Birthday. The Bertster.

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on March 26, 2012

Everyday of our lives, is an important day. Six months ago I made a decision to teach a work shop at Gleason’s Gym. When my studio manager reminded me that it was my birthday I said great. I consider work a privilege and what better to do then teach photography at Glesons’ Gym. Its just does not get better then that. I knew it was going to a very special and an amazing eclectic group. From Brazil, Chili, Colombia, England, Norway, and all over the east coast. A great balance between men and women, and great help from JoAnne Kalish, Larry Malang, Peter Poremba. It was a hell of a great day. Life is funny, I was on a great natural high, and I got back to the studio. Did not check my voice mail, did not check my email, downloaded the cards, checked facebook. I don’t check it that often and I find one of my close friend died of a heart attack. It was Bert Sugar. On Wednesday, I called Bert, he answered me as usual “Uncle Joe.” I always call him the “Bertster”. I asked him how he was feeling, and he said” I have lung cancer, and have internal bleeding but that’s not the problem.” Then I asked him what the big problem was? He said, “I have F@$!#ing terminal acne.” Thats the Bertster, no matter what the dialogue is he always finds humor in it. He was loved by millions, hated by thousands, he was a true Damon Runyon character and a great friend. I will miss him, yes I will miss him… Off the record, he suffered “Cuttysheimers”, his words not mine. RIP Bert Sugar.

Bert Sugar, Playwright Budd Schulberg, and son Benn Schulberg

Bert Sugar

Captain Lou Albano, Bert Sugar

Bert Randolph Sugar at his finest at Gleasons’

All photos copyright Joe DiMaggio

Nik Software

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on January 2, 2012

Copyright 2011 Joe DiMaggio

Back in the day when I shot Leica, and used TriX and modified my carriers so you can print absolutely the whole negative with no cropping everything had to be done in camera. I studied the zone system for years and effectively was unable to use it because I stopped shooting 4×5. I one time watched Gene Smith, spend three hours making one 8×10. On my best day in the darkroom my best print on a scale of 1-10 would be a 2.25. I did better with Cibachrome. I was able to print Cibachrome and do a reasonable job. When the world threw me a huge curve ball and digital photography became the answer to everything, I was caught with my proverbial down because I thought I was an elitist there was no way I would go digital. I held out as long as I could and like a reformed alcoholic, I scream the praises of digital today. On or about the same time there was photoshop 1 or 2 Anybody who knows me knows I have the utmost respect for the Adobe programs but because of the way I shoot and the number of hours I work, I was not going to attempt to become proficient with photoshop. Maybe it’s a cop-out but I don’t think so. I have interns and assistants that are extremely capable in the program. I tell most of the students that 99% are only cleaned. I very rarely attempt to make major changes in my images. I go back to the old school.

Well, now I’m ready to move into the last part of my career as a fine art photographer, a filmmaker and director and Nik comes along and makes me crazy. I finally got the programs installed and decided to play with one digital scan. That was at 8:30 in the evening. By 3:30 in the morning I had tested all of the software and was starting to bleed from my eyes. While bleeding I had a huge smile smile on my face. I was like 14 all over again – my first day in a darkroom. These programs are absolutely awesome. They are simple, straight forward and easy to use and even an idiot like me can make them work. I don’t impress easy but I’m impressed.

Thanks

Joe DiMaggio

All Photos ©2011 Joe DiMaggio All Rights Reserved

Copyright Joe DiMaggio

Copyright Joe DiMaggio

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.

