How to photograph a photographer
Here’s what I like. I like it when I talk to other portrait and wedding photographers and ask them questions about how they do their thing, and they are completely forthright about what they are up to and how they run their business. There’s no worrying that if I know where they get their albums or prints made that I’ll somehow steal away business or try to copy what they are doing. Nope. Instead, they know it’s just an exchange of info from two people trying to make good decisions about how to provide the best service to our clients.
And I find that the people that are the most open about such things are the photographers that are the most competent and they realize that there’s enough work for everyone and we’re all on the same team anyway. In this town, I’ve felt that good vibe from Kent Miles, Jon Canlas, Tim Uhl, Melissa Kelsey, Dustin Izatt (dude let me borrow his camera!), Hailey Warner and Ashley Thalman. I’m happy I know these people.
And most recently, Stacy Young. I stopped by her studio in Salt Lake a couple weeks ago and she showed me how she does her thing. It was very gracious, and to Stacy, I say, thanks. Then, last week, she came to see me. (I love visitors!) I couldn’t resist taking her picture. Hey man, it’s what I do.
So now, here’s the lovely Stacy.
Thanks for coming, Stacy. Come back soon. You left your purse.
Just kidding. You didn’t leave your purse. But do come back soon.
Side note: Last month two photographers contacted me within one week of each other and asked me about my online ordering system. I use Instaproofs. They wanted to know the ins and outs and what I thought about it. One of the photographers is a very well known and over the top talented photographer from California –I was flattered he emailed me– and the other photographer, from what I could tell, was a fellow just starting out and had all kinds of questions. I took plenty of time to answer their questions and let them know why I like using Instaproofs. Why did I take all that time instead of letting them just figure it out on their own? I did it because that’s what Jon Canlas did when I called him a couple years ago and asked the same thing and I’ve always appreciated that. And the other reason is because, why not? Why not help a guy out? And one of these days, I just may have a question for those people, and I’ll be glad to have them answer whatever it is I want to know.
One more side note to an already overly long post: Here are some other portraits I’ve done of photographers that have come by my studio within the last year .
Trent Nelson
Melissa Kelsey here and here
Justin Lyon
Jon Canlas
*****
Justin Hackworth photographs photographers, blonds, red heads, fat heads, headmasters, grandmasters, grandparents, spirited youth, oceanographers, fur trappers, and he wants to photograph you.
How To Photograph A Photographer
Melissa Kelsey rocks it. She’s a wedding photographer in Salt Lake. I think she’s got style. We’re friends. I’m happy about that. Thanks for coming by today, Melissa. Come by any time.
…..
Justin Hackworth photographs photographers, doctors, rockers, models, musicians, babies, love-birds, grandmothers, actors, hippies, farmers, people with only one eye, teenagers, graduate students, Idahoans, parents, happy people, politicians, super-heros, gun collectors, firefighters, girls named Chelse, boys named Brian, brides, dilettantes, tall people, lovers of peace, nerds, cool kids, dudes, beauty queens, residents of Queens, sculptors, and he wants to photograph you.
Utah wedding vendors at Alta Moda
The finest place in Utah for weddings gowns is Alta Moda. There’s no secret there. And every so often they have a party for wedding vendors. You know, photographers, florists, DJ’s, divorce lawyers. (Just kidding about the lawyers). So a few days ago I went to their party with my girlfriend who also happens to be my wife. Here’s a picture of us being cute together.
Alta Moda just re-designed their website so you want to check it out here and they even have a few pictures I took of beautiful Lindsay. Their party was great fun and it was good to see all the people I dig, like Melissa, Tim, Jon, Leo, Carol and Cynthia, and I was able to meet three photographers who I’ve been dying to meet–Kate, Rebekah, and Stacy. Good times and fancy cheese. And Micah from the Gatsbys was there handing out his demo CD which Amy and I listened to on the way home and danced a funky dance in the car. Want your next function to be awesome? Hire the Gatsbys. If you came to our Christmas party you might recall that’s who we were lucky enough to have play for us.
Thanks, Hilary for the good times. You are a dream.
…..
Hi. My name is Justin. I am a wedding photographer. I love love and I want to photograph your wedding, especially if you are getting married in Hawaii or Greece.
