2011 EAW Thoughts and Assignment
It has been just over a week since I got back from the 2011 Eddie Adams Workshop. I must say I had a great time there and made some really good friends. Recently I was contacted by Wonderful Machine owner Bill Cramer, who was a real pleasure to meet at the workshop. He asked me to write a little bit about my time at EAW and it got me thinking once again about exactly all that I experienced there and what I took away from all the sleepless nights.
I know it might sound cheesy but, an EAW acceptance was something I had strived for ever since I first heard of the workshop. Since I didn’t go to photography school, being accepted was for me, a total a validation of my work from the industries best people. It felt really great when I found out the news. During my time there I made some great new friends I hope meet again in future, listened to amazing speakers and began the foundation for lasting relationships with some of the editorial industries best editors.
One of the most memorable moments of the workshop for me happened after it all ended. I was sitting drinking a coffee the day after and thinking about everything when I realized that EAW was like a team building and bonding experience between photographers, editors and the suppliers that work in our industry. For me, this is a very rare experience and I would imagine it is rare in our industry as a whole to connect to people like you do at EAW. I now can see why many of the editors and organizers of EAW use words like “Family” and “Love” to describe how they feel about the participants and the experience in attending EAW.
I thought to myself at that moment, how often do photographers get to just talk to editors you don’t know, one on one, like a normal person where your not selling yourself? Most of the time when I talk to a editor I know they are very busy and are tired of being bombarded with emails and promos of photographers selling themselves. So to be able to have a normal conversation that wasn’t 5 min long and then later show my work for another 30 min was just amazing.
It was also a great opportunity to meet a lot of the industries suppliers like Anthony Pak from Manfrotto who hooked me up with a bunch of missing parts (I know I owe you a photo. I promise it is coming) and hanging out with J.C. from B&H during my whole assignment day talking about life and of course photography. These are good people who work in the industry and want to help photographers do their jobs. Now that we know each other, I’m sure i will be a loyal customer to them and they will be happy to help me out in the future.
EAW gave me the opportunity to meet all these great people from all over the industry and connect with them on a personal level and hopefully make new friends in the business.
It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will never forget it. Thanks to all the sponsors, editors, producers, black team and the Adams family for continuing this tradition in pushing and inspiring new generations of photographers.
For me this made my trip from Vietnam very worth while and something I will remember forever.
The photos above and below were from my assignment, which was to shoot downhill mountain biking. On my assignment, I meet 15 year old Taylor who is a fearless pro downhill biker. Needless to say I love what I do and had a great time shooting the sport even if I’m not a “sports” guy. Thanks again EAW. Love you all.
2011 Eddie Adams Workshop + New York
I a couple of months back I was selected to attend the 2011 Eddie Adams workshop which is a pretty big deal for photographers. If you haven’t heard about it here is a little background about what it is all about.
The Eddie Adams Workshop is an intense four-day gathering of the top photography professionals, along with 50 carefully selected students and 50 selected professionals. The photography workshop is tuition-free, and the 100 students are chosen based only on the merit of their portfolios.
It was an amazing experience where new relationships with photographers, editors and suppliers are made and good times are had by all. I will post some more later about my experience there in another blog post.
For right now here are some snap shots I took while I was running around the city meeting up with friends and family as well as going to the epic B&H.
Stolen Moments – Nam Hai Resort Da Nang, Hoi An
Last week I had a photography assignment shooting a corporate event at the Nam Hai which is between Da Nang and Hoi An, Vietnam. I have to say the Nam Hai is pretty amazing and I have had the privilege of staying there so I know it rocks. My assignment was pretty straight forward and my clients and subjects were really great to work with. As with all assignments you get a couple of hours of down time so I went around taking some images of this beautiful place. There are a some amazing resorts in Hoi An and Da Nang but for me I am hooked on the Nam Hai, but have heard the Fusion is pretty good. Later this year I have another 2 photography assignments down in Da Nang and Hoi An and hopefully with a little downtime I will be able to take some more images of these other resorts. As always thanks for looking.
3 – 5 min max!!
