Not My First Rodeo

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on June 25, 2012

To All The Ships At Sea

One of the great advantages of being a photographer is travel. I’ve been blessed because over my career I’ve been around the world twice and am now working on the third time. Many of my assignments revolved around sports and action. With all the assignments and travel, I had never photographed a rodeo until last week.It was my first. While shooting, an official came over and was kind enough to give me insight on who, what, and where the action would be taking place and for how long. I looked at him and said you do understand this is not my first rodeo and then realized what I had said and immediately corrected myself. Utilizing this cowboy’s thirty years of doing rodeo helped me make a better photograph with less mistakes. This is what I call important pre-production. I make it my business to seek out the elder of the village whether it’s in Botswana, Palermo or Utah. Do your research and seek out whatever help you can get to make your work better. Keeping your mind open to learn and trying knew things is important and it’s what makes the world go round. The DiMaggio/Kalish Learning Center will be doing two professional rodeo workshops this year and they will be awesome.

©’12 Joe DiMaggio

©’12 Joe DiMaggio

©’12 Joe DiMaggio

©’12 Joe DiMaggio

99.9% Keep Shooting

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 22, 2012

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

F/1.8 and Be There

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 14, 2012

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.

Photo Books

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on May 9, 2012

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).

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.

Sistine Chapel: The Rules

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 18, 2012

Photo © Joe DiMaggio

Back in the day a trip to Rome would be incomplete without a once-in-a life-time experience of seeing one the greatest and most popular works of art known today. I have been back at least a dozen times, and I always discover something new in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. It was commissioned by Pope Julius the II and was painted between 1508 and 1512. Back then, with the proper credentials I was able to photograph the Chapel for fifteen minutes before it opened. Today photography is no longer allowed, and when I ask why, security explained, that they sell photos, so there is no need to take one. Rules are rules, and we all must adhere to them. I found it very interesting that photographers with 35mm cameras are stopped but people with I phones and such were not. It seemed a bit unfair to me. I normally try to spend more then an hour trying to study the color, balance, and composition. I always leave the Chapel with my jaw on the ground, and when someone says that my photos are a piece of art I am humbly appreciative, but we all know better. Tip for today, as always pre-select shutter speed aperture, focus, over-expose by three quarters to 1.5 stops, camera on silent mode, lay the camera flat on a bench, accidentally hit the self timer button and hopefully you will have a precious image of one of the greatest pieces of art of all time. The rules are the the rules, don’t break them.

The Right Exposure

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 16, 2012

To All the Ships at Sea.

I had the opportunity to do an ad campaign for the Cleveland Indians. As part of the contract, I did several billboard,. one of which, Shaun Casey was the star. The key to this photograph is Casey’s eyes and his intensity. The ball was not on the bat yet, but very close. If you were to utilize the correct daylight exposure his eyes would have been shaded by the cap. By opening up a half to three quarters of a stop, you will have the correct exposure for under his cap and his eyes. The same is true for a football player or race car driver with his helmet on. If looking for the eyes, you have to make the right adjustments.

That’s my tip for today. Finish reading the blog then go out and make some photos. Joe D

Controlling the Environment

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 13, 2012

I was blessed to live on the sea for about 20 years. Sailing, swimming, scuba diving all became part of daily life. I remember vividly being on a conference call with Saatchi and Saatchi, I looked out the window to see a large multi-colored sail from a Hobie cat fly by. I let out with a scream, the creative director and the vice-president of Xerox thought it was pretty funny. When I explained, they still thought it was funny. A week later I spoke to the sailor on the Hobie Cat and arranged to make a series of photographs with the boat. I called my accountant and asked him, if I bought a sail boat and used it as a prop, was it a write off? Thus became my love affair with Hobie. The $3,000 dollar investment yielded six figures over the years. The photo above: 35mm camera, 16mm lens, Kodachrome 25, 1/250sec at f/8. Camera mounted on mast with infrared firing device. Remember in those days there were 36 exposures. I may revisit it again one day with digital. It’s all good.

Peak Action

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 9, 2012

©Joe DiMaggio

I had an opportunity to teach at the University of Arizona. It afforded me time in the desert, in the dead of winter to photograph some interesting characters. Here’s a young man taking a short cut. I had no idea he was going to do this. The lesson of the day is to make sure your camera is ready to go. Pre-select shutter speed, aperture, color balance, ISO, type of metering, and exposure compensation. The next part of the equation would be experience and some would say luck, I believe you make your own luck. This photo was taken with a 35 mm camera, a 100mm Macro lens, ISO 50, shutter speed 1/500 f/4, single exposure.

PRE-PRODUCTION, EXPERIENCE, EXECUTION

20×30 Adoramapix

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on April 2, 2012

Over the years I’ve had two major printers. One was Par Excellence in Shreveport Louisiana, the other was Ken Leiberman in New York. There is no doubt Ken was and still is a great printer. If you’re going to have a show at MOMA, or a San Francisco gallery, he may be your choice. Par Excellence is unfortunately out of business. My partner and best friend JoAnne Kalish is a master printer “and one hell of a great photographer,” she produces some impeccable “Giclee” prints to die for. As great as they are they just are not a photographic process per se. Without telling JoAnne, I made 60-20×30’s, and 12-16×20’s. They are awesome and if you would like to come by our Learning Center to look at them, make an appointment and I will gladly show them to you. The key is – the blacks are black, the white are white, and the skin tone is dead on, it does not get any better then that. Info on this photo is, Shutter Speed-1/10 second, Lens-100 mm macro, ISO speed-50 and it was taken on the new Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod 190cxpro3.