JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 01.08.22
This week I was thinking about legacy.
I was listening to a podcast and the speaker, Sean Tucker, was talking about his legacy.
He’s a prolific presence on YouTube, with a strong channel following. But he wrote a book that was published late last year, and he feels that’s more of a legacy for him. I just bought the book, actually. Came in yesterday.
Anyway, he said he feels the book will live longer than any YouTube video. And he started to talk about what the legacy is as us as photographer.
I was doing my 2.5 mile daily walk one day this week, listening to him talk about this. And started to think about what my legacy will be.
But not as a photographer. I’m not famous or prolific or anything like that.
My legacy, I think, will be my kids. They will keep me alive long after I’m gone.
So it’s imperative I present well to them. That I’m a good person, for them (well, for others as well, of course.) That I teach them some things that help them grow into great individuals.
Gotta say…that’s a little daunting.
Thankfully, all three are doing really well so far, thanks to their mom and me.
Let’s hope I can continue to do my part, hold up my end of the bargain, to continue developing them, my legacy.
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This Week’s Links:
What I Read This Week: Still working on Ride The Pink Horse and Crime and Punishment. (C&P is going to take me a while, I think. It’s dense.)
What I Watched This Week: Don’t Look Up. I liked it. (But, geez, can’t anyone make a movie under two hours anymore??) Would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve seen it. And, man, DiCaprio…this cat’s an actor. Always good in everything he does.
David duChemin: New Gear, New You
UN Of Photography: A great one-hour discussion between Grant and Bill Shapiro. Put it on while your taking a walk, driving or cooking dinner. Interesting listen.
Chase Jarvis Podcast: How To Hack Your Creativity
The Guardian: Your Attention Didn’t Collapse. It was stolen.
Eat: NY Times’ Cooking 50 Best Recipes from 2021
FStoppers: Creative Photography Lessons from the Get Back documentary.
“The tremendous development of the camera in recent years has been remarkable. Now almost anyone can take pictures, and most of them are doing it. But it is rather like giving a 6-year-old a pistol.” ~ Documentary photographer Arnold Genthe, in 1937, Still rings true, eh?
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2022
RIP RIMM (AKA Blackberry)
One of my first Blackberries. Or is it Blackberrys?
Remember a few years ago, when Lance Armstrong was on top of the world, cycling and otherwise? He wrote a book called It’s Not About The Bike.
This was back when he was a cultural icon…and not a liar, cheat, and all around bad dude.
Anyway….earlier this week, I read the news that, as of January 4, Blackberry would no longer work.
And a little piece of me died.
Raise your hand if you had a Blackberry in your life?
I never had a beeper but I had a Blackberry. First time was in 2004, when I started a role with J&J (the company I still work for this many years later)
But first time I saw one was in 2003. My boss, at a biotech company in San Francisco, had one.
It was blue. We called it her Blueberry.
She called it Crackberry, because she was addicted to checking it.
Kinda like we all are with our phones now.
Anyway, I actually forgot that my Blackberry had a camera to it.
And, frankly, it wasn’t too bad a camera, all things considered.
Asbury Park, 2014
Olivia, 2013
Matt, 2013
Chase, 2012
Cape Town, South Africa, 2014
Now, of course, all of our smartphones have cameras in them, cameras that rival some actual cameras on the market.
People are taking photos, all the time. 1.4 Trillion in 2021 alone.
While it may not be about the bike, it may not be about the camera, either, folks.
It’s about the memories that you are documenting, with whatever device you have.
When I put “Blackberry” into my cloud search, and these photos turned, up, I had to smile.
My young kids. Places I had been. Things I had seen.
Memories made and documented.
I was engaging with another saying, this one from Chase Jarvis: The best camera is one that’s with you.
So, whether its your iPhone, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony, Olympus, Hasselblad, pinhole…it’s not about the camera.
It’s what you do with it.
Document. Record.
So, RIP, RIMM.
Thanks for the memories.
A Few Blackberry-related posts from JSP past:
- Weekend Shot: Beautiful, Light
- Weekend Shot: Saturday morning at Joe’s Barbershop
- Car. Phone.
- JSP Visual Week In Review 5.2.15 (the last time I had a Blackberry, apparently)
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2022
Portrait Play
Matt’s Got 99 Problems But School Ain’t One
My kids (and my two dogs, Bo and Quinn) spent the last four days with me, which was great.
However, it IS a constant struggle to figure out what to do with a 14, 11 and 10 year old, when the coronavirus variants are varianting all over the place. I really wanted to stay out of places like Sky Zone (a trampoline gym) or movie theaters (which was unfortunate, because I wouldn’t mind seeing that new Spiderman movie).
So, I took them ice skating a local indoor rink (not very crowded), and we did some hikes and played a few games of Scrabble. But, yes, they still had their iPad time. It is what it is.
On Saturday evening, though, I figured I’d play around with some portrait photography. I also wanted to see what I could do in the smallish space of my apartment.
So, I went into my gear closet – the one good thing about this three-bedroom apartment is I have a whole closet just devoted to my camera gear – my camera bag, lighting, tripods, backgrounds, batteries, et. Wait…let me just show you.
