Beach Shoot

Just look at these faces. I've known these kids for several years now, and they are really fun to work with, good for quote after quote that just makes you laugh. We hoped for a touch of June gloom to soften things and were lucky, at least for the first part of the shoot.

Daily Life

The photos have been hung. Four of them, in the library of the Moroccan, boutique location. The weather was hot, really hot, 115+, but dry as they say. Three in one spot, one lone in another.
It's odd seeing them in a new location, but I like it.
There is no peace however, after you realize how many locations there are!

But, most importantly, my food is growing. All tomato plants are up, five total, and two spinach. Now I need cilantro and jalapeno, just to round things out.

I will post some snaps of the new growth, just as soon as humanly possible, but after I'm finished with this I am practicing my "computer free weekends," so it will have to come next week.

Teaching in Spain

Okay, I've been asked to teach in Spain of next year, for Easter, and I will be posting more about this at a later date, but wanted to get this out there. In short, it looks to be an incredible event, time, place, etc.

Here is the first blast of information I have.



Easter in Seville, Spain – April 4-14th, 2009


Holy Week in Seville is a feast for the senses. This unique event takes place the week leading up to the Easter weekend and consists of more than 65 processions. Huge floats are carried around the streets of Seville by teams of Bearers and Penitents all dressed up for one of the most overwhelming religious rituals of the world. The representation of The Passion of the Christ is done by different brotherhoods that spend months preparing the processions that will wander day and night around the city. The Holy Week celebrations reach their climax during La Madrugá, where from midnight Thursday into the early hours of Good Friday more than 500,000 people remain in the streets following the various brotherhoods’ processions. Holy Week in Seville is an unparallel combination of religious emotions, gypsy passion and pagan joy.

Framed by these sumptuous celebrations, your instructors will take you deeper into the beautiful Andalucía region to explore the Moorish side of Spain. Here you will discover
some of the most amazing photo opportunities as we embrace its beauty and traditions. This combined with classroom critiques and lectures will refine your photo techniques and skills. Day trips to the White Towns of Andalucía, the Sherry wine cellars in Jerez de la Frontera, to Cordoba and its amazing Mesquite and to a ranch that raises bulls for bullfighting completes your 10-day adventure. Living Easter in Seville and capturing every moment and aspect of their 16th Century traditions is a once in a lifetime experience you can’t miss.

Highlights:
• Be part of the processions and shoot up close and personal the most amazing
Easter Celebrations
• Visit Moorish Cordoba and its Mesquite
• Visit the White Towns of Andalucía
• Witness and capture the rise of the brave fight bulls of Spain
• Be amazed by the beauty of the Andalusian horses in the
Royal Equestrian Academy
• Have a taste of Sherry in their world famous Cellars

California-based photographer Daniel Milnor (www.milnorpictures.net) specializes in long-term, black and white documentary work relating to a variety of topics including:
Sicilian Easter Processions, Big-Wave Surfing, Portuguese Bloodless Bullfighting, California Off-Highway Vehicular Recreation Parks, Exotic Game Ranches as well as Los Angeles Urbanization. Daniel’s work has been published in Black & White Magazine and Camera Arts, among other magazines and newspapers. A former photo specialist for the Eastman Kodak Company and consultant to Blurb, Daniel’s work on Sicily became a finalist for the Honickman First Book Prize in Documentary photography. He has taught at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, the Julia Dean Photo Workshops in Venice, California, and most recently at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Eniac Martinez (www.eniacmartinez.com) is a documentary photographer based in
Mexico City. He studied at the International Center of Photography in New York and the Cuban Institute of Art. He has had more than 35 solo and 50 collective exhibits around the world. In 1991 he won the Mother Jones magazine documentary photography competition, as well as a Fullbright award in 1989 for his work documenting a group of Mixtecos Indians who migrated to the United States from their home state of Oaxaca in search of work. These images were published in his book Mixtecos, Norte Sur (1994). He has also authored the books Litorales and Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Eniac's work has been published in magazines such as Daily Telegraph, National Geographic, México Indígena, Luna Córnea and La Jornada. Eniac is an instructor for the Santa Fe Workshops and National Geographic Expeditions.