Getting my picture taken was a little awkward
I’ll admit it. I felt a little uncomfortable getting my picture taken. But it’s only fair, right? I mean, that’s what I expect others to go through on a daily basis. Plus, I was really excited to see what sort of pictures a capable photographer would make of me.
So far this month I’ve had 38 portrait sessions (26 of them have been for the 30 Strangers project), but Saturday was the first time that anyone brought along a camera to photograph me.
I think it was a pretty good experience because it really gave me a sense of what it must be like for those people that come to me so I can visually tell the story of their lives and their family relationships.
And so to Kiera, I say, thank you, and home run.
Above images of Justin Hackworth, photographed in Provo Utah by Kiera Haddock.
Get inspired – check out Kiera’s blog:
peaceandpandemonium.blogspot.com
Hey, that’s just how I feel about Photography.
I saw this on A Photo Editor’s blog this morning. Any other photographers feel the same way?
“You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he said. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process.”
“It’s a very weird thing being a photographer.”
Mammoth Men
These guys are nuts.
Fred Egan, Matt Sloan, Nate Kaiser, Justin Lyon and the rest of the Mammoth Men photographed in Park City, Utah
Utah Wedding Photographer
I just spent some time trying to think of anyone I know that is as pleasant and cheerful as Melissa and I could only think of 14 people. Just kidding. I couldn’t think of anyone. That’s how cheerful she is. And she’s a fine photographer, too.
If you know Melissa, you’ll consider yourself lucky any time she’s around.
As always, great to see you today Melissa. Come back soon.
Salt Lake Tribune Photographer – Trent Nelson
Turns out, one of my favorite people is also one of my favorite photographers. I’ve known Trent Nelson for at least 20 years. But it’s not that often that I get a chance to see him. So I was pleased as punch when he came by my office today to say hello.
Trent is the Chief Photographer at the Salt Lake Tribune and has been the Utah News Photographer of the Year three times. His assignments have taken him all over the world, like Africa, Honduras, and Ogden. (I’m just guessing he’s been to Ogden. He didn’t tell me anything about going there. Imagine bragging about going to Ogden. And by the way, he didn’t brag about anything).
From the bio on his website: His 2003 composite photograph of Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton was published over six pages in Sports Illustrated, the largest photograph in the history of the magazine.
Above photo by Trent Nelson — below photo of Trent Nelson
Portrait of the wedding photographer, Justin Lyon
What luck. Justin Lyon is in town to for the Sundance Film Festilval and had a couple photo shoots just down the block from my office. So he stopped by to say hello. Justin seems like the happiest person I know. I can’t imagine that he’s ever frowned or been sad.
Justin and his lovely wife Amelia are wedding photographers in Southern California and making a big splash in their neck of the woods. Everyone loves Amelia and Justin. Cheers, Justin. Thanks for coming by. You’re welcome here any time.
Justin Lyon photographed in Provo Utah by Justin Hackworth
How To Treat A Photographer
My mother-in-law gave me a Stephen Shore book for my birthday and it just arrived today. It’s gorgeous. I’m so excited and this is a great way to treat a photographer.
From Amazon.com:
A teenaged photographic aspirant who hung around at Andy Warhol’s factory in its mid-60s heyday, Shore found success early: his first show at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was held when he was only 23. These 152 full-page, full-color shots comprise his serial project of the 70s, “Uncommon Places,” which documented roadside America with a dispassionate, Andy-like emptiness. It’s an aesthetic that has been endlessly co-opted by American filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Jim Jarmusch, but some of these 12 7/8″ × 10 5/16″ shots of prairies, parking lots, polyester-clad couples and plastic hotel furnishings manage to seem fresh nonetheless. Shore’s concluding interview with Lynn Tillman makes the Warhol connection explicit, and argues for a kind of meaning-making from the void: “Formalism often sounds like a kind of visual nicety, but if I use it, that’s not how I mean it.” Beautiful, lush reproductions with minimal captions allow the photos to speak for themselves.
…….
Sort of reminds me of what Amanda James does.
Beyond Shutter Speed
I remember trying to photograph my friend Christian about one year after I got my first camera. I moved slow, making sure that little needle inside (light meter) was lined up just right. Check the shutter speed. Ok. Got it. Check the aperture. Ok. It’s where it needs to be. Then focus. By that time, Christian had got up and walked away. Christian’s cousin, Trent Nelson, is photojournalist and so Chris was used to that kind of photographer. Moving quickly, making a record of things as they unfold.
