Udi from Diyphotography.net climbs the stairs in Vegas and just happens to walk past a strobe held to the rail with a Nasty Clamp just moments before security comes and kicks us out!

Well, it’s taken me a few weeks to recover, but I’m finally getting my wits back. CES / PMA this year was crazy. Not crazy like, “Wow, look at all this incredible new gear and gadgets.” There was some of that. However the show floor was dominated by iPhone cases. I’m not being silly. It was overwhelming how many iPhone case companies there were. This year CES had over 155,000 attendees and there must have been a different iPhone case made for each one.

Still, I had a great time, met lots of amazingly nice and talented folks. And the food was delicious! Oh, and there were some great gadgets and gear.

I shot quick pitch (around 30 sec) videos of all the gear and gadgets that I thought were cool on the show floor. You can see all 40 or so on my Youtube channel.

Here are my personal favorites:

The ioShutter: A high-tech shutter release cable and software for your iPhone.

Uncle Oswald: A retro phone that’s actually a bluetooth speaker. Soooo nice!

Clarity One Earphones: Earphones that are honestly the best I’ve ever heard. Incredible.

And BEST OF THE BEST… The Swivl: A tracking, motorized head to go on your tripod so you can be the star and the cameraman at the same time. Such a great idea.

I’ll have detailed reviews of all these cool products and more in the coming months.

Nice!

If you said, “No,” “Not really,” “Eh,” “That’s a depressing question,” or paused a moment before crossing your fingers behind your back and saying, “Sure,” then chances are it all comes down to one thing: a lack of preparation.

How dare you! – that’s what you’re saying at me now. But this is how dare I!

Below you will find a gripping Ted Talk video by magician David Blane – whom I was not very fond of before watching this – where he goes through his process of preparation. I guarantee you without hesitation or reserve that you (and most surely I) have not gone to this extent to prepare – for anything!

If I think if I prepared to this extent for any endeavor, I could succeed at absolutely anything. And so could you.

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My pals over at The Usual Shutter Specs brought this thought provoking video to my attention. In it Errol Morris – one of the greatest documentary film makers of all times – pontificates about just what Truth and Photography have to do with each other – if anything.

Do you think a photograph is truth if you come upon a scene and photograph as is? It could be. But the photograph was taken from a certian angle. At a ceritan distance. Items intentionally or unintentionally are cropped out. So without altering a scene it could easily represent a falsehood.

I am not a journalist. If you are a photo journalist then you journal with photos, so go ahead and have rules about not altering anything. But if I want to tell the truth with a photo I feel it is perfectly acceptable, even advisable, to alter the scene before me so that it best comunicates that truth.

How do you feel about Truth in Photography? Sound off in the comments below.

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My pal Danny, maker of the incredible tripods – 3 Legged Thing – saw my last post about night photography and turned me on to this incredible work.

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

Video of day and night time time lapse photography from Dustin Farrell. Absolutely stunning!

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The above image is © Mark Weller and John Rummel and has got to be the most breathtaking long exposure night photo I have ever seen. I thought for sure it was a composite, but no. It’s the real deal. The photographers talk about the image in the video below.

Makes me want to get out there, put on some warm underwear and get shooting. Nice!

Flies taste delicious! It’s true. Do I personally know that rolling those velvety wings over my tongue and chewing those salty, crunchy little legs is a euphoric gastronomic experience?

Well, no.

I wouldn’t eat a fly. The thought of it makes me gag. What kind of disgusting monster do you think I am?

But you know who does eat flies? Spiders. They just can’t get enough of those 8,000 eyed floating protein bars. They eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack. When they have guests over for a BBQ? Yep, fly kabobs.

Why should we care? Because sometimes we take photographs, make films, write songs, or create some other form of art not just because we want to, but because we want it to affect someone or a group of someones.

It could be a portrait of a newborn for the happy – and tired – new parents. It could be a corporate headshot for a big shot real estate tycoon. It could be a product shot for some hot new photography accessory.

If your photograph, film, song, or grilled cheese truck is meant to do something specific to a specific audience, you may need to check your point of view at the door and you’ll definitely want to consider – dare I say even research – your target audience’s point of view. There’s a good chance it’s different than yours.

If you want to take a photograph that makes your audience care, you need to know what they care about. If you want to take a photograph that makes them want to buy something, it would help to know what triggers that response in that particular group. You’ll rarely know absolutely, but you can get very close with just a bit of extra work.

