I Love Simple

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I love simple, probably because I’m not that complicated. On my first trip to Japan, I was working on a extensive essay with and extremely bright anthropologist. The articles that we did turned into a small book. We went up North of Tokyo about 150 kilometers to experience a Japanese tea ceremony/ Tea House, and also a Japanese garden. I was very taken with the fact that the garden, approximately 150ft long by 70ft wide, had three rocks and a bed of pebbles. After spending the better part of 45 minutes I finally got with the program, I figured out that within the simplicity of this garden was complication. It is all about allowing your mind to be part of the artwork, because that is true art. The experience drastically changed my attitude towards simplicity in my photography, and film making. Granted, there are times that my photos do not meet those standards, not because I haven’t tried, they just didn’t work out. The photo above is a photo that is specifically taken for me. I was thinking about that Japanese garden when I made the photograph. Tune in next week for Patty Smith. Signing off, Joe D.

Bert Sugar aka Bert The Great

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Good friends try to keep their requests for assistance down to a minimum. Every time I’ve asked Bert Sugar for a favor, he’s always come across. There is an old italian word for bert. He’s a real “Mench” You can tell how good my Italian is. Bert joined me and Dylan yesterday as Gleasons Gym to interview Oscar De La Hoya. Bert being the profesional that he is, made a few executive decisions. We managed to get through the day unscathed and with all of the information we needed for our film “In This Corner”. Oh my God, that’s the name of the blog! What a coincidence! As day was winding into early evening, Bert wanted to go for a cocktail. Anyone who knows Bert, has to get used to three things; his fedora, his cigar, and his double Chivas Regal neat. I’m pretty sure that’s scotch whiskey! So we left Gleason’s and strolled over to a lovely little wine bar, 7 Old Fulton. It was way to early for dinner, and way to late for lunch. It was perfect timing for us to kick back and exchange war stories. Bert just returned from Miami, where he helped our mutual friend Angelo Dundee re-open the 5th Street Gym, after having been closed for 17 years. Boxing is coming back to Miami in a big way.The principles at the restaurant were of Italian heritage from Triest. The decor was beautiful, the food spectacular, and a genuine warm place to go with some friends  for a cocktail and dinner. I affectionally call Bert the “Bertster”, and he calls me Uncle Joe (don’t ask.) It was a great day, a hell of a lotta fun. That’s it, Signing off. – Joe D.

All Images Copyright © Joe DiMaggio

Timex keeps on Ticking

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It appears that the world is moving at light speed. Or maybe it’s warp speed. I’ll have to ask Bill Shatner which one is faster. Yesterday, my partner JoAnne Kalish found an old jewelry box. Yes i said Jewelry box, of mine. In the jewelry box was a fifty year old timex watch. So I looked at it, decided to wind it and guess what. It worked! So I set the time and checked it twelve hours later. It was dead on. In a drawer I very rarely go to, I have about fifteen plus watches. Guess what, I don’t use any of them! Of course I keep time with my iPhone. Probably, my most expensive watch, $700. As we all know the iPhone can’t make a decent phone call. Like a friend of mine said, “It’s not the phone’s fault it’s AT&T” The bottom line is I can’t make to many phone calls, but it does keep good time.
Joe D. Signing off.

All images Copyright © Joe DiMaggio

Montauk in September

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All Photos © Joe DiMaggio 

Four days off after a major corporate shoot and film for Galvanic Printing, see my vimeo page. Anyone who’s been to any of my workshops, lectures, or our DiMaggio/Kalish Learning Center knows that they hear the same thing over and over. Less is more. Both JoAnne and I receive many questions about the quality of photographic products. My answer is relatively simple. Whatever works for you, and whatever you can afford is what it’s all about. Let’s remember the photographer makes the photograph. One of my long-time assistants Larry Malang asked me “Are Canon and Nikon lenses better then Sigma’s?” My answer was very simple. “Canon and Nikon make great glass, and so does Sigma” One thing about Sigma glass that is really impressive, is that the lenses work very well with severe backlight. I shoot a lot of  backlight because I love it!  I took three new lenses with me to Montauk for a well deserved four day busmans holiday. The 8-16mm , the 17-50mm  f/2.8, and the 70-200mm. I use all of these lenses specifically for video. As soon as I can cut some footage, I will post it on Vimeo. In the mean time, here are a few photos that are severely back and side lit.  Utilizing the new lenses. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that they have great color and great contrast. Great shooting.

Joe D.
All Photographs Copyrighted Joe DiMaggio  ©

To Blog or Not to Blog?

