The cover of the Photoshop User magazine Jan/Feb 2011 issue featuring an image by Todd Spoth.

About a month and a half ago I got an email from Mike Mackenzie, Associate Publisher of Photoshop User and Layers magazines, letting me know that they wanted me to be featured in Photoshop User magazine. I was thrilled to be featured in a magazine that I receive and read every month, especially after getting a personal tour of the NAPP/Kelby group headquarters just a few months ago. (see that post here)

I have been a NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) member for years now and have enjoyed the benefits greatly. The guys over @ NAPP work hard at creating the most thorough training content for creative professionals using Adobe software. If you need to know how to do something in Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Bridge, et al, they know how to get it done. Like many of the professional organizations I belong to, I probably only use a fraction of the member benefits, but my favorite is the free 3-day shipping on every order from B&H photo. If you’re anything like me, you are frequently placing orders for this or that with B&H (one of the largest and best photo/video/audio retailers in the country). Being a NAPP member not only gives you complimentary shipping on every order, but upgrades it to 3-day rather than UPS ground. This benefit alone has made my membership worthwhile. Check out the NAPP website at http://photoshopuser.com.

I have been an Adobe Lightroom user since its beta release in 2006. Back then I was trying out Apple’s counterpart, Aperture, as well as Lightroom and ultimately decided on Lightroom. It was just a lot easier to use. The most recent release, Lightroom 3, has made my life a whole lot easier. The things you can do with the software is amazing.

Mike interviewed me about my usage of Lightroom and some of my basic theories concerning my approach to photography. The resulting interview, bio, and image gallery can be seen in a multi-page feature in the January/February issue of Photoshop User magazine. The issue should arrive to NAPP members this week, and hitting the shelves around January 4th according to the NAPP team. I always see the magazine front and center at places like Barnes & Noble, Borders and other places magazines are sold, so pick one up if you can! To read the actual bio and interview text simply click on the image of the spread below or click here.

The cover to the special Lightroom section featuring images by Todd Spoth.

Photoshop User magazine has a special Lightroom section, which is where my feature can be found. A selection of my images are on the Lightroom section’s title page (seen above) and the actual feature is comprised of a two page spread which includes a short bio, the short interview, another batch of images, as well as an additional page featuring a few more images (seen below) The actual design of the spread is meant to look like the layout of Lightroom itself, complete with basic camera settings for each of the highlighted images.

The main, two-page spread featuring a bio, interview and photos by Todd Spoth.

An additional page featuring more photos by Todd Spoth.

In addition to being featured in the issue, I was surprised when just a few days ago, when I received my own physical copy in the mail, that they had chosen one of my images for the cover as well. The interesting part is that the cover image was actually not taken with one of my expensive SLR bodies, but my point-and-shoot Canon G9, which has since been sold. Oh the irony! Regardless of the tools that captured the moment, I think the image looks great.

I initially sent Mike and the guys over at NAPP about 30 or so images to choose from, so the final selection of images was ultimately left up to their team. Below is a short digest of the images they chose for the issue and links to their respective blog posts. There were several other, smaller, images the guys chose to fill out the thumbnail bar towards the bottom of each page, but the main images are all detailed below.

COVER

1. Portrait of Libby Johnston taken with the Canon G9. See “THE RED CURTAIN”.

LIGHTROOM TITLE PAGE

1. Portrait of Kingwood High School swimmer, Matt Barber. See “FUTURE OLYMPIAN?”.

2. Portrait of MLB pitching prospect, Jameson Taillon. See “JAMESON TAILLON”.

3. “Summer Solstice” image created to illustrate the hot Houston Summers. (no blog)

MAIN SPREAD

1. Portrait of my buddy Rob, who is a teacher. (no blog)

2. Matt Barber again. (see above)

3. “Favela Boys” from my 2008/2009 essay on Rio de Janeiro. See “BRAZIL”.

4. Portrait of “The Dog Whisperer”, Cesar Millan. See “THE DOG WHISPERER”.

ADDITIONAL PAGE

1. Portrait of Shawn Welling, filmmaker, dancer, choreographer and painter. See “MORE PORTRAITS”.

2. Portrait from the deserts of Qatar. See “DESTINATION: QATAR”.

3. Jameson Taillon again. (see above)

4. Portrait of friend and fellow photographer, Adrienne Byard. See “ADRIENNE & ELIZABETH”.

The images of the spread above were from PDF’s, I did manage to scan a few more of the pages of the issue, where my images are shown. Since the images below are direct scans as opposed to the PDF’s seen above, I used Photoshop to clean the scans up and make them look presentable for the blog! Go Photoshop! Ha.

Table of contents page featuring photos from Todd Spoth.

About page featuring photos from Todd Spoth.

Masthead page where I am listed as a contributing writer.

