Frank and Tristan

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 8, 2024

Approximately 25 years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting an extremely bright, young man who was working for a dear friend of mine, Peter Poremba, who was the CEO of DynaLite. His name is Jason Etzel. Jason is now one of the super heavy-weights for Sony Cameras. When you need information on a Sony, Jason is the man to go to. For anybody who doesn’t know, I took my first snapshot at age 7, I’ve been making snapshots and, occasionally, a good photograph, for the last half century. Unfortunately, Jasons dad passed away on the 24th of April. I never had the pleasure of meeting Frank, but all indications show that he was one hell of a great guy. Jason adopted his dads dog. The following is a text I received from Jason this morning.

“Tristan passed away after a rough night on my lap this morning. Felt his head go limp, then the breathing slower, and his heart stop beating on my leg.

In many ways, it was the best way something like this could happen. No frantic car rides, no anxiety for him going into the vet … my father is looking out for him now”

I have to tell you, I really got choked up. This is the way life goes. My philosophy is that life is not a rehearsal, you only have one shot at it, so you better make it count.

On my way home from Manhattan the other evening, I took a few photographs, which I’d like to share with you. It’s with my new Sony camera and the new Sony 135-1.8.

Everything in Photography is a Compromise By Joe DiMaggio Sponsored by WD

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on November 25, 2013

Every once in a while the Moon and the stars align and life is good. Over the last twelve years I’ve been using WD exclusively for my studio, gallery, learning center, office (you get the idea). ABSOLUTELY! You are cordially invited to join me on December 11th at the B & H event space and a good time shall be had by all. To all the ships at sea, see you there.

Speakers: Joe DiMaggio

Event Type: Photography, Video

Skill Level: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced

Location: B&H Event Space

Photographers are creating more and more images and managing your archive so that all the images you create are secure and easily located is essential to the professional photographer. This task is of paramount importance and there are tools that can be of great benefit to the photographer/videographer but on the other hand, many creative’s can find this part of workflow daunting and potentially disastrous. In this seminar we will concentrate on the benefits and show you how to avoid the disasters while providing inspiration from Joe DiMaggio’s work.Joe DiMaggio, a lifelong photographer with an illustrious career shooting; sports, environmental portraits, stock, video content, photo illustrations as well as fine art depends on his vast archive to survive and thrive. This seminar sponsored by WD, a leader in digital storage and hard drives, will highlight Joe’s work and show you in a honest and straightforward way how to manage a state of the art workflow. While professionals will walk away with sound advice and archiving tips, this presentation will also be of benefit to amateur photographers who are concerned with saving the precious moments of their family history.

WD will have a product expert on hand to show off new features on their current drives as well as field the most difficult of questions.

Joe DiMaggioJoe DiMaggio is an internationally known photographer who’s been making award winning photographs for four decades. His dynamic photographs have appeared in Time/Life, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, HBO and the list goes on. One of his Sports Illustrated covers was selected by Time Magazine as Picture of the Year. DiMaggio made the obvious transition to advertising work for fortune 500 companies and was extremely sucessful doing photo illustrations for companies such as AT&T, AOL, Barclays, Xerox, Computer Associates, HBO, RJR Nabisco, Sony, Verizon, and Ford Motor Company. DiMaggio has contributed as an international pool photographer, to several Olympic Games. During his illustrious career DiMaggio’s done radio talk shows, television shows, magazine articles, and lectured at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities throughout the world.

DiMaggio has been part of the American Photo Popular Photography Mentor Series. He’s hosted several ABC’s World of Photography television shows and hosted numerous Canon Photo Safaris. He’s hosted Internet TV’s Visual Impressions television show and completed numerous episodes showcasing his skill as a world renowned photographer

Recently, Sports Illustrated selected one of DiMaggio’s photos as one of the third greatest photos in the last 100 years of the Indianapolis 500.

visit Joe’s website to learn more.

Throwback Thursday: It’s All Good

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on November 14, 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

To Shop or Not to Shop

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 20, 2012

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.

Adorama Pixs Books

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on March 28, 2012

I just received a shipment of two new books from Adorama pics. There are very few things that amaze me and knock me on my ass. The quality of the books, the paper, and the binding are magnificent. That’s a strange adjective to use, but over all they just blow me away. When you realize the price is minuscule, that adds to the overall experience. Their web page is so easy to navigate even I can do it. Anyone who has been to my lectures/workshops knows I am not the most technically savvy person. Let me be perfectly clear, I do not work for or own Adorama, I am just another customer. By the way their customer service is impeccable, and shipping is extremely quick. It seems like everybody is an expert at everything; I am not. I love what I do, and now having the ability to create books that not only I enjoy, I also have them as great teaching tools.

