Award-winning portrait and landscape photographer Nadav Kander recently launched a new YouTube channel that you might want to check out if like viewing high quality work and listening to the thought process behind the photographs. The above video features Kander discussing his project, Yangtze, The Long River. The channel only has two videos so far, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

NadavKanderTube’s Channel (via The F STOP)

Spanish photographer José Luis Rodriguez recently received the prestigious winning title as the Veolia Environment Wildlife photographer of the year, along with £10,000 (about $20,000 $16,000) in prize money for his image, Storybook Wolf.  The photograph depicts a rare, Iberian wolf hopping a fence to enter a corral where the photographer had placed meat to attract the animal.

However, rival photographers along with a wolf expert allege that the shot was set up, suggesting that the wolf would not naturally jump over the fence, but would be more likely to squeeze through the openings.  Additionally, they allege that Rodriguez may have used a captive, tame wolf from a zoological park near Madrid, and trained the animal to hop the fence until he got the shot.

The contest prohibits use of a captive animal unless specified in the description, and the judges noted they would give preference to photos of natural wild animals.

The description that ran with photographer Rodriguez’s image explain the painstaking efforts he made to get the shot, baiting the wolf with meat, camping out and anticipating its entry into the corral.

Now, the photographer not only has prize money and the winning title at stake, but now his reputation as a photographer is on the line as judges decide the image authenticity during the next few weeks. However, the Guardian quotes contest judge Rosamund Kidman Cox, who said,

But until one bit of evidence can be verified I don’t think it’s possible to accuse the photographer of cheating. [...] It’s not 100%.

(via The Guardian)

Ben Cooper is a freelance photographer who works with the NASA imaging team. In addition to having his work published by NASA, he has been featured by publications such as Yahoo! News, Time magazine online, and the New York Times online. You can visit his website here.

PetaPixel: Can you tell me a little about yourself, your background, and what you do?

Ben Cooper: Well, I’m from NYC and have been taking pictures since I was a kid. My taught dad me, he was a photographer. I started getting interested in the space program and following shuttle and rocket missions sometime around 1998 and decided I had to go see one in person. So naturally, combining photography and space became my thing and I haven’t looked back. Finally, after three tries, saw my first shuttle launch in 2001 and then decided to attend school in Florida at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University studying engineering. Since August 2003 I have shot almost every launch out of Florida, and soon enough began garnering interest from some media organizations.
 
I love shooting what I do also because there is only one shot at it, no do overs with launches and other one-time space events that we have. A lot of pre-planning has to go into it, as opposed to less often spur of the moment type captures though we certainly have them.

Shooting launches in particular requires skill – and access, as media or otherwise – that not everyone can attain, and the main different is how you shoot launches up close when no one is allowed closer than several miles from the shuttle or rocket that’s launching. You have to keep in mind we are talking about sticks of dynamite as tall as 15-20 story buildings packing a tremendous amount of power, sound and heat with them when they lift off. So, we set up cameras 12-24 hours beforehand at the launch pads and leave them there, protected from weather and, hopefully, from the launch. And while you’re setting up you deal with alligators, snakes, spiders and swampland. Not to mention the mosquitoes.

Although we cannot get too close on the space shuttle, we can on rockets and I’ve lost a couple of lenses getting shots that are seemingly “right under” the rocket.

The remote cameras I use are mostly sound activated, though not everyone uses that method but it is the most common. They are homemade, not something you can buy in the store. Some are active all the time waiting, while others are on timers so they come on and listen at specific times around the launch window. Occasionally I may use a timer instead of a sound device, if there is a shot worth capturing where sound cannot come soon enough.

As people we get to watch from wherever the press site is or, sometimes, a public site further away depending on what shot we want.

PP: How did you get a job as a NASA photographer?

BC: Soon after graduating in 2008, even though my major was engineering, I really wanted to do something that at least combined photography, and with a lot of experience already shooting for media and myself (especially the remote cameras) I was hired to help shoot with the NASA imaging team.

PP: What was your first camera?

BC: A plastic Olympus point and shoot; I still have it but it’s at my family’s house so I don’t remember the model!

PP: What equipment do you use now?

BC: Today I have a couple of Nikon D200s personally, as well as sharing a few Canon digitals with friends of mine (we share equipment a lot and help each other out). I’ve gotten to use a wide range of cameras in both Nikon and Canon, anywhere from Nikon D70 (my first digital) and Canon 10D up to D3x.

PP: Do you use your own gear or NASA’s when shooting launches?

BC: On the job I use NASA’s gear, but shooting for myself or media outlets I use my own. I have used anything from Canon 10D and Nikon D70s, to Kodak Pros, to Nikon D3Xs.

PP: How close do you actually get to the launch site?

BC: For launch itself, you the person are several miles away at the closest (for the space shuttle, three miles is the closest anyone gets and this is limited to press, employees and VIPs. For the public, it’s 6.5 miles). Setting up cameras at the pad, the “remotes”, for the shuttle it’s about 1500 feet closest; and for unmanned rockets we can place them as close as say 100 feet away, much more in the danger zone.

PP: What’s the process of photographing for NASA like?

BC: All I do is take the raw images and hand them to the photo editors, whether for public display after a launch or event, or for documentation records on other things. I don’t think they do much post processing for public images at least because I never see corrections made. Which is probably a good thing to an extent. No, I don’t do anything from home.

PP: Do you travel to different launch sites, or do you mainly photograph at the site closest to you?

BC: The United States has two main launch sites, Cape Canaveral, FL and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Obviously, the shuttle is here in Florida, as are the majority of US launches (Cape Canaveral and Baikonur in Russia are the big, busiest ones).

I have not gotten to Vandenberg yet, however I did have the opportunity of shooting the launch of a smaller rocket out of Walops Island, Virginia, on the Delmarva Peninsula. They decided to revive this NASA facility as a small-rocket launch site in 2006 after a 21 year absence. I shot the first one they had in 2006, and there have been two more since.

PP: What advice do you have for someone who dreams of doing what you do?

BC: Start off by trying to see a launch! There are only six shuttle launches left as of now and an uncertain future in manned spaceflight until a decision is made later this year. Advice for coming to see one.

Garnering some experience shooting launches or aerospace events, say airshows and such, would probably be a plus. It’s hard to anyone to get close enough to shoot things other than launches, though.