(This post has been in the works for some time now, so my apologies if it isn’t as thorough as it should be as the trip was some time ago. I’m finding out that my posts turn out better and more detailed, read: longer- if that’s actually is better, when I blog about the event immediately after or within a week or so, when the details are fresh. A lot has happened since this trip, but since it was so much fun, the details are still there. It is, however, a bit odd to blog about something that happened months ago, so my apologies in advance for what may be a series of single mis-placed thoughts and memories rather than clear and concise recounts of the happenings)

A little over 2 months ago, during the first few weeks of October, I got called to work in Amsterdam and Western Germany. I had not had a real chance to visit Europe since I lived there in the early 90′s so naturally I was very excited for the opportunity. I knew the trip would be a week or so of early mornings, long days, and lots of driving, but even though the trip was work-related, the team got to have some fun in-between shooting.

Lately, when I travel for business the majority of my images are taken with my iPhone 4, but this time I actually shot a bit of the personal/travel images with my Canon 5D mark II and a Canon 35mm 1.4L lens. I used a handful of other lenses as well, but for the personal and touristy stuff, the 35mm 1.4L is my go-to lens. When I’m on vacation I like to go the extra mile and take a few “fun” cameras such as a Polaroid or a Holga such as my trip to Ohio and Chicago this past Summer, but when its a business trip I tend to leave the toy cameras at home, unless the job calls for it.

I had never been to Holland or Germany before so I was thrilled to hear that those were the locations where we would be shooting. I don’t know much Dutch or German, but luckily most of the EU is English friendly. We worked a few days in Rotterdam, which is the industrial metropolis of The Netherlands. The mix between modern architecture and the buildings that still stand from centuries past is striking, especially coming from Houston where the majority of buildings were built within the last century. Seeing a cathedral built in the 1300-1400′s next to a high-rise with a very modern architecture is just crazy. The weather was cold and dreary with intermittent rain. The bike culture in Holland and really Europe in general is like nothing I have ever seen. Houston isn’t the most bike friendly city; I’m used to seeing the occasional group of cyclists, the scruffy bike messenger or the hipster on a fixed-gear, but what I saw in Amsterdam was on a completely different level. First of all, 99.9% of the bikes looked like worn-down, rusty, Soviet-issue models; no frills, no accessories, nothing…just a plain-Jane bicycle. The bicycle in Holland is a cheap and efficient means of transportation, not a statement of individuality or a trend as it seems it is here. Unfortunately (or fortunately) since we had a significant amount of gear, we did not have the opportunity of riding a bicycle, but we did get to enjoy a rather nice Volvo diesel wagon, which by European standards, was considered large.

After flying into Schipol airport in Amsterdam, the first few days of the trip were spent working in Rotterdam. After our work was completed in Rotterdam, we made some time to see some of Holland’s most famous attractions, the windmills. I would have loved to have been there while the tulips were in bloom, but even the dreary weather couldn’t dilute the magnificence of these marvels. The expansive canal system and the network of windmills was amazing to see, especially up-close and personal.

After a bit of sightseeing, we headed into Germany and onto the famous German Autobahn, which certainly lived up to the hype. Everyone on the Autobahn was driving generally 100+ mph, but there were no crazy race cars speeding around each other, simply a sort of controlled chaos. Yes, the speeds were excessive, but all of the drivers seemed to be maintaining these high speeds with ease. I forget what we got the Volvo up to, but we did hit the governed limit on several occasions.

Our few days in Germany were spent around Osnabrück, a little town in northwestern Germany, which we later learned was originally built at the request of Charlemagne around the year 780. As soon as we pulled in for the first time, we were in awe of the medieval architecture and overall mood of the bustling little village. The town center was cobblestone and surrounded by the remains of a fortified wall built in the 1200′s. The town was preparing for a celebration of some sort complete with fireworks that Saturday night. Luckily the view from my hotel balcony provided a nice view of the cathedral and the fireworks show.

The Fall foliage and general atmosphere of the German countryside was amazing. On our way out we detoured through Münster, which was equally beautiful. We spent some time in the town center and had a great time.

After a few more days back in Rotterdam, we headed into Amsterdam. We decided to spend our last day before heading out, exploring Amsterdam. We visited the Rijksmuseum, which is famous for it’s extensive collection of Rembrandts. The actual museum itself was beautiful, even though it was under construction at the time. We spent the rest of the evening exploring various parts of Amsterdam and marveling and the architecture and everything else the city has to offer.

After getting home and going through my images, I remembered that one of my old issues of National Geographic magazine, the January 1915 issue, featured a photo essay on Amsterdam and Holland by photographer, Emil P. Albrecht. After digging up that issue I was amazed when I saw that several of the images in the spread resembled images that I had taken at various places in Holland. The images in the magazine were taken sometime before 1915 and mine were taken at a few of the exact same locations about a century later, in 2010. It’s wild to see what changed and what has remained after almost 100 years.

Below you will find the scanned cover of the January 1915 issue of National Geographic magazine, a few side-by-side comparisons between the images, as well as a slide show of my favorite images from the trip. (Click on the image to view larger)

The scanned cover of my National Geographic January 1915 issue featuring a photo essay on Amsterdam.

