homage to eating on pennies a day | a photo sketch

I snap thumbnail sketches of photos I want to shoot formally - here's one from this morning: A nod to rising food prices, very hungry people selling valuable livestock to eat now - selling their future short to not starve today, and the rest of it. Global economics creating dependency and harm to the world's billions of poor, again.

Keep pumping that corn in your gas tank! (Pssst...there isn't even enough WATER in the underground tables of the midwest to grow the corn to make the fuel.)

when your ad buy expires like old milk

It's beginning to smell something fierce down on 5th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. This ad, designed for ice cold winter days, has already seen temps in the high 60s.

Advertising also has some Golden Rules. I think 1 is: Make sure your media buy is not incongruous with what it's being snarky about. Extreme snarkiness, when preaching some social correctness might consider how it comes off when it is, itself, incorrect. Just sayin' (This best be correct, I suppose. Not that correctness is the be all, end all.)

Golden Rule of Advertising #I have no idea: When the it hits +50F, it's time to stop the snarky advertising about cold temperatures.

And now I invite comment on my comment.

the altruistic photographer | the assumption you don't need money work for free and are an exception to economic reality *gak*

The following is an excerpt of a letter from someone getting a magazine together, an editor, with my reply regarding my current position. It begins mid-letter with replies.

If successful, this part of the project has the potential to grow into a full video documentary, an extensive and possibly longitudinal research project, as well as a base for a historical fiction novel. I feel that photography to compliment interviews and possibly article submissions from some of the homeless people in NYC or a combination of cities would be a powerful addition.

I'm into the idea, but I don't have a lot of resources for creating original content without pay - just past that point in my career. I did a lot of work with neighborhoods in NYC back in the early 2000s. Right now, I can't take on another altruistic pursuit of the truth - the truth is I need to make a living and photography and my life is not subsidized and is therefore full of expenses I have yet to cover.

Not sure if this puts a damper on your thing, but I've already been there busting my butt and giving huge time to projects for editorial publishing - and not paying for my own life every step of the way. Working for magazines who pull content from people with parents' money behind them and whatnot, getting lowballed into giving content cut rate. It's grating after a few years, and it's not realistic for photographers who do not have institutional backing, major commercial success or a trust fund.

If you need more information, let me know more specifically what you need clarified, and I will do my best to satisfy that.

You can take a look at my work from NYC at: http://thenewimpatience.tobinrussell.com/
if there is something of use there that I only have to dig in the archive for, I'm down with that - new productions with no budget, natch.

what do marriage and assisting have in common | enthusiasm over the long haul must be transformed

I had a new assistant contact me with the good news they've found a studio they love:

What a kick ass group of people they have there! Totally pro man. I learned so much in just half a day! I so want to PA there. Now I just have to ask.....hmmmm.

What should I send them as a thanks for shadowing?

Of course, since I have to temper everything my reply is tempered, but maybe useful to you budding assistants out there. (also watch out for your inner photographer, many an assistant has turned pro assistant and abandoned the industry after a few years up close as #2)

My reply:

They're a tight outfit, no doubt.
I wouldn't give them anything but a little loyalty
perhaps and give it some time to see if unexpected
problems come up - then go back in your head to today
and remember why you started with them in the first place.

trust me, the single most important factor beyond competence
in an assistant is ability to see the forest from the trees -
keeping the reasons why you like working with someone in mind
for when it gets more difficult (sound like a marriage yet?)
is fundamental to continuity.

Peace out. Arnold Newman once said photography is 90% dragging stuff around and setting it up, 10% taking photographs. The apprentice system has it's own version of schlepping, I call it "paying your dues before you pay your rent" (Steve Malkmus back in early Pavement days)

"It's like that, and that's the way it is." - Run DMC

you suck at photoshop | dark spring humor tutorial

under the guise of a tutorial, a scathing window into one man's failing marriage in a techno-geek form.

you suck at photoshop.

positively 4th street | robert zimmerman from hibbing sums up minneapolis

Positively 4th street lyrics
1965, refers to street in Dinkytown Minneaoplis

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve
To say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on
The side that's winning

You say I let you down
You know it's not like that
If you're so hurt
Why then don't you show it

You say you lost your faith
But that's not where it's at
You had no faith to lose
And you know it

I know the reason
That you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd
You're in with

Do you take me for such a fool
To think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide
What he don't know to begin with

You see me on the street
You always act surprised
You say, "How are you?" "Good luck"
But you don't mean it

When you know as well as me
You'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once
And scream it

No, I do not feel that good
When I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief
Perhaps I'd rob them

And now I know you're dissatisfied
With your position and your place
Don't you understand
It's not my problem

I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is
To see you

-Robert Zimmerman, Hibbing

solar tower in seville spain | so well lit, every photo of it looks fake

The dust of Spain, when combined with the high tech computer operated mirrors reflecting blinding light into a tower, gives the distinct effect this thing is a fake.

This photo comes from a guy's personal blog entry here.

Roughly shaped like a flower with petals, this amazing spectacle is simply, photographically, the epitome of well-lit.

Check out the guy in his sunglasses on the BBC article.

Also: My new and possibly forever favorite website, architecture.myninjaplease.com, has a similar entry.