Induro Blog

Lots of images passing through my brain today! I thought I’d choose four to share.

First, Stephen Wilkes‘ awesome High Line Panorama for New York Mag. The man spent a full day on a cherry picker to get this shot. That’s commitment!

Second: David Sykes‘ very complicated shot, posted on A Photo Editor. Yes, those are huge balloons!

David says:

This latest piece of personal work is all shot in one shot on 5×4 transparency. I comissioned a model maker Ridley West to make a giant plate that we could attach to the wall and with the help of Jennie Webster who sourced some amazing balloons this shot was the result.

Wowser. Third- another floating picture, this one of Heath Ledger- shot by Bruce Weber for Vanity Fair. There are several nice outtakes posted, but this is most special, I think.

Aaaand finally, let’s say goodbye to Michael with Induro blog veteran Lynn Goldsmith‘s classic shot, running on Rollingstone.com.

I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s pictures….

John Ortner, Preah Vihear

Well whaddya know; no sooner do I post an interview with Jon Ortner than do I hear he’s being feted over at the National Geographic blog. Specifically, they discuss his work at the sanctuary Preah Vihear, which is on the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

It’s really a fascinating read, take a look.

Here’s a sneak peek…

“Guarded by giant seven-headed serpent gods high on a mountain, on the border between Thailand and Cambodia, is an ancient sacred site that’s often been at the center of conflict.

Jon Ortner, photographer and author of the book ‘Angkor, Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire,’ shares his first encounters and impressions of the thousand-year-old sanctuary Preah Vihear in this essay of words and photos composed especially for NatGeo News Watch.”

More from Jon:

My wife Martha and I were traveling along the rugged Dangrek Mountains where Thailand and Cambodia share a much-disputed border–and which is also home to some of the most magnificent temples in Asia. It was March 1997, and we were approaching our objective, the reason we had traveled so far.

Our driver had stopped the car and motioned for us to start walking. Strangely alone, we walked down the empty road for 20 minutes. But as I took a last glance at Preah Vihear in the distance, the Thai officer reminded me that visiting this unique and beautiful place was forbidden, and that no attempt should be made to cross the border a few hundred yards away.

Jon Ortner, A monk stands beside the collapsed tower (prang) of the innermost sanctuary. The courtyard is enclosed by galleries.

You can read the rest at Nat Geo. Hint: He got the shot. And made a book!

We have Ortner fever.

Can you believe it, folks- we’ve got another great interview today. This one is with Jon Ortner, who has created a tremendous career for himself as a travel photographer. Jon told me how he balances his commercial and personal work, and what spots on earth are most photogenic. It’s not to be missed, have a read!

How did you first begin to combine travel and photography, and where were your first trips? Which are the places you continue to return to?

Right out of High School I first traveled to India, Kashmir and Nepal. I went on my first trek into the Himalaya and that journey changed the direction of my life and sparked the beginning of my photographic career. For more than 20 years I continued to travel and photograph in the Himalaya. I worked mostly in Nepal, but also worked in Bhutan, Ladakh and Tibet. Some of the trips were longer than four months, and I went on treks into the mountains that extended over 50 days, walking more than 500 miles.

Nepal

As I became more interested in the spiritual traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism and the art and architecture they inspired, I widened my photographic interests to include Southeast Asia. I went on repeated shoots in Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Bali, Java, India, and China, and continued to express my photographic passion. I created several books related to those areas, which can be viewed in the publications section of my website.

I  still have plans to continue working in Asia, but more recently, especially over the past five or six years, I have been concentrating on the canyons and deserts of the American Southwest.  Shooting with a Fuji 6×17cm Panorama film camera, I have just come out with my new book Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest. It has been reviewed by National Geographic, and just won the Gold Award for Book of The Year by Foreword Magazine.

How do you choose your gear- how have your choices changed since the rise of digital?

Since all of my books have been about outdoor destinations, I still hike very long distances and  carry huge amounts of equipment to create my images. Film Cameras, Digital Nikons and accessories, plus food, water, maps, first aid kit and everything else you might need to travel and shoot in the wilderness. The recent desert shoots have been especially demanding because of the amount of water you need to carry (and it’s concurrent weight) and the long distances that must be hiked in intense heat.

What features are most important to you in a tripod? (do you have particular needs for something great for long exposures, or that can flip upside down for macro shots)- which Induro tripod do you like most?

Of course, a sturdy tripod ends up being one of the most important items to have along.  As soon as I got to see and handle the Induro Carbon Fiber models, I was sold. Extra stable and light, the two magic words.  I have shot all over the world and know how rugged the Induro actually is. Unlike other models that have failed on me in the most inconvenient places, the Induro has served me faithfully in the worst sand storms, submerged in deep muddy water and frozen with ice and snow.

They are almost impervious to sand and water, but the real beauty of Induro, is that if you have to, they can be disassembled, cleaned, and put back together quickly and easily. I use the Induro especially for long twilight exposures, and the legs allow you to also shoot low to the ground for macro as well. I am currently favoring the small light C214 for hiking, and the C413 for closer to home and studio jobs.