PP: What are some mistakes you see photographers commonly making?

BC: Assuming what they are going to get and what it’s going to look like. Until you see one for the first time, you might not have an idea of what you are about to shoot. And with no second chance on any particular launch (or if you aren’t coming back) could lead to a disappointment. With astrophotography, except in cases where it’s a one-time event, you can always try again because objects stay where they are and you can practice. With a launch I would advise doing a little research or asking around to make sure you get the shot right. I did that my first time ten years ago, and still do it today sometimes despite all I know and can teach. The learning never stops.

Most common mistake, though? Not enjoying the launch. “Watch with your eyes and not in the viewfinder” is my usual advice to people who email for information. I do that myself any chance I get.

PP: Who are some of your favorite photographers?

BC: Boy I don’t know, I haven’t thought about that too much. I might have to think about it.

PP: Who is one person you would choose to be interviewed by PetaPixel?

BC: That’s a tough one, especially in another field.

I have a friend who I have known a while who has also focused on a specific photo type and become quite good, and that’s shooting trains.

I have other friends who do what I do who I have learned from over the years, and we exchange ideas regularly. Bill Hartenstein is one; James Brown is another.

PP: Anything else you’d like to say to PetaPixel readers?

BC: I try to encourage everyone to come see a launch, especially the space shuttle, before it’s too late. Everyone should see one once and soon it will be too late. It’s an experience you’ll never forget, especially at night. And I’m happy to help with any advice people may seek!

Adam Taylor is a commercial photographer based in Sydney, Australia. His clients include Coca-Cola, Olympus, Rogaine, and Canon. Visit his website here.

PetaPixel: Could you tell me a little about yourself and what you do?

Adam Taylor: My name is Adam Robert Taylor. I am a photographer. I work mostly here in Australia and increasingly throughout other parts of the world.

PP: How did you get started in photography?

AT: My dad was into it. I remember being 5 or 6 and discovering his collection of kodachrome slides from all his travels before he met my mum, and also some beautiful stuff from when they first met and the beach parties they used to have with all their friends. I was super fascinated with the feel and colour of those images. I remember having slide nights with our family and friends and the atmosphere within the darkened room , the images projected onto the wall and all that gorgeous colour massive on our lounge-room wall, and everyone just looked so young and attractive! It was totally intoxicating!

So that was the early seed being planted or blueprinted into my imagination and it just grew from that. Setting up my own darkroom under our house in the cellar. Digital hadn’t arrived just yet so I was processing and printing all my own black & white film.

I remember having a really interesting art teacher in high school, she was into photography and we had another darkroom there that we could use during art lessons. All this gave me a wonderful base to start from with photography. I developed a real passion with photography and a way of interpreting my world. Also I was incredibly shy as a teenager and it was a great way to be a little isolated and outside of things with a camera and a darkroom. I used to photograph my family, friends and girlfriends. The whole feel of being the “director” when you’re doing a portrait session was just awesome.

When I was about 20 I went for this job as a photojournalist and I had no experience at all in journalism but the editor really liked my photos, so I got the job and was thrown in the deep end and really learned a lot. I had to work quickly with the capturing of images and juggling the interview side of things as well. I became quite social, the shy teenager had disappeared . I did that for a while then decided it wasn’t really my thing and then went onto a wonderful art school in Sydney “National Art School” for 4 years and majored in photography – this was very liberating and such a discovery. I finished Art school and went over to London and assisted advertising and fashion guys for a couple of years, I traveled and explored some incredible cultures and peoples with my camera during that time. My first jobs as a freelance photographer were doing portraits and fashion stories for surf and music magazines.

PP: What was your first camera?

AT: A Canon F1 – which was stolen from our car! Then I saved up and got a Hasselblad.

PP: What gear do you use now?

AT: I like to shoot with the Canon 1Ds Mark 3 – or the Hasselblad with a phase, leaf or imacon back – I don’t really mind through – whatever is available.

Mostly broncolor lighting – but profoto is good too.

PP: How do you go about taking a portrait? Can you tell us about your process?

AT: I do my homework and have a few cards up my sleeve for the day of the portrait. By “homework” I mean having worked out a creative angle for the shoot. Also if the person is well known, I do research on the Internet. This is always helpful. I see how that person has been photographed before, this helps me find my own path for the portrait. I do all the work beforehand in my head. I pre-visualize the image that I am aiming for and I also have backup image(s) that I’m thinking about as well.

My approach is to find the “humanness” to break down the barriers and the power. I go a lot on my intuition and gut feeling with people. Sometimes you have to ease your way into the portrait slowly, other times “wow” you can get the portrait in the first few frames.
I was a boy scout when I was about 11, and the scout’s motto’s was: “be prepared” !

PP: What advice do you have regarding photographing strangers? How do you go about doing this?

AT: Strangers, people in the street, someone you walk up to and say, “excuse me, can I take your photograph”. This is always so challenging and the fear of rejection is ever prevalent. I find that you really have to be totally 100% committed for approaching people like this. People can sense when you are honestly enthusiastic, excited and buzzing about them and will feed into that vibe and 95% of the time you will get a positive response.

Otherwise it’s a reportage approach and the trick is to capture your subject totally unaware — a moment of grace. This is very difficult with the large bulky 35mm SLRs. I find it works better with the smaller more discrete cameras.

PP: Is there anything you wish you had known before becoming a professional photographer?

AT: Not really – what I’ve learned is that there is no set path to becoming a professional photographer.

PP: What is the most challenging aspect of what you do?

I’m continually challenged – that’s what I love about it.

PP: Can you tell us a little about how the advertising photography business works?

AT: I will try my best to talk about this – but it’s such a large subject we could talk all day on just this subject !

I think the first thing is to have a really strong folio of your work. Once you have a great portfolio its time to get around and see as many art buyers and creatives as you can.

Its difficult, I started out in editorial – doing work for magazines before I moved over into advertising. I am pretty lucky now because people come to me for my unique style. I usually get to approach the project like I’d do if I did it on my own.

The creatives send over a layout, we talk about it, I try to understand and get my head around what they are trying to accomplish. Once you get an advertising job its up to the photographer to work out how you are going to achieve the results and put together
estimates and sometimes a treatment for the campaign. I work with my producer on the nuts and bolts of the shoot and I take control of the creative direction of the shoot.