Tube Mogul Research
These days I do my fair share of videography / multimedia / photo film or whatever you want to call it. Probably more than the average photographer and I love all the creative options it offers in being able to tell a story .
That being said, if you do start to get into this type of work you will probably run into lots more paperwork, budgets, scripts, 20 page proposals and complicated production schedules than your average photography job. Another thing I also find, is that most of my clients think they get more value for their money if they have a longer film. i.e. 10 min or 30 min.
The problem with that idea is that most of my clients don’t show their video in a movie theater or on TV, it is shown via the web with all the distractions of email, Twitter and Facebook to steal their audience away from their video. Clients love the web because it is an extremely cost effective way to publish their video to the public and it has added benefits that TV can never have like viral dissemination to help spread their message to more people than they could reach by themselves.
Most clients think that everyone will of course want to watch their video because they are amazing and if they don’t, it’s because you didn’t do a good job.
Well …… sort of.
Most of us that are hired for this type of work know how to make something that isn’t total crap, which is why they hired us to start. Where you failed in doing your job was not in the content that you created but that you didn’t convince the client to change the length of the video to something more watchable online. So as you can see this is pretty dam important. If you don’t convince your client to change their epic film ideas to something more realistic and effective they might think you did a crap job even though you didn’t.
So how do you convince your client to change their 15 min epic corporate video to a 3-5 min video?
- Ask them when they last watched a video in full online? What kind of video was it? How long was it? If it was a corporate film or NGO film that is more than 5 min put it on in the office and wait to see how long it takes for someone to start talking. Most of the time I find people start talking in 2-3 min. AMAZING!! You prove your point right there.
- Next show them some independent marketing research to back up your professional opinion. This helps out a lot with skeptical clients.
Ok the first part is easy and may be enough to convince your client, but sometimes …. I know wait for it…. Clients are difficult. Shocker I know!!!
So now armed with some independent marketing research on online video length you can change their mind and earn some professional respect to boot. But wait! Where is this marketing research your telling me about??? Well it is below so stay with me.
Back in old 2008 a great photography professor at the University of San Francisco, Ken Kobre, found some companies that published their research about the length of time people will watch online videos. Now you won’t find this awesome research on his new site but thank god he didn’t delete his old blog and you can still see his informative blog post here: http://kobrechannel.blogspot.com/2009/01/whats-perfect-online-video-length.html
Now I wouldn’t tell a client that “Ken Kobre says this and that,” even though he is my hero for publishing this great post. I would point them or give them a link to Tube Mogul. Tube Mogul is the company that did the research and they would be the authority http://www.tubemogul.com/research/report/18
I also like the other research that Kobre found from another source but strangely enough their website doesn’t work anymore.
Finally, I have found some other peoples thoughts about this topic that is more current than 2008. Here are the quotes:
Jeff Misenti – VP of Fox News Digital – “the drop-off (watching vid online) after 90 sec is pretty severe.”
Joel Schwartzberg, – A director at PBS digital – “[he] cites attention span of 3 minutes for video.”
Anyways, I hope this helps you out on your next web video project. If you have any comments, strategies or other research you use to convince your clients to change the length of their video, please share them below in the comments.
Yangon Photography Festival
Last March my agents at Noi Pictures told me that my photos of a recent story I did about a woman living with HIV had been selected to be shown at the Yangon Photography Festival. I was very honored to be able to show my work with so many other great photographers. Thank you again to Noi Pictures for helping me out with everything. Above is a little write-up about the Photography festival by Photo.fr
If you would like to see the photo story you can see it here A Mother’s Love or watch the photofilm/multimedia I made where the woman Lan tells her story in her own words Film:A Mother’s Love
The Process
I have an idea…. and that is it. So to start to understand how I am going to approach it I am beginning my process. Of course, like all creative people I want the result of my work to be great and to communicate my idea to other people. My process is to go out, experience, shoot, analyze, write down new ideas and approaches and then go out again and shoot. I will try to get access to places, meet new people and slowly let this idea mold itself into something more concrete.
