JSP Visual Week In Review | 01.28.12
We had our first snow of the winter season two weekend (excluding that fluke one that hit us in October). Because of that, I was able to add a few new images to my Winterscape Gallery Series. Finishing up them this weekend, so hope to share them early next.
Otherwise, it was a busy week without too much shooting, actually, until late in the week. I like doing these visual week in reviews mosaics since they do help me reflect back on the week. So easy for it all to rush by us.
That “voucher in the mosaic this week was just a quick little design piece I did for my wife’s birthday on Thursday. I knew she didn’t want any “thing”. What she wanted, what every wife and mother of little kids wants, is peace and quiet for a few hours. So she can redeem the voucher for 36 hours away from the brood. Told her to pick a hotel in Philly or New York. Maybe one of her friends, or her sister, will join. But even if all she does is lay in a big comfy bed and do nothing, that’ll be fine. Heh.
The design firm I work with and I have been have a dastardly time trying to figure out how to get the hard drives they get from photographers (usually formatted for Mac) to work on the PC laptop I have at my job. I know it shouldn’t be this hard, but we just can’t get to the right configuration and with the annual report heading into the homestretch, I can’t be wasting time trying to figure a solution. So I opened a DropBox account this week; hopefully that will solve our problems.
What large-file sharing tool do you like to use? I’d be interested to know.
Oh, and the last update about the Employee Art Exhibit my job has…I got an honorable mention for the On The Pitch image shot in Kitui, Africa.
I wasn’t really happy, especially since I saw what won. But no time for sour grapes. You can’t please all the judges all the time. I’m already thinking about next year.
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This Week’s Links:
* I don’t normally link to my own stuff, but if you didn’t see my review of Rear Curtain, Issue 1, check it out here. Then go get a copy!
* New Joe McNally video: On Location With The Nikon D4
* Texas-based photographer Jeff Lynch posted this awesome B&W image this week.
* Best quote of the week come’s from Tokyo-based photographer Irwin Wong, writing over on the Strobist blog: “Multi-light setups, gear reviews and lighting tricks are all worthwhile food for thought. But when people are looking back at your life’s work, will you be remembered for your lighting or for what you tried to tell the world with your camera? ”
All I can say is…. Yes! All that stuff if fun (or stress-inducing if you are like me) and important. But more importantly, just get out there and shoot.
Show me what you saw.
Tell me your story.
© Mark V. Krajnak 2012 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Friday Noir: Moonlight On Railroad Avenue
Only two ways you leave a joint like this.
Feet first, in a body bag.
Or backwards through the door, behind two blazing .45′s, ripping the quiet apart with smoke and fear.
It always comes downs to decisions, too.
Decisions made, rightly or wrongly.
Or decisions not made.
Maybe you ended up here because you crossed the wrong cat.
Or the wrong dame.
Either way, nothing good happens on Railroad Avenue, especially at this time of night.
Yep, only one of two ways you’re leaving this scene.
You decide.
© Mark V. Krajnak 2012 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Dispatches: Two Years Ago Today
Two years ago today, this was the view out of my hotel window…
Two years ago today, this is how I came down to breakfast…
Two years ago, this WAS my breakfast…
Two years ago today, I was on a photo shoot at a stable with some beautiful light…
Two years ago today, I was meeting some really wonderful people in a really pretty setting and doing some environmental portraits….
Two years ago, I was taking pictures of people taking pictures…
Two years ago, since I was in Urakawa, Japan, this is how I had to wish my beautiful wife, Leslie, a Happy Birthday:
Today, though, I’m home in the Great State of New Jersey, and I – was able to wish her a Happy Birthday and give her flowers first thing this morning.
© Mark V. Krajnak 2012 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Review: Rear Curtain, Issue 1, Print Edition
I’m a little late to this party, since the print edition of Rear Curtain has been out for a few months now – just over two to be exact. Somehow, though, the time from it’s 11/21/11 launch till now has just slipped away from me.
I think it was almost a year ago now that Ray Ketcham sent me an email about the new photojournalism website he, Matthew Connors and Sabrina Henry were starting.
What he wrote to me then was Rear Curtain is for stories and photo essays that show that folks in the west are living and breathing the same problems along with those in far off places. Less emphasis on religion and more on the common everyday problems that we all share. Breaking stereotypes by showing how we all live an everyday life, both the good and the bad.
I found this to be a very intriguing and exciting pitch, and immediately came up with three or four stories that I hoped to work on, shoot and contribute over the coming months
Fast forward a few months…and I turned in ONE story.
Yep, just one. Oh well, better than nothing.
But my lack of storytelling notwithstanding, the Rear Curtain site has been producing some fantastic pieces of photojournalism from photographers all over the world.
Then…gast forward a few more months after that and Ray, Matthew and Sabrina tackled an even bigger animal. When everyone is crying about the death of newspapers and magazines, they decide to do a print version of Rear Curtain. See, they had always expected to produce a print version of the site. It’s in their DNA. Photojournalism isn’t mean to live on the web. It’s meant to live on the printed page. And for thatvision, I commend them.
(c) Matthew Connors from Disconnect
Why? Because there is something about photography and photo stories that begs to be put into print and savored over a cup of coffee, tea (or perhaps something stronger). We all shoot so much digital now, and post to websites, it’s almost an EVENT to make a print of one of your photos, let alone print a photo magazine.
See, tt’s easy to get lost in the flashing pixels of the web and its videos and slideshows; loading and attaching, and hitting send. But it really still means something to hold that finished product in your hands, to read the words and to examine the frames.
Maybe that’s why I enjoy working on my company’s annual report. Because I know that, a bit further down the road, I’ll smell the ink and hear the whirr of the Heidelberg print presses running. And then I’ll get to hold it in my hands.
Same thing with Rear Curtain. The stories on the website are fantastic and the photography is stunning.
But to sit and read these stories, and really look at them, and examine how the photographers made their frames,… that is really special.
(c) Stephen Urhaney from A Story Of Love
What I really love about what the Rear Curtain team is doing is taking the bull by the horns and getting their work/our work out there. There are tons of photo sharing sites, and hundreds of photo contests (Just pay us $50 to maybehopefullypossibly select your photo to win. No refunds!), out there, so many so your head can spin. But most don’t have the form and intent that Rear Curtain does. And that’s what’s refreshing.
To me, what Ray, Matthew and Sabrina are doing with Rear Curtain is a harken back to the self-publishing times of the ’50s and ’60s. I can see someone like Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg stepping up and contributing to this, just because they’d know that the end user appreciate what they did.
(c) Gavin Gough from The Calligrapher
Now, to be fully transparent, another reason I really love Rear Curtain, Issue 1 is because the team asked me to close the book with one of my noir images, and a short story. We’ve talked about me contributing noir images over the next few issues, building each photo and story on the last. Like the pulp fiction serials of old.
(c) Mark Krajnak from Blackout Night
Rear Curtain, Issue 1 features a whole host of great writing and photography from a number of talented people. And at $17.95 a print issue (or $4.95 for the digital version) it’s a steal.
You can order it here from Magcloud.
Go grab it. You won’t be disappointed.
Photojournalism isn’t dead. It’s still right there…behind the rear curtain.
© Mark V. Krajnak 2012 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