The environmental portrait of Willie Nelson was done at 200mm, 1.8 lens at a 2/50o of a sec at 1.8 iso 500 on a gitzo monopod.

Six-Week Photo Lecture Tour in The Mediterranean

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on November 10, 2011

To all the ships at Sea,

Our six-week lecture tour took us from Greece to Monte Carlo, back to Croatia, Malta, Istanbul, France, Italy, etc. Both JoAnne and I had the pleasure of lecturing and in-the-field shooting with students all over the world. More to follow at a later date.

Ann Raine the Great

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on September 15, 2011

As a photographer and a film maker, I have the ultimate obligation to make my clients happy. They pay me and they expect to get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. That’s my job and I do the best possible job I can do. Of course, you always try to push the envelope or think out of the box, all of those cliches, which I interpret as putting a little of your own style into the visual medium. As a mentor and a teacher, I feel the same obligation. I take it very seriously and sometimes I go back to the studio and I wonder, “Did I do a good job, did they get it, were they able to make a better photograph?” Sometimes you know, sometimes you don’t. In every workshop there are a few photographers that shine brighter than the rest. They’re not necessarily the best photographers, but they put forth one hell of an effort. Ann Raine is a California girl who’s been transplanted to the East Coast. She loves Arabian horses and she loves photography. Attached you’ll find three of her photos and a link to several more. I’d like to thank Ann for the kind words. She motivates me to do a better job. As the truth be known, I constantly learn from the students. The student becomes the teacher, and the teacher becomes the student.

“I’ve attended numerous photo-walk workshops with Joe DiMaggio over the last several years, and I keep returning for a number of reasons: Great mentoring, interesting photographic venues, but most importantly, every time I participate in one of these day-long events, I feel a freedom to experiment, a license to open up and go-for-it (photographically speaking.) I am not as concerned about getting every photo perfect as I am in pushing the limits of my skill and knowledge, by practicing and experimenting to ultimately get the great photo!”

– Ann Raine

http://www.annraine.com/-/annraine/gallery.asp?cat=136818&pID=1&row=15

Fishing Fool

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on September 7, 2011

Painting by Paul Laddin

I was out fishing one day in the Huntington Triangle and I ran into a wise fisherman. He was quite a character. We talked about lures, trolling, and then we talked about advertising photography. Little did I know, I was in the presence of the president of one of the finest, most avant garde ad agencies in the United States. Here we are 26 years later, and we’re very dear friends. I call him my Rabbi, my brother, my mentor, and my dear friend. Like all relationships it is predicated on the most important thing, respect. His name is Paul Laddin. On top of all of his accomplishments, first accomplishment is, of course, he is married to a beautiful and brilliant woman named Jennie. Second to that, he is quite the accomplished artist. He works in oil and his work is wonderful. If you look closely at the artwork I’ve included, you may recognize a younger photographer, I’m not sure I know his name.

Thank you Paul for being such a great friend. Love you.

Joe D

Filmmaker Albert Maysles

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on June 30, 2011

I guess there’s an old adage that the teacher becomes the student. Our son Dylan had a great opportunity 4 years ago. He worked as an intern for Al Maysels. Al is recognized as the father of modern documentary cinematography. His awards are absolutely amazing. When Grey Gardens closed on Broadway, the feature film was a Blockbuster. His original film on Grey Gardens and Salesmen are classic studies made in the way documentaries should be made. I had the pleasure to meet Al a few years ago at a cocktail party and reception.

Being in Al’s presence is being in the presence of greatness. He’s soft spoken, has a very small ego, and is a great talent. He was kind enough to invite me to his home along with my partner JoAnne Kalish and son Dylan to do a one-hour interview on his life and career.

I have very few heroes. One was Gene Smith, who I had the pleasure of assisting back in the day. Al is also a hero of mine. He has been kind enough to help me with my film In This Corner. Just came across a few photos of Al and thought all the Ships at Sea would like to take a look at a photograph of a great filmmaker.

TIME Magazine Assignment

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on June 28, 2011

I had a half hour off the other day. Decided to just look through some of my old TIME magazine and Sports Illustrated assignments and I stumbled across this photo that I did for them to celebrate the opening of Giant Stadium. I was totally blown away when I heard they were going to build a new stadium. It seems like yesterday they just built a new stadium. Of course, a businessman friend of mine explained that it’s all about the super boxes and the Fortune 500. Well, considering my only interest is between the goal line and the goal line, a super box just doesn’t do it for me. If TIME asks me to go and shoot the new one, it’s gonna take me a little longer to get to the birds’ eye perch. See you at the game!

Joe D.