On the left, a photo of warehouses in Amsterdam by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; on the right, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

On top, a photo of Amsterdam's inner harbor by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; below, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

On top, a photo of Holland's famous windmills by Emil P. Albrecht, taken around 1915; below, a similar image taken by Todd Spoth in October 2010.

The cover of 2001's "If They Move...Kill Them" the debut LP for the now defunct, post-punk band, Fairweather, that bears similarities to my photos of Holland's windmills.

OCTOBER 2010: HOLLAND & GERMANY – Images by Todd Spoth

I spent some time this past Saturday afternoon with longtime client, Planet Funk Academy at the Wortham Center in Houston’s theater district as they prepared to take the stage. I have photographed the renowned dance academy for nearly 5 years now and although the faces have changed, the energy is still the same. During my tenure as their chief photographer, I have seen kids go from Planet Funk to dancing for top tier pop/hip hop acts and tours, open their own dance studio or even star in feature films.

The group performed their latest theatrical dance show on Saturday night and I was there for a few hours during their prep and tech time. I photographed a few of their run-throughs during tech rehearsal, however I am always most excited to simply wander around backstage while everyone is getting ready and make images there. I have made several images that I particularly love during backstage moments from shows past and even though I had a shorter amount of time on Saturday, I still make some images that I enjoy. They are in the gallery below. I converted several to a very high-contrast black and white which appear first followed by color versions.

I’ve been pretty busy lately and have much to catch up on the blog world. I still need to update my blog with my stuff from Africa, Brazil and my story completed at the Eddie Adams Workshop last month, but this post is devoted to a rather interesting trip I took last week to Qatar in the Middle East.

One of my local clients, a hip hop dance academy was chosen to assemble a team and represent the US at a rather large event in Doha, Qatar. I have been on several trips with various different teams and dancers over the years, but this one was different. Usually the trips are only with a few different dancers and usually the dancers that go are from the pro team. The pro team consists of a group of professional hip-hop dancers and break dancers that range in age from their late teens to their mid-20′s. The group I accompanied to Qatar was mostly younger kids some of whom had never previously been out of the country, so their curiosity hopefully translates in some of the images.

Our whole trip, albeit a week, seemed to last only a few days. The itinerary was mapped out weeks in advance and a lot of time was spent in waiting to rehearse in a hotel ballroom, riding in a bus to and from venues, at the hotel buffet and on 17-hour plane rides. Towards the end of the journey my photo wanderlust took hold and I started to feel like I was being robbed of really experiencing Qatar, however during one of the event’s the Amir (head honcho) of Qatar met us and graciously paid for our entire group to tour the desert. After the crew’s final performance we traveled a ways into the desert to the Saudi/Qatar border and went crazy on the sand dunes. The light was magnificent, the sand, the sky, the warm water of the Persian Sea. It was lovely. I wish I had more time to spend out there, but for the time we were there, it was paradise.

On the tired ride home I asked one of our new Qatari friends when the last time it rained was, he replied with, “It has not rained in seven years.”

Wow! After another 17 hours in the air, I arrived home to a rainy Houston. Go figure.

I was a little skeptical about spending a week in the Middle East with a bunch of kiddies, but I had a great time and it will be something I won’t soon forget. This trip marked my 4th continent visited in as many months…now if only someone would hire me to shoot in Australia or Antarctica!

PS. Everyone in Qatar was amazing and amazingly hospitable. I like to travel rather inconspicuously and alone when I shoot abroad, however it was quite the opposite during this trip. We were in a large group of about 18 or 19, mostly kids and parents and all of them were wearing “TEAM USA” apparel. Not once did I feel awkward or out of place in Qatar. The one exception to this is at the international airport in Doha. We went through several security checkpoints as usual, however there was one right before we boarded the plane. Long story, short, it was a complete disaster that lasted about 25 minutes in total and ended up with all my gear all over the place and all my gaffer’s tape and AA batteries thrown away!

Its been almost a month since my last update. Wow. I’ve been busy, which is good I guess. Working on the movie, working on new internship things, and working on my brand new MacPro system. There’s nothing like 10Gb of RAM, 3 wide screen monitors and a fresh install of Final Cut Studio 2 to get the film-making juices flowing. Ive picked up a new Adobe Lightroom book as well as one on FCP 6.0. I’m determined to be proficient in both programs by the end of Summer. I’m also really proud of my girls in Distorted X. They are representing Houston, Texas on season 2 of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV. The season premiere airs June 19th. Go to MTV.com and vote for them now!

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: 2006 University of Houston: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Report
PUBLICATION DATE: 2007
LINK: http://www.egr.uh.edu/ECE/
NOTES: This has quite a few of my images I made while working in the communications department for the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, my alma-mater. I did several shoots in local testing labs as well as several on location environmental portraits at various locales in and around the Houston area. Here is the cover which showcases a few of my macro images as well as one of the inside pages with one of the portraits.