We have found that some of our readers have traveled through the site but many don’t know how deep we go.
And we keep trying to hear what you like and deliver.
So we created this video, kinda walking into the site and checking the reources.

Sure, share it with your friends and fellow photogs.
And if you feel we are missing something, let us know.
Say how do you like the new TWITTER feed and the tag cloud?
working for ya or maybe there was something else you were hoping for?

OK, day one at the Cannes Lions Ad festival. well, almost day one. Night one is more like it.

a favorite watering hole, soon to be overrun by ad folk.

You don’t have to work in advertising to know that the ad industry has been affected by the “new” economy, like every one else.
But advertising is a major engine in the stimulation of the money flow, but messaging has been changing so fast, it’s tough to keep up, on a relevant basis.

Smart, entrepreneurial photographer, stands in front of the famed Carlton Hotel, snaps your photo, edits it, prints it, and hands it too you in a cardboard frame, All from the back of his motorcycle. Gotta hand it to him for marketing.

And as long as we live in a society that makes products, and gets them to market, the public has to know that the product is available.
The Cannes Lions is the biggest and most prestigious festival celebrating the ad work of the past year, and now, holding seminars and workshops with some of the greatest global minds in the business. And just in general.
By gathering these minds together, perhaps there will be a piece of the puzzle in the economic next steps.
Whether you believe it or not, advertising is a pretty big engine when it comes to stimulating the economy.
And not just the economy. How about the historic election in the USA, last November?
This year, the leader of the Obama campaign will speak and if you don’t think that was some of the best marketing this past year, you need to take a closer look.
Using all of the social networking and technology available, including the famous Shepard Fairy poster of the AP photogs shot of Obama, to twitter feeds and Facebook groups.
And speaking of Facebook, how about the Whopper Sacrifice campaign, where for every 10 friends you delete you got a free whopper.
Even FB didn’t know how to deal with it, till they shut it down. But the point was made. The media coverage of the ensuing removal of the offer, gave much more exposure to the campaign than it ever had.

And what about he photo industry ? Microsites and stock houses took it in the shorts, meaning so did a lot of you who may depend on stock photo sales for income.
Getty even made a deal with Flickr to sell your photos through them via Flickr.
Because the advertising community wants more authentic photographs. Kinda like the ones most people take everyday.
And if you cruise through Flickr you’ll see some incredible work.

After over 10 years of attendance here, we have seen the wretched excess and now we’ll see the tighter, smarter business mode. We think.
So here we are looking talking shooting, videoing, and bringing you some perspective from the biggest a festival of them all. The Cannes Lions 2009.

And just for the record, we pick the Obama campaign for the Grand Prix. When you can change history with he help of strong, smart, innovative, current, marketing it seem to be worthy of the biggest prize.

Even the taxi driver from the airport commented on President Obama. Now that’s some strong branding!

You may have realized by now if you are a regular reader here, that we love 3D.
Remember this article?
All kinds. Stereopticons, Lenticular, Anaglyph, film, still, with special glasses, without special glasses, fried, sauteed, or steamed.
And Hollywood does too.
They know that one of the premium theater experiences that you cannot get at home, yet, is 3D. And they are pumping em out.
Looks great to us.
So this week we are going to give you a choice of 3D freebie.
You can go with a very modern version of the 3D photobook, Pop-Up 3D
with excellent photos of bugs and such. Heck, you can almost reach out and touch them.

OR
You can have a volume of photographer/filmmaker/comedian Harold Lloyd’s book called Harold Lloyd’s Hollywood Nudes in 3D!
n Hollywood Nudes in 3D! a dazzling array of Hollywood starlets, including Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, Dixie Evans, and Tura Satana, come to life in all of their enticing loveliness.

Book cover shot after the jump, plus instruction on entering the giveaway- Continue Reading »

One of the all time classic lines delivered to Jack Nicholson at the end of the movie “Chinatown”.
On July 18th, 2009, we are leading a Photowalk there, joining simultaneous photowalks all over the world.

Scott Kelby and NAPP are running this second annual event, and there is a good chance there will be one in your town.
If not, you have until June 18th to apply to lead your own.
It’s a 2 hour affair, and participants are eligible for prizes, and one hell of a good time. Plus some photo socializing.
We’ve participated in one of these before and just meeting and hanging with fellow photogs was a blast.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re carrying a point and shoot or a big rig. Truly, it’s about the photographs and social.

Ours will be Downtown LA in Chinatown, and should be an eye opener for many.