What projects are you currently working on? How do you continue to balance commercial and personal projects?

Canyon Wilderness was such a large project, not only in terms of the time and effort it took to shoot,  but also in terms of the extraordinary care and effort that was put into the layout, printing, and design. It was all done with color, so I have been in the mood to do something visually different.

For many years I have also been shooting in Black & White, in both medium and large formats. I have been very excited, and have created some some of the most unusual and fulfilling images of my career. I will eventually produce a book on American Wilderness.

Balancing commercial and personal work has always been a challenge. Money means freedom, so the bigger and better the commercial jobs, the more freedom I have to shoot in expensive places like Bhutan. Every time I am stuck doing a mundane, commercial, real estate job, I just close my eyes for a moment and I am back in Bali, Kauai, or in some awesome slot canyon in Utah.

Having said that, many of my commercial jobs have also brought me to great locations, with creative and enjoyable shooting. So I am one of the lucky ones– to have it both ways. Because I love what I do, I shoot with the same passion whether it is for a client or for myself.

Which location that you’ve traveled lends itself best to photography (if it’s possible to choose)….

Hard to choose one, so here’s a few of my all time favorites:

The Island of Kauai in Hawaii

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar

Trekking anywhere in Bhutan

<all images copyright Jon Ortner>

–

Thanks, Jon! I want to go on a trek myself now…

I got an email over the weekend from my old buddy, photographer Anthony Georgis. It announced the phenomenal corporate gig he just nailed that will send him on a 30 day classic American road trip, and pay him to boot. How rare! Anthony needs some folks to stay with during his journey, so I thought I’d pass along his email and info. Maybe his (still secret) client will pay for your Denny’s, if you’re super helpful.

I’ll also be running updates from Mr. Georgis while he on the road. We’re going to send him an Induro tripod of his choice to help him out. I wonder which one he’ll choose.

Here’s a picture of a lady with some rings, then Georgis’s note, and then more AG pictures.

Hello Everyone.

Well, I have great news, but things are a bit crazy and I really need your help.

I just finalized the details on a job that sends me on a 30 day roadtrip across America shooting whatever I want and making my own itinerary. Everything came together at the last minute and I’m scheduled to leave first thing Monday morning (!!!)

The job is for —- and it’s a pretty incredible opportunity.

The assignment is to document “New America”. What that means is open to a lot of interpretation, but in general I’m looking for real, unique people and stories. Apple pie, gay pride, street racers, urban gardeners, Iraqi war veterans, twins, truck drivers named Jennifer, beauty queens, drag queens, the cast of the Hills, religion, fireworks, punk rockers, retirees, train jumpers and suburban housewives.

This isn’t one of those fancy kind of photoshoots – it’s just me with a camera and them being real.

I’m starting by heading to Eastern Oregon so the most immediate need is to find a story/destination there. After that my route goes down through California or Nevada to Grass Valley and Reno NV, then SF, Big Sur, Orange County, then East towards Marfa Texas, Austin, Tulsa OK, possibly up to Kansas City or anyplace in the midwest, then to Detroit and finally to western NY state and the New Jesrsy shore. With any luck I’ll end up in NYC then head back across the top of the US and hit the Dakotas and Wyoming. All that is subject to change of course….

If you have ANY ideas of people I should meet up with or destinations that I should try to see please get in touch.

Also – if you want to come along on any leg of the journey, let me know, there should be plenty of room in the Prius.

Thanks! I love you all!

A

Anthony Georgis Photographer | www.anthonygeorgis.com | 503-539-9442 |

Anthony is now in Oregon. Contact him!

Sigh. Today brings the unsurprising but nonetheless heartbreaking announcement that Kodachrome is going to meet it’s (film)maker.

I’ve always loved the incredible richness that came with shooting the chrome– of course many early color masters like Eggleston were fans, and for several decades thereafter the stuff was king in the photo world.

I thought it would be fitting to post some of my favorite 4×5 chromes to mark this tragic day. These are from Shorpy, and were taken in the ’40s, many for the Office of War Information. If you want to read and see more of these images, read a past post of mine, here.

In the meantime, take a look.

October 1942. “Lieutenant ‘Mike’ Hunter, Army test pilot assigned to Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information.

December 1942. Detroit, Michigan. “Hanna furnaces of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation. Stockpile of coal and iron ore.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Arthur Siegel for the Office of War Information.

Chicago, April 1943. “Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks of the Proviso Yard, Chicago & North Western R.R.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.

Butte, Montana, in September 1942. 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee, Office of War Information.

June 1942. Fort Knox, Kentucky. “The crew of an M-3 tank learns all the ways of causing trouble for the Axis with a 75mm gun, a 37mm gun and four machine guns.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, OWI

Spring 1943. “Romeroville, near Chacon, New Mexico.” View full size. 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by John Collier for the Office of War Information.

Detroit, July 1942. “Looking north on Woodward Avenue from the Maccabees Building with the Fisher Building at the distant left, and the Wardell Hotel at the right.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Arthur Siegel.

