The other day I decided to play around with a few photo tools I rarely get the chance to utilize. I toyed with photographing a few things in the office and kitchen before finding inspiration and making some rather abstract imagery. The photo above is one I particularly liked from the set. There is a slideshow of a few other selects below. The Photoshelter gallery entitled “Random Abstract” will be updated periodically to include any additional and associated images.

No, this is entry has nothing to do with the USSR or the Cold War, but we do like red. Libby and I have some bold red curtains that span an entire wall in our living room, so we decided to have a bit of fun with some gear that was laying about being inventoried. These past few weeks have seen little shooting as I have been laboriously preparing my entries into the various photo contests that all have deadlines either fast approaching or shortly past. I had some lighting gear laid out over our living room floor space so during a break in the editing action Libby (and in a few frames TT) graciously posed for me during an impromptu portrait session. The trick here was that I used my point and shoot Canon G9 camera instead of my big cameras. I’ve had the G9 for a little over 2 years now and still love it. I used to use it for multimedia projects back when I was in Colorado, but now that my main camera bodies both shoot full HD video, Libby has taken over the G9.

One of the major benefits of the G9 is its hotshoe and its ability to sync with a flash up to 1/1000th of a second +. Knowing this, I slapped a pocket wizard on the G9 (which looks silly as the wizard is just about the same size as the camera itself) and went to town. The background light is a little harsh, partially because the G9 doesn’t render colors as well as a proper camera and partially because the light was just thrown up there, but you get the drift. After several different expressions we wrapped up and I went back to editing.

I put together 9 that I particularly liked into a little grid, which is below, along with a slideshow of the individual images.

As we wrap up the first week of the new year I can’t help but reflect on the past year. There were struggles as there are with anything, but I’d be remised if I didn’t sit back and be thankful for the good things. I met a lot of great people, made a few new clients, learned a ton of great things and made a few decent images along the way.

2009 was the year I was blown away by being accepted as a participant into the Eddie Adams Workshop.
2009 was the year my first major documentary project premiere to a sold out audience of over 250 people.
2009 was the year that documentary project won not 1, but 4 awards including a Gold Remi.
2009 was the year that I owned the copyright for 100% of the images I captured.
2009 was the year that I got to visit 5/7 continents in the span of 4 months.
2009 was a good year.

Here’s to 2010 being even better. The short piece above showcases about 65 of my personal favorites from 2009. They may not have run, they may not have been the best pictures, but they are my special to me in one way or another, so sit back and enjoy.

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: Highways Magazine
PUBLICATION DATE: January 2010
LINK: http://www.goodsamclub.com
NOTES: I was assigned to photograph Susan and Monty Scales back in October. The assignment was to get some images of them next to their RV which was in San Leon, a town near the coast of Southeast Texas. When I first arrived I was a bit disappointed given the rather drab environment. The day was rather hot and working without an assistant made things pretty challenging. After a few frames with their RV (per direction from the Magazine) I followed the Scales to the site of their home that was currently in construction. My eyes widened when we drove up as the bold yellow paint of the facade really popped against the beautiful blue sky. I knew I couldn’t pass this opportunity up so I worked a few scenarios here and even had the couple sit inside the house and lit them with a strobe from the inside. During the few frames of the couple in front of the house, Monty leaned over and kissed Susan without any direction at all. The photo of their kiss is definitely my favorite of the take. The cover of the issue is above and a few of the selects are below. I will try and add more images of the actual layout as I receive them.

*updated on January 21, 2010: added photo of actual layout

I have a laundry list of things to do and update and one of the most important things on my “to blog” list is my images from my trip to southern Africa last July. I spent a little over a week exploring various locales from the coastal villages near Cape Town to the border of Mozambique. I worked on an essay on big game hunting near All Days in northern South Africa so stay tuned for a blog about that. In addition to the big game hunting essay I experienced so many species in their natural habitats just wondering about. Sure, we’ve all been to the zoo, but seeing a pride of lion, a huge herd of buffalo and countless elephants free and in the wild is an experience I won’t soon forget. I don’t think I can ever appreciate the zoo after such an experience. I hope that I’ll have another experience in Africa soon as this past trip was absolutely incredible. A gallery of a sampling of my images from the trip is below.

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: AFRICA (self-published photo book)
PUBLICATION DATE: January 2010
LINK: n/a
NOTES: This little book has been a long time coming. Back in July of 2009 I spent a little over a week exploring Southern Africa and came away with a diverse set of images from the coastal villages near Cape Town to big game hunting near the border of Mozambique. I decided to take a few of the selects from the journey and put together a nice coffee table photo book. The book is being self-published via Blurb.com and will hopefully look great. I will try and take some images of the actual book when it arrives, but for now you can preview some of the various layouts below. They are in no particular order and are only a small sampling of the actual pages.

During my visit to Africa in July of last year, I spent a couple of days Joeseph Ramakokovhu and Ruben Mhiangu of the Marula Lodge. The pair of native South Africans from the Venda and Sotho tribes, respectively, work as trackers for the big game lodge that caters to foreigners. The owner of the Marula Lodge, Gerard and his girlfriend and partner, Linda are experts in their field. Gerard knows just about every species of wildlife, flora and fauna in Africa and Linda, being the director over Africa for SCI, an organization devoted to hunters rights and conservation, is no slouch either. Collectively the couple is a powerhouse of knowledge on not only the region, but wildlife and hunting all over the globe.