I will be posting images here as I go through my exercises. For the mean time this will be filed under, “The Process”
Travel Photography: Laos – Architecture & 1 Random
This is my last post about Laos for the time being. At the end of our motorbike trip my wife and I ended up in Luang Prabang. What a beautiful little town. I couldn’t help but be drawn in by Luang Prabang’s architecture, symmetry or singularity.
I also have two photos that I took that are really quite simple. A tree standing alone on the side of the road and an umbrella alone on the side of the road. I have always loved the resemblance of man made objects to their natural ones. These two photos are my attempt to convey that idea. I’m glad I did try to show this as it made me see how I could make it more visually readable and that I would like to pursue this idea more. I will look out for more of them in my daily photography wanderings in Vietnam and abroad.
As always, thanks for looking.
Travel Photography: Laos – Markets
You just can’t go traveling without seeing at least one market. A lot of editorial photography assignments coming to Vietnam and SE Asia have to do with markets and what they sell in them.
In Vientiane , there really wasn’t much of a tourist market, but in Luang Prabang they had a huge night market. As my wife went shopping for gifts for friends and family back home I decided this was a good time to practice my two approaches to tourist sellers.
Tourist sellers or people at a market that get lots of tourists are usually the places assignments will send you. Problem is that most of these vendors are very jaded in having their photo taken. You usually have two ways you can approach market photography, 1) talk to them and make them like you enough to let you do your work. 2) The sneak attack. Wait in a place and take your time waiting for the right moment to lift up your camera to take the 1 or 2 photos before the vendor yells at you.
I prefer number 1 and use it most of the time, but number 2 is sometimes necessary.
Most of the photos below were done using the first approach, but the old woman at in the market looking off into the distance was done using approach number 2.
Either way, after i take a photo I usually show the people and tell them thank you in their local language and shake their hand. If I’m their long enough to print the photos then I usually bring them their photo within a week. Least I can do and it also shows the vendors the difference between tourist photos and a photographer working.
Thanks for looking and for your comments.
Travel Photography: Laos – Landscapes
I have never been a big landscape photo taker, but always an admirer of beautiful landscapes made by men or by nature.
I think when working on an assignment it is important information for the viewer to have an over all idea of where you are. Landscapes really help transport the viewer to the place you are and more often then not people love looking at them.
Going to Laos i knew there would be some beautiful vistas, but i was also lucky enough to shoot some topography and a panorama or two. Laos is really a beautiful country and for landscapes you couldn’t ask for anything more. While driving through the northern mountains my wife and I were in awe of its relatively untouched beauty.
Thanks for you comments and for looking.
Click on the photos to see them larger
Travel Photography: Laos – Portraits
I have always loved taking portraits of people, but for about 3 months I have been looking to change up my approach and style to portrait taking.
I still haven’t figured out what exactly I am trying to get, but I’m getting closer to being temporarily satisfied. So in order to keep on pushing myself along to find what i’m looking for I assigned myself to do portraits of people. Some of them from me talking to the people and asking them if I can take their photo and others not.
Here is what i ended up with in my 9 days in Laos.
Thank you for looking and as always comments are appreciated.
Click on the photos to see them larger.
Hoa Binh Hydroelectric Time Capsule
Last weekend was a national holiday in Vietnam. My wife and I went with some friends to Hoa Binh to spend the night at a man made freshwater lake. It’s glassy water was dotted with small islands similar to Ha Long Bay. This lake was a little eerie to me as it seemed to be very still with very little life in it or around it. Maybe, this is due to not seeing much wildlife or this could be very normal for this kind of body of water. You see, this lake was made to be a reservoir for the Hoa Binh Hydroelectric plant. Underneath it’s still waters lies 3 villages and the now islands, used to be hills or mountains. Even though it was quite quiet and a little eerie it was still nice to see and even more interesting to explore.
The next day we all went to see the Hoa Binh powerplant, which in in it’s heyday was a symbol of great national pride. This place was like taking a step back into time. A time where the computers were the size of the room, you had big colorful lights blinking on and off and that, 1970′s Industrial Communist design is everywhere. Amazing place.
