Simon Says

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

While recuperating from my bilateral duel hip surgery, I was visited by friends – Monica Cipnic (which we will talk about at length in another post) and a shortly after Simon Jacob. Simon is an amazing man. He’s not only a world class business man but also has one of the most beautiful families I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. From his amazing wife, Barrie, to all of his lovely children. It’s all good. In Simon’s case, it’s all great. He took time out of his very busy schedule to come visit me twice. We spent 10 great days in Israel with Simon and we’ll be going back this December. Remember – what Simon says, you better do. That’s me trying to be funny again. For the record, this is the 4th photograph I’ve taken with my phone but I always forget the area code.

Phone? Camera? Phone? Camera?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

You have to know that most people do not want to go to the hospital and visit. Let’s be honest, there isn’t a whole lot you can do or say and most people would rather be having a cup of coffee or maybe a Jameson’s straight up. Hell, maybe they would rather be sparing 2-3 rounds with somebody, but nobody really wants to go to the hospital. What a pleasant surprise when my dear friend James Moore showed up and stayed for an hour. Everyone in the rehab gym wanted to meet James so we went down and introduced him. James is not only a great fighter and a great husband but he is one of those genuine people who really cares about his friends. He’s going to make history on June 5 in Yankee Stadium. There hasn’t been a fight held there since 1976. James will have a 10 round fight with Pawel Wolak. He’ll be leaving Brooklyn for his Pocono training camp and he will be coming to Chez DiMaggio for at least one dinner. It’s going to be a tough fight but if James fights his fight, I think he’s going to be victorious. When he digs in a right hand to the body, my teeth shake and I’m 15 feet away. He’s very strong and tough and he’s got a heart of gold. Good Luck James.

Bob Mladinich

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Bob was not only a great New York City Gold Shield detective, a great writer, author of several books, but he’s now a T.V. star. On Sunday night, he was on the one hour special with Paula Zahn- check it out on the internet. On top of everything else, he’s a sweetheart. I also forgot to mention, he did two other one hour specials with Paula Zahn. Bob is also a great aficionado of boxing and has written scores of great boxing articles. Bob was also extremely gracious to come and visit me at Hospital for Special Surgery. On top of everything else he’s a mensch.





Why Will Yuri Foreman Win on June 5, 2010?

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

I make it a practice of never gambling on boxing matches or horse races for that matter. I try not to predict winners, it’s just not what I do. With this upcoming WBA Junior Welterweight Fight, it’s simple and straight forward; Yuri Foreman is bigger, stronger, faster, moves better left, right, back, and forward. He is never a stationary target and is always a moving offense. I forgot something- he’s probably the most dedicated trained fighter I’ve ever seen. I believe he will win convincingly. I hope for the safety of both fighters, it’s a great fight, and no one gets hurt.





© Joe DiMaggio
Tech Information: 24-70 mm @24 ISO 50, 30th of a second, F/8
tweak down strobe light 3/4 stop



© Joe DiMaggio
Tech Information: Yuri Foreman Shadow Boxing 24-20mm f/2.8 ISO 50
1,000th of a second at f/2.8 approximately 80mm

Hello To All the Ships at Sea

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

How many of you have had a bad day? How many of you have had a bad day turn into a rotten day? About 24 hours ago, I was having one of those days, then my cell phone rang. A voice on the other end said, “I’m sitting at the Sea of Galilei watching the sunset and I thought of your smile and I had to call you, my brother.” The phone call came from my brother Amir Orly. It was Amir’s birthday and of course I forgot to call him but he knew that I needed his smiling face to make a bad day magnificent- and thats what happened, it turned out to be a great day.


My brother Amir and his lovely wife, Hannah
Photos © JoAnne Kalish


It’s Springtime

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

© Joe DiMaggio

I had an assignment to photograph a springtime event. I chose to photograph a mother bird feeding her newborn babies. How would I go about doing this? One way would be to walk around find a nest, set up a camera, wait for the mother, and spend 2-3 weeks photographing mother and her chicks.