I spend quite a lot of time researching and envisioning how I want the campaign to look. Usually you are bidding against other photographers at this stage until you win the job. Then its time to move ahead on the job. I always spend weeks of time and effort planning for the shoot. Double-checking everything to the nth degree so that I’m satisfied everything will go smoothly on the day of the shoot. Fine tuning the creative, location scouting, castings, pre-production meetings with the art director, copyrighter and the client. Then the shoot day(s). Usually a lot of people are involved – producer, talent, crew, agency people, clients, stylists, hair & makeup. Then into postproduction and working with my retouchers and the creative team for the final outcome of the image(s). Mostly my projects are quite involved and can take anything from a week to a few months. It’s a collaboration of a whole bunch of people – a team effort.

PP: Why did you choose to do advertising photography rather than other types of photography?

AT: I do like the collaboration of working with talented people on exciting concepts and ideas. I get to travel and make great pictures. I love it.

I get to do personal work too. At the moment I’m looking for a gallery to exhibit some of my personal work next year and publish my first photo book.

PP: Would you recommend a beginning photographer start out in film or digital? Why?

AT: That is a good question! I learned so much by starting out in film. You become more thoughtful and more considered when you are using film.

Digital gives the more instantaneous results that can be reviewed and applied. It’s so easy now to go out and buy a relatively cheap digital camera and just start shooting. Digital is great, you can craft and finesse angles and lighting a lot quicker than with film. A lot of the photographers that I really admire have started out in film and have that filmic sensibility and thoughtful composition to their work, even when they have gone on to shoot in digital.

But in saying all this – the most important thing is the strength of your vision, what you have to say and your passion for making images. This will shine through no matter the medium – digital or film.

PP: Are there any specific things you’ve learned along the way that caused big improvements in the quality of your work?

AT: Always try new things and take risks. Show your work to as many people as you can and seek out those people who you trust to give you honest constructive criticism on your work.

Surround yourself with good people, mentors and friends.

Don’t be in it for the money. Do it because you enjoy it. The money will come.

PP: If you weren’t a photographer, what do you think you might be doing?

AT: A painter or a sculptor.

PP: How many hours a week do you work?

AT: It’s a way of life, so I’m always working. I love it.

PP: Can you tell us a little about the Canon 1Ds Mark 3?

AT: Excellent camera. It works great for me for a lot of my work. Lots of great features – I like the zoom and toggle control for reviewing images on the back screen, also the focusing points to choose from are very helpful. Works wonderfully with all the canon lenses.

On the downside it is quite heavy and it’s taken them too long to finally get it all good for working tethered to the computer with the capture one software.

PP: Who are some photographers you’re a fan of?

AT: Henri Cartier Bresson, Irving Penn, and Larry Sultan.

PP: Who is one person you would choose to be interviewed by PetaPixel?

AT: Larry Sultan.

Joseph Holmes is a landscape photographer from California, and a pioneer in fine art print making. Visit his website here. You can also read about him on Wikipedia here.

PetaPixel: Could you tell us a little about yourself and what you do?

Joseph Holmes: I live in California and had an early introduction to some of its best natural beauty. Since high school, I’ve been dedicated to making the best body of landscape photographs that I can, with my efforts having been mainly aimed at color work. I spend a lot of time studying imaging processes and tools in order to be sure that I know the best methods to apply to my work, and therefore find myself in a position to offer teaching in advanced methods to other photographers. I write articles to assist other photographers which appear on my own web site, josephholmes.com, and in magazines, and I do teaching in one-on-one sessions and in occasional workshops. I also have invented a number of imaging techniques, including my favorite method for controlling the amount of color in an RGB imaging process. This is explained on the profiles pages of my web site. Making fine prints for sale has been a big part of my work for many years. I’ve published three books and many calendars and posters of my work too.

PP: How did you get started in photography?

JH: I learned from a book that photography could be something much deeper than merely making pictures of things. I also learned that these pictures could inform people of the sacred places of the Earth and the importance of protecting the wholeness of nature’s creations from the rising tide of our own impacts upon them. And finally, I learned from that same book that I had the ability to do this job well.

PP: How old were you when you came across that inspirational book?

JH: I was 16 when I saw the book. It was a paperback copy of the Sierra Club Exhibit Format book, “Gentle Wilderness: The Sierra Nevada,” with photographs by Richard Kauffman and text from John Muir’s “My First Summer in the Sierra.” It was designed by my friend David R. Brower and/or his son Ken. I got to know Richard many years later. I had always hoped to run into him backpacking somewhere, but, more predictably I suppose, I first met him at Dave Brower’s 70th birthday party at the office of Friends of the Earth in San Francisco. I also met Governor Jerry Brown there too, in a rather humorous encounter. It was 1982.

PP: What was your first camera?

JH: The very first was literally a Kodak Brownie camera, with which I exposed just one roll of B&W film when I was 5 years old. The first one I used after encountering the inspirational book mentioned above was a $20 Kodak Pony camera, which used 828 format film, which is like 35 mm film but without the sprocket holes, so the frames are a bit larger and closer to 4×5 in shape. I always used Kodachrome 25. By the time I got the next camera as a high school graduation gift, a Minolta Autocord twin-lens-reflex medium-format camera, I already knew I wanted to work with a 4×5 Linhof Technika. The Linhof was fantastically compact and therefore sufficiently portable for my kind of work, and still rich with controls for tilt focus and perspective control, and so on. The second summer after I bought my first Technika, in 1971, I carried it during all 500 miles of backpacking that I did in 14 weeks, while doing part of a survey of the Yosemite backcountry for the National Park Service. That outfit weighed a mere 11 pounds and had just one lens and three film holders. The outfit would eventually grow to more like 50 pounds.

PP: What equipment do you use now?

JH: Since the fall of 2006 I have been using digital capture. My current outfit is a Phase One (Mamiya AFD 3) camera body with a group of Mamiya lenses, carefully hand-chosen for quality, with a Phase One P45+ back. It’s quite a departure from the Linhof, but the resulting quality is, on average, higher even with respect to detail, and much higher with respect to color accuracy in the raw capture. It’s also much faster and allows for a very large number of exposures, which in turn makes it feasible to use stitching and focus blending to get different aspect ratios (height to width ratios), much more detail, and essentially any amount of depth of field needed. It’s very different, and now my pictures are frequently unique in shape, due to the stitching. The increased dynamic range and color quality make it practical to include lots of bright sky with darker foreground elements and retain superb quality in the highlights as well as strong, open shadows. This system goes well beyond what was possible with chemical B&W using every possible Zone System method, and it does so in color, which is inherently far more complicated. It’s been a long time coming.

