#97: The Best Version Of Me

This week, we talk about how technology is affecting branding and marketing. With so much noise and so many choices, how do you know what works? Also, can your future self be your present hero? Plus, transformation – how much is enough? Fantastic dance photographer Barbara Morgan is our Photographer of the Week.

Twitter / TheEllenShow: If only Bradley’s arm was longer. …
Oscars 2014: Watch Matthew McConaughey’s Confounding Acceptance Speech | TIME.com
Matt Damon impersonates Matthew McConaughey – YouTube
David duChemin – World & Humanitarian Photographer, Nomad, Author. » Fill Your Canvas
How a Science Fiction Book Cover Became a $5.7 Million Painting
In pictures: Roger Fenton’s historic Crimean War photographs – Telegraph
Erol Morris “Seeing is Believing” on Amazon
Film news: Fujifilm discontinues 4×5 peel-apart film – Japan Camera Hunter

This Week’s Sponsor

Sponsored by Squarespace Use the coupon codeREFINEYOURVISION at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Photographer of the Week

Barbara Morgan (photographer) – Wikipedia
Barbara Morgan – Dance Photographer

Books We Recommend

Barbara Morgan (Aperture Masters of Photography)

#96: Pencil Marks

Is your photography business your own? We discuss one interesting case where the answer was no. We also talk about image, not the one you’re making but the one you’re living, which helps set the stage for next week’s discussion on branding. Plus, surf photographer Mickey Smith on a present worth remembering and UK photographer Thurston Hopkins is our Photographer of the Week.

On Taking Pictures – Community – Google+
Tych Panel
Diptic on the App Store on iTunes
Create your own diptych (pictures collage)
Canon Lets Go Off The Low-Priced Compact Camera Market | CanonWatch CanonWatch
New Mexico Supreme Court: Wedding Photographer May Not Decline Business from Same-Sex Couple’s Commitment Ceremony » Publications » The Federalist Society
On Not Answering the Question: What Makes a Good Photograph?
Mickey Smith – Dark Side of the Lens
Sue Bryce Portrait | Australian Portrait Photographer of the Year 2011 & 2012
Seeing Themselves: Photographers’ Self-Portraits : The New Yorker
Are More Eccentric Artists Perceived As Better Artists? : NPR

This Week’s Sponsor

Squarespace Use the coupon code BETTERNOTMORE at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Photographer of the Week

Picture Post photographer Thurston Hopkins at 100
Thurston Hopkins Collection | Getty Images Gallery
Thurston Hopkins Exhibition | Getty Images Gallery

#95: Finding The New

This week, when is enough really enough? How do you know when it’s time to make subtle corrections versus charting an entirely new course? We also discuss the potential of collaboration and how narrative is changing the way we view photography. Portrait photographer Brett Walker is our Photographer of the Week.

8×10 Experiment Results – All 25 — Bill Wadman, photographer
[Editorial] Photography: Is It Still A Man’s World?
The Making of Fictional Photo Stories on Medium
An American Prayer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Doors “An American Prayer” on Amazon
The Invisible Peak
Photographing the Sochi Winter Olympics with Getty – Digital Cameras: SLR & Compact Cameras
The World’s Best (Unaltered) Photos

This Week’s Sponsor

Freshbooks Tell them On Taking Pictures sent you when you sign up and you’ll enter to win a free birthday cake!
HostGator Use offer code PICTURES for 30% off your order.

Photographer of the Week

Brett Walker on Flickr
Brett Walker – Redhead Color
Brett Walker – Nude Version 1
Brett Walker – Nude Version 2

Dan Winters – Road to Seeing

#94: The Custodian Ideal

This week is a Q&A show where we take a bunch of listener questions and try to answer them without sounding like idiots. But first, do you miss the good ol’ days of analog? We discuss Bill’s recent (and expensive) foray into large-format film on an 8×10 portrait shoot. Photographer, professor and MacArthur Fellow An-My Lê is our Photographer of the week.