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To blog or not to blog, that is the question. The reality is, I’ve had two major assignments in the last month. My first priority is to my clients. I love all of you guys, but business before pleasure. This is really great business. I had an opportunity to work with a dear friend, Dennis Wheeler, Dennis was not only the creative director but art director on a major shoot for John Moss of Galvanic Printing. Dennis was commissioned by John to generate a wall mural to compliment his new Hidelburg press. Dennis will do all the design work and the actually assembling of the collage in both the foyer and in the press area. My job was to photograph the stills and Dylan Michael will generate the HD video. There are very few times when you have all of the stars aligned in the right direction. Any time I can work with Dennis, John, & Dylan it’s a great thing! The creative juices flow the way the ink flows on the paper. The combination of this assignment and my first four consecutive days off in Montauk Point, I feel great! So if anybody would like to borrow a lens, now would be a good time to get in touch with me. NOT! I was totally fascinated by the empty ink cans and we will incorporate those graphic designs into the final layouts. So thanks Dennis, John, & Dylan. It’s all good. I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the next few weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Johnny Eye, aka John The Great Iacono

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I’m blessed to have great friends. I’m also blessed to know some of the finest photographers of our time. John Iacono has had an illustrious career with Sports Illustrated, that spanned almost six decades. When he started at SI, his hair was really really dark. Johnny is not only a great photographer, but he’s probably the best liked person in the business. He never raises his voice, he never breaks out into a sweat, he never tenses up, and he always comes back with a great photograph.
John is also a survivor. He’s been injured numerous times in the course of his work. John, Dylan, and myself had dinner recently and he took a few snaps of me and I pass them along.

It was the best of times

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Every once in a while, the stars and the moon align perfectly, and an elite group of photographers get together and share the beauty and the camaraderie of a photo shoot.
What would make it better is not a real photo shoot, but rather a feature film called “Lights Out,” for FX. We were all contracted to do something that sometimes we have a hard time doing. And that’s to make great photographs, ring side, at a boxing match. By now, you’re wondering if when I got up this morning, I drank a half a bottle of white lightning, followed by a crackpipe. The answer is no, I’m stone sober! And I just heard from the other side of the room, JoAnne said, “That’s scary!” She’s in the other corner.
Our elite group consisted of myself, Joe DiMaggio, John Iacono , Teddy Blackburn, Will Hart, Ken Regan, Craig Blankenhorn, and Al Bello.
The next time you wanna have a 16hr day, call any one of these great photographers, and they will give you the proper direction as applicable to not only your equipment, and your dress, but the overall attitude required to spend over that amount of time for a shoot.



© Photo Joe DiMaggio

2.8 And Be There, Version II

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Hi guys & gals,

and to all the ships at sea-
Yankee Stadium, Yuri Foreman/Cotto pre-press day, waiting for credentials. 2 hours to kill, decided to do some environmental portraits in and around the stadium. Ran into a beautiful Cuban musician, by the name of Luis. Asked for permission to shoot a few frames, 300ml, 2.08, ISO 100, 1,000/2.8, works for me.
In this case, shot several verticals and then moved to horizontal. Also, asked and was granted a model release. Subsequently, I have hired Luis on other shoots as liason/interpretor for the Cuban/Spanish/Mexican brothers & sisters in the Bronx. It’s all good.

© Photos Joe DiMaggio

2.8 And Be There

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I don’t know who’s the first photographer to say “F8, and be there.” I believe the first time I heard it was 1965, but don’t quote me. Many great photos were taken “F8 and be there,” I’d rather think in terms of “2.8 and be there.”
In the case of this spontaneous, informal non-lit environmental portrait of Tony Sirico, alias Paulie Walnuts of The Sopranos, while photographing the Yuri Foreman/Miguel Cotto pre-fight press conference, and weigh-in. Tony was chatting up a few of his “Gumbas,” I was moving to field level at Yankees stadium, picked the camera up, 300ml, 2.8, Gitzo monopod, ISO 800, 500/second at 208 (clean foreground and background) focused on eyes, 6 frames, before we stopped to just shoot the proverbial. He’s a Brooklyn boy, and he’s one of my pisanos.
What we learned here, is always to be ready. Camera, card, charged battery, pre-select the focus point, pre-select the shutter speed and aperture, pick the camera up, tweak the focus,
push the damn button.

2.8 and be there, man.
© Photo Joe DiMaggio

Tricks of the Trade: 360 Degree Video

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Recently, I had the opportunity to do a 360 degree panorama in an extremely tight space. I stripped everything down to a bare minimum and decided to triple-shoot it, HD video, with three different cameras. A medium large, DSLR, a Hero Go-pro, and an iPhone 4G. I discarded the iPhone immediately because I couldn’t fabricate a bracket fast enough. The Go-Pro and the DSLR were placed flush on a lazy susan, which I quickly fabricated from two pieces of wood I had in the studio, and a teflon/ball bearing LS. I didn’t have time to embed a 1/4 20. So I reached into my bag of tricks, took out a piece of modeling clay, and temporarily cemented the camera to the lazy susan. Clean, simple, inexpensive…Oh yeah, and it works. When you try to remove the camera, it’s almost like it’s cemented to the turntable. But once it pops up, a little bit of denatured alcohol, and it’s clean as a whistle. Don’t get it in the hole for the 1/4 20! It will take a little time getting that out.. and as we all know, time is money.