Being from Texas, I was raised in a culture of hunting, I used to spend nearly every weekend with my father hunting geese and duck, but over the years I’ve grown a bit disgusted with the thought of killing an animal. I’m no PETA member, nor am I even vegetarian, but the only thing I shoot these days is my camera.

The few days I spent with Gerard and Linda made me appreciate the act of conservation and hunting as long as the hunters are actually honest and educated rather than just out for a cool-looking trophy for their wall. They helped to to realize that sometimes we have to hunt elephant because uncontrolled, their species, as destructive as they are, can systematically wipe out hundreds of other, lower, species.

I still don’t intend on picking up a rifle and heading out to the bush, but I did learn, and have a great experience while doing it. This short photo essay entitled “Killing to Conserve” is the result of my time on the Marula Lodge. The first 18 images of the slideshow is how the essay appeared in my most recent portfolio book. The sequencing might change periodically. The rest of the images are outtakes.

Intro: Alldays, a remote village in the Limpopo province of South Africa, is known for its abundance of Mopane tree bush, arid climate and diamond mines. Situated near one of the largest active diamond mines in South Africa is the Marula Lodge, a private game reserve devoted to the preservation of the sport of big game hunting for conservation rather than poaching.

Every year Libby and I send out a self-designed holiday card using our own skills as graphic artists and photographers. When it came time to produce this year’s card we had some initial trouble coming up with a fresh idea. After a bit of thinking I came up with the idea of using images taken specifically with my iPhone.

We whittled down hundreds of images from 5 continents and numerous events down to 70 colorful images that all appear on the front of the card. I wanted the thumbnails on the front of the card to be large enough to be readable to the viewer, yet small enough to maintain the graphic element of the grid. After putting the design together, we were both pleased with the initial outcome, but wanted to take it a step further. I decided to create the online aspect to supplement the physical card. IPHONEADVENTURE.COM is the manifestation of that.

Since all of the images that were chosen represent a significant moment or memory from 2009, we wanted this project to go beyond just a tiny thumbnail, and to explain itself, in context.

All 70 images from the physical card, are viewable in a larger, un-cropped format on the website. In addition, each image is accompanied by the date the image was made, the GPS coordinates corresponding to where the image was taken as well as a short and candid description of the image. Since the iPhone automatically embeds GPS location data into each photo taken with the device you will be able to see exactly where we were when we took the image via Google Maps. Clicking on the coordinates in each image’s description will open up a new window with data about the location.

Happy Holidays to everyone. Please take a moment to visit our little end of year project, IPHONEADVENTURE.COM

(ps. the image above is also an iphone image!)

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: Health and Fitness Magazine
PUBLICATION DATE: December 2009
LINK: http://www.healthandfitnessmag.com/
NOTES: This is a two-page spread in the December 2009 issue of Health and Fitness Magazine about Planet Funk’s trip to Qatar in October. I accompanied the group and had an incredible time. I did a fair amount of video in addition to my still images during the week-long, Middle Eastern trip. The spread uses a few of my images from the journey including one from the deserts of Qatar, near the border of Saudi Arabia and another image from Doha harbor overlooking the skyline.

]]> http://toddspothblog.com/2009/12/21/in-print-planet-funk-in-qatar-for-health-and-fitness/feed/ 1 http://toddspothblog.com/2009/11/07/in-print-edward-kampf-for-houston-chronicle/ http://toddspothblog.com/2009/11/07/in-print-edward-kampf-for-houston-chronicle/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:00:19 +0000 Todd Spoth http://toddspothblog.com/?p=691

PUBLICATION OR LOCATION: Houston Chronicle
PUBLICATION DATE: November 7, 2009
LINK: N/A
NOTES: From time to time I get an assignment to make a quick business portrait from the Chronicle. A portrait assignment assigned to me by the Chron and a portrait assignment assigned to me by a business magazine may seem similar and may require a similar image, but in most cases, the variables are quite different. A newspaper may give me 2 hours (sometimes less) notice, while a magazine usually plans for the image, giving you ample time to plan and strategize. A magazine may allow you to hire an assistant to make the task of an elaborate set or lighting scheme possibly whereas a newspaper photographer usually works alone for standard assignments. Again, these are just how things are, generally. There are outlying cases either way, but for the most part, my Chron portrait assignments are quick and dirty shoots lasting minutes, not hours. This is a good example of an assignment I got only hours ahead of time. I showed up to Edward’s office building (a drab, mid-rise) and circled the building looking for a decent or at least, clean, location. When I met up with Edward, I showed him to a brick wall, completely in shadows, near his office. Sometimes it catches my business subjects off-guard when you want to take them someplace other than their office as many expect you snap a few frames of them just sitting at their desk. Thankfully a coworker of Edwards was kind enough to hold a small flash while I made a few frames. I let Edward go after a dozen or so frames. The assignment played out much like many newspaper portrait assignments do, the day was dreary and chilly, the subject had only a few moments of time, and I had to make a picture with limited resources. The image above is how the image ran in the newspaper. The one below is an edit of a different image that I liked.