Brad Mangin is one of those sports photographers who almost needs no introduction. Since becoming a full-time freelance photographer 20 years ago, Brad has amassed over 64,000 publicly available images in his archive - many of which feature his beloved San Francisco Giants.

As a regular shooter for Sports Illustrated and Major League Baseball, Brad has long ago mastered the professional action shot with his Canon DSLRs. But last year, when Brad got his first iPhone (or as he says, “joined the rest of the civilized world”), something incredible happened – it was as if Brad was seeing the world of baseball in a completely different light.

The freedom of walking around with no gear and just a cellphone let Brad see the game – and everything that goes with it – with fresh eyes. Brad was quickly hooked on cellphoneography and posting images to his Instagram feed. The results are stunning and give us all a seemingly secret, never-before-seen side to baseball.

In his new book, Instant Baseball, Brad shares 200+ of his favorite Instagrams from the 2012 MLB season – from Spring Training in February all the way through the World Series in October. The unique thing about Brad’s book is its wide appeal. Brad worked to capture every detail of the game, from the dugout, to the fans, to the hot dog stand and bubblegum. But it’s his player portraits that are the real stunner. Brad has a way of capturing emotion in its purest, most fun and poignant form – that’s what makes this book a real joy to own.

We sat down with Brand to discuss Instant Baseball and learn more about how it all came together:

PhotoShelter: What inspired you to first start shooting with your iPhone?

Brad Mangin: I was inspired to start shooting pictures as soon as I got my first iPhone 4S in December of 2011. I had heard great things about the camera. I had also heard great things about the free Instagram app. I have always enjoyed sharing words and images over social networks with friends, so I thought the Instagram app would be perfect for me. Some of my friends were using their phone to do some cool stuff, but it was during the winter so I had nothing to shoot but my cats Mike and Willie. I thought it would be fun to start shooting something I know- baseball- as soon as I went down to cover spring training in Arizona with my real cameras in February of 2012 for Sports Illustrated.

PS: Do you ever miss your DSLR?

BM: I still shoot most everything with my Canon DSLR cameras. I pretty much just shoot baseball, and my clients require that I shoot action pictures with long lenses, etc. I obviously can’t shoot action with my iPhone, so once the game starts the only thing I might shoot with my iPhone is a stadium shot from wherever I might be shooting from.

The iPhone stuff just started as something fun to do before games while I was waiting around before the first pitch. I normally get to the park several hours early so there is always time to goof around and look for something fun to shoot.

PS: What’s a typical day of shooting look like?

BM: I usually get to a game 2.5 to 3 hours early for batting practice, etc. On a good day I will shoot a bunch of pre-game with my DSLR and my iPhone. I am happy when I can do a good job of covering the game for my clients as well as getting 3-4 good Instagrams out to my feed.

PS: Did you always have a book in mind? At what point did you start working on it?

BM: I did not have a book in mind until my baseball picture editor Nate Gordon at Sports Illustrated got the magazine to publish 18 of my baseball Instagrams across all 6 pages of “Leading Off” (three consecutive doubletruck spreads) in July last year. Once I held the issue in my hands the Friday of that week and heard positive feedback from many people, I immediately knew this would make for a great book. I called my literary agent, Amy Rennert, that night and got right on the job of trying to find a publisher.

Photos by Brad Mangin for Sports Illustrated

Photos by Brad Mangin for Sports Illustrated

Photos by Brad Mangin for Sports Illustrated

Until this time, my only goal was to get the work published in Sports Illustrated. Now that I had achieved that, I was inspired to continue shooting Instagrams for the rest of the baseball season and on into the postseason. Having many more months to shoot baseball with my iPhone allowed me to round out my coverage of different teams and get broader appeal, and to also come up with a few different images I didn’t have yet.

PS: Do you have any favorite filters?

I generally use one of three filters: Lo Fi, Earlybird, and Hefe.

Photos by Brad Mangin/Instant Baseball

PS: Why did you choose to work with boutique publishing house Cameron + Company?

BM: I chose Cameron + Company because my agent, Amy Rennert, recommended them and set up a meeting between their publisher, Chris Gruener, and myself in early September. Chris and I immediately hit it off. He is a huge baseball guy like myself and had some great ideas. The icing on the cake was the fact that I would get to work with Chris’s business partner and amazing designer, Iain Morris, on the book. Iain is an insanely talented British fellow who knows nothing about baseball – and that is why I loved working with him so much. He did not care who any of the players were. He looked for color and shapes and sizes to compose his vision of how the book should look. Once I saw some early PDF files of the design of the book, I knew he had nailed it. The bonus was I still had 6 weeks of baseball to shoot and he would make requests for certain pictures that he needed, or certain colors to help the design. This was a huge luxury!

Photos by Brad Mangin/Instant Baseball

PS: How many images did you have to choose from? 

BM: I had several hundred Instagrams to look at by the time I photographed the San Francisco Giants World Series parade in downtown San Francisco on Halloween day, and we used almost every frame! The publisher loved everything so much they just kept increasing the size of the book. We went from 124 pages to 148 pages up to the final count of 176 pages to fit everything in.

PS: Any secrets to getting the best shot?