One in 8 Million – New York Characters in Sound and Images – The New York Times
7 Reasons Why You Will Never Do Anything Amazing With Your Life | Raymmar Tirado
Amazing people & portrait photography by Brett Walker | The D-Photo
Mugshots 2008
Bill’s Type 55 portrait of H.A. Conrad
François Boucher, painter
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, painter

This Week’s Sponsor

Squarespace Use the coupon code BETTERNOTMORE at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Photographer of the Week

An-My Lê
An-My Lê — MacArthur Foundation

#93: Listen to Yourself

This week, we discuss the little voice – the gnawing (knowing) inside all of us that pushes us forward. How do you choose what to listen to and what to dismiss? Where do you draw the line between what you can do and what you will do? Plus, where has the mystique around photography gone? Ormond Gigli is our Photographer of the Week.

Apple – Thirty Years of Mac – “1.24.14” Film
Tim’s Vermeer – Movie Trailers – iTunes
Writing Wednesdays: Nobody Knows Nothing
Photography Documentary List
Vintage Camera Ads
The Race to Save a Hauntingly Beautiful Photo Archive – LightBox
ink&paper on Vimeo
The Ox on Vimeo
New Leica T (Type 701) Camera Soon? First Images?
Hasselblad did it again: “elite” Hasselblad HV camera announced, priced at $11,500

This Week’s Sponsors

Squarespace Use the coupon code BETTERNOTMORE at checkout to save 10% on your order.
HostGator Use offer code PICTURES for 30% off your order.

Photographer of the Week

Ormond Gigli
Ormond Gigli’s best photograph – women in the windows in Manhattan | Art and design | The Guardian
Gigli portrait of Louie Armstrong

Books We Recommend

Girls in the Windows And Other Stories (via Powerhouse)
Girls in the Windows And Other Stories (via Amazon)

#92: The Analogy of the Sphere

This week, we chime in on a recent NY Times article that questions the new definition of photography. Should using a camera somewhere in the process be a prerequisite to calling something a photograph? Are curators simply throwing stuff at the wall and hoping that Art is the only thing that sticks? We also discuss a listener email that centers around the flood of tutorials and techniques available to photographers, which begs the question “What should I learn?” Plus, National Geographic shooter Bruce Dale is our Photographer of the Week.

With Cameras Optional, New Directions in Photography – NYTimes.com
Debunking the Myth of the 10,000-Hours Rule: What It Actually Takes to Reach Genius-Level Excellence | Brain Pickings
The 10,000 Hour Rule
Inside Instruments | Colossal
Snowflakes, night city and other things: My technique for snowflakes shooting
The artist with the bad camera | Photography | Agenda | Phaidon
Sundance 2014 Old-Fashioned Portraits – Sundance 2014 Victoria Will Tintypes – Esquire
Today In WTF: Russian Socialite Poses On Chair Made Of A Black Woman
The Reality Behind Instagram Feeds – The Bold Italic – San Francisco
Triangulation 134 | TWiT.TV

This Week’s Sponsor

Shutterstock – Use code PICTURES114 for 25% off

Photographer of the Week

Bruce Dale – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bruce Dale | Selected photos
Bullet Hitting Watch
30 Years of BAD Pictures on Vimeo

#91: Isn’t That The Fun Of It?

This week, a discussion about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty gets us talking about art, specifically whether or not we tend to romanticize the life and work of the artist (spoiler: Penn should have taken the shot!). Also, with so many resources available, how do we step away from the learning and get down to doing? Our photographer of the Week, Duane Michals makes brilliant use of mixed media and image sequences to tell stories not possible with a single photograph.

Unretouched Images From Lena Dunham’s Vogue Shoot
David duChemin – Towards Mastery. Again.
Graciano Photography
Instant: The Story of Polaroid on Amazon
New55 Film
On Motivation: Beloved Composer Leonard Bernstein on Why We Create

This Week’s Sponsor

Squarespace Use the coupon code FANCYPANTSBILL at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Photographer of the Week

Duane Michals – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Duane Michals
Duane Michals | Reframing Photography

Books We Recommend

Buying books and products from Amazon via links on Faded + Blurred helps support the site and allows us to keep bringing you great content without ads.