PP: How do you decide what or where to shoot?

JH: I figure out where to make pictures by learning about the appearance of landscapes, mostly from other people’s pictures, but sometimes just by going there. Sometimes travels are arranged by friends who want to raft a particular river or see a particular place. I’ve always taken notice of the potential of various places to give me what I’m looking for and filed them away for a time when I see forces aligning to make it right to visit that place. Most interestingly, I usually find things in a landscape that I’ve never seen hinted at in other people’s pictures.

Another thing that struck me once I started to travel a lot outside of central California, was that no two landscapes are the same. I had imagined that there would be substantial regions where things were a certain way — a certain mixture of vegetation, geomorphological features, and weather. But as I’ve traveled, I’ve seen that this mixture is infinitely variable and that the patterns make each place unique. There are still places that look enough alike that I can’t always tell a place from one picture of it, but I’ve gotten quite good at identifying the location of scenes from North America and often the rest of the world. Some places have had very few pictures of them published (the Andes, the mountains of Kazhakstan, parts of Ukraine, etc.), and I’ve greatly enjoyed seeing amazing images of these places which were able to come as surprises.

PP: How much film do you carry with you on a typical outing?

JH: These days I carry compact flash cards and a laptop and a couple of small hard drives as backups. Flash memory capacity has grown to be so great that one can make thousands of exposures on a single trip, whereas a very heavy shooting schedule on prior trips with 4×5 film might result in 500 exposures in a couple of weeks. Compact flash is great. Backups and previewing still need to get better.

PP: Mac or PC? What programs do you use?

JH: I’ve never relied on Windows machines for any work to speak of, except software testing. I don’t see why anybody would choose to subject themselves to PCs or would willingly contribute financially to Microsoft any more than necessary, given their marked propensity to engage in anti-competitive behavior. The big market share and the build-it-yourself features are compelling, but Apple really has it together these days especially. My new Mac Pro is quite stunning. Over the next few years, the applications I use for imaging will grow to take advantage of multiple cores and virtual cores and the upcoming 64-bit OS, and so become a great deal faster even than they are today, with no change in hardware. Photoshop lags on technological advances, usually by about four years, and has therefore usually been painfully slow and awkward for my work. I’ve at least managed to squeeze a lot more speed out of CS4 for Mac with large files by using my new, dual-Intel E SSD RAID 0 array, described in this article.

For many years, from about 1995 through 2006, I relied primarily on Live Picture for image edits, which made working on large files possible and practical many years ahead of Photoshop, because it’s speed was generally independent of file size. I also like Helicon Focus (see my article about my work with the developer here), and both Photomerge (in Photoshop CS3 or CS4) and PTGui Pro for stitching. ColorThink is great for learning about color management-related issues, largely by displaying gamuts of devices based on their ICC profiles, and by displaying the colors of an image as points in 3D space by opening a very down-sampled TIFF (use Nearest Neighbor to scale down to roughly 100 x 100 pixels or a little bigger).

Mac OS 10.6 is going to be quite remarkable and I feel very good about depending on it and its successors for many years to come.

PP: What is the best advice you could give to an aspiring landscape photographer?

JH: Once I asked Dave Bohn, the guy who produced Glacier Bay, the Land and the Silence, one of the other Sierra Club Exhibit Format books, ‘What should I do to get my work published?’, to which he replied ‘Do good work’. I thought, duh, why did I ask? As far as deciding to be a landscape photographer, just keep it keenly in mind that a very large number of people are interested in landscape photography these days, but the size of the professional niche for it is extremely small. Consider how many original prints of fine landscape photographs you have personally purchased, and you can begin to understand this. Therefore do not assume that you can make a living doing this unless you can outdo the many fanatics who are already trying to do it. Either with hard work, or with good work, or with better marketing.

Making great photographs can be unbelievably difficult. But since the mechanisms of photography have become easier lately, the quality and quantity of work produced have both gone up. It’s gotten so that when I go to any of the most iconic landscape views to make pictures during optimal times of the year, the number of tripods set up can be mind-boggling. In one famous spot, I counted 58 tripods waiting for the sunrise. Until a few years ago, the number would have been somewhere between zero and one.

PP: What are the biggest challenges you face as a professional photographer?

JH: It’s very difficult to get all the work done that I need to get done. I spend a great deal of time in preparation. Much of that preparation has involved making tools either from scratch or in collaboration with companies of varying size in the imaging industry. Sometimes these efforts have lasted several years. My first darkroom was a dye-transfer printing lab, and I spent five years building and equipping it, on a budget. For the next color printing method, Cibachrome II, I spent three and a half years building a very fine, additive lamphouse for my Durst 5×7/8×10 enlarger, so that my Cibas would have more satisfying color than was otherwise possible (great blues and greens), and it worked. Better in fact than I ever imagined it might. It has 1500 parts and 1,000 electrical connections, half of which I soldered myself. It has over 120 precision-fabricated sheet metal parts, mostly hard black anodized. It’s a work of art and it made a much larger improvement in my Cibachromes than I had guessed it might. But now it’s a paperweight fit for a photography museum. The advance to the current level of color imaging over the last 40 years has been vast and upending and costly. Starting off now makes things much easier, but the same is true for the others who are thinking the same thing.

There are many challenges. It’s hard to say which are the biggest, but I’d probably have to say the burden of the technologies of photography. At least during my time to date. From now on it would be less, but still a major burden. The tools are expensive, if you want to do first-class work with the finest image detail. If single frames from a 12 to 24 MP full-frame DSLR are sufficient to please you (say, prints up to 16 x 24 or so), then life is pretty easy. Comparatively.

The next big challenge is probably to impose the discipline on yourself necessary to get the work done right. But that will be for naught if you don’t see well.

PP: What are some common mistakes you see photographers making?

JH: One of my favorite Anselisms is the notion of making sharp pictures of fuzzy concepts. One could describe that as being the most common mistake of any photographer who doesn’t do strong work.

PP: What is something you wish you had known when you first became a professional photographer?