BM: I just kept working harder and harder to come up with new subjects and new angles. If the pictures were boring to me I knew no one else would like them. I hit a wall in September when I took a break to come to New York to attend Luminance, a conference put on by PhotoShelter. I went to an amazing talk put on by Zack Arias – whom I had never met – and he completely changed my attitude. I had been out to a Mets game the night before with my phone in search of Mets pitcher R.A Dickey who was having an great season with his knuckleball. I knew I needed to have his grip in my book, but I was not able to corral him that night as he ducked into the clubhouse after shagging balls during batting practice . I left the park that night a defeated man, but the next day Zack fired me up to do everything I could to finish a project – any project – and I knew this meant I needed to go back out to Citi Field, even if it meant missing some of the speakers at the seminar, to get Dickey’s grip.

Because of Zack, I went back the next day and had my friend, Mets team photographer Marc Levine, grab Dickey and bring him out of the clubhouse before the game. “You got your phone ready?” he asked. I tried hard not to laugh and shot three frames and got what I needed, and it is one of my favorite images in the book.

Photos by Brad Mangin/Instant Baseball

PS: What’s your stance on Instagram today as a publishing platform for photographers?

BM: I think Instagram is a great tool to get your work out there and have fun with photography. Because of my book I shot a few games on assignment with my iPhone for The New Yorker and I am also trying to work on a few other projects for other clients who like what I am doing with the social media stuff.

PS: Any advice to photographers looking to create a beautiful book like yours? 

BM: One thing I found out early on is that you really need a hook. My book became possible because of a gimmick – I shot with my iPhone. Everyone has a smart phone that they shoot pictures with, but I was a professional photographer using the same phone as fans to give them an up close and personal look at the game they love.

My book has two different crossover markets that makes a publisher want to publish it: it appeals to the tech crowd and to the baseball fans. I have already done many talk radio show interviews arranged by our publicist promoting Instant Baseball, and over half of the shows were general interest, not sports talk. The fun thing is I can talk about the book on both fronts and appeals to both audiences.

You need to be insanely passionate and be able to sell your book. You also need to be realistic. Sure, I would love to do an amazing gigantic coffee table book full of my best baseball pictures shot with my DSLR cameras, but no one would buy it. The book would look great and I would be thrilled with it, but there would be no hook for consumers. In today’s economic climate a huge dig-me book by me is not very appealing to publishers or consumers. It is sad and hard to accept, but I am a realist.

Get your copy of Instant Baseball on Amazon or the iBookstore. Brad will be speaking at the Apple Store in Soho, New York on Thursday, May 30 at 7pm. Also check out Brad’s photos in Brian Murphy’s new book, Never. Say. Die.

“I was fortunate enough to work with some of the most influential photographers in the world, and worked on covers of magazines such as Vogue, W, Allure. During that time I learned so much about photography just from being exposed to such excellence in the field. The retouching experience I gained is invaluable to me, and today I treat every image in post production as if it’s going to be on the cover of Vogue,” explains Dina. For her, it’s more than just the image that needs to be professionally polished, the delivery and buying process for her clients needs to be seamless too, which is why she’s chosen PhotoShelter for all her client transactions.

Dina Bustin

Now based in Livingston, New Jersey, Dina began photographing families, weddings, and yoga instructors in 2003. “After I had my first child I became one of those moms who was obsessed with taking photographs of her baby.  Each time I posted images online, people would ask: Who took those photos? Did you hire someone? Can you put me in touch with him or her?” From there, Dina knew she was onto something. She dipped her toe in the water with a few neighborhood moms, photographing their children and her own to build her portfolio.

Dina Bustin’s PhotoShelter homepage

Dina made her first print sale within two weeks of setting up her PhotoShelter website and has been on a roll ever since. Prior to PhotoShelter, Dina would go through the “song and dance, back and forth” of getting prints to her clients. “We had to discuss which images they wanted, what size, what kind of paper, and more, and then I would go through my files, print them and have them shipped to the client.”

Today, however, all of Dina’s prints on photographic paper are done through Photoshelter with our integrated print partner BWC. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much better the print process is for me now, and all of my clients have been extremely happy with the quality of prints.” For Dina, PhotoShelter is her “complete e-commerce solution.”

Print options for Dina’s clients

Full time mom, certified yoga teacher, and photographer, Dina’s got a full plate – so she likes to keep her photography workflow as simple as possible. Uploading her images straight to the Listed on Website section of her Image Browser, Dina prefers to use the PhotoShelter LightRoom plug in, which is where most of her editing occurs. “If I’m heavily PhotoShop-ing an image, I’ll upload that individual image using the PhotoShelter Web Uploader after my batch upload via the LightRoom plug-in.”

Dina makes most all of her client galleries password protected so that her images stay private and are for only the client to view. “I’ll make public galleries of my favorite images for my website’s homepage, but otherwise, all my content is protected.” From there she’ll use the PhotoShelter email notification tool within her Image Browser to notify her clients that their images are up and ready to order. Dina also watermarks her images with her own personal and tasteful uploaded watermark to make sure no one’s swiping images off her site.

Password warning for clients on Dina’s site

For Dina, PhotoShelter was the only way to go. “I love that it has made my photography business run with much more ease. It has taken a ton of pressure off of me regarding ordering prints. By providing templates, it was also so easy to layout my website in an attractive and professional way.  I love the look of it.  And finally, I’ve seen so many great photographers that have inspired me who also use PhotoShelter.  I would have never have come into contact with any of their work had I not been a member of the site.”

Survey shows photographer day rates in the UK and U.S.

Eposure, “the UK’s best platform for sourcing commercial photographers”, conducted a survey to find out more about the day rates of both UK and U.S.-based photographers. The survey found that almost half of all respondents charge $900 or more per day. 10% charge more than $2,000 for a days work. Day rates were considerably lower for UK-based photographers, with the majority charging somewhere between 300-700 GBP (although factor in the currency change).

