© Joe DiMaggio All Rights Reserved

To All The Ships at Sea

Today is Tuesday. I’ve had three back to back days – 14 hours, 15 hours, 12 hours and today I’m doing a short segment on Ricky Boscorino for our Photo Retreat in July.  Late last night or early this morning (I genuinely forget) I stumbled across an essay I did on Mountain Biking.  One frame got my attention. When we pick up a camera, we all strive to make a new photo but 99% of the time it’s been made before.  So we try to put a new spin on it. Guess what?  99% of the time someone’s already done that.  It’s up to us though, to keep trying. That’s what we do.  It’s all Good.  Canon film camera 14mm lens 1/250 f/5.6 film Velvia 50

© Joe DiMaggio All Rights Reserved

In reality many photos are considered clichés The Empire State Building, The Arc de Triomphe the Great Wall of China, Lady Liberty, a sunrise, and a sunset. All can be considered clichés. You would think for an American the American Flag would be a cliché but not to me. The American Flag has beautiful colors, great design, balance and when the wind blows right it has powerful stance.  While on a run, one day, I came across this flag blowing and as Bob Dylan would say “Blowing in the Wind.”  I spent one or two minutes observing it. I made a photograph that was intentionally high key with one of my favorite filters the Singh Ray high intensity. I designed the “V” for victory and had one of my assistants assemble it in Photoshop for me.  For me it’s simple clean and elegant.  Thank you Betsy Ross & Dr. Singh

© Joe DiMaggio All Rights Reserved

I’ve been working on a documentary film on Bobby Kyle for several years. Bobby is a world-class blues player and an extremely high energy person. The ability for a photographer to wait for peak action and not try to machine gun everything in my opinion is crucial. The photo of Bobby Kyle in the Blues Festival was shot with the 200mm 1.8 lens  with an exposure of  1/2000th of a second 1.8 camera Canon 5D ISO 200 single shot.

© Joe DiMaggio

I just received an e-mail blast from Adorama Pix referencing their photo books.  Both my partner JoAnne and I have made ten different books that we use as teaching tools. Making the photograph is what it’s all about.  In the world of digital we very rarely see our printed artwork. Adorama Pix offers us an opportunity to use our photographs and our creative sense of design and balance. To be quite frank it’s extremely satisfying to see the photograph on the printed page.  I remember in one of my high school classes, I had a history teacher that would always refer to the Gutenberg Bible as being the first work of art printed on a printing press. Here we are, 562 years later and each one of us can print our own book to our own specifications any time we want.  Yes, I was dragged into the digital world kicking and screaming and that is true but I’m like a 16-year-old kid because it’s just so magical and isn’t that what photography and film making is all about?  It’s all about the magic.

We are plan on taking advantage of this new promotion and if you’d like to go to Adoramapix.com     Sale

Offer Expires 5/23/12. Must use coupon code “PXGD1010″ to receive discount (use “PXGD1010L” for leather).

                                                                                                                                                ©Joe DiMaggio

I am one of the luckiest people in the world I have been around the world twice and working on a third time, but as of last year I have never been to Malta. Last fall I had an opportunity to lead a photograhic workshop in Malta. The photograph above is of the British Leyland Bus and was a from the hip grab shot. Camera is a Sony A900, 24-70mm F2.8 Carl Zeiss Lens, ISO 160, shutter speed 1/800. It is the last Leyland bus on the island. I played with it in NiK Viveza 2 software, not  HDR. Its a shade over the top but I like it. So next Monday be kind to a bus and make a photograph of it, or a car, a train, a cat, or a dog.

© Joe DiMaggio

It seems like I’m spending more and more time looking at my archives. It may have something to do with the fact that we are finishing up our next book, and the working title is “Visual Literacy.” Time Magazine sent me to Ellis Island in 1979 before the beginning of renovations. There was no service there so I went over on a police boat. This was before the days of cell phones, and for whatever reason I did not have an assistant. The original photograph was made with a Nikon F, a 35mm F2 lens, Ektachrome ASA 100. “I can say ASA, not ISO.” I scanned the original slide, recently for the book and decided to pull a little bit more out of it. More photos of Ellis Island to come.

© Joe DiMaggio

I just received an email by a wild life photographer from Australia wanting some private lessons. We are in the process of arranging three days on both wild life photography and sports photography. All indications are that this is going to be a lot of fun for both student and mentor. He motivated me to look at some of my Great Barrier Reef photographs. Cannon camera, 24mm lens, Fuji Velvia, 1/80 of a second, f/5.6, Ikelite housing, and two Ikelite strobes. Have a great weekend- Joe D

© Joe DiMaggio

If you have been following my blog you would know that when Mary Travers past away, I used a photograph from my first assignment a few years ago. In that blog I said that I would find the original Mary Travers photos. When looking for some vintage black and whites I stumbled across this photo of Mary. It was done with Tri-X pushed to 1200 in acufine with a Nikon F, 180 mm 2.8 lens, at 2.8, 1/500 of a second. I would love to go back in time with a high end digital camera, but as we all know you can not go home again. Mary was my first love and I still love her today.

© Joe DiMaggio

My schedule for Friday was an hour and a half at the gym, a post office run, a trip to the florist, and then to the garden center.When I went back home for a shower and a third cup of coffee,  much to my surprise I found the CEO of Dynalite, Peter Poremba having coffee with my partner JoAnne. Peter was in the neighborhood, so he thought he would surprise us and show us a few new exciting photographic tools. Peter is not only a great businessman, but also a design engineer, an avid photo educator, and a forward thinking ”out-of-the- box” entrepreneur. He has a beautiful wife Connie and lovely daughter Olivia. Peter has come up with a new Dynalite power pack with a 650 watt modeling light, specifically designed for film making. After his demonstration I had an opportunity to use it and  to be brutal and to the point, it could replace an Arri light which is about two and a half times the cost. Peter’s new system is a  lite, dynamic multi-purpose package incorporating the new Rhyme light modifiers. Damn impressive! The first photo is of a Marine and was done with 2 Dynalites, a soft box, and a reflector.

© Joe DiMaggio

I’ve had an opportunity to spend ten years at the University of Arizona doing workshops and lectures, and in the day shooting some assignments and stock work. Funny how it all seemed to come around in January and February hmm…, first thing  when I got to Tucson, would be I’d hire one or two assistants and interns. One of the best was Lee Ann Fox, extremely bright, creative and a lot of fun. As the sun was setting, I came up with a photo of Lee Ann her (nickname was the Fox) on her motorcycle. If you look closely at the bottom photograph you will see a hell of a lot of industrial stuff. In the day before Photoshop I would attempt to do a multiple exposure, shoot the background separate, another at speed, and then I’d have an assistant photoshop it. Camera 35mm, lens 35mm f/1.4, the platform was a moving rent-a-car,1/60 of a second, at f/5.6, ISO 50. If you look close, you will see me in Fox’s mirror. Photo tip of the day,is to make sure you have a great driver and a model that can take direction by hand motions. Do not try this while driving the car, it could be dangerous.