Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Spotlight 7 Week 14: calanan!

By then, penitence comes so easily

Please welcome Spotlight 7 Week 14 contributor Michael Calanan, aka calanan. After living in Buffalo, NY, calanan moved to Salt Lake City last summer and has explored both locales with great depth. Calanan is not only a great photographer, but is also a bit of a social butterfly both on Flickr and in the real world. I've been lucky enough to meet calanan on several occasions as he showed me some Salt Lake City's more interesting locales, making sure to take a few great portraits each time. As an organizer of Flickr meet-ups in both of his recent home cities, Mike has helped bring those Flickr communities many fun times.

One of calanan's most interesting projects is his drive-by shooting series. Here's an excerpt from this week's interview:

3) Tell us briefly about your drive by theater set www.flickr.com/photos/calanan/sets/72057594048931046/
Years ago I came across the photography of David Bradford in the form of his book, "Drive by Shootings: Photographs by a New York Taxi Driver" and I was captivated. David was initially an illustrator who began driving a cab as a way to spend more time on the streets of NYC looking for visual inspiration. He took to using a camera to capture scenes simply as a reference for his drawings but as he progressed he realized the photos themselves were artistic creations. I was especially moved by his photos of people:

drivebyshootings.com/gallery/PEOPLE/

...and began my own project, first by emulating his style, later by perfecting my own technique and then by developing my own style. I eventually came to the realisation that my photos were beginning to resemble the look of cinematic stills and from that point forward I've sought to capture people both interacting with and against the backdrop of the city.


Make sure you visit Spotlight Seven to see all of this week's selections, and check out all of the nearly 100 photos he's already added to the 6 Million People group. Also check out calanan's blog and portfolio website. Here are a couple more photos from this week's exhibit... that's me on the bottom/right.

Happy Birthday, Manray!! (11/11) Jake

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

New Orleans protest


, originally uploaded by eddhead.

Great protest photo.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Flickr Journée du Donut à Paris


Flickr Journée du Donut à Paris, originally uploaded by aeter.

The Day of the Donut was a unique, spontaneous event that took the Flickrverse by storm on April 16, 2008. Events were held all over the world, and people enjoyed donuts from Kuala Lampur to Okinawa, Bangkok to Bahrain, Vancouver to Toronto, Berlin to Paris, Santa Cruz to San Francisco, Los Angeles to Oxford, New York to Chicago. A really fun day.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

full circle


full circle, originally uploaded by swissrolli.

A tremendous photo. One of my favorite portraits on Flickr.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Spotlight 7 Week 13: kelco

cuatro

Please welcome kelco as the week 13 presenter for Spotlight 7. Kelco was born across the street from a plum orchard and grew up just down the street from an apple orchard. Actually, that's not right. Kelco was born across the street from a plum orchard and just down the street from Apple Computer in the heart of Silicon Valley. Kelco now lives in Santa Cruz, CA.

Kelco's work can be also be found on his website, but the best way to learn about this portrait photographer is by reading this week's interview. Here's an excerpt.

2) What inspired you to do this set.

I thought it would be interesting to shoot a large number of people with the same basic lighting set-up, composition, expression, etc, and then show them together as a series. I like the fact that although many of the elements are the same, each image is completely different from one to the next. Plus, I think it will be a cool sociological experiment to see how people react when they walk into a room and see 50 grim hoodlums staring back at eye-level.

3) What is the lighting setup for that?

A Canon 550EX with a diffuser on camera, bounced off several reflectors.


rasputin