920 Best Photos of 2008
Posted by latoga | Filed under News & Current Events
Jim Goldestein had a stellar turn out for his recently published blog project Best Photographs of 2008. 92 of his readers participated in his contents (myself included) which should give us about 920 photographs to appreciate (roughly 10 per photographer). I’ve jus started to browse through the submissions and the results have been pretty amazing so far. This is the kind of project whic you have to take your time to enjoy and appreciate. Give it a look and enjoy!
Tags: 2008, Blog Project, Jim Goldstein, Photos
To Print or Not To Print
Posted by latoga | Filed under Musings, News & Current Events
In today’s media saturated, time starved world, many photographers have lost the will to print their photos. The question of to print or not to print never even crosses their minds. Either they are to busy dealing with balancing out all the other aspects of their photography with the rest of their life, they have target lock on some quantifiable goal like being the first photographer in history to release 1 Billion photos or something, or they are just so technology focused that printing seem so uncool.
Honestly, I haven’t been printing as much recently as I have in the past (I’ll blame that first excuse for that). But it is something that has been clawing it’s way back to the surface of my focus. This is mostly because of a single photo. This photo to the right is a snapshot that has become more over time (read the story behind the photo). Recently I finished framing a large version print of this photo that I had made over a year ago specifically to hang in a spot of honor in our house. This process has brought the topic of printing bursting to the surface again. So much so, that I’m planning on releasing a limited edition fine art print of this specific image (stay tuned for more on that in the near future).
Unfortunately, jumping into printing isn’t easy. Just like photography, there are a lot of nuances that you need to discover and master. Which is honestly yet another reason many photographers don’t do printing. These nuances are why I got excited about the Epson Print Academy when I saw a brochure for it arrive in my mail box. And as luck would have it, Jim Goldstein is running a contest over on his blog where he is giving away tickets to the Epson Print Academy.
So, as I’ve been making my plans for 2009, printing has definitely fallen on the list of things to explore.
Tags: Epson, Jim Goldstein, Printing
Photographing Photographers
Posted by latoga | Filed under Photographers, Photos, Portraiture
Yesterday I got together with Richard Wong and Jim Goldstein for a day of shooting around Berkeley and San Francisco. Richard is on a week long photo road trip and was starting off here in the Bay Area. Shortly after noon we got together and headed to the UC Berkeley campus to check out the tree-sitters trying to save the oak trees near Memorial Stadium (See Richard’s post about the UC Berkeley Tree-Sitters). This group of people have been tree-sitting for 554 days (as of today) to protect this old grove of Coast Live Oak from destruction by the school. You can read about the entire story at the group’s Save Memorial Oak Grove website.
After an afternoon wandering around the Berkeley campus, Richard and I headed into San Francisco to meet up with Jim Goldstein and catch sunset at Seal Rocks. What a difference ten miles makes (about the distance from UC Berkeley to Seal Rocks), Berkeley was sunny and in the 70’s while Seal Rock was sunny, windy and about 55-60. Oh the joys of the Bay Area!
I’ll be posting some of my photos from Seal Rocks in the near future. Until then, here are a sample of photographing photographers (aka Richard and Jim) from Seal Rocks (click through for larger image):
Tags: Jim Goldstein, Richard Wong
Photo Series: Shooting the Moon
Posted by latoga | Filed under Photos
A recent posting by Jim Goldstein about Contrails got me thinking about a few shots I took a few years back. After some digging I found them…and they are exactly 2 years old. They are from the 2005 Memorial Day Balloon Launch that my local city holds as part of their Art and Wind Festival. That morning, as the balloons lifted up, one of them just happened to time it perfectly to pass between the moon and the contrail from a passing plane.
This is one of those examples where the contrail can be used in a creative way.
The Balloon Launch happens again this coming Monday. I’ll be out there again shooting…I can’t wait to see what perfect timing happens this year.
Tags: Contrails, Hot Air Balloon, Jim Goldstein
Jim Goldstein’s Favorite Photo Blog Project
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
Jim Goldstein has published his latest blog project of 21 Favorite Photos and the Stories Behind Them. A few weeks back Jim called out to the photo blog community to post their favorite photos and tell the story behind it. Twenty-one photographers took him up on his challenge (your’s truly included) and this post links to all 21 of the stories.
What a great project…thanks for taking the time to organize it Jim!
Tags: Favorite Photo, Jim Goldstein