September 1942. “Learning how to determine latitude by using a sextant is Senta Osoling, student at Polytechnic High School, Los Angeles. Navigation classes are part of the school’s program for training its students for specific contributions to the war effort.”  4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

Nov. 1941. Etna, Pennsylvania. “Blast furnaces and ore at the Carnegie-Illinois Steel mills.”4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

—

They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama dont take my kodachrome away

–

goodbye, old pal.

Folks! We’re pretty pleased over here today, because we’ve nailed down an interview with brilliant documentary photographer James Pomerantz.

Here is James in his recent press photo for PDN’s 30 winner’s circle. I asked him a load of questions about his work, his background, and his future– and he told me stories about his fiancée and a teacher who once told him he took pictures like a dentist.

Read the Qs and the As below.

First off, tell me about your Agua Sagrada work. What is going on here? I find these stunningly beautiful, sort of like the dark flip side of Misrach’s On The Beach work. How did this work come about?

The photographs were made during a trip to Mexico earlier this year. The main purpose of the vacation was to relax and propose to my girlfriend, but money is too tight to travel for a week and not shoot anything. I did some research ahead of time into the area where we were going to be and became fascinated by these geological features they have there called cenotes.

Did you used a tripod for these Agua Sagrada shots? sure looks like you would need one… what do you value most in a tripod?

The images were shot on a tripod-mounted 4×5 camera. Shooting large format, I can’t image working without a sturdy, reliable, compact tripod

Young refugee and cat. Tskaltubo, Georgia

Women praying at a church in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Land mine victim’s prosthetic leg, Repi, Abkhazia

Are you affiliated with an agency? I’m curious if you rep yourself, why you choose to do so, and what the benefits are.

A salt farmer at work on the outskirts of Baku.

A man floats in a mineral bath on the beach near the oil fields of Bibiheybat.
–

Thanks, James! See more Pomerantzes, here.

Talk about a feat of engineering; did you folks catch the  Jamey Stillings work in The New York Times Magazine this weekend? Stillings started this work this March, and has already created some mesmerizing imagery.

From Stillings’ statement:

The Bridge, part of the Hoover Dam bypass project, will eventually divert the majority of traffic off the dam. This engineering project, on par with any national or international project, requires the creation of a 1060-ft twin rib tubular concrete arch springing simultaneously from the Arizona and Nevada sides of the Black Canyon towards their eventual rendezvous approximately 850 feet over the Colorado River. When complete, the 1900 ft bridge will be the longest concrete arch span in the US and the fifth longest in the world.

Check out some of the photographs made thus far (lord knows this man used a tripod. also, a helicopter):

An aerial view of the bridge construction, tower cranes and “high line” system. Hoover Dam is in the background.

The Nevada side of the span.

Workers climbing up the Nevada side of the arch construction to begin their day.

Construction started in 2005, before Americans faced a troubled economy, but as Stillings says, “The notion of spanning that canyon ends up being very symbolic of where we are right now.”

A “high line” system supported by tower cranes on both sides of the canyon facilitates the construction.

Temporary pylons and stay cables act as support during construction.

The wide view…

See more of Stillings’ work, here.

OK, Youtube Friday is going to be like a mullet haircut; business in the front, party in the back.

First, we’ll hear from photographer Jeff Boxer as he discusses his tripod process. (note that he calls Induro “a relative newcomer to the industry but definitely one to watch”)…

Thanks, Jeff! Next– and get ready for awesome hilariousness– check out this video ode to Induro tripods the folks over at Cape Cod Photography Art have created. Who knew these tripods could rock out to techno!

Have a great weekend, folks!

Lynn Goldsmith is an extremely adept multi-tasker as photographers go; she shoots personal work, commercial work (including celebrities and musicians), as well as travel imagery. She took a few minutes out of her busy day to answer my three most pressing questions. Take a gander.

1. You seem to have been very successful bridging the gap between your personal and commercial work. Which work do you feel closest to, and how do you manage to strike a balance?

it is not a matter of closer – it is a matter of feeling more satisfied by one kind of work or the other. My fine art work is both more difficult and more rewarding. Each image requires that I think about something I want to investigate.

stevie! bob! woody! hillary!

I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what it means, what it is I want to say and how can I create an image to manifest that. My commercial work has clearly defined goals which takes alot of the weight off of my shoulders. I see it more as problem solving as I am thinking about what the client wants.

2. Your flower images are beautiful, what is your process for creating them? Are they long exposures, do you enhance the colors?

The flowers came at a time for me that I wanted to go back to keeping it very simple , one camera, one lens. It was a Nikon and I only used available light and photographed flowers where I found them, not in a studio. I used film and pushed it at least 5 stops.

3. What is your typical gear set up? Do you generally work with film- how has that process changed with the rise of digital? What do you find is the most important feature a tripod needs for the way you work?

I shoot about 95 % digital and 5% film. My camera choice depends on what i am doing. It is either a Mamiya or a Nikon or both. With digital both the blessing and the curse is all the work one does in processing the files, as so many options are available. A tripod allows me to work without lights and to experience the magic of available light.

Holy cow, those flowers just slay me. Take a look at some more Goldsmiths, here.

–All images copyright Lynn Goldsmith–