JH: Nothing that I can think of. Aside from how to save the world from the thrashing its getting from the human enterprise. If we don’t learn how to live in harmony, as they say, with the Earth, and do so very soon, it’ll pretty much be over. What’s left of the biosphere is already a shadow of what it was a couple of centuries ago, and the explosion is still accelerating. Unfortunately, there are enough people who don’t know, don’t understand, and couldn’t care less, who are working to stifle efforts to save what’s left, that our chances of success are not good. Unless we all decide to put our shoulders to the task and overwhelm the fundamentalists with our efforts, we’re going to loose most of what’s left of creation, and very soon.

Our constitution holds the key to living in harmony not only with ourselves but with the living planet. Read just the preamble carefully. Fewer than 200 million human beings enjoying a high standard of living might be able to make things last for millennia or longer. We’re rapidly approaching 7,000 million total, and high-tech living is spreading rapidly.

We The People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Take particular note of “…and our Posterity”. How can we secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity if we use them all up for ourselves? Clearly, this most beautiful paragraph ever written is saying, among other things, that it’s unconstitutional not to live sustainably — whatever that should require.

PP: Who are your favorite photographers, both historical and contemporary?

JH: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Brett Weston, Cole Weston, Richard Kauffman, Joel Meyerowitz, Charles Cramer, Huntington Witherill, and who am I forgetting?

More than that, it was the Beatles and John in particular who were the greatest inspiration to live as an artist, frankly. And several of the painters have been powerful influences: van Gogh, Monet, O’Keefe, and Thomas Moran.

PP: Who is one person you would like to see interviewed by PetaPixel?

JH: I really couldn’t say, at the moment. Maybe it’s just too close to the end of a long day.

PP: Any final words of encouragement or wisdom you would like to share with PetaPixel readers?

JH: I should suggest that a finely crafted picture carries an implicit message — that the photographer cares about what was in front of the lens. In one way or another at least. And that if you work hard enough, you may be able to effect a positive change in our collective awareness of something that we might otherwise never see.

Gary Salter is a professional photographer based in London UK. You can visit his website at Gary Salter Photography. His clients include Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Ford, Vodafone, Citibank, LG, Jaguar, Nike, McDonalds, and Playstation.

PetaPixel: Could you tell me a little about yourself and what you do?

Gary Salter: I’m a Photographer based in London, I’ve been shooting for 17 years. I grew up in the north of England, I Studied graphics and photography at Liverpool, worked for a short time in the design world before making the break into photography. My interest in photography developed when I was about 8, It seemed natural that I would end up in a visual field when I was older. I also had an ability to draw, this eventually pushed me into studying graphics , the liverpool course had a strong photographic department, which was perfect for me. After college I ended up in the design world, working alongside some of londons top photographers, this was inspiring,

It was only time before I had to make the break.

PP: What kind of photography do you do?

GS: My commissioned work is 90% advertising based. It’s mainly people on location, quirky people. Some of the images are quite ironic, and we try to have as much fun as possible with them.

The commissioned work originally stem from my early street photography which contain a lot of observational humour. I still continue my ‘hobby’ street photography and tend to use it as a ‘sketch pad’ for ideas. Ideas that I can make into something bigger.

PP: How did you first get into photography? What was your first camera?

GS: I was 8 years old and I loved it, I think it was a Kodak Instamatic. My first serious camera at 18 was a Canon AE1. It was a gift when I started at college.

PP: What equipment do you use for your work now?

GS: I use whatever it takes for the job. It’s not really about the camera, it’s about the picture. I work out the requirements then use the best camera to solve the problem, I have a lot of cameras in the collection.

PP: Which would you say are your favorite cameras and lenses?

GS: My favourite camera is the one that will solve the problem the best, I can list a few. The Canon 1Ds MK3 is amazing, It’s a work horse, Is great in more stressed conditions where there’s less control. The hassleblad H3 D2, fantastic for the larger setup multiple people sets and huge productions. The leica M8 is fantastic as the street camera, it looks old fashioned its not in your face and it’s quiet.

PP: You’ve work with some pretty notable clients. Were there any that stick out as being especially fun to shoot for?

GS: I’m very fortunate in having a fantastic crew, all jobs are fun, there are many a story from many productions and some do stand out, but it would not be fair to name them.

PP: Can you tell me about your workflow? What’s the process like for a photo to go from your camera to the final image?

GS: Varies again on requirement, we shoot into Macs, makes life much easier, files are regularly backed up onto external raids.

We then build presentation websites for the clients to make selections. I have already made my selections and they are on the site too as preferenced shots. These tend to be the ones we work with at the end. Post production is split between myself and a company called loupe. They know how I want the images to look, and we work well together.

The client is kept up to date with the progress of the post production by a website where we launch the latest ‘critical’ changes to the image, they see a string of images next to each other from start to finish. Then it’s supplied to the client.

PP: Many of your photographs seem to be very elaborately staged. How many people are involved in each shoot, and how long do the shoots generally take?

GS: The idea stages take the time. Once we have a plan then anything can be achieved. There are many people. Vinita Dave does the production alongside myself. There will be hair make up and assistant, stylist and assistant, location finders. I like to build my own sets, (e.g. the sauna shots we built in my studio in shoreditch, and so was the changing room for the old footballers), I build these with one of my long term assistants Jose, amongst others. We will have 3 assistants on a shootday and a digital operator, then anyone else the project requires, eg stylists, hairmakeup etc etc.

PP: Who are the people that appear in your staged photos? How do you find the people you want?

GS: We use a mixture of model agencies and actors agents. It’s organised via a casting agent. If we can’t find them there, then we’ll street cast. I have a lot of respect for my casting agent, she really knows the business.

PP: Is there anything you wish you had known when you first started out in commercial photography?

GS: Yes, you don’t get much time off. You have to be completely committed, and have a love for images.

Money too. Very difficult… This means all the money goes back into the business, banks don’t understand what we do. We don’t make widgets, so they don’t get it. It’s hard work to get to a level where you don’t have to talk to them.

If you believe in pictures, you can do it.

PP: What advice would you have for an aspiring photographer who dreams of getting to where you are now?

GS: Carry a camera at all times and use it all the time. Observe and enjoy.

Test, test, test, set yourself projects, and see them through. Pictures get old quicker these days, you always need something new to show people.

