Street Shots Photography Podcast

Episode 82 and I've got nothing. Well, almost nothing. A definite off-the-cuff episode though I do manage to chat it up for nearly an hour about the new iPhone XS Max and its camera. There are some nice things about it and one thing that looks like a serious flaw. Listen to what I've found out about it.

On this episode, I'm talking about my experience digitizing a selection of slides using a new Nikon slide digitizer and also I have some thoughts about the new iPhone and just what it could mean for our photography. 

This is the show's 80th episode!! I had a scheduled discussion planned with a buddy but that got bumped due to some technical issues I had regarding my camera equipment. But guess what? I explain all of that to you in this end-of-summer episode. Just going over some stuff regarding photography like what shows I've been on lately and what new photo books I'm reading. Also, a plug for a photo walk in Brooklyn on October 6th. Nothing too revolutionary, just me catching you up on what's going on. Hope Y'all had a great summer.   Show Links: ShutterTime Show with me filling in for Sid Kelby's World Wide Photo Walk 2018  

This episode I'm joined by my buddy and color grader, Reed Means again to continue our discussion about color, both in movies and stills, and just what the language of color means for the way we express ourselves with our art.  Colorful language can really be observed in movies (and I'm not talking four-letter words here) because color helps a story along by setting an emotional tone to a scene. So how does that translate to still images? Does it translate to still images? Stills have a slight disadvantage when it comes to this because they have to package everything into one still frame. Your eye needs to be caught and your emotions grabbed immediately. There are no preceding scenes to get you prepared for what you're about to see. Expect more episodes with Reed in the future as we continue this great discussion about color.   Show Links: Palm Tree Shoe Productions: https://www.palmtreeshoeproductions.com/   Miesner Media: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4HXushRwS_9b1JdRFYVgw   Color Grading Central: https://www.youtube.com/user/colorgradingcentral   Mixing Light https://mixinglight.com/   Casey Faris https://www.youtube.com/user/CaseyFaris777   Reed's mushroom shots:   David LaChapelle's Shot:

  No, not the Liam Neeson film but an experimental episode where I talk and walk while shooting in my local historical landmark, Green-Wood Cemetery (and, yes, the Liam Neeson movie WAS filmed there). In this episode, I give you a little update about how it's going for me now that I no longer submit images to Instagram. Yes, another social media update but a couple of surprising consequences I've discovered. Then, an experiment. I decided to mic myself up and take a walk thru Green-Wood with my camera and have a chat about what's going on while I do; sort of a "inside the mind" dialogue, which I decided to share on this show. Let me know if you dig this self-introspection or not. I figured it's summer and why not try something new.

In this special episode, I continue a conversation started on episode 203 of Shuttertime with Sid and Mac. A mashup of sorts, Sid and Mac invited me onto their show and rather than make it one long show, we decided to record it in two parts, the second part here on Street Shots.   The question we ponder is what kind of photographer do you want to be? We chat about all the different paths we can take when we decided to make photography our expressive medium of choice. We also take some inspiration from this video of photographer Jay Maisel talking about how to be a better photographer.   Before you listen to this episode, please go here and listen to part one on Shuttertime with Sid and Mac. Please give me some feedback if you enjoyed this mashup or not. We may do it again in the future to promote cross-border podcasting goodness.

  Yes, I did say I wouldn’t be talking about social media again, but I thought it might be important to start exploring the aftermath of reducing my presence. What is it like not to be “beholden” to social media. Well, the results are interesting. I spend this episode giving you an update of what it's like to be on a social media “fast.” It's been just over a month since I quit uploading images to Instagram and all sorts of things are happening but I’ll just talk about a couple. Who am I now that I don’t immediately share my images with the rest of the world? I’m sure this is a question we all wrestle with. Hang out with me for an hour or so and hear what I’m doing about that.

  "Contrast by Hornbeck" is an iPhone camera app recommended to me by my friend, Mark Reierson, when I recently told him I was stuck in a visual rut. The app has the ability to distill a scene into an almost truly black and white image with very reduced grey tones. Mark's idea was to get me to look at the world with this app and to see things differently and maybe jar me out of the rut.  On this episode, I bring Mark in to discuss just what made him latch onto this app and how it changed the way he saw the world he wanted to photograph.  Photographers use apps and cameras and film and filters to alter the way they see the world and thus alter how a photograph ultimately looks. This is not new to the digital world; it's been happening since the invention of the craft. Join me and Mark in what I hope is a fascinating exploration around how we record what we see.   Show Links: Contrast by Hornbeck Mark Reierson's Site

The more things change, the more they stay the same. After finding and reading an entry from an old journal of mine from 1986, I decided to no longer add any more images to my personal Instagram account. How did this journal from 32 years affect my decision? Was it only the words from my past, or was there something else that led me to pull the plug on my Instagram account? Taking this trip into my photographic past has shaken me up a little and surprised me in a way I didn’t think it would. Let’s hang out for the next hour or so and let me tell you a couple of stories. I know I’ve been talking a lot about quitting social media these days, on this show and other podcasts. I’ll try to make this one of the last times (if not *the* last times) I spend a good chunk of my energy on it. We need to move on.            

Sparked by a topic suggestion from a listener, Antonio called up his longtime friend Sean Justice to talk about what are the not-so-technical aspects that make a photo “great.” Sean’s an educator and visual artist living in Texas, and was the perfect fit to discuss the question of “what makes a photograph stop us in our tracks?” Spoilers: there’s no (simple) answer. Sean and Antonio aren’t after an answer; it’s the question that drives their discussion. What moves us to take a photo? Can we be stopped in our tracks by our own photography? Why is a photo great to our eyes but not to someone else? Tune in and hang out with Sean and Antonio as they pose more questions about what makes a photo “great” than they can answer. There will be a Part 2.   Links: SeanJustice.com Sean Justice at Texas State University