Jonathan Hobin recreates the world’s most brutal tragedies with children

Canadian photographer Jonathan Hobin‘s In the Playroom series features children reenacting some of the more horrific tragedies of the past century. It includes 9/11, the death of Princess Diana, and Hurricane Katrina. “The funny thing is, kids play games where they kill each other all the time,” Hobin told Vice in an interview. “Whenever a kid plays with a water pistol they’re pretending to kill someone. It’s something we see constantly. I’m directly referencing where kids might be learning to do those things and that makes people very uncomfortable.” See all the images here.

Photo by Jonathan Hobin

Photo by Jonathan Hobin

Photo by Jonathan Hobin

Photo by Jonathan Hobin

Photo by Jonathan Hobin

Winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards

Last week, winners were announced for the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang was named Photographer of the Year for her series of portraits of children and youths who survived the July 2011 massacre on the island of Utoeya, outside Oslo. Photographs were judged in six different competition categories, including Professional, Open, and Student Focus. See all the winners over on The Atlantic’s In Focus blog.

A portrait by Andrea Gjestvang, named Photographer of the Year in the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. The photograph comes from a project called “One day in history” featuring portraits of children and youths who survived the massacre on the island of Utoeya outside Oslo, Norway on July 22, 2011.

UK Parliament passes legislation making it easier to use copyright material

Last week Parliament passed The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act, allowing photographs and other creative works to be used without the owners’ explicit permission as long as a “diligent search” has taken place. Then the company may license the image for commercial or non-commercial use. The act has been dubbed the “Instagram act”, in reference to a recent scuttle surrounding the use of images posted to the image-sharing social network.

The Department for Business, Innovations and Skills claims that the act will help remove unnecessary barriers to legitimate uses of work. The licensing money can be claimed by the image owner should they come forward at a later date. The BBC reports that the exact workings of the new legislation in relation to copyright are yet to be formalized.

The Image, Deconstructed

The Image, Deconstructed (TID) examines the mental thought process behind a photographer’s image. Much of the work is based in photojournalism, and several PhotoShelter members have been featured in recent weeks including Todd Spoth, Pete Marovich, Amy Toesing, and Brendan Hoffman. One of the founders, editorial photographer Logan Mock Bunting, is also a PhotoShelter member.

Pete Marovich’s images are of a protester outside the U.S. Supreme Court as they debated Califonia’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. “The biggest challenge shooting in the morning in front of the Supreme Court is the light, especially on a sunny day,” he says. “The sun rises behind the Court, so if you want the Court in the background, you end up shooting into the sun.”

Photo by Pete Marovich

“I saw this guy with the sign earlier in the morning, and even though I had already made some images of him, I kept tabs on him,” says Pete. “I was standing off to the side of him and I saw that he was now facing away from the Court and that the white sign he was holding up was kicking light back in his face. I made my way in front of him as quickly as I could to make an image before he lowered the sign or turned around.”

Buy gear and name your price with Greentoe

Greentoe.com has been showing up in the news quite a bit lately. The site works with authorized retailers to sell photography products – the only difference is that you name your own price. Watch the video below to learn more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Altering photos deemed fair use in Patrick Cariou-Richard Prince case

Some important implications have come out of a closely watched copyright case between photographer Patrick Cariou and artist Richard Prince. Prince used dozens of Cariou’s portraits from his book on Rastafarians to create a series of collages and paintings. In March of 2011 a judge found that the use by Prince was not Fair Use and Cariou’s issue of liability for copyright infringement was granted in its entirety. 

But the appeals court held last May ruled that the judge’s interpretation was incorrect, and that a majority of Prince’s work manifested “an entirely different aesthetic” from Cariou’s pictures. Language seems to be doing a disfavor to the artists in this case, with terms like “different character”, “new expression”, and “new aesthetics” being used to determine whether or not the work falls under Fair Use. Fair Use has always been a gray area for photographers, something which was not any more cleared up from this case. (via APhotoEditor and The New York Times)

Gorgeous images from Shangai’s Sightseeing Tunnel

German photographer Jakob Wagner captured these gorgeous photos through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai, China, a popular tourist attraction that takes you on a 5-minute tunnel ride featured visual and audio effects. Wagner used long exposures to showcase the colors and transform the tunnel into another world. (via My Modern Met)

Photo by Jakob Wagner

Photo by Jakob Wagner

Photo by Jakob Wagner

Photo by Jakob Wagner

This month we’d like to introduce Adrian Barrett and Raffe Lazarian. Adrian, who’s based out of New Zealand, has decades of experience, and has lately been experimenting with HDR photography. Professional photojournalist Raffe Lazarian’s bread and butter is his documentary work, but he has a special place in his heart for portraits, as well.

Adrian Barrett

Photo by Adrian Barrett

Photo by Adrian Barrett

Specialty: Portraits

Website: adrianbarrettimages.photoshelter.com

PhotoShelter member since: March 29, 2013

Why he joined: Adrian wanted a secure backup for his archive, and a platform to sell his fine art prints.  As he told us: “PhotoShelter provides us photographers with all the services and help we need to run a successful business.”

How long he’s been photographing: Adrian’s been shooting for almost 50 years, focusing heavily on the portrait market as well as teaching.

What he shoots with: Adrian still carries a few film cameras, from a 5 x 4 to 120 format. But, for everyday shooting and experimental work he takes his Canon 5D Mark II.

What he loves about PhotoShelter: “The thing I love about PhotoShelter is its ease of use in setting up my new site. I also like all the guides on various topics – they certainly provide a great service.”