Possibly this alternative is much simpler… At the end of the cycle of life, mothers and babies abandon their nest. So what I suggest is to go out and collect one or two nests the year before and put them in an elevated position extremely close to your home in a place safe from harm. Why would you do this? Because it allows you a mini studio. The mother discovers the nest, she lays her eggs and you now have a period of 3-5 weeks to make some interesting photos. Your going to want to shoot at least 1-2 times a day over a period of a couple weeks. This is also a great opportunity to utilize your electronic flash. What I used for this photograph was a 300mm f/2.8 lens and a 1.4 extender, at maximum aperture. You want a very shallow depth of field to throw background clutter out of focus. I used a Dyna-lite Uni 400 and a Jack Rabbit power pack on absolute minimum power. We were not looking for a flash photograph but rather a fill light and a catch light. By moving the strobe away and using less power I was able to utilize mixed light successfully. I also used a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod, self timer on-camera, and a Lastolite reflector. You may read this and say to yourself, isn’t that an awful lot of work to get the photo? The answer is no. Pre–production is what its all about. One of the greatest sports photographers in the world was Neil Leifer. Neil had literally hundreds of Sports Illustrated covers and the reason for this was he was a fanatic about research & pre-production so he would get the best possible photographs. He covered all the bases all the time. There were no accidents.

Boom Boom Mancini- One More Time From the Top

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

I guess it was Yogi Berra who first said, “deja vu all over again.” My last shoot before I went in for my double hip replacement was with my dear friend, Angelo Dundee. As we were doing our huggy kissy goodbye he mentioned another old friend, Ray Mancini. I asked how Boom Boom was doing. He told me he was out in California and he was doing great. I had a nice talk with him on the phone today. He not only looks great, he sounds great, it’s all good. We talked about possibly putting a project together. Nothing would please me more than to work on a creative project with someone like Boom Boom whose been in the trenches and knows what its all about. I genuinely believe in timing and karma and this may be a great time and great karma to team up with an old friend, whose still pretty young. Joe D

Gleason’s Workshop

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©Dylan DiMaggio

I remember the first time I walked into Gleason’s gym in 1972. The sights, the sounds, the smell- it was pretty amazing. When I was working with Sports Illustrated and Gerry Cooney, I spent an awful lot of time there in the late 70s and I decided I was going to do a documentary on boxing. Thus was born, a five year project, “In This Corner”. I brought my class to Gleason’s and it was pretty amazing. They got with the program really quickly. Several gigs of photos were done and from what I can see, some of them are very good. This may be the last Joe DiMaggio/ Gleason’s workshop in the front street location. Gleason’s, born in 1937, will be relocating several blocks away. When? We don’t know. I’d like to share a photo taken by Adrian. Special thanks to my friend Bruce Silverglade, who was kind enough to allow our class in.

A view of Gleason’s from Adrian’s perspective

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on
Student’s comment:

“Joe,

Thank you again for making such a dreary day into a fantastic photographic opportunity. I saw in you a passion for photography that I have rarely see in professional photographers and Sunday no matter what kind of pain you were in you fought on and made it a memorable experience.

The whole entire workshop was fantastic, each of the photographers were at different levels of photography, but I didn’t come away feeling one was greater than the other. The common bond for us is the love of photography and how to improve our skills. I only wish that we could have spent more time picking your brains, one day is definitely not enough. I was glad to be a part of this great day. JoAnne and Dylan were awesome, you have a great team.

I hope in the future to participate in another one of your workshops.

All my best

Adrian”

© Adrian Rodriguez






There are no miserable days, there are only great photographic opportunities

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

©Dylan DiMaggio

Well here we are, the day after a very cold, windy, torrential rainy, Joe DiMaggio workshop with and international cast of players. With all of the adversity and all the logistical problems, I think my students kicked ass and took names. As we were starting to peel off in the early evening, someone thanked me for conducting a great workshop but I said without their participation, there is no workshop. My job is to motivate and inspire but the student is the person who does execution of the visual literacy which will result in a strong photograph. It was a small intimate group of 15. Thanks to the FDNY Firehouse Engine 205 & Ladder 118, one of the oldest fire departments in Brooklyn allowed us to not only do a photographic tour and environmental portraits but they were kind enough to have a real fire call so we all got a very up close and personal look at what these great people do to protect our lives, family and property. As some of my close friends know, I lost two firemen friends in 9/11, Terrence Farrell and Doug Miller. Many thanks to my partner JoAnne Kalish, Dylan DiMaggio, Larry Malang and of course Monica Cipnic.