Sometimes making a picture is like hitting a fast ball. The first time you play baseball, you don’t have to try and hit a pitch that’s coming at you at 100 mph. Instead, you first hit off a T. Then you try hitting and underhand pitch. And with enough practice and some time later, you’re knocking it out of the park at any speed.
So now I’m a wedding photographer and things move pretty quickly. It helps to get to the point in making pictures where the camera is just an extension of your brain. That what you see, can, in an instant, be recorded for the history books (aka – the wedding album). At that point, fiddling with shutter speed and camera dials means the bride is already down the isle and you missed the kiss.
But anyone can master that part of photography in a relatively short amount of time and then the question is why some pictures are more successful than others. Making pictures that truly sing, pictures that move people to tears, pictures with soul, require more that just a properly exposed image. Yesterday, on his blog, David Alan Harvey, one of the world’s great photographers wrote about the importance of connection to the subject here. You’ll draw your own conclusions, but for me, I read that blog post and think that it’s hard to make a good photograph of another person if you don’t or can’t make a connection with that person in some way. That’s a skill seperate from making pictures, but a skill the good pictures can’t do without.
Portait of Jonathan Canlas
I knew when I woke up yesterday that it would be another great day. Turns out, I was right.
Jon Canlas is a pretty big deal. He’s sponsored by Fuji, he publishes his weddings in all the finest wedding publications, and he photographs weddings all over the world. And the amazing thing, is that he’s only 16 years old. Just kidding. He’s older than that.
Yesterday he came to my office and we had a great time talking about why we shoot weddings and what moves us to be photographers. He told me about his process and I told him about mine. (One thing that’s becoming increasing unique about Jon’s route is that he shoots all film). And we talked about the photographers we admire both in the wedding industry and in the commercial world.
I’ve admired Jon’s work for some time now, so it made me so happy to be able to spend a couple hours talking about the craft with someone I respect. Thanks, Jon. I want to have more days like that.
Jonathan Canlas – Photographed in Provo Utah by Justin Hackworth
Platon
Maybe you don’t recognize Platon’s name, but it’d be hard to miss his photographs, as they have appeared in Time, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Premiere, Wired and others.
I’ve recently posted some details about my time in New York, but the most fabulous part of my whole week in New York was getting to hear Platon speak about his work and life. (Read what PDN had to say about it).
Platon showed his work and talked about what it took to make the pictures of Larry King, David Beckham, Heath Ledger, Martin Scorsese, Rupert Murdoch, Christopher Walken, Sheryl Crow, Benicio Del Toro, Pam Anderson, Neil Young, Donald Trump, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dr. Dre, Jim Lehrer, Willie Nelson, Jude Law, Elliot Spitzer, Michael Moore, Blondie, Kirk Douglas, James Carville, Spike Lee, Bono, Yoko Ono, Al Gore, Susan Sarandon, Matt Damon, Sylvester Stalone, Mos Def, Edward Norton, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and many, many more.
He said he always asks the subject, “What’s your mantra?” It was great to hear him talk about the wisdom these people left with him after he took their picture. In the end, Platon said his mantra is, “Always master the art of living, and then you’ll be free.”
Also, “I’m a believer that everything takes ten years longer than you think it will. Be relentless. There isn’t a secret to success. You have to have talent, but you have to also be relentless. Agression won’t get it. But how much you love it does”.
Pictured above – Samples of Platon’s work.
Pictured below – Platon at PhotoPlus Expo
Famous photographers
Pop quiz, hot-shot. Who are these famous photographers seen last week at the PDN PhotoPlus Expo?
A
B
C
D
Answers:
A – Joel Meyerowitz
B – Greg Gorman
C – Jay Maisel
D - Jim Marshall
Elliott Erwitt and Alec Soth at PhotoPlus
I’m home now, but all last week I was in New York for the PhotoPlus Expo. It’s a trade show and a series of lectures and discussion groups for professional photographers. On Thursday, I got to hear one of the world’s all-time great photographers: Elliott Erwitt. He was funny and inspiring. He was joined on stage with Alec Soth. If you care to read a detailed account of the evening, it’s posted here on PDN’s site.
This was so exciting for me. I’ve admired this guy for years. Truly, he is one of my idols and being able to hear him speak about a creative life was such a thrill.