PP: How important would you say a formal education in photography is?

GS: Good question. My best assistants over the years have all done degree courses, they know their stuff. They have then assisted for 4 years before moving on to their own stuff.

I have met allot of assistants that think its easier than it is, They break out too soon because they see the money. They tend to struggle and end up shooting things they don’t want to, things that aren’t right for them. The guys who really do well are the ones that do the time.

It’s not essential these days, but it’s a massive advantage.

PP: What does a formal education provide you with that is difficult to obtain otherwise?

GS: A chance to find your own direction, find what you would like to create in a competitive market, then give you the opportunity to go and get work with someone in that area who’s work you respect.

PP: Are there any photographers whom you keep up keep up with online?

GS: It seems strange to say I try to avoid that as much as possible, I like to do my own thing which has taken a very natural progression, watching what others are doing isn’t that healthy. I have had experiences when I have known people to become a little over influenced.

I do go to exhibitions, I keep up with the industry press, I love photo books, I just don’t like the online thing.

PP: Could you name some other photographers you respect?

GS: I’d have to go to the old school guys, likes of Elliott Erwitt, and Bresson.

Quite like more recent people like Martin Parr and David LaChapelle.

PP: If you could choose one person to be interviewed on PetaPixel, who would it be?

GS: Elliott Erwitt. Love to know what he was thinking when he took some funnier images.

PP: Any final thoughts you’d like to leave PetaPixel readers with?

GS: Final thoughts, many, but most importantly, Always carry a camera, use it as a sketch pad for your ideas, enjoy using it, ignore the rules and have fun.

Jan von Holleben is an award winning German photographer whose work is widely published in magazines and books. View his recent project “Dreams of Flying” here or his website here.

PetaPixel: Could you tell me about yourself and what you do?

Jan von Holleben: I am a photographer, and I take photographs. More than that I am a visual communicator instead of an illustrator. I developed a strategy on how to tackle problems and ideas, and those activities are always resolved in an image.

This said, I don’t take pictures for people or fashion or cars or weddings or animals. I play with them and I play photography with them.

PP: Where are you located?

JVH: In Berlin and sometimes in London where I lived the last 7 years and still have a little workplace!

PP: How did you first get into photography?

JVH: My dad is a trained photographer and works as the DOP (Director of Photography) at a TV station. I was always amazed by all the tricks he did with photography and how he bent reality with very simple and standard tricks of the lens… (and those tricks he just did in his training learning the trade) still for me as a kiddo very impressive. I started when I was 13 to take up a camera and start shooting.

It all started there and then with my friends on an everyday, anywhere basis.

PP: How would you describe and categorize your photography?

JVH: Difficult. In German there is a word for it that is called ‘Autoren Fotograf’. Which means that the photographer is like an author, telling a story from his point of view. Easiest is always to say that I am an artsy fartsy artist with a camera as I get away with things very easily then (you should see what we do sometimes with people and places… and that’s just funny and people don’t take you serious and wonder what you do – and then you tell them you are an artist and all is good)

I really have difficulties with a category, which makes my daily life not too easy either, because people need categories to give me a job. and they don’t know how to work with me.. so I have to put a lot of effort into educating people how I work and how we can work together!

I don’t see myself as a pure artist. I think I am a pure photographer, which pulls me out of any photography categories and makes me just deal with one thing: PHOTOGRAPHY.

PP: How did you get the idea for your “Dreams of Flying” series of photographs?

JVH: It happened on a day when I was working on a commission for a Paris gallery and publisher.

The commission was to produce and shoot a photograph per hour for 24 hours in a row. (no preproduction, no preplanning, just improvising.)

I had a friend along who wrote about my day and she had a dog with her. On our journey, we drove 200km that day to change locations from each hour to hour, we passed by my house for lunch and my neighbors kids came over (as they did a lot when they were younger – and they would always ask to play photography with me). I took the moment and combined the kid with the dog and wanted to make the kiddo ride the dog.

We tried various options, but it was obvious the dog was not strong enough to carry the weight of the child. Suddenly, I had the idea to put them onto the ground,and it worked. I was very lucky that the dog laid still for 5 seconds so I was able to catch two frames and hey there we go! My first image for Dreams of Flying was born!

It took another 2 years to make this picture and many that followed on numerous weekends with the neighboring kids playing photography to complete a first set for the series!

PP: Is the series complete, or is it still a work in progress?

JVH: It’s complete. Sometimes I still take the odd one, but generally I moved on to new adventures — also with the neighboring kids. We just finished another great project together, which departs from DOF but is still in the same idea — just more sophisticated. A bit more complex, as the kids have grown along with my understanding of photography!

PP: What was your first camera?

JVH: A flashy red RICO. Very simple and easy. Just flash on and off and an option for a distant landscape shot or a near portrait. I went through a phase when I tested all sorts of cameras and got very excited with large format cameras, and many studio flashes on location. Today I am back with my snapshot, flash on or off, and a fixed 28mm lens. Nothing else.

PP: Do you shoot in film or digital?

JVH: When I do my own projects I use only that snapshot film camera. On commercial or editorial quick jobs I am happy to go digital. Am slowly discovering it for my own means, meaning comprehending what digital does to an image and its content. Once I have mastered it completely I will use digital in my work too.

It’s an exciting area and a very complex theoretical thing, digital, and it changes the way we read images and the way we take images.

PP: What is the award or achievement you’re most proud of?

JVH: I feel that I am in a position to work on any project I like, and with any people I like. That’s my greatest achievement! Having the awards and the publishers and the magazines and galleries adds to that and just makes my work feasible and doable and convincing.

But having STEIDL Publishers on my side is quite extraordinary and still not real for me, but hey, I will understand that as soon as I have my first few books published with them.

PP: How often do you take photographs these days?

JVH: On average one day a week, so that would be 50 full days a year. That sounds about right!

Sometimes it’s 2-3 days in a row, and sometimes just a few hours in a day. I am very quick with shooting as I put a lot of energy into planning my shoots!

PP: What advice would you have for an aspiring photographer looking to get where you are now?

JVH: Shoot, shoot, shoot, while always knowing why!

Always being aware of what that picture one just shot means, and if it means enough then continue.

PP: Is there anything you wish you had know when you first started out in your profession?

JVH: That it takes years, even for the fittest and best.

