Fashion History Subbing

Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching a session of Fashion History at San Diego Mesa College. I am substituting for Susan Lazear who is presenting at a workshop in New Zealand. After an intense learning session of my own we covered the Minoan culture of Crete and will be moving on next week to Greek and Roman fashion history. The fun part is relating these historic influences to contemporary fashions.

I also taught Susan's class in InDesign/Publishing. This is a natural for me - we are doing a fashion photo shoot for the Fashion Department's annual fashion show, the Golden Scissors Awards, coming up in May. It'll be great fun leading these enthusiastic and creative students through a photo shoot. I will write more about it next week.

Meanwhile for the Fashion History class, here is a link to the Power Point presentations on Crete. (Thanks to my friend Annie Amata for the Minoan crash course and learning materials!)

Winter Weather

This icy season that has most of the U.S. indoors or out shoveling snow reminds of my last winter living in Kent, Ohio. I was snowed in alone for four days – a most interesting experience. That last winter crisis happened at the end of January, 1978.

That winter I remember seeing Walter Cronkite on TV with a map of the United States over his left shoulder that had illustrations of icicles covering it. And President Jimmy Carter was encouraging us all to keep the thermostat at 55 degrees because we were in the middle of an oil crisis. Which I did. I also had to buy heating oil for my house in the country so I was glad to scrimp on heat.

The week in January when it started snowing and snowing and everything stopped, I was at home with a sewing project (a vintage-style handbag) and fortunately, enough food to last until I could get out. There was no question about driving in to Kent to open the plant store. I did have electricity and phone service but couldn’t really see out. The patterns of frost covering the windows were beautiful but impeded my view of the white, suspended world outside. Though many others have spend more time in isolation, spending that much time alone was a great exercise in self-entertainment.

What the iPad Means to Our Business

by Gregory Bertolini
With Steve Jobs' announcement of the new Apple iPad, we could be on the verge of a new way of conducting business:

The iPad will change the business of photography, styling, writing and publishing. Up until now, the electronic tablets have been more of a novelty for the gadget inclined. If Apple is able to push the iPad as they have the iPod, the world of the printed image and book-catalog publishing will be forever changed. The iPod changed how music is sold, distributed, marketed, and even how it is recorded (musicians now record their songs in their own home recording studios and no "hard copy" such as a disc is needed).

The same could happen with the printed word and photographs. There may be BIG changes for us still photographers: Think that people viewing the iPad with its high resolution color screen, and the capacity of playing moving images, will be happy viewing a still or static image? I see that in the near future, still photography may become a small player.

Think about it. Want to look up a recipe? You open up an electronic cookbook or subscribe to a food magazine on your iPad. In front of you on the screen, is the recipe. Hit a button and a lovely voice reads you the recipe at a speed that allows you to prepare the dish. An image of the dish appears, the camera moves around the dish, giving you a 360 degree view. Need help understanding a food handling technique? Press a button and up comes a video that shows you how that technique is done. Want more information? Press an icon and a mini documentary about where the ingredients for the recipe come from and how they are harvested appears. Hear the chef explain the recipe or technique, listen as the dish sizzles on the stove; hear the liquids being poured and the clinking sounds of the kitchen preparation.

Or go shopping for some new clothing through a catalog; stroll through an exotic island paradise while local music plays in the background. A model enters the scene, turns, moves, bends. The viewer not only gets to see the clothing, but