Raffe Lazarian

Photo by Raffe Lazaria

Photo by Raffe Lazarian

Specialty: Photojournalism

Website: raffephoto.photoshelter.com

PhotoShelter member since: March 28, 2013

Why he joined: “After years of being told to join PhotoShelter, I finally gave it a shot. I’m glad I did. For a professional photographer, I have yet to find a site that offers the same set of features. With a PhotoShelter site, you can pretty much make it into anything you want it to be.”

How long he’s been photographing: Professionally, Raffe’s been shooting for 7 years, but began practicing almost 5 years before that.

What he shoots with: Raffe can’t leave the house without his Canon 5D Mark II.

What he loves about PhotoShelter: Raffe gave us a long list of reasons why he’s loving his PhotoShelter account, including the option to sell images through the site, password-protected galleries, and great customer service.

Congrats to these new PhotoShelter members on building a great site to help run their businesses!

• Photographer: Singenu – Patrice Beriault
• Specialty: Animal portraiture, commercial
• Current Location: Montreal, Canada
• Clients: McDonald’s, Time, Reader’s Digest, Pfizer
• PhotoShelter Website: singenu.photoshelter.com

The Story

As a child, photographer Patrice Beriault spent his summers on farms, camping with animals surrounding him at all times: bare-back horse riding during the summer nights through tall grass and taking his sleeping bag to stay out under the stars with the horses. Patrice grew to understand animals’ innate behaviors.

It wasn’t until years later when Patrice began photographing his three dogs (two Great Danes and a Malamute) in his spare time between commercial and portrait clients. A friend, and fellow animal-photographer suggested he begin showing his animal work to ad agencies.

Photo by Singenu / Patrice Beriault

From the beginning Patrice knew that he didn’t just want to shoot family portraits with their pets. “I had to do something different that would separate me from the crowd of wildlife photographers and advertising photographers,” he says. “Today there are so many photographers in a specialty that you have to find a way to distinguish yourself with a visual signature of art.”

Determined to create a different type of animal portraiture, Patrice combined his commercial and portrait expertise with his experience with wildlife, and also created a new brand for this particular line of work. “Part of redefining myself was to alter my brand name. Singenu (my artistic nom de plume) was born!” Singenu is a play on words from Le Singe Nu (The Naked Ape), a book by Desmond Morris, that examines humans as a species and compares them to other animals.

Photo by Singenu / Patrice Beriault

Although Patrice has experience both in the studio and out in the field, working with animals in either location brings unique challenges. “Understanding that the animal will act differently if it is in a studio or in nature is important,” says Patrice. “It’s also important to be aware that whenever something changes around your subject, it may alter its behavior. It’s all about being able to try to anticipate situations and limit the unexpected. The key-word here is try,” he jokes.

Working with Montreal Police Cavalry horses (pictured above) taught Patrice a valuable lesson: “In situations like these, it is essential to understand that you must adapt to the animal and its limitations. Not the other way around,” he explains.

Photo by Singenu / Patrice Beriault

Working closely with the animal’s handler or owner before every photo shoot is important to Patrice’s workflow. “The animal handler is the link between the animal and the photographer. He saves us time and knows exactly what to do and what not to do, or when to do it, or not to do it.”

Photo by Singenu / Patrice Beriault

In terms of camera and lighting gear, Patrice approaches each shoot differently. “I’ll adapt my equipment to the project. I work with my Phase One or Nikon, and for lights either my Broncolor or Profoto. I imagine the image, see the light, and adapt the equipment to the result I am looking for. What is essential however, is to prepare and test before.” Patrice will use as little as two flashes and up to seven on some shoots.

Lighting set up Patrice uses when photographing reptiles

Patrice claims he has no particular favorite animal to photograph, but what he loves is the ability to find a way to communicate with each animal he photographs – to be able to get in touch. For Patrice, when that happens it’s what’s really special.

Patrice and his dog Jericho

Patrice is currently working with the Montreal SPCA and the DentsuBos agency on the project Adoption House, a campaign to show people how wonderful and diverse refuge animals really are. “You’ll not only find cats and dogs, but wildlife, farm animals, as well as exotic animals.” According to Patrice, casting was simple: he wanted to photograph them all.

What caught our eye

Patrice’s work carries a sense of vibrant color and life that pops against his signature stark white background. His unique way of photographing animals makes it apparent that Patrice brought many talents to the table before perfecting his ability to take an accurate portrait of these quirky and beautiful creatures.

Photo by John Hall

The biggest thing

“I had a flash website. It was just a portfolio, it didn’t have a blog, and it wasn’t giving me any SEO love. I knew I needed to completely redo my website architecture from the ground up,” Niall tells us. After performing a massive amount of research on the subject, Niall was sold on WordPress for its blogging capabilities, and Graph Paper Press, who builds designed themes for WordPress blogs, for the look and feel. But he knew he needed something more robust on the back-end — a platform that would allow him to archive all his work as he uploaded it, allow him access to these files whenever he might need them, provide him with a simpler image delivery system, and more. When Niall learned about PhotoShelter, and the fact that a PhotoShelter account/website could be seamlessly integrated with WordPress and Graph Paper Press, he knew he needed to look no further. “Just the fact that my PhotoShelter site mirrors and echos my Graph Paper Press design — I think that was the #1 selling point for me,” says Niall. “The ability to just have this really cool, custom, totally seamless website…that was the biggest thing.”

An individual image from Niall’s PhotoShelter archive on display on his integrated website.