Shooting a cover for a Ukulele tribute album to the heavy metal band KISS? Ask your client who they expect to buy it. Don’t just take their first answer. Drill deeper. Now that you know who the audience is, find out what message your client wants them to get. With those two tidbits you can take your research to the nets. Read on line. Interview members of that audience. Try and see the project from their point of view, then bring in your experience and unique twist.

If you’re taking photographs for Arachnids – the fancy new uptown bistro that caters to the most elite eight legged diners – you better make sure there is a fly in your soup before you snap that shot.

You follow?

It may seam obvious, but it’s a place where even veteran photographers take short cuts. However, if you take the time to see the world from your intended audiences point of view, you’ll not only be wiser for the action, but be empowered to create something that will be electrically charged to carry your message right to your audience’s stomach.

Nice!

At last I can reveal the reason why I’ve been distant from the Nice blog. I’ve spent countless hours designing a photography accessory and it’s available to order now on Kickstarter. The amount of work that went in to the development and launch is quite astounding and I’ll share that with you all at some point. Right now it’s after 3am and I’m a zombie. So I’ll leave you with a request. Please let everyone you know about this project and convince them to let everyone they know. I honestly think everyone will want one – or five of these. But you be the judge. Here’s the promo video.

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Witness: Defining Conservation Photography Feature from Neil Ever Osborne on Vimeo.

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A quick explanation of my absence. My team and I are hard at work finishing up two VERY large projects. We’ve been working on one of them for nearly a year and the other for almost three years. But as we near completion, they require 100% of our attention.

I don’t want to give too much away before the official launch, but I will say one project is a new book, and the other is a photography accessory that I think (and hope) every DSLR photographer in the world will want to buy (perhaps even buy three or more!). It’s a solution to a problem that has long plagued us humble shooters.

Please hang in there. I have many, many posts for Nice in various stages of completion that will be hitting the blog in short order. With a regular schedule to return hopefully in a few weeks time.

Thanks for your support over these many years. There is much more to come.

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I don’t usually– okay, I NEVER do this, but in this case, I couldn’t resist. Damn you, Udi! Mr. DIY Photography, Udi himself, has posted an absolute must read for photographers with an itch, desire, or obsession to take better photographs. Udi has posted a well documented and interesting interview with Montreal based photo Wunderkind Benjamin Von Wong. I LOVE this guy’s work. I could go on and on and on, but just click the link and read it for yourself. Lot’s of cool photos to look at, too!

Check it out here: DIYPhotography BTS with Von Wong

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Many times in business and nearly every time in creative endeavors like photography, film making, and shadow puppetry, imagination defeats knowledge.

It is quite handy to know how to execute a given idea that your imagination has birthed. For example: if you have an idea for a 300 foot tall mashed potato sculpture, it’s helpful to know that thanks to the high starch ratio, a Russet can withstand the pressure of being boiled, smashed and stacked into a tower weighing more than 240 elephants, but the Yukon Gold, while it would make a tastier sculpture, would disintegrate once you got over twelve feet high. Handy knowledge for sure. But that knowledge ain’t worth a hill of beans if you don’t have a great idea for the sculpture.

In fact, experience is infinitely valuable, except when it’s not. When it’s not is when it gets in the way of imagination. “Oh, I’d love to make a documentary about my 133 year old neighbor. Oh, but I don’t know how to make a documentary. I’d better learn how to do it first.” Oops. He’s dead. Too slow.

I’m not saying if I was having a brain transplant that I would prefer an imaginative surgeon over a knowledgeable one, same with a person I might ask for directions. And I’m in no way trying to dissuade my friendly readers—yes you—from continuing your journey of discovery. I LOVE knowledge. It’s delicious.

I just want to offer a little nudge for those with ideas who feel they aren’t ready to give their ideas a try. Give it a try.

Now, I could go on for pages and pages about how great imagination is, but just imagine that I already did.

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When I woke up to find my brain had written this post without any input from me, the first thing I thought was, “How come there are so many less spelling errors than when I write the posts?” The second thing was, “Here’s my brain just telling everyone to let their brains be lazy. Shame on you!” But the more I thought about it, the more I thought The Baron – that what my brain likes to be called – had a good point. No. A great point! So, without further interruption, I bring you the post my brain wrote last night while I was fast asleep.

Zeke is not the biggest fan of improv comedy. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because he’s a pretentious windbag. I don’t really talk to him that much anymore. But me, his brain, I LOVE improv comedy. It’s usually a handful of clever brains carrying the weight for a couple of flesh sacks who would just as soon sit on the toilet all day. It’s nice to see a group of brains working in concert. Very nice. But my favorite part about an improv show is that the story, the action, it all happens so fast that these flesh sacks don’t have time to get in the way of their beautiful brains. And I think the same approach could help photographers.