PP: Could you explain how a professional photographer in your type of work makes a living? What are your main sources of income?

JVH: It is through editorial work (when I sell my own projects or ideas to magazines) or through the odd commercial commission through my agent. My kind of photographer doesn’t get that many jobs in today’s photographic industry because I don’t fit into a box. However, sometimes there comes a great project and then its also great money.

PP: Have you had any formal education in photography, or are you entirely self-taught?

JVH: I assisted a commercial still life photographer for 3 years where I feel I learned all the technicalities about photography that I ever needed to comprehend, and then I went to Uni in the UK and enrolled for a course on theory and history of photography and wrote a big thesis for graduation.

PP: Who are some of your favorite photographers, both historical and contemporary?

JVH: So, so many — and not really important to me anymore, as I would rather think in photographs than in photographers. The best photographers have also produced some great shit in the last years!

But that’s OK. All it does is it just changes perspective and puts me in a different critical position. To photography and to myself.

PP: Who is one person you would pick to be interviewed by PetaPixel?

JVH: Gerhard Steidl.

PP: Any final words of wisdom you would like to leave with PetaPixel readers?

JVH: Have fun with your camera and please, please, please take that very seriously!

Bill Wadman is the New York-based portrait photographer behind the 365 Portraits project. You can also visit his blog and online portfolio.

PetaPixel: Could you tell me a little about yourself and what you do?

Bill Wadman: My name is Bill Wadman and I’m a portrait photographer in New York City. I shoot a fair amount of editorial portraits for magazines like TIME and BusinessWeek with some advertising thrown in for good measure. In 2007 I completed a project at 365portraits.com which got me some attention. That said, I really only picked up a camera about 5 years ago, my education is in music of all things.

PP: How did you first get into photography?

BW: I’m one of those people who gets bored fairly easily, and I can’t draw, so I figured photography was a good visual art for me to dabble in. When I was a kid, I used to play with my dad’s Canon AE-1, but he yelled at me for it most of the time, so I had to wait until I was older before I rediscovered the fun.

PP: How did you go from only picking up a camera five years ago to have your work published in TIME and BusinessWeek?

BW: So I picked up a Digital Rebel 5 years ago and started shooting more as a hobby. Then I did a couple art projects where I was shooting more and more, so when I wanted a new one at the beginning of 2007 I decided to only do photography and thus began 365 portraits. It took off and I had tens of thousands of people a day watching the progress, which was nice because then I had an audience which made me feel the need to top yesterday’s shot each time.

When I finished I started putting my work up on paid portfolio sites like photoserve and such.. and people started calling me. My first big job was for The Improper Bostonian early last year where i shot author Jhumpa Lahiri. They liked the photos and apparently so did her PR people because they had TIME call me when they needed portraits, and so I started doing work for TIME. Other people seemingly cold call me, for example I’ve got no idea how BusinessWeek got a hold of me, but I’ve ended up shooting for them once or twice a month too.

By the way, that one call from The Improper was the one time that those paid sites help me. Otherwise I think they’re a rip-off.

PP: What was your first camera?

BW: When I was really little I had one of those 110 instamatics, but I’m sure you mean my first REAL camera, which was a Pentax K1000 that I bought at Adorama for $199 used in 2000.

PP: What equipment do you use for your work now?

BW: Right now I do most of my work with a canon 5DII. 28/1.8, 35/1.4, 50/1.2, and 85/1.2 lenses. I sold all my L zooms last year in deference to primes, but kept the 24-70L just in case.

Besides the digital Canon, I’ve got a Leica M4, Hasselblad 500c/m, and a Cambo 4×5, but those are relagated to special circumstances nowadays. Film is too expensive and time consuming for me.

As far as lights go, I’ve got a couple of speedlights and a few alien bees, and a Profoto AcuteB for on-site shoots when a Speedlight just won’t do.

Most of the time though, if I have my 5D with the 28 and 50mm lenses (love that 28mm), and a diffuser/reflector, I’m happy. I like to use available light or incredibly simple light setups whenever I can. Also, people often yell at me for using wide-angle lenses for portraits, but it works for me. I like having some of their environment in there as well.

PP: What’s on your wishlist in terms of gear?

BW: I wouldn’t mind getting a nice medium format back if someone wanted to buy me a P65. I think I’ll wait until they’re full frame 6×6 though. But honestly, at this point, I’ve got or have used all the toys I wanted to try and decided that if my photographs don’t look the way I want, it’s my fault not my gear’s.

PP: How did the 365 Portraits project come about, and what was shooting the project like?

BW: 365 Portraits came about because I wanted to do a year long project that forced me to shoot all the time. As I was looking to become a full-time portrait photographer, I figured I might as well take portraits. So on January 1st, I just started, with my sister.

In the beginning is was friends and family but then a couple weeks into it I started to get volunteers. This became something of an avalanche, because by the end I was getting 6-8 people a day volunteering. This of course gave me a lot of choice in the people I wanted as time went by. I was also able to snag some people who I asked to participate. Musicians, and authors, and scientists and the like who I respected.

I would make plans with each of them via email to meet at a specific time and place. Usually it was just me and the subject and minimal or no extra lighting unless we were working on a studio shot. Mostly it was about finding an interesting setting and workable light and practicing my skills.

PP: What are some interesting things you learned through the project?

BW: Well, of course my photography skills improved a lot. Shooting that much, I’m not sure how they couldn’t have… I came upon different techniques and things as I went along, many of which are still in my mental bag of tricks. But probably the most useful thing I learned is knowing when I’ve got the shot, and being able to cull 200 photos down to that one in just a few minutes.

PP: What were the biggest challenges you faced in completing it?

BW: There were daily challenges… scheduling screw-ups, travel, sickness, etc. But mostly it was a mental thing of just getting the motivation to keep going. Very much a marathon. I spent anywhere from 4-8 hours or more each day on the pictures. It was a full time job.

PP: Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

BW: Not really. I may have started after some more of my wishlist earlier in the year as it took some time to track and wear a few of them down. And there are pictures in there that I cringe at now, but that’s all part of the process.

PP: What advice would you give an aspiring photographer who wants to get where you currently are?

BW: Turn and run in the other direction as fast as possible. Well, no that’s not fair. But I will say that even in the past few years that I’ve been active, things have changed a lot. EVERYONE is a photographer now and many magazines are going out of business and most projects pay less. So you’ve got more people fighting for less work that pays less.

