To Young…Sing in Peace

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 24, 2013

To All The Ships At Sea

This is extremely difficult for me to write. We have been photographing Richie Haven’s on and off over the years for a long time. We stopped counting the number of concerts a long time ago. Richie on stage was one of the greatest performers of our time. Back stage he was a just a regular guy. The last time he called me he asked permission to use three of my photos in a new book. I will have a follow up blog and a tribute to Richie in a few months. Sing in Peace Brother…

I spoke with a NASA scientist a few years back and we were discussing radio telescopes and he explained to me that a note played or sung will go on for infinity so I know Richie’s music will continue on…

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It’s All Good

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 23, 2013

Hi to All the Ships at Sea,

Let’s see if I got this right-I don’t like Photoshop, right? Right. I don’t like software where you can manipulate images…right? Right. I believe everything should be done in the camera…right? Right. Never crop, right? Right. Less is more, right? Right. Digital will be just like 8-tracks, it’ll never last. So let’s check out the reality, I guess it’s impossible to be right all the time.

The photograph of this young lady catching a cod-fish off the coast of Prince Edward Island, up until today, was flat, muddy, indistinguishable and almost two stops under. There’s a technical term in photography for a photo like this…it’s blank blank blank blank. Well through a little bit of work in Photoshop and NIK software it came alive. The young lady’s name is JoAnne Kalish.

All the Best,

Joe D

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Ann, Don’t Forget to Call

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on March 21, 2013

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

For anyone who didn’t know, Ann Raine was a great photographer, an absolute lovely human being, and a brilliant business women. She had the unique ability to adapt to any and all situations. Last Saturday she made an executive decision to take a long trip. There’s no doubt in my mind that everyone she touches on that trip will fall in love with her. We’ll still be able to talk to her – it’ll just be a slightly different conversation. It’s a little known fact that she was the first member of our Board of Directors – she of course, will continue to be on the Board. When we have our meetings, she will have a vote.

She paid me a compliment once and thanked me for everything that I taught her. In reality, she taught me more. Many of you including Dennis Wheeler, Hugh Brodie, Bobby Kyle, Brian Struble, Larry Malang, David Kenny, Linda Pederson, Dan Horton, Jeff Thomas, John Dryzga, Ralph Mocciola, Monica Cipnic, Dylan, JoAnne Kalish, Lourdes Merson and to be quite honest with you a few hundred others would like to wish you an amazing journey.

Keep that smile on your face and your camera close to your heart. Remember to open up 2 stops for back light.

All the Best,

Joe D

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There’s Nothing to Shoot

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on March 14, 2013

Hi to all the Ships at Sea,

The last few weeks have been HELL to the tenth degree. And I’m just not going to go there. I decided to take one day off and do nothing but split wood. Due to Hurricane Sandy I had two, hundred year old oaks come down. I decided to cut it up and split it for firewood for next year. I used a chainsaw to cut the wood but an old-fashioned maul to split it. The reality is, I genuinely enjoy it. It’s great exercise and it can stop you from going postal. And the real thing about splitting wood, at the end of the day you can actually SEE finished product completed, done, that you did yourself. Not some stuff floating around cyber space-never really knowing if it has any meaning at all sometimes. Towards the end of my day I split a piece of oak and I looked inside and I just freaked out. I went into the studio and picked up a brand spanking new Canon G15, power shot. Never took a photograph with it. Robert Luckett sent it to me for test and evaluation for Adorama TV. I had used its predecessor before and loved it. As photographers we need to constantly be looking up, down, left, right, in front of us and behind us looking for an image. This may be one step above a snapshot but I like it. I did it for myself.

So the lesson for today is simply this: pick up your camera give yourself a little bit of time and make a photograph. Heck, it’s not a snapshot, it’s a photograph. If you ever have an opportunity to split some wood make sure of 2 things-you wear gloves and take a lesson that if you make a mistake, you could be in a lot of trouble.

All the best,

Joe D

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Will Barnet 1911- November 13 2012

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on November 28, 2012

As a man or woman makes the journey from birth to death along the way they meet people who change their life. It’s given with our parents and family. There are maybe 8 or 10 people who radically changed the direction of my life other than my parents of course . Today I will just talk about one – Will Barnet who passed away November 13 at age 101.

My partner JoAnne Kalish had an assignment to photograph Will and she did these amazing and iconic portraits of Will and they became close. One day Will invited us to lunch and on that day I learned more about art, art appreciation and art history in a very short period of time then any other time in my life.

There will only be one Will Barnet – He was a warm, kind, generous, exceptionally talented, and a humble human being. I’ve been known to say the greatest things in life are free. On New’s Years Day 2012 Will Barnet gave us a million dollar gift by merely calling to wish us a Happy New Year. My God does it get better than that?