Useful Improv Techniques

Place: With just a small amount of detail you can establish where your photo or film is taking place. This will give the viewer a framework for everything else they learn in the image about the characters or story your telling. Don’t be afraid to imply something extreme. A hospital morgue, back seat of a lunar rover crawling across the moon, or a bathroom at a bus stop in heaven can each be implied with just a little bit of detail.

Emotion: Give the audience something unexpected emotionally. Taking a photo of scary looking dog and a six year old boy? Have the boy yelling at the dog, furious at him. Far more interesting than having the boy be scared of the dog. A business man opening his mail stands there crying as wads of cash fall out of his freshly opened envelope.

Relationship: When setting up the scene for a portrait, think about the relationship your models have to each other in this imaginary world you’ve created. Make sure that relationship is demonstrated in the action and emotion of the image. Not shooting a portrait? You can show relationships between inanimate objects by including additional items as clues to the main items relationship.

Be Specific: Don’t leave too much up to your viewers imagination. Sure, they can fill in the blanks, but give them as much information as you can to keep them eating what your serving.

Commit: When improvising you don’t have time to hesitate, be wishy washy, or to take your idea in different directions. So pick one and stick to it.

Say Yes: Some say the most important improv technique is to say yes. In an improv comedy group that means if someone says, “Here’s the fried monkey ass you ordered,” you don’t say, “I ordered the shrimp.” As funny as that might be, it kills the forward movement of the scene. And the same goes for improvising your photo or the scene in your film. And if you are doing a still life don’t say no to yourself. Do the idea as it came to you. If you are working with models or actors, don’t crush what they’re bringing to the table, no matter how different it is from where you were thinking it was going to go.

Whether you use some or all of these techniques, do them fast so you don’t get in the way of your delicious brain. In other words: Be fearless. Run at full speed and don’t change direction mid-way. Be spectacular or fail spectacularly. Wing it.

With a bit of luck you could have a handful of completely different shots in just a few hour shoot without a ton of prep. You can always go back to your brain crushing control freak ways (Zeke) on the next shoot.

Nice!

Nice!

Stop protecting your brain! This is an abusive relationship.

You’re arms are getting sore. Your feet are a throbbing mess. Let’s not even talk about your butt. Don’t you think it’s time for a change?

It’s payback time, Mr. Brain. Your brain has been telling you to take pretty, mindless images, make thoughtless formulaic films. And what have you got to show for it? Let your brain do the heavy lifting for a change.

Right now your brain may be telling you to click over to some other blog. Resist! I’ve got a dirty little secret to tell you that your brain doesn’t want you to know:

Audiences love work that make them flex their brain.

It’s true! The images on flickr with the most views and the blockbuster movies that rake in the most bucks may be the most obvious, easiest dreck for your mind to process, but the images that inspire emotion, the movies that create fanatics from otherwise seemingly normal folks, those are works that let—no, require the viewer to use their brain.

As my two year old son says when I we get to a scary part in one of his children’s books, “It’s okay. Don’t be scared.” (That helps me stop crying.) Your brain will likely resist at first. It may, as in my case, continue to resist this call to duty for the remainder of your life, but your work and our world will be rewarded if you push through. Push!

It rarely takes more physical effort to take a smart image. It doesn’t have to cost a penny more either. All you really need to do is take the time to use your brain. Your brain is likely to argue this. Resist. It will come up with what seems like a very rational argument. After all it only has to convince itself. Resist. Its second approach will be to create excuses. Resist. I know for a fact that my hair will not catch on fire just from thinking too hard. I’ve tested it—not on myself, but still. Resist. When your brain is on its last leg it may even get nasty, call you a loser, try to convince you that you aren’t good enough to pull it off. Resist. You are going to need your brain’s help, but you can do it. You may not be able to do it the first time out. Just like any new venture, you may have to try it out a few times, but you can do it.

So the next time you start thinking about a project throw out the first ten ideas. These are just sugar coated balls of fat that your brain picked up at the five and dime and kept on ice in case you asked him for a little help. That way he could go back to watching porn bloopers and eating mayonnaise on Wonder Bread. Don’t accept it.

The rest of your body is going to do the same amount of work to take a photo for an easy idea as it will for a well thought out idea, so make your brain do its job so you can make something better.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to take my brain out to the woodshed for a little talking to. This post should have been much more thoughtful.

Nice!

Nice!