I have driven through Hoa Binh a handful of times and I can’t believe i have been missing out on this gem.
This dam was made in partnership with the USSR. That is right, USSR. Most of the writing on instruments is in Russian and you can see “Made in the USSR” marked on all of them. This was very much a highlight for me to see.
As i was about to enter this catacomb of Industrial Communism, I was stopped and was told i wasn’t allowed to bring my camera. Such a shame, as it would have been nice to have better high resolution photos of this place. Oh well.
As i entered the tour, i whipped out my iPhone and started to shoot away. No one seemed to care about my iPhone so i shot as much as i could. Our tour guide, a government employee that does the day to day work at the plant, was drunk off of rice wine and was very proud of where he worked. On a few occasions, he forgot about me in is his self-involved explanation of his fine facility and left me to wonder around by myself. So here is a short photo essay about the great Hoa Binh hydroelectric plant.
Enjoy!
Nha Trang, Vietnam Wedding Video
*** UPDATE ***
If your looking for Vietnam wedding photography or videography services please visit my new wedding business : MWeddings | Destination Photography & Film | Vietnam & Southeast Asia
*******
Back in 2010 Kim, the bride to be, and i started to talk to her about making a video of her wedding day. I asked her a lot of questions about music and what will be some of the activities at the wedding. Since she was overwhelmed with organizing the wedding she didn’t have much time to respond to me. So i kind of went into this job half blind, which always makes me nervous.
About 2 weeks passed by and i found out that the wedding would be held at the Six Senses Resort. Six Senses is a private secluded island that you can only get to it by boat. Not such a bad place to work if i do say so myself.
Since there were 2 photographers already going to be at the wedding taking photos Kim didn’t want 2 guys filming as well. She felt that it would have made it a circus having that many people documenting the event. I agree with her and don’t. Weddings happen fast and no one waits for the photographer or the video guy to prepare something. You have to think fast and work even faster to get good images. In my opinion, if i had another guy shooting video i could have covered sooooo much more of the actual event and of the preparation. With two shooters one person would cover the groom getting prepared and the other would cover the bride.
Since i was working on my own, i had to run back and forth between the two which means i lost time filming since the groom and bride were staying 15min away from each other. If i was to do another wedding video again i would also suggest getting a full Steadicam system which has a vest and a stabilizing arm. It would have been nice to have gotten some good movement shots of the wedding.
I did shoot almost 99% of this video handheld using a custom built RedRock system I designed. To me hand held gives you an almost a POV of what you would have seen if you attended the wedding. I like that.
Later on when I was documenting the preparation of everyone in the wedding I found out that Kim’s sisters and brothers were pretty famous musicians in Australia. They had written a song for the occasion and were going to perform it on stage at the wedding dinner. So with not much preparation or an idea on how i would edit it, I shot as much as I could of their rehearsal so that I could maybe cut together a nice music video of the wedding and the song they wrote.
I really like how this video turned out, but it would have been nice to be able to shoot some more or have another shooter with some more angles ect. Also I really wish I could have had time to record the song separately from their performance as the only audio i had was recorded through the PA speaker system they used. This is defiantly not the best for recording sound and at times the recording has some distortion because of this.
All in all, it was a great experience and it was an honor to be able to document Kim & Scott’s wedding day.
Here are the two video. I hope you enjoy them.
Ehrin
Nha Trang Wedding Music Video from Ehrin Macksey on Vimeo.
Nha Trang, Vietnam Wedding Video from Ehrin Macksey on Vimeo.
Blue Dragon
About a month ago i met cool and friendly Ruth Mortimer who works for Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is an local Hanoi organization that gives underprivileged kids a better chance at life. Ruth asked me if i wouldn’t mind donating some time to the organization and make a short video for them. I was happy to help.
I had one day of filming as i am in the middle of another project. This made all the shooting very fast. Ruth did a great job helping me organize the kids and getting the interviews done quickly.
The video is a thank you video to World Vision for their generous support.
So here it is, hope you enjoy it.