Pricing and Conditions:
Duration: 11 Days / 10 Nights
Price: $6,495
Conditions: Price is per person in double occupancy in the 5-Star Occidental Sevilla.
For single room add $1,000.
Includes: 10 Breakfasts, 7 lunches and 2 dinners, as well as all transportation, fieldtrips, guides and tips.
Does not include: Airfare to and from home city. Transfer to and from airport destination.
LIMITED TO 20 PARTICIPANTS

To enroll call 310-392-0909 or toll free 1-866-448-5187

The Mayne Event: Celebrity Wedding

Okay, I haven't posted much about weddings, but this just ran in InStyle so I thought I would share with you.

This was fun, and was held in a great location. The two more important ingredients in any wedding, the right people and the right place. If these are not in line with you as a photographer, walk away. Really, it's better for all involved and someone else will come along.

In this case, they were both right for me. And, the snaps turned out really nice. A lot of square, black and white negative, and some color added in.

In the future, I'm doing less color, more black and white, and am probably going to eliminate all digital capture and go back to color negative, which I find far more suited to my lifestyle needs than digital color.

Everyone was very relaxed and fun to work with and the weather was near perfect.

Donde Esta El Fuego?

I like people who shake things up. Invite the guests, bring the food, and then...add the fire.

It's not really a birthday party until the fire arrives, and in this case, it arrived in abundance.

Zeiss, Portra, fire...

Mainely Three

Mainely Two

Mainely

I knew I was in another world when someone called my rental car a "wicked pissa."

Maine is a little different, and I think the locals are just fine with that.

Through the gaps in the dense woods, the Atlantic flashes like a movie reel in your mind, all powerful, foreboding. The rock, land and water are somewhat harsh but the sum translates to pure beauty.

Cliche doesn't cover the view even when you catch yourself standing there and saying, "Gee, that looks just like a postcard."


We have timed it right, early spring, before the hordes arrive in search of the lobster roll and precious sun for their winter skin.
The beaches are empty, and on the morning run barely a car passes.

If there is a more beautiful place in our eastern region, I'm not sure where it might be.

Maine is rife with history, culture and old, wooden things bleached by the sun and snow.

This is a place where staring in silence is commonplace.

My Kinda Portrait

Shooting black and white is about shadow and light. Right? Okay, at least I think so. So, why not use shadow and light. This is my kinda portrait. I did this entire shoot with one roll, twelve exposures. TOTAL. And, I used nine of the images.
This is my favorite.
"But I can't see the faces," the traditionalist screams. True, very true, but guess what. Everyone involved in this shoot...........knows who they are!!!!! It works!!!!!

Tradition is for cake recipes

Don't do what you THINK you are supposed to do. Do what you WANT to do. Try it

Color for Color

What could be better than just walking about with a camera? Okay, walking around with a camera with a winning lotto ticket in your pocket? Ya, that sounds good to me. I don't shoot color that much, at least when it comes to documentary work, but I've started to more. I used to shoot color all the time, and it fact shot nothing but for years. I started with color, and am glad I did. But I have to say, much work I see is shot in color for the sake of shooting color because, "that is what people want," or so we have been told. But I'm not so sure.
I think if you are going to shoot color, shoot for the COLOR, not because that is the default setting.
If your shooting at noon, in horrific light, who cares? I think the newspaper world missed the boat on this. Back in the 80's we were told the readership was "too sophisticated" for black and white and "demanded" color.
That's odd, in my time working at newspaper I heard a constant stream of people telling me, "I miss black and white, why don't you guys run it anymore."
Makes you wonder who makes these decisions.
So here is a little color.

The Joy of Compulsive Shooting

There is perhaps no reason for it. Typically they are unseen. But once you have the bug you just can't stop. It's relentless, and I'm not sure you can understand it if it hasn't really hit you yet. Always in the back of your mind, "What am I going to miss?"
"Are you going to take your bag with you?" a question I am asked every week as I carry around my "stuff." From the plane, in passing, strangers, a celebration, a memorial and a happy accident.

Superwoman

Ninety-eight and still going strong. The first time I met her she held my head in her hands and said, "You handsome brute."

I'm trying to figure out how I can be as active, upbeat and healthy. Not sure it is possible at this point. Her advice, "eat blueberries."