The “Listed on Website” section of Niall’s Image Browser, which houses all of the collections he displays in the “Image Archive” area of his website (below).

Another major piece of the puzzle for Niall has been the SEO education PhotoShelter has provided him. A more learned and experienced SEOer these days, Niall attributes much of his success getting found online to PhotoShelter’s myriad of tools and guides on the subject. “PhotoShelter was with me from the ground up when I got serious about photography and my website, and I actually learned a lot about SEO through the advice I got from you guys,” Niall tells us. “I’m now super focused on SEO and proud to say — and this would not be possible without the WordPress architecture paired with PhotoShelter — that I bounce between page 1 and page 2 for the keywords I’m really going for right now in a Google search…such as music photography in San Francisco, or family photography in San Francisco, I’ve been #1. And I’ve been getting a lot more random organic inquiries from internet searches, sometimes through an image search. I actually just got an ad campaign with a major company because they found my music pictures online, through my PhotoShelter account first.” Niall makes sure to pay extra close attention to any field on the PhotoShelter back-end denoted with the little green “SEO” tag as these are the areas that can very directly affect one’s placement in Google searches — the “on-page factors” any photographer with a website should be keeping front of mind. “Honestly everyone I talk to is impressed with my knowledge of SEO,” says Niall. “I just tell them they should all be doing this!”

The green SEO tag displays next to any field on the back-end that may directly affect Niall’s SEO.

 

Brand consistency

While things like word of mouth, in-person visits, and consultations are still at the very top of the list for Niall’s business, he knows that without his blog, his design, and all of the tools and possibilities PhotoShelter has afforded him, he wouldn’t have been able to express his brand as consistently as he has over these past few years. “When I first started out I was just looking for a solution that displayed photos really well and was really good on the backend,” says Niall. “Now some of my biggest clients have found me on the internet, and that’s because I’m out there with this website. You guys helped me do that.”

PhotoShelter: How did you get your start in photography?

Tony Gale: I bought a camera from my friend who needed the money to pay rent, and fell in love. My career started in Seattle, but there was limited opportunity in that smaller market, so I moved to New York in 2000. I shoot for clients like Bank of America, State Farm, Best Buy, NY Moves magazine, and others. I also teach a lighting course at Parsons the New School for Design. In my spare time, I’m an avid triathlete.

PS: Any Ironman triathlons in your future?

TG: I’m working up to doing one in 2014.

PS: We met last year while doing a series of APA Photo Assistant seminars and in Seattle you took this photo of me – I guess it is an environmental portrait – but I like it. It’s fun.

TG: Yes, it was the end of the day, and we had shot inside the studio, but decided to run power out the 2nd story window and take some fun photos.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: What is appealing to you about taking portraits, or more specifically, an environmental portrait?

TG: I like meeting and talking to people from diverse backgrounds. There is something about meeting people in person that you don’t get from an email or a phone call. And in the case of an environmental photo, you can see people in their own element.

PS: Tell us about this first photo.

TG: The subject is a rollerblader and we wanted to shoot him in an area where he skates. This is a single light set up with about a 70mm lens, so I’m pretty far back to get his entire body.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: His skin tone looks a little warm. Did you use any gels?

TG: The skin tone is warm because I made it warm by adjusting the white balance. I use an X-Rite ColorChecker Passport on all my shoots to determine a neutral white balance, then I can make adjustments within Lightroom as necessary. White balance is just too difficult to determine by looking at the back of your screen while on a shoot, and the ColorChecker gives me a consistent output from which I can build profiles in Lightroom.

I also have a number of softboxes and as they age, they get a little yellow, so in some cases I’ll just pick an older softbox if I want a warmer tone.

PS: What other equipment do you typically use?

TG: I have a Hensel Porty battery powered light that I bought used. I use a Sony a77 and a99, Pocket Wizards, and I have three vivitar 283 flashes that I got used for about $35.

PS: A few years ago it would have been unusual to hear that a pro was using Sony DSLRs, but I got to try out the a99, and it’s a pretty great camera.

TG: Yes, I’ve been very happy with the performance, especially in low light. I shot a job recently at ISO6400 with an a99 and the images came out great.

PS: When I saw this next image, I was really surprised to see that it was all ambient. But I guess those bus signs can put out a lot of light just like a computer screen.

TG: This was a situation where you have to find the right bus stand; one that has a light colored ad so that it can be used for illumination. The bus stand metered at f/5.6 and the ambient was at f/2.8.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: So you had four times as much light from the bus stand.

TG: Yes. It was still a slow exposure (1/2 sec), so I had a tripod, but I think that night photography needs to have that certain ambiance.

PS: I see some motion blur in the left corner. Was that intention?

TG: Yes, that’s just the blur of someone walking by which I thought added a little something to the photo. I have since recreated this photo for other clients who like the look.

PS: Have you considered using continuous lighting for a shot like this?

TG: I do own a few 2″x2″ LED panels, cheap ones, about $35 each, and they’re great for this type of work. The lower end models aren’t great with color temperature consistency compared to the more expensive product like Litepanel. But this is a situation where I could have taped one of those to the bus stand if necessary.

PS: On the last photo, I had expected that you used strobes (you didn’t). On this one, I was surprised to see that you had used strobes because it looks like window light!

