Crazy Funny Ideas

All Photos ©JoAnne Kalish

I have the flu and I'm trying to clean up something as I feel too unproductive just resting. I came across some shots of a Pev, a model I've used and worked with on many occasions. I did some crazy cards with adopted animals that were trained to do tricks. I think funny always works.

Our friends Bill & Kathrin first-footed over to our home New Year's Day for Brunch and brought customary gifts.  This was the first I heard of this tradition and it was quite lovely in thought. I also have to mention, that my friend artist Will Barnet called to wish us a Happy New Year - Will is 100 years old and it doesn't get any better than that! He is absolutely the best! What a way to start out the year! 

In case no one has been playing around with the Nik software it's absolutely great and totally user friendly.  I would highly recommend it.  

Looking forward to a great 2012 - I already see some very good signs that it will be a special year.  

We are in the process of adding new workshops and redoing our websites so please stay tuned. 

Bill Shatner The Captains

Bill shatner, Liz Shatner, Joe DiMaggio & JoAnne Kalish   ©Marion Curtis

Had a lovely wonderful Evening Last Night. We went to The Screening of Bill Shatner's film The Captains on the Intrepid in Manhattan. Although Bill & Liz were working, we had a little time to spend with friends we hadn't seen in a while. Great seeing them.

Beautiful evening sipping wine on the Intrepid in the harbor. Great backlight, took a few snaps 

before The Star arrived as the light was so pretty.

 Photos below©J.Kalish

IMAGES 2011 BILL EPPRIDGE

    All Photos © JoAnne Kalish or Joe DiMaggio

This past weekend I made time to go to the Fairfield Museum in Connecticut to see Photographer Bill Eppridge's Retrospective Show. What an amazing photography exhibit it was. I highly recommend it.

For those of you who are not familiar with Bill's work, google him and make it a priority to see his retrospective before it ends. Bill is a photojournalist whose work spans over three decades with Life Magazine, Sport Illustrated and National Geographic. He is best known for his photos of Bobby Kennedy's assassination but there is so much more to his work. As a former journalist myself (Sports Illustrated and Time Magazine) however, I would never consider myself anywhere close to having his photojournalistic ability,  I truly enjoyed reading his words alongside his amazing photographs which  briefly gave a few personal thoughts behind some of the images or what his assignment entailed.  In all honesty it was up there with the best of the best exhibits I've ever seen.

For all my students, please take the time to go to this exhibit and see the power of a great still Image and see for yourself what a very fine photojournalist Bill Eppridge is and take a lesson. 

The show opened May 1 and continues till August 28 

New paPA ArtSpace

My partner Joe and I had an opportunity to visit paPA recently, which is a brand new amazing exhibition ArtSpace which was formerly a centuries-old 33,000 square foot historic silk mill in White Mills, PA. It is just two hours from New York City and owned by Ron andYvonne Parker. We were given the royal tour by Yvonne as well as being introduced to the works of various artists which was awesome. They've done so much with the space already and there is great potential for much more! The space could be used for music, film viewing, poetry readings, dance and more. Yvonne mentioned a fall exhibition that will fuse music, art, and dance called "MAD"so stay tuned...

The parkers have owned or managed 23 galleries in America and Europe. Their international collection of contemporary art acquired over a 30-year period, includes paintings, sculptures, photography, installations and assemblages.

The Summer Exhibition, "Yvonne Parker and Friends" opens on Saturday July 16 and runs till August 28th. The show is a collaborative art project in which Yvonne invites contemporary artist-friends to share fragments of their own work, which is then incorporated by Yvonne into her series - "Fragmented Beauty" series.

This is their website http://www.papa18473.com

Mermaid Parade 2011 Photo Workshop

Well a fun day was had by all.  Great to be outside all day long on a glorious day, doing what I love to do most.

Tip for the day day is on aperture. What aperture should you use for portraiture?  For a head shot of a single person I generally like to open up to a wide f/stop to blur out my background. That's my preference because I like the look of it and find it particularly attractive and it makes for a stronger photograph. When used on women (who we have to be more careful with) it softens the face and complexion leaving the most important feature sharp which is the eyes. However, there are exceptions especially when you are shooting in crowds and where there are lots of people and different things happening such as at the Mermaid Parade, where I just did a workshop. In a situation like this, where you want to be flexible and spontaneous, you might want to choose to use a medium depth-of-field for a little more depth of field. When a situation arises and you have a little more time to to make a change and want to throw more of your background out-of-focus and again to get a stronger photo, open up your aperture, that is, providing you have the light. Again, in the studio I like to choose a shallow depth of field especially for women.  Studio lights can show imperfections and reveal too much. If the person is young and their complexion is good,  you have choices, but the older we get the more lines and imperfections we get on our faces and the more we notice them.  So, the photographer should be aware of this. When photographing more than one person you need a medium aperture to make sure your subjects are in focus. For children, more times then not because they can't hold still sometimes a choice of  a medium to small aperture is better.

 

It Only Gets Better!

I had an awesome day yesterday. The first part of my day was a shoot with Cisco Graciano and Michelle Fleet at the famous Paul Taylor dance studio in Manhattan - awsome. I could not ask for two more talented, lovely, easy going, and fun people to be working with. The studio space was unbelievable. Afterwards, it was followed up by being invited to the Adorama Grand Opening Party at Adorama Professional. Really great party with wonderful people, good food and good drinks.  Had loads of fun, had many great conversations, and enjoyed meeting well-known and great photographer Bill Eppridge and his wife Adrienne. Even had a chance to meet the famous Mr. Mendlowitz of Adorama!  All in all met a lot of really lovely people yesterday, saw many old friends, and had a great shoot!  What else could you ask for?