♦ – I received an email from Crash Taylor today, letting me know that his blog has a new address. If the name looks familiar, it’s because Crash is in my blogroll. His new blog is great and if you haven’t had a chance to look at his old blog, I highly suggest you check out the new version. Crash is one of the most amazing wedding photographers I have ever seen. His bridal shots are vibrant and beautiful and very original. You will surely be inspired. Click here for a link to his new site or just check out my blogroll in the sidebar.
photo by Crash Taylor
♦ – I’m a sucker for Photoshop before and after sites. If you are like me, then you are going to love Digital Photoshop Retouching. The author has a great before/after section that let’s you see the finished image and then reveals the original when you mouse over it. This is really great stuff and the retouching is far from over the top. That’s not the best part though. To really appreciate the site, you need to click on the Tutorials link. When you do, you will be taken to a video that doesn’t just show the photoshop retouching in action. It actually takes you through the entire photoshoot to boot. Here’s the real kicker. The photographer uses a Canon G9 with studio strobes for the whole shoot. I think it’s to prove a point but I don’t really care. It’s just a great concept and really worth a watch. To see the before/after shots, click here. For the video tutorial, click here.
♦ – Finally, from the editorial page… I’m not one to talk about my political beliefs. I feel that my choice for political candidates is a very personal one. Whenever someone asks who I voted for, I just give my standard reply, “for the candidate of my choice”. That being said, I did want to comment on the recent flap over the Jill Greenberg covershot for Atlantic magazine. Atlantic hired Ms. Greenberg to shoot Senator McCain for their cover story on the Senator. It seems though that Ms. Greenberg had ulterior motives when she agreed to do the shoot. She purposely photographed the Senator with some very unflattering lighting to give him a very menacing, evil appearance. While the magazine didn’t print the “evil” John, they were left with a shot where she has been quoted as having purposely “left his eyes red and his skin looking bad”.
I’m the first to say that I am a huge Greenberg fan. I have always loved her personal style that was made famous by her portraits of monkeys and crying children. What I can’t stand though is anyone that uses their profession as a soapbox to push their own political agendas. I think it is very unprofessional and am personally disappointed that she would allow her own beliefs to possibly taint the reputation of her client just to push her own agenda. In an interview with the PDNPulse, she was asked if she had any reservations about taking the assignment. She replied “I didn’t,” she says. “It’s definitely exciting to shoot someone who is in the limelight like that. I am a pretty hard core Democrat. Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for them [The Atlantic] to hire me.”
Ms. Greenberg has retained the rights to the unflattering images so that she can sell them to other publications. I find this to be a sad day for the photographic profession.
You can read more about this story in the PDNPulse article (see link above) or check out some of the photos in question over at Gawker.
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