GoPro Fisheye
Anyway, while the boys fiddled on their iPads, and Liv was in her room, and the dogs snoozed and Will Smith was going underwater, I decided to mess around and do some portraits.
That’s the great things about having young-ish kids. They’ll still listen to you when you ask them to do something. The Fear of Dad is still there, slightly. (Honestly, they are happy to jump in when I ask, at least for 10 or 15 minutes.)
Neewer 47″ octo-umbrella, Impact Lighting Collapsible 5 x 7 background in front of the fire place, Canon 5DMarkIV, Wal-Mart stool.
I was thinking about going b&w with these portraits on the white background. To be honest, nothing really special or great, just messing around. I don’t even really like them enough to show you the digital contact sheet here (I said they were good for 10-15 minutes…usually…half that for this shoot.)
But as Matt was sitting there with this cap on, I thought of Jay-Z’s The Black Album cover, shot by Jonathan Mannion, and thought I’d try to riff on that a little. (Interesting backstory to that album cover here. And, unfortunately, it appears Z and Mannion are locked in a legal battle about photo usage.)
My version with Matt certainly isn’t even really the same, but you get the idea of where my inspiration came from with it. Though I shot it in color, I converted it to B&W and inversed the colors (or maybe it was the other way around) and then used the sliders in Nik Silver to adjust the blacks and brightness.
Again, I wasn’t trying to replicate Jonathan’s image; it just served as some inspiration for me to process things a way differently than I would. And I kinda like the final outcome.
Of course, the photographer had to sit in while all the gear was set up.
The moral of the post is: Try something new with your portrait shoots, and/or your photography in general. And find inspiration where you can!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2022
JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 01.01.22
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbor is a friend
~Happy New Year, ABBA
And we’re off!
A tabula rasa.
A blank slate.
Unwritten chapters in the book of 2022.
It’s all hokey and trite, yes.
But it is something to consider, for sure.
Perhaps this week, this month, is the time to look around and take stock. What do we need to add to the recipe, or subtract, to get you to where you want to be.
For me, there are a few things I want to work on, in all aspects of my life, for sure – get back into better shape; read more; develop a new hobby or skill; have more patience with my kids.
Continue making photos, good, bad, or awesome.
Photographically, I want to do more portraits of people and tell their story. The shoot I did with Camille Conte last February is more of what I’d love to do this year. That also means doing the legwork to find the people to shoot, find the time to do the shoots and come up with the creative concepts. I find it hard to get all three to gel at the same time sometimes.
A few months ago, I bought a Canon 5DMarkIV. Been meaning to do a blog post on all that, but I haven’t yet (that’s another goal – blog more. I slacked a lot in 2021). I’m still learning the camera and my goal is learn it even more so that the functions are second nature to me. Right now, I’m still thinking about it too much and I need for it to become an extension of my hand.
I’d also like to possibly delve into video more. That seems like a huge undertaking to me, especially the editing part, but it could be fun.
I hope to get more involved with Asbury Park Vibes, too. My friend, Diane, has a great space there and I hope to a) help her with the business and b) put it to great use!
I also want to revamp my portfolio website – needs to be cleaned up and out – and perhaps restyle his blog space.
I’ve been separated for six months now. That whole process definitely put a dent in 2021, my headspace and a lot of other things. But, I feel like my feet are getting back under me now and I’m ready to take on this new life. And especially be there for my kids!
So…onwards!
And thanks to everyone who stops by this corner of the internet, reads what I wrote and comments. It’s much appreciated!
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This Week’s Links:
What I Read This Week: At 10:30 pm on New Year’s Eve, I finished One Police Plaza, my 35th book of the year. I want to read at least 45 this year. I also started Ride A Pink Horse, a hard-boiled mystery by Dorothy B. Parker.
What I Watched This Week: Welcome To Earth, starting Will Smith. Also, Last Night In SoHo, which was good, but more of a visual inspiration exercise for me. Not really into these type of psychological horror stories.
What I Listened To This Week: I found the podcast, Deep Natter, with Jeffery Saddoris and Sean Tucker and it’s a fantastic listen on my daily walks.
Digital Photography School: DYI Photography and Accessory Hacks You Can Make At Home
Reuters: Behind the photo that defined the January 6 insurrection, from Leah Millis.
CNN: 2021 as seen through the eyes of 21 women photographers
Washington Post: The weird tale of Abraham Lincoln’s casket photos
Favorite Image Of The Week: via Saed Hindash (@throughthecameraeye on IG)
Watch/Listen: Focus On The Moment with Zack Whitford on Behind The Shot TV/Podcast
RIP: Sabine Weiss, street photographer
RIP: John Madden. His Raiders beat my Eagles in the 1980 Super Bowl, but I still loved him as an announcer, and as a personality.
RIP: Betty White. Take three minutes to learn about The Great Herring War...and laugh (mostly improved, I read)
Advice: Back up your work! And back up your backup!
“To Photogs – You must understand the times you are living in. You are a documentarian – a historian. You must understand where you are!” ~ Bill Eppridge.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2022
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