Boom Boom Mancini- One More Time From the Top

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on September 18, 2011

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

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

Kayaking with Murphy

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on September 12, 2011

Photo ©Joe DiMaggio

You would think after several decades of making photographs there would be no surprises, but the greatest thing about photography is that there’s always a surprise. You can pre plan everything to the final millimeter, you can pick the perfect day for light, you can have the best athletes or models, but invariably something will come up and will bite you on the –whatever. This is a perfect example, of Murphy rearing his ugly head. We planned this shoot several months ago waiting for the right rain conditions so we could make great photographs on the upper portions of the Raymondskill Creek. Cue the cameras! Cue the kayakers, let’s go! But Murphy cued three logs that broke loose and were blocking the creek. Ya can’t kayak over a log, and you can’t kayak through a log, so we went to plan B. Plan B was a 44 foot drop. To put that into perspective, that s a 4 story building straight down. The problem with the shot is the extreme heavy mist. It was like putting a Tupperware cap over your lens. The front element of the lens was absolutely soaking wet all the time and as we all know, anything put in front of a lens will degrade the image. I was shooting with the Sigma 150-500 and I didn’t have the underwater version- OK that’s me trying to be funny again. One of the keys in photography is your ability to be flexible, when you don’t get what you want- you gotta get something. We hiked up one more mile to a tributary and were able to get a 30 foot drop shot with the 24-70 Sigma. ISO and exposure are approximately the same; the difference would be considerably less mist. Keep on shooting, it’s all good. Next time I see you- I’ll have a brand new set of wheels- half titanium and half ceramic.

Joe D

Photos ©Joe DiMaggio

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

Lite Pads

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on August 29, 2011

I’ve been using electronic flash from the beginning of my career. In the 70’s I standardized by using Dynalite strobes. There is no doubt, in my mind, that Dynalite, pound for pound, penny for penny, is the best electronic flash system you can get. Broncolor is really cool, but it’s very expensive. I had an opportunity to experiment with a new product: Rosco lightpads. Rosco is a LED continuous light source that comes in many different flavors – 20×24, 12×12, and even circles.

You name it, they have it. It has a very simple

mounting system as well. The light the pads produce is sweet. When I take all the knowledge that I learned over the years, with the electronic flash and the bending of available light, I can do some really cool things. The greatest advantage of these lights, is that they last forever, the color is consistent, they’re relatively small & easy to maneuver. This makes them easy to use on location with batteries rather than with AC. Now, they may not replace all electronic flash, but they’re a great addition to your photographic repertoire. For the photographer who doesn’t want to go to electronic flash for whatever reason, this is a natural progression. Also see my partner photographer JoAnne Kalish’s blog and another example of what she did using these litepads.

Rosco

A Lovely Note from AJ Langer

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on August 26, 2011

Back in 2007, I received a New Years greeting from my dear friend AJ Langer. AJ is an extremely talented actress and beautiful young lady. AJ and her husband Charlie are the parents of two gorgeous children, Jos and Jack. AJ and I had an opportunity to do several tv shows together in Yellowstone and in Belize. I instructed AJ in the art of still photography. Little did I know, that she knew a whole lot more than she was letting on. When you grow up in front of the camera, you have the opportunity to learn what it’s like to be behind the camera. She taught me a few a things. I will fondly remember during our travels together. She paid me a lovely compliment one time and said “You’re a great teacher, and I’d go anywhere in the world with you.” I’m going to steal a few of AJ’s photos from her email and put them on my blog. Anyone who knows me knows, that I give credit where credit is due. The photograph that AJ did is a world class photograph, not a snapshot. She has become quite, the accomplished photographer.

Simply Great

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on August 17, 2011

To All The Ships At Sea

: Copyright Ann Raine

The one thing that I am absolutely positive of is that the most important things in life are free. A pat on the back, a hug, a kiss on the cheek, watching a humming-bird on a sunflower…. One of the most enjoyable things is to see one of my students progress and really start to excel at their art form. My student Ann Raine is one of the leaders in a very élite group. She never ceases to amaze me and then inspire me. “The student becomes the instructor.” Ann was kind enough to send me a beautiful greeting card with one of her images. I’ve taught many classes on the Brooklyn Bridge on our way to Dumbo and Gleason’s Gym, yet I’ve never seen a more elegant, simple, clean “Pen and Ink” representation of The Bridge. Well Done Ann. You can find Ann’s work at http://www.annrainephotography.com