Duane Michals (Photofile)
Album: The Portraits of Duane Michals 1958-1988
The House I Once Called Home

#90: Uncharted Territory

This week, we go further down the rabbit hole of Mentorship and discuss our most important mentors as well as what type of mentor each of us could benefit from now. We also talk about how AI may affect or even remove the choices we make in the not-too-distant future via the film Her. Brilliant architectural photographer Julius Schulman is our Photographer of the Week.

Why Her Will Dominate UI Design Even More Than Minority Report
Cyanotype Pre-Made Sheets on Amazon
Digital Art Studio: Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials
Twitter / millerandmiller: Ad agency asked if they could …
Impossible. Analog Instant Film and Cameras.
Karl Taylor – Fashionscape DVD — Bill Wadman, Photographer
Fashionscape – The Iceland Project ‹ Karl Taylor’s Photography Blog

This Week’s Sponsors

FreshBooks – Signup and enter to win a free birthday cake!
Shutterstock – Use code PICTURES1213 for 25% off

Photographer of the Week

Julius Shulman Photographs
Julius Shulman – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julius Shulman dies at 98; celebrated photographer of modernist architecture – latimes.com
Visual Acoustics Trailer – YouTube

Books We Recommend

Buying books and products from Amazon via links on Faded + Blurred helps support the site and allows us to keep bringing you great content without ads.

Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern Metropolis
Julius Shulman: Palm Springs
Julius Shulman, Modernism Rediscovered

#89: 42 Puppies And A Snow Cone Machine

 

For the first episode of 2014, we discuss how the tools that we use shape the way we use them. We also talk about the photographer/subject relationship and discuss how to better connect with the people you are photographing, which may even inspire Bill to take on a new project. Master vs. Mentor – one is about status while the other is about a relationship. Stephen Shore is our Photographer of the Week.

Show Notes

What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014?
Full Frame Myth
Picturing Portraits: An Afternoon with Bill Wadman
21-gun salute – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polaroid Socialmatic retro insta-print camera slated for reality | CES 2014: Gadgets – CNET Blogs

This Week’s Sponsor

Squarespace Use the coupon code FANCYPANTSBILL at checkout to save 10% on your order.

Photographer of the Week

Stephen Shore, Photographer

Books We Recommend

Buying books and products from Amazon via links on Faded + Blurred helps support the site and allows us to keep bringing you great content without ads.

Stephen Shore: Uncommon Places
The Nature of Photographs: A Primer

#88: Didn’t You Hear My Inner Monologue?

For the last episode of OTP in 2013, we discuss looking back to look forward. We look not at creating resolutions as much as mantras, concepts to drive us ahead and allow some wiggle room for the things that don’t work out exactly the way you think they will. Also, we look at ways to refine/expand the OTP G+ Group, which has now crossed 800! Iconic photojournalist Steve McCurry is our Photographer of the Week. Thank you so much for your time, your energy and your willingness to let us wrestle with the things we do week after week. We couldn’t do it without you.

Show Notes

“Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” on Amazon
John Mayer | Life In Music | Oxford Union – YouTube
“Secret Knowledge” David Hockney on Amazon
Century-old photo negatives found in Antarctic explorer’s hut – CNN.com
‘Tim’s Vermeer’ Review: Penn & Teller’s Doc a Magic Mix of Art and Science – TheWrap

This Week’s Sponsor

HostGator Use offer code PICTURES12 for 30% off your order.

Photographer of the Week

Steve McCurry
OTP #41: Our Microscopes Got More Powerful
The Last Roll of Kodachrome—Frame by Frame! | Vanity Fair
National Geographic Search for the Afghan Girl Part One – YouTube
Part Two | Part Three | Part Four
The Sartorialist: The Steve McCurry Interview, Part One – YouTube
Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

Books We Recommend

Steve McCurry Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs
Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs: Standard Edition
Steve McCurry: Portraits
Steve McCurry: The Unguarded Moment
Steve McCurry: Looking East: Portraits by Steve McCurry