TG: Thank you, I’m glad to hear that. This is two lights. A big white umbrella camera right, and a strobe bounced into the wall camera left. I tried it with just the umbrella and the light was too hard. There weren’t any windows in the room so I had to light it. I light with one light at a time, and add additional lights as needed. I find that it’s too hard to turn multiple lights on at the same time while trying to understand what’s bouncing off of what.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: This to me is such a great environmental photo. I see the hats on the wall, and then you framed her in the negative space, and she also has this wonderful hairpiece on. Were you aware of all these compositional elements?

TG: Yes, I saw the hats and the negative space. I didn’t have her completely centered in the negative space, but it doesn’t bother me. The lens is pretty wide because the room is so small – my back is up against the wall, and there’s some distortion towards the edges of the frame, but you pick the lens to get the “right” photo. Shooting wide gives us these environmental elements.

PS: Are you directing her poses?

TG: Non-models can be very intimidated when having their photo taken, so I try to have a conversation with them, and I tell them that I’m gonna take a lot of photos. They’ll be some photos where their eyes are closed, and some where they mouth is in a funny position. But in between those, you get some really nice, natural poses. I think I probably shot about 300 images for this.

This image was taken as a part of my “Some Interesting People” project where people submit me the name and description of someone they find interesting and I go out and photograph them.

PS: You have this project and another project to take a portrait of all your Facebook friends – all 1,500 of them. How important are personal projects to your creative growth?

TG: Very important. You could go a month without being hired to take a portait, so it’s important to keep shooting things that are interesting to you.

PS: This next one looks like a model.

TG: Yes, this was for a catalog shoot. We probably did 2000 frames per day in 5 locations.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: And this doesn’t have any strobes!

TG: Correct. We used a soft gold reflector which has alternating bands of gold and silver. The effect of a gold reflector can be pretty noticeable, so my assistant is probably backed up about 15 feet away. But it was a very bright day, and we didn’t need a strobe, so I didn’t use one. I try to keep it pretty simple, and in this case, it’s more about the location.

PS: Are you usually responsible for picking the location?

TG: The client will often have a location in mind, but they aren’t thinking about lighting, backgrounds, etc., so when I’m scouting it’s my job to be able to tell them why one location might be preferable to another.

PS: Can you tell us about your post production workflow?

TG: I ingest everything through Lightroom, and as I mentioned before, I use the ColorChecker to shoot a reference frame for each lighting set-up. After building a color profile for each, I’ll start going in and making adjustments as needed.

PS: Your images don’t seem particularly heavy handed for retouching. Are you pulling these into Photoshop at all, or is everything completed in Lightroom?

TG: Photoshop almost inevitably gets used for the final images, and most of the images you’re seeing today could have between 3-9 layers in Photoshop, but for subtle tweaking.

PS: Three subjects in this one. I find it really complex to pose more than one person.

TG: Adding more people makes taking a portrait much more complex. I usually start with one person in the frame and then add the subjects one at a time. This was photographed for an alumni magazine at a winery on Long Island.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: When I started doing portraits, I was looking at a lot of sports portraiture where the style is to underexpose the sky to add more drama and make the subject look more heroic. In this photo, the sky is blown out and you have some flare in the upper left corner.

TG: Yes, this was intentional. It was actually a pretty overcast day, so it wasn’t as bright as it looks, but I find that when you’re shooting indoors, you want the outside to look a certain way and the interaction of the light with the windows is important as well. In this case, the light casts these long shadows of the window frames and the people.

PS: The lens is pretty wide. 

TG: I wanted to get those great arches in the shot, so I’m probably shooting 24mm with my back up against the wall. But again, it helps establish the environment, and makes this a more successful photo than if I had cropped it tighter.

PS: Our final photo of some students.

TG: This was actually taken in Miami for the APA Photo Assistant workshop. I always took a photo of the groups, and this was challenging because there are so many people. But as we were walking around, I saw this bush, and I told everyone to get into the bush. Not in front of the bush, in the bush.

Photo by Tony Gale

PS: The light is pretty straight on, but it has this pretty contemporary look to it.

TG: Yes, because I had to shoot wide to get everyone in, and the road is there. We had two Profoto 7a‘s about 40 feet away. And we just used the zoom reflectors, which allow you to focus the light a little tighter when you have a long throw.

PS: What sort of lighting kit would you recommend for someone starting out with environmental and location portraiture. I guess it sort of depends on price range.

TG: Lights can be very expensive, but you can get a nice battery kit like a Calumet Genesis for about $400. At the mid-range, there are lights like the Hensel Porty or the Elinchrom Ranger. And at the high end, the Broncolor Move or Profoto B4. The difference between the low end and high end equipment is usually in color consistency and flash duration. Flash duration is really only important if you’re trying to freeze motion.

PS: And if you were going to pick a few modifiers?

TG: Softbox, umbrella, and zoom reflector are all standard. There are so many different types of modifiers like strip lights and octabanks, but I like to keep it pretty simple.

PS: Plus when you’re working outdoors, those octabanks can fly all over the place.

TG: Yes, I travel with bungy cord and water weights instead of sandbags. But yes, you don’t want your lights blowing around in the wind.

Tony put additional lighting diagrams on his Facebook page, which were created with software provided by MAC-On-Campus. 

• Photographer: Alison Turner
• Specialty: Editorial, travel
• Current Location: The open road, USA
• Clients: Dog Fancy, Trailer Life, Airstream Life
• PhotoShelter Website: alisontravels.photoshelter.com

The Story

Since she can remember, Alison Turner has felt like an explorer. But it wasn’t until she quit her desk job and truly indulged in that part of herself that she discovered a passion and talent that she may have never known was in her. This year marks the fifth year Alison has been out on the road, traveling across the U.S. in a van with her dog, Max, taking photographs of her adventures, and the people she meets along the way.

