiding for quite some time (years).  Of course the benefit of me waiting this long is that the thing is rather up-to-date.

I could explain the finer aspects of the ProLine Paper, the beautiful image-wrapped cover, or even the hours of nervous twitching as I meticulously determined which image to place next to which.  But, in the end, you probably don’t care and may not ever touch, caress, stroke, or in other words fondle this glorious, printed, eye-seducer.

So, I’ll just show you an Issuu render of the thing.
Enjoy!

– Jon

(OH- and in you’re interested in a superb coffee table book, shoot me an email and we’ll make some magic happen!)

 

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Just a Little Fun

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Here’s a brief interlude to your day.

In my last post, I showed you a few of my shots from Chicago.  Well, while I was there, I sank my teeth into a project I’m working on.  See, a photographer by the name of Chris Clor has been a substantial inspiration for the past number of year, his creative ideas for imagery aside, a driving factor in his work revolves around stitching together pieces of a picture to create something that simply couldn’t exist in real life.  Now, I don’t have an intention of trying to replicate his work (I have my own style).  One process he uses, however, is simply a good idea regardless of who you are.  Whether he is working on a specific image or just out shooting, Chris continually ads to his collection of pictures that could be, at some later date, used in a larger project.

As it was described to me back in the day by one of my first photo teachers, I tend to have a “cinematic style.”  That being said, I began looking for settings that had a kind of movie-like-still look to them.  Almost as if you could see the main character holding a conversation or looking for clues to a mystery in such a dark ally.

So, while I was in Chicago, I scoped out some fairly movie-esque scenes that could fit a subject shot at a later date.

– Jon

Here’s the first shot from the Chicago backgrounds:

And here are the pieces:

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Windy Travels Part 1.

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As some of you may or may not know, I was busy being a tourist in Chicago until this past weekend (hence the lack of posts over the past couple weeks).
I, of course, took a picture or 2.  There’s been a bit of back and forth in my head about how to display them, especially since most of the shots fall more into my fine-art style rather than commercial.

But enough of the speculation.  Let’s break down the trip a bit.  You may say to yourself “Self, why won’t he just skip to the goods?”  Well, to that I say:  shock and awe.  No, not the tactical military scenario, but my reaction to a handful of things in Chicago that you, who may travel there, should certainly know about.

If you are avid travelers or simply have been to Chicago recently (I don’t get west  very much) you probably already know.  Back in 2008 or 9 or something, The city of Chicago sold rights to all the parking in the city to Standard Parking (effectively creating a monopoly).  While the city got a little over a billion smackers out of the deal, they now have to deal with astronomically high parking rates – to the tune of $20 or more for even 15 minutes of parking.  Oh, and did I mention that the contract is valid for 75 years?

Of course, as it happens, now that I’m back in Michigan, I came across a news article from yesterday, mentioning that the city will be auditing Standard parking to ensure responsible use of city funds.  In the meantime, there are a few little tricks to get around this catastrophe.  A number of people have suggested parking outside the city and taking in the bus.  I like this idea, but if you are on a schedule and have to park downtown, I happened upon 2 options that seemed reasonable:

1. Parking in Chinatown is a decent way to go.  The main lot is less than half the cost of parking downtown and it sits immediately under the “L.”

2. The Adler Planetarium is nestled in the museum campus right on the edge of the city and the road to the front door is lined with parking meters that cost a quarter of the price of parking in any structure.  The downside is that there is a VERY limited number of spaces.

I’ve still got a whole ton of other neat tips and tricks for you (Next post: the best hotel to stay at if you’re a visual artist).

For now, enjoy a selection of city shots from Cloud Gate to Chinatown and plenty in-between.

– Jon

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The Way of the World

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Much like birds and whatnot on National Geographic, people do things to attract attention or show off.  For the most part these things can be summed up in a word:

“Style”

Sometimes it’s clothing style, cosmetic style, artistic style, or personality style.  Many times, these days, it’s hairstyle.

Recently I did a photoshoot for a long time friend of mine, who happens to be a top-notch stylist.  By “top-notch,” I mean Redken Certified.    If you know what that means, you know how prestigious it is.

Anywho – she has had her styling fingers in many heads of hair and, as such, has developed her own unique style of cutting, feathering, trimming, coloring and other verbs that I don’t actually know.  The point is that she’s good and has something to show off.

 

That’s where the actual photography comes in.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check it out.

However, the whole point about trends in style all filter down to the point of the whole post.
The Pack

Much like with wolves, if you don’t keep up, you fall behind to get eaten by crows and such…  OK, maybe not to that extent, but still – there are ramifications.  Really what I’m trying to say is “beauty is determined by the determiner.”  I know that sounds convoluted, but its just the case.  This model is beautiful.  She’s beautiful with the retouching and she’s beautiful without the retouching.  In fact, she’s flat-out hilarious (one of the most fun people I’ve worked with in quite some time.)    Just to drill home my point – she busted out the robot in the parking lot for the sake of a funny portrait.  Awesome.

However, people that look to style mags demand a more “commercial” level of beauty, and so the process of retouching begins.
Now, I know what you’re saying (or at least should be):  “Jon!  Didn’t you write a post a few months back about not doing this exact thing if at all possible?”

Well, yes.  Yes I did.  But in the same breath as condemnation, I will always stand straight up and say I will break my own rules to help my friends succeed.  Also, I like paying my bills… well not… I… YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!
So yes.  I am conflicted and my brain doesn’t quite know which side of the fence to come down on… So I sure wouldn’t mind some opinions.  There’s a comment box down there somewhere…
But, because I know you’re looking for it, here’s the before and after:

– Jon

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