Now, if that little rant didn’t discourage you, I’d say go and shoot. Shoot a lot, shoot all the time. There is no substitute for good images in your portfolio and competence at what you do. Some people would argue that you’ve got to network and blog and such (yes I know I’ve got a blog, but it’s not really about getting me work), but having the images ready to show when you meet the right people and get the big break is the right idea.

PP: Can you briefly describe your workflow?

BW: First comes the shooting. I’m not that anal about getting the exposure perfect in camera, though I probably should be. Then again, with the small dynamic range of these sensors, I don’t know that there is such a thing as perfect exposure, you’re always losing something the highlights or the shadows. In any case, I shoot RAW and if I’m within half of a stop from where I should be, I’m usually ok.

In my mind, my shoot is like raw footage for further editing, so I tend to worry more about the subject than the camera. Then when I get home I copy everything over to a raid 1 array. A folder for each shoot inside a folder for each subject, just to keep it straight. Then I import them from the disk into lightroom, convert to DNG, rename and sort.

I go through a multiple-step process. The ones worth anything get 1 star, then I go through those and the best get two stars, then I go through those until I end up with the 5 or 6 I want to retouch. WB and exposure and fill light etc are done in lightroom, then I export a 16bit PSD into Photoshop and add lots of masked curves to make the image look like something. When I’m done I backup the project to an external drive and export a full-res jpg which I upload to jungle disk as a last ditch backup in case my house gets fire bombed in an election fraud riot.

PP: How do you go about doing portraiture?

BW: Usually what goes through my mind is, “How the hell am I going to pull THIS one off?” by which I mean, I look at the setting and the light and the subject and I try to think of ways they could intersect well. That said, I’m very much the kind of photographer who will start shooting and ask questions later. I’d rather naturally flow into something good instead of standing back and piecing it together in my mind for 15 minutes before I pick up my camera. I’m much more worried about the subject. This might be indicative of some deep psychological problem I undoubtedly have, but I’m always concerned with keeping the subjects attention and chatting with them. Hopefully it gets to the point where they open up and forget that they’re getting their picture taken. Usually that’s when the good stuff happens.

I shoot anywhere from 2 to 500 pictures in a sitting. On average though I can get what I need in 125 or so, that’s usually where the numbers come out. I had two shoots the other day though that couldn’t have been more different. First shoot I shot 450 images and got about 2 pics I was at all happy with. That night I did a studio shoot where I ended up with 200 images, 40 of which were better than the best of the afternoon shoot. There are a lot of variables.

The difficult thing is knowing what you’re looking for, and for me it’s an emotional thing more than anything. I’ll take a picture and I’ll chimp it on the screen and I’ll get all giddy and say “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes” like I’ve just cracked the vault in a bank heist. It’s a combination of things, but my ideal portrait is one where the the subject looks right and that can be anywhere from vulnerable to invulnerable depending on my goals. I’m also looking for good light, something I can work with later in post production. But then there’s that pictorial quality that’s hard to put your finger on with words. I want my pictures to look like paintings if I can. Like something more than just a snapshot.

The scariest moments are where none of this is clicking and you’ve tried the experimental stuff which didn’t pan out, and so you go back to your bag of tricks and setups you’ve used the the past and THAT doesn’t work.. that’s where I panic. You can’t guarantee that you’re going to get good pictures out of a shoot. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I shot Physicist Brian Greene a couple years ago and said that it must be like working on a theory for 3 hours at the blackboard and in the end coming up with 1=2. Game over, try again. But that’s ok, it happens to everybody. You go but an Annie Leibovitz book and there are 50 pictures in there from 20 years of shooting. You don’t think there were a ton of shoots that she’d rather forget about? Imagine if you could take only the best 3-4 images per year. I’m guessing yours would look pretty good too. Don’t forget that or get discouraged.

PP: Is there anything you wish you had known when you first started out on your photographic journey?

BW: Hmm… I’m having a hard time with this one… There are things that I knew would be tough, but I went anyway. Everything in life is messy, so it’s no surprise. Looking back at earlier photos of mine, I wish I had done things differently, but then that’s always the case.

PP: Can you remember any specific things you learned that caused the largest leaps in the quality of your photography?

BW: I think the biggest leaps in my work have come in post-production. I can remember the day I started playing with curves to really bring out the contrast in different areas of my images and make them into something more than they were in camera. I like my images best when they look like paintings, and this is a big ingredient in that.

PP: Would you advise a new photographer to start out in film or digital? Why?

BW: Definitely digital. For a number of reasons. The main reason is the instant feedback. You can shoot and see what you’ve done. That plus the fact that you can shoot as much as you like without it costing you money are huge advantages. On top of all that, digital keeps getting better while film has peaked. I wouldn’t bet that you’ll even be able to get film in 5 years. Maybe there will be botique companies selling b/w 35mm film for rich guys who own an antique Leica, but that’s about it.

PP: Say a friend comes to you asking for advice on how to improve their portraiture. What are some things you would tell him?

BW: I think that a lot of people lately spend too much time on really fancy lighting setups so that their pictures look like comic books. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very cool look and makes for very some interesting pictures, hell I’ve experimented with it myself, but I don’t think it makes for true portraits most of the time.

For me, the trick to portraits is to engage the subject and get them involved. You can’t take a good portrait unless someone lets you. You can’t ‘steal’ it without their permission. So you’ve got to get through to them and make them comfortable enough to let you in. So, I guess my advice is to talk to your subject and get the technical stuff down so that you’re not thinking lighting ratios and f/stops while you’re shooting.

PP: Who are some photographers whose work you follow online?

BW: This changes constantly. Lately Eric Ogden, Brigitte Lacombe, Stephane Lavoue, Joey Lawrence, Chase Jarvis, and Dan Winters are making me ill. And that’s the highest form of compliment from me. It means that I feel like I’ll never do stuff as cool as them.

PP: If you could see one person interviewed by PetaPixel, who would you choose?

BW: I’d love to hear from Stephane Lavoue, is use of light just kills me. His images look like paintings and it would be great to figure out how he does it.

PP: Any final thoughts you would like to share with PetaPixel readers?

BW: Just that there’s no substitute for shooting and shooting and more shooting. Push yourself and good things will come.