We’ll start at 8:00 AM before the shops open, and catch this historic part of Los Angeles before it fully awakes. Then we’ll be there as the throngs appear, and catch a different mood.
The last stop, if you stay with us, with be at a wonderful dim sum restaurant, where we’ll share some photos and maybe have a great brunch before heading onto the rest of your day.
Do you want to put you own definition of the classic movie line?
Or maybe just discover a part of your city you never hung out in?
Whichever way you go, check out the details and sign up right here.
Only space for 50 (that’s a lot, right? ) and we promise to make a fun time.
Keep checking back here to get further details.
Oh, did we say there would be prizes?
Just wanted to make sure that was clear.

Last fall, we made a visit to NYC for PhotoPlus Expo and, of course, a stop at the International Center of Photography, or ICP.
Always a solid group of photography exhibits under one roof, and this time was no exception. A celebration of the tintype, filled the back room with over 150 images, all captured on metal. Titled, appropriately, America and the Tintype.
Whether they were formal portraits or a more common vernacular variety, these “instant “photos of their day were a common sight in many homes.
In the 1880’s!
The photographers would go from town to town with their darkrooms, and document your life. For a nominal, and very reasonable price.
This was part of the fascination on this exhibit. You were not just looking at the upper class portraits, it was the more modest families, the more down to earth folk, who could afford to get their picture made.
Way before August Sander would produce his monumental work on the various castes of German society, this show gave you a sense of transition from the time when only the rich had an oil painting commissioned for their visage to be immortalized, to this affordable strange metal portrait, that had a permanence we can examine today, was made available for an affordable price.
It was also a lighthearted show, as people seemed to have fun while they were photographed. OK, they still had to hold still, but there was sense of humor, at times.
You can still purchase this show in book form from ICP

And here is our weekly giveaway:
Rockland Colloid’s Tintype Parlor is an authentic re-creation of last century’s tintype process, the form of “instant” photography that was popular in your great-grandfather’s day. Tintypes often found in antique shops. Rockland Colloid’s tintypes are sensitized metal plates that are thin enough to be cut with scissors to fit inside any camera. You can dress your friends in old costumes and create an authentic bit of Americana. In addition to tintypes, the Tintype Parlor can also make Ambrotypes, a version of tintypes that is printed on a glass plate. Developer and fixer are included in the kit.
Tintype Parlor Includes: 5 -Metal 4×5 Plates ;Tintype Emulsion; Developer; Fixer
And we are adding some elements we felt you would need. Like a red safelight and a developing tray. Picked them up at Freestyle in Los Angeles. Remember we told you about that cool store, that is a mecca for old school classic processing supplies?

And here is a great link for some history, and process tip.
It won’t be a simple deal here. It’ll take a little dedication and the desire to create an image that is one of a kind. Unique.
That alone is pretty darn cool.

From ICP:

“The tintype is one of the most intriguing and little-studied forms of nineteenth-century photography. Introduced as a low-cost alternative to the daguerreotype and the albumen print, the tintype was widely marketed from the 1860s through the first decades of the twentieth century, and quickly became the most popular photographic medium. It was the picture making preference of the people, and was almost never used for celebrity portraiture. The tintype was affordable, portable, unique, and available almost everywhere. Because of its ubiquity, the tintype provides a startlingly candid record of the political upheavals that rocked the four decades following the American Civil War, and the personal anxieties they induced.

Stepping before the camera, a person would strike a pose for two to ten seconds, perhaps pose again, and then wait as the iron plate—with its sensitized collodion emulsion—was exposed in the camera, absorbing the reflected light directly off the subject. It was then developed, dried, and varnished. A few minutes later, the result appeared. That the pictures were darkish or that they were reversed left to right did not matter to the tintype client, because—at least in the latter instance—reversal was expected, based on previous experience of the daguerreotype and the mirror. And unlike with the carte-de-visite, there was no negative: the tintype was basically a negative adhered to a varnished metal plate, one that yielded an image that was unique and durable.”

So there you have it.
We’re going to drag out an old Speed Graphic, 4×5, and see what we can do.

Details on getting this kit, including the safelight and tray, will be in this weeks NEWSLETTER. Sign up by Tuesday night and on Weds. morning at 9:00AM PST, the NEWSLETTER arrives safe and sound in you inbox (and if you don;t see it, check your spam box; sometimes until you approve us, it sneaks in there)

Say, how do you like our new, spiffy, HOME page Twitter block? Kinda like your own personal photo press feed.