Photo by Alison Turner

Although her means of traveling have changed over the past five years – from a teardrop trailer, to a tent, to her now pop-up van – Alison always travels freely and keeps her lifestyle simple. Her three essential items on the road are her iPhone, a make-shift coffee pot, and lip balm. “Mostly I stay one night at a location and then I hit the road the next day to an unknown destination,” she says. “I leave everything up to chance. I’ve circled the states for four years and I would love to say exactly where I will go this year, but I really don’t know and won’t know until that morning.”

Photo by Alison Turner

Alison “discovered” photography while out on the open road. “I didn’t pick up a camera and take photographs until my second year traveling, and that was with a small point and click camera,” she says. Alison admits that those first two years were far from easy. “When I started my journey, I had no idea what I wanted to do or where it would take me. I just drove around and blogged out to family and friends to make sure they thought I was having the time of my life. But, in reality, I felt lost.”

After taking such an incredible risk, Alison felt pressured to do something amazing with her time, but she had no idea what. “The voices of doubt thundered louder in my head with each passing month, and I tried quieting them at night with a cocktail or two…sometimes three or four. It worked for a while – until it didn’t.”

Photo by Alison Turner

After months of letting fear get the best of her, Alison decided she needed to change her lifestyle in order to truly experience an authentic life with purpose, which is what she had originally set out to do. She quit drinking, sold her 188-bottle wine refrigerator and entire wine collection, and with the money bought a Canon 5D Mark II.

Soon, she was hooked.“I shot every day. After a while, people began to tell me that there was something special in my work. The challenge was believing it myself. To this day, I feel that photography and art saved my life. It re-awoke my creative soul and gave me a new purpose.”

Alison was drawn to taking environmental portraits of those she met on the road, and after documenting the “Silver Sisters,” a group of women who travel via Airstream, she sent in her photos to Airstream Life who immediately wanted to publish the images. During that same time one of her photographs was recognized at MOPLA (Month of Photography, Los Angeles). Alison began to wonder, “Could I actually make a living doing this?”

Photo by Alison Turner

Alison’s Airstream portraits have become an important part of her photographic identity, and she’s attended Alumapalooza to document the fest for the past three years. She is currently working on a black and white portrait project, taking photographs of her female friends back at her home-base Los Angeles. She’s currently posting a few teasers of the project on her Instagram account, but once completed she’ll reveal the entire project and statement behind it.

Alison and her dog Max

What caught our eye:
Admittedly, we discovered Alison’s work via Instagram (she has over 2,000 followers), loved her images, and were pleasantly surprised to find out she was a PhotoShelter member. Alison documents a niche lifestyle that most are unaware of, or don’t have access to. As one of the “travelers” Alison has a special connection with her portrait subjects that’s easily interpreted in her photographs.

Alexandru Vita can tell you a thing or two about designing a PhotoShelter website. An experienced web designer with a serious fervor for photography, Alex is one of PhotoShelter’s four “Certified Consultants” — a select group of PhotoShelter members who know PhotoShelter inside and out, and who can be hired to help you get your website launched, as well. We sat down with Alex recently to talk a little bit about his success as a Certified Consultant, what he feels are the biggest red flags for any photography website, and why he chose to work with PhotoShelter to truly hone his design skills.

“My passion for photography started it all,” Alex tells us. With a degree in computer science, Alex recalls spending many late nights studying things like lighting, composition, marketing, and of course, web design — anything to feed his combined passion for photography and design. He signed up for PhotoShelter in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since. “As a photographer you get the complete package with PhotoShelter: great image management, simple-to-use selling and pricing of images, and good customizable templates, just to name a few,” says Alex. But what really sold him on the service was PhotoShelter’s manual customization capabilities. “How a powerful structure can be modeled into specific designs… this is what really got me,” he says.

Since becoming a part of the Certified Consultant program, Alex has gathered experience working on over 100 unique projects, both small and large, solely dedicated to PhotoShelter members. But it’s his understanding that every project is distinct that has led him to treat his work with the keen eye and attention to detail his clients really want and need. “I’ve learned to not just create shiny websites to showcase images, but to make the needed compromises,” Alex tells us. “My experience has taught me to try to focus on the big picture — to solve any usability problems that may be stopping visitors in their tracks. That’s why collaboration has become such a huge part of how I work now, and I’ve gotten great results.” And with that in mind, Alex makes sure his clients come to him with their full vision, even if it may be accomplished in steps. “When my clients have very specific changes in mind, I recommend they take some time to gather a comprehensive list of everything they would like to see, and then send it over all at once. Batching always helps productivity and usually cuts down significantly on email time, as well as on time spent opening and closing files, software, connections, etc. to make minor changes.”

Alex helped portrait photographer Sven Doornkaat integrate his PhotoShelter portfolio with his WordPress blog in this striking example.

Given his experience as a consultant with PhotoShelter, Alex has also learned to quickly spot and diffuse some of the major photography website red flags he often encounters. It sounds simple, but one of the first things he looks at is whether or not the photographer’s contact information is available and easily accessible. “Making your contact info hard to find on the site, or missing altogether in rare cases, is a big one for me,” says Alex. “If the phone number and/or email address can be displayed on every page of the site, in the footer or sidebar, it makes it all the more easier to get contacted.” Another issue Alex will rush to correct is poor site navigation. Making sure visitors can easily find what they’re looking for is another seemingly simple tip, but one Alex finds many photographers overlook. This often comes up when a client is either stuck with an older design, or they’ve chosen a template that is too basic for their full body of work and what they want to do with their site. Again, what may seem like pretty elementary things to some — making sure customers can find what they need and that they know how and where to contact you — really can be the make or break for your site and your reputation.