She can remember phone numbers from decades ago, ALL of them. I can't remember what I did last Tuesday.

She also taught me about scratcher tickets, for the lottery. I bought her five, she made fourteen bucks.

Easy as pie.

Unrelated Photo Post TWO

Okay, just out of morbid curiosity, I emailed a friend in Italy and asked about "petrol prices." The last time I was there I rented a four door Smart car and was still spending, if I remember correctly, about $70 per tank.

this was my friend's response....."right now we’re paying about Euro 1.60 per liter, that means about Euro 6.20 per gallon that in USD is about 9.92 per gallon..."


Interesting. $9.92 per gallon. Anyone ready for that yet?

Unrelated Photo Post

Okay, this post has little to do with photography, but I thought I would send it anyway. Okay, try to follow me. So, I see a movie trailer for the new documentary about Hunter S. Thompson, a great writer, and one of the most underrated authors of all time in my opinion. Looks to be a great movie.

It reminded me of something he wrote, "War is good business," which always struck me funny, not only due to the idea of this being a reality, but also because it was just HST's way of looking at things and envisioning war in this war was just different.

But, war IS good business. Not for everyone, in fact most people suffer more than prosper, but there is a select group that does profit from war. Equipment makers, arms makers, etc, the usual suspects.

As I drove home from the grocery store and noticed today's gas prices, and I say "today's" because as we all know, the prices are rocketing up EVERY SINGLE DAY, it made me think about the idea of war profiteering.

Look no further than the oil and gas companies. Again, the select few are making RECORD profits at the moment, while the rest of the population suffers.

Now, with having said that, we all need a collective wake up in terms of our energy uses. People, I'm pointing the finger at myself as much as anyone else. Let's just call me an "under construction" human with room for improvement in nearly every aspect of life. Don't think I'm leaving myself out of this discussion.

In my humble opinion, we have had low gas prices my entire life, compared to the rest of the world, and I can still remember, at one point during my high school years, paying $.65 per gallon for gas. Not to shabby. Venezuela prices you might say.

Okay, I'm no economist, or oil expert, but it appears to me we are "allowing" this craziness to happen.

First, we refuse to conserve. It is widely known that the world reached peak oil in roughly 1980, which means we are using more than we are finding, by some estimates at a 3 to 1 ratio.
What do we do? Buy GIANT vehicles that suck gas.

Again, I drove a truck, small one, 4x4 for YEARS, and I love trucks, but it doesn't make sense for me, living where I do now, to continue to drive a vehicle like this. We gotta get smaller, again, just like the rest of the world. We can do it, no big deal, and the small cars of today are super-cool, not like the old days when my mom drove this rear-engine, yellow VW wagon that buzzed like an angry bee. Although for me, I LOVED that car, and wish we still had it. Chrome roof rack by the way. Cool in any country.

Second, the gas companies KNOW we won't conserve, SO they just continue to "speculate" about global supply, which in turn drives the prices through the roof.

THEY WILL KEEP PUSHING UNTIL WE CONSERVE.

Actually, I don't really fault them. They are in business and want to maximize profits. It's simple. Keep raising the price until you hit the limit, and right now, $5 gallon is going to be what we see next.

Now the really sad part, even after this "crisis" passes, if it EVER does. Don't expect the prices to drop that much. It's over kids, the days of cheap esso are gone.

If you think about it, much of our society is based on cheap gas. Take the idea of suburbs. Commuting, etc. All based on cheap and easy gas. If we were paying euro prices for gas, and had been all along, would the SUV been pushed so heavily? Would people commute 30 miles to work? Would urban sprawl ravaged the wilds? Probably not.

Today I read about the death of the SUV and the Hummer being shut down. I choose not to look at this as a bad thing(not to minimize people losing their jobs.) I choose to say, "Okay great, a new direction we all need to collectively take."
Change is great in most cases, and it will only take a short while to get used to things the way they are going to be

Now, the REAL issue. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Can you imagine?

The Straight Story

One thing that I repeatedly hear from customers, shortly after they view my prints is "Why don't my pictures and prints look like yours?" In today's photo-world, where the television commercials make you believe that you can just buy the camera and get amazing images, it is easy to forget how much work is involved in making great pictures.

A friend of mine explained it like this, "If I gave you a Formula One car, do you think you could get on the track and race?"
Of course not, but Formula One cars are slightly pricey and not available at your local drug store, but cameras are, so we tend to take some things for granted that we need to reexamine.

First of all, I've been shooting for fifteen years. You can learn technical issues all day long, but until you spend time in the field, learning light, timing, composition, and learning to find your vision, all the tech solutions mean nothing, nor do megapixels, lenses or transfer rates.

Even though some people are born with an inner vision, you have to LEARN to be a photographer. Anyone can make snapshots, but not many people are GREAT photographers. I'm not saying I am either, just making a point. As one GREAT photographer said to me recently, "There are a lot of people running around with cameras but not many of them are photographers."

However, we have also seen a tremendous shift in the quality bar since the arrival of digital imaging. Today, when we can shoot unlimited images and see them immediately, we sometimes get lazy when it comes to quality. "Good Enough," the phrase, was ushered in during the early days of digital and still applies today. Even though, in many ways, the quality of digital files can far surpass film, in many cases they don't.

Does this sound familiar? Flat prints? Embalmed skin tone? Red images? Plastic skin? Blown hightlights? Shall I go on?
Look at any major magazine and these flaws are front and center, often times on the COVER! I've also seen these flaws on plenty of self-promotion pieces in recent years.

What I'm saying is that people are now, regardless of improvements in technology, accustomed to accepting lesser quality pictures. Plain and simple.

This also translates to the print. I think we have become so used to looking at images online that our standard for prints has also slipped. You can go to many locations and get 8x10 prints for less than $3, which seems incredible, but in most cases those prints are straight machine prints.

What's the difference?

The difference is, just as the photographer made decisions in the field to optimize the image making, so does the photographer make decisions in optimizing images for print. If I had to guess, I would say I make at least seven to ten adjustments, minimum, to an image before I print. And, all these adjustments will vary depending on what type of print I am making, and what type of paper I am using. And, this is a FILM image, digital files take far more adjustments to get them right.

Plus, I'm a history buff, whether it comes to America's involvement in Vietnam or your family's history. So, when I make a print, I made a GOOD print, and a print that will be around in ten years, or fifty years.

All of this thought and process goes into each image, and sometimes this gets lost in the shuffle of our frenetic lives. I wanted to share a little bit of this with you to give a better understanding of what it means to be a photographer in the age of "good enough."

I have also included a before and after image. The first picture is a "straight" scan and the second is the same file "optimized" for print, in this case for a 11x14, pigment print on an uncoated, matte paper.

The Infamous T2

So our first batch has been unveiled and now comes the second round. How things change in life. Now we see T 2.0. This one you come up with on your own. I see the light but you do the rest. The fast lens, sitting on the floor, holding my breath...take a deep breath, blow out half and then stop...hold it. Steady. Snap, snap, snap. Same shoot, different look.

I wonder where these pictures will be in 20 years? Forty years? Eighty?

Snap, snap, snap.

Walter doesn't know. He is just happy to be involved.

The Infamous T

It's all you T. I'm here to make pictures, but I can't do anything without you being you. Luckily for me, you are always "The T" and all I have to do is sit back and wait. I remember babysitting for you when you are just a tidbit, eating tofu chunks and waiting for me to make faces and keep you entertained. Amy and I laughing hysterically as we tried everything in our quiver to keep you happy. And now you are big, and you are doing the entertaining.
I shoot for maybe an hour and this range just appears. This first take is one "look" we come up with. Active, fun, kid-like. I'll save the rest for later. The light is good in spots, bad in others and Little E keeps running in to try and steal the show. He is small and I can still trick him.
So for now, this is it.
I wonder how many shoots we will do before it is all said and done? Here's to as many as possible.

The Cowboy and the Guitar

"We gotta get to the show man," he yelled as he strapped on his guitar and pointed to the outside world. This kid was ON, all afternoon long. At first there was slight hesitation, but after a few minutes I couldn't stop him. He just went and went. We moved from prop to prop, story to story and I just tried to stay out of his way. I never knew what show he was talking about, but it sure must have been good.