Inspiration

Self Publishing

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What up folks? I haven’t posted in a while, but I have been creating. I’ve self published three zines of various projects and I’m hooked. The first zine Cabin Life was a simple test using Blurb. The photos in Cabin Life document a trip to the mountains this winter with my family and close friends. Litrato is an ode to the picture magazines of my youth like Time, Life, National Geographic . Litrato in my native tongue Tagalog means photograph or picture. This will be a serial magazine I hope to publish every 3 months or so. The last zine titled Los Angeles Times is made up of street photography from a trip to Los Angeles with some good friends of mine from D.C. whom I met back in the day on Flickr, yeah we old school. Every year we take a trip called the Brotographers Retreat with the goal of reconnecting and making images.

Shooting with intent has changed my photography and allowed me to focus (pun intended) on what truly matters...what’s in front of my camera. I want to move on and evolve from the single image to a narrative, telling stories. We’ll see how this goes.  

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Inspo: Delphine Diallo

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Thank you Delphine (@delphinediallo) for reminding us of photography's spiritual capacity to heal. Click the link in our bio to read the rest of this amazing interview.

26 Likes, 0 Comments - The Observers (@theobservers) on Instagram: "Thank you Delphine (@delphinediallo) for reminding us of photography's spiritual capacity to heal...."

Also, The Observers is one of my go to spots on the internet, bookmark it. Do kids still bookmark these days?

Inspo: Daniel Milnor

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I’ve gotta love / hate relationship with Instagram. Very few photos nowadays make my thumb stop mid scroll, all the photos…errr…I mean content looks the same. Influencers and wanna be influencers chasing likes and followers. But at the end of the day, Instagram isn’t a photography platform, it never really was. It’s a communications tool. Let’s call a spade a spade. Maybe that’s my issue, content creators passing for creatives…or dare I say photographers.

But every now and again there are voices on Instagram that I want to hear, and their work I want to see. One of those people is Dan Milnor. Dan is a creative no longer in the photo game so to speak and a straight shooter. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. Dan is always trying to find ways to stay creative, or seek creativity. I can certainly relate. He also lives in both in the film and digital world, lusting for his Leica and Kodak Tri-X, while appreciating the benefits of the mirrorless Fuji X system.

It’s post like the below that keep me coming back to his feed and blog.

@daniel.milnor



Inspo: Gordon Parks

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Photographer and journalist Gordon Parks used his camera as a tool to help the world understand the experience of African-Americans in the U.S. A current exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, titled "Gordon Parks: The New Tide," examines the first ten years of his career, and exhibit curator Philip Brookman sits down with Jeffrey Brown to share more about the artist's life and work.

Gordon Parks is the main reason why I picked up a camera. My very first photography website, 93 Autumns, was a homage in a way to Gordon Parks’ “Half Past Autumn” His photography American Gothic remains one of my favorite portraits….photos of all time.

American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942 | Gordon Parks

American Gothic, Washington, D.C., 1942 | Gordon Parks

I was so bummed when I was in D.C. last month that I wasn’t able to visit the National Portrait Gallery to check out the exhibit: Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950 because of the government shutdown. Thanks Trump.

The Year That Wasn't: 2018

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I’ve been thinking for some time what I’d like to do with this space. I’ve had this blog forever and a day. And despite all the social media fads, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or whatever else in the digital ether, this blog has been steadfast and loyal, even when I haven’t reciprocated.   

I’m looking to change that in 2019. How you ask? Well, I know this blog has a very limited audience, and over the years that’s been on purpose.  Instead of publishing dispatches for the world to see, this blog has mainly an audience of one…me. Oh and my mom, so an audience of two.  

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read and write more. I used to love writing, when I was in middle school and through college. When I started working in public relations and marketing, I began  writing for others and lost the passion for the written word. A lot has changed obviously since college. But I want to treat this space more a sketchbook, dairy, a journal if you well. Ya know a weblog. Returning to its original intent. This certainly won’t be a nicely curated set of images once might see on Instagram. It’s gonna be sloppy, messy, and coloring all out of the lines. 

Hopefully my mom will continue to read this blog anyway. 

Happy New Year. 

Peace.  

Street Photography Workshop Pt. 2

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This week in class we critiqued each others homework. The homework assignment was to find one spot and photograph it for an hour, and bring 6-10 images from that shoot. Essentially working the scene. 

Here's what I shot: 

Nothing really special here, but it was certainly the most time I've ever spent in one specific spot to photograph. I literally stood there for an hour making images. Here's some of the general critique I received along with my classmates from the assignment: 

  • Watch for distractions 
  • Experiment with crops if needed (really wasn't feeling this, crop is still a bad word for me). 
  • Pay attention to cutting off body parts 
  • Move around, work the scene 
  • Photo story versus photo essay 
  • Try to give your photograph a sense of place 
  • Look for the moment of gesture 
  • Balance and counter balance 
  • Seek pattern and repetition

This was the first formal critique of my work that I've ever received, and I found it beneficial. Let's be honest the Instagram comment of "dope photo" <insert thumbs up emoji> doesn't really benefit one, if you're actually trying to improve. With that said, what I'm really enjoying about the class so far is the time we spend actually looking, studying and analyzing the work of great street photographers. Keeping an eye toward layering, and space, looking for gesture etc. I've already found myself elevating my comments on social media commenting about layering, composition and juxtaposition. Way better than "dope photo" <insert thumbs up emoji>. 

 In this class we also selected a street photographer to present at the end of month, I chose Jamel Shabbaz. I'm a big fan of his work with his mix of street photography and portraiture and this also blends my love of hip-hop and photography. Win. Win. Looking forward to learning more about Mr. Shabbaz and sharing it with my class. 

The remainder of class we studied work from some of the street photography masters throughout history: 

  •  Paul Martin
  • John Thompson
  • Eugene Atget
  • Paul Strand
  • Alex and Rebecca Webb
  • Bruce Davidson
  • William Eggleston
  • Stephen Shore
  • Ernst Hass
  • Fred Herzog
  • Jay Maisel 

We were reminded that we're looking at the very best work from these photographers, and not to be discouraged. Think of all of Garry Winogrand's contact sheets and the photos no one ever saw. 

One key point, I learned and will try to keep in mind way forward is, when street photography is done right, it's simple. 

Book recommendations: 

If you've read this far, thanks for keeping up with the ramble. These notes are more for me to reflect and digest on the previous class. For the next class, we'll me meeting at Pike Place Market (tourist trap) for some actual shooting. 

Until next time. Peace.