For New Zealand based photographer Kelsi Doscher, Alex performed a full fleshed manual customization of the PhotoShelter template provided. He made sure her navigation was listed in both the header and the footer of the site, and her email address and location clearly listed in the footer, as well.

Today, Alex receives about 10-20 requests from potential, new, or current PhotoShelter members every month. Most of these are for full site designs from photographers looking for their first online “home”, or experienced users looking for a website overhaul — those who want to take advantage of new technologies and what PhotoShelter has to offer. But while Alex continues to excel at helping his clients cull that perfect look and feel out of a website, that’s not all they’ll get from him. Alex can be hired to help you with anything PhotoShelter — SEO, ecommerce, basic workflow, even recommendations on which specific PhotoShelter tool to rely on for your particular use-case. And an added perk to hiring Alex? The wisdom he has acquired as both a photographer and designer in his time studying, practicing, and working at both:

“You need a lot of passion to be in photography — it’s hard work! But I see many people very concerned about gear and technique, partly neglecting all the other required aspects: figuring out what their niche is, learning how to properly price, market and sell their images, etc.

This is a business, and I believe photographers need to treat it as such. Even if they’re not large agencies with huge marketing budgets, solo photographers should still learn basic business principles: planning, defining their unique selling proposition, market research, invoicing. This is really hard, too, and may be out of the comfort zone for many. It keeps photographers away from their cameras, but the benefits eventually outweigh the efforts. This is how they will get more and better opportunities to display their photography skills.”

Alex also makes sure to drive home just how important it is to get your site right when starting out. He says a lot of photographers feel like a flashy site with a lot of bells and whistles will help them succeed immediately and solve their problems, but that isn’t necessarily always (or even often) the case. “Photographers should always be armed with patience, of course,” says Alex. “But switching up the website to something that just looks ‘super cool’ isn’t always the right move. I feel minimalistic and clean really is the way to go, and it’s important to get a few things right as early on as you can: display only your best work, clearly explain what you do well, and make sure your contact information is front and center.”

Action Plus, a sporting images agency formed over 35 years ago, cultivates just the sort of sleek and straightforward design Alex recommends. They hired him to seamlessly integrate their PhotoShelter archive, client area, and ecommerce functionality into their existing site to achieve one single polished look and feel.

To see more examples of Alex’s amazing website overhauls and PhotoShelter integrations, or to hire him to help with your own unique project, check out the PhotoShelter Customizations page of his website. Alex does a stellar job of outlining his process and exactly what you can expect out of your time with him here.

• Photographer: Andrew Propp
• Specialty: Documentary
• Current Location: Washington, DC
• Clients: Staff photographer at Washington Magazine
• PhotoShelter Website: proppphotography.com

The Story:

Creating this series and multimedia piece, “Long After I’m Gone,” was what photographer Andrew Propp calls “a formative moment” in his young career. While studying at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Andrew paired up with radio producer Georgia Moodie who knew the then 95 year-old apple farmer, Francis Fenton, pictured below.

Francis, who is somewhat of a hometown celebrity in Mercer, Maine, was at the time managing a family farm largely on his own. After their first visit in September of 2010, both Andrew and Georgia knew they had a good story on their hands.

One of the first photographs Andrew took of Francis. Image by Andrew Propp

For three months, Andrew visited Francis in between his classes. “We spent time in his orchards, shared applesauce and apple ice cream in his home, and watched many hours of television together,” he says. Andrew believes that it was Francis’s generosity and undeniable charisma that gave strength to the photographs and project as a whole.

As Andrew grew to know Francis, his life began to unfold and reveal itself. “It’s difficult to condense Francis’ life story (and his many, many years),” says Andrew. The farmer had incredible stories from surviving WWII, raising a family and settling in San Diego, and moving back to his hometown of Mercer to take care of the family farm.

Image by Andrew Propp

While creating the series, Andrew says he learned the valuable lesson of taking transition shots, which help carry the viewer between different scenes and moods. “These transition shots were vital in stitching together the story and are something that I always look for now in my assignments and personal work.”

Image by Andrew Propp

Andrew also learned to listen to his gut, and to never second guess himself when taking a photograph. He says about the above image: “At the time, I was unsure whether I should click the shutter because it felt invasive and Francis seemed so vulnerable sleeping. In hindsight, though, it was an important photograph. A nap was an important part of Francis’ ritual, and to me the photograph became a record of the trust that Francis and I forged.”

Image by Andrew Propp

Andrew also realized the beauty of collaboration in working with radio producer Georgia Moodie on the multimedia piece. “There were moments I had to resist taking a photograph so as not to ruin Georgia’s audio,” he says. “Likewise, there were instances where she stayed out of the frame and let me visually document the moment. Georgia was a brilliant collaborator and part of the strength of the multimedia piece lies in the compelling audio she collected.”

Hear Francis’ story below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Andrew is currently freelancing in Washington, D.C. and in January joined Washingtonian Magazine as a staff photographer. He shoots with Nikon.

What caught our eye:

It’s apparent from the work that a strong bond of trust was built between Andrew and Francis during the time of shooting. Andrew’s detail shots fill the story with small moments that give the viewer a bigger picture of who Francis is, and what his life is like. This humble story is surprisingly photogenic – and that’s due to Francis’s demeanor, and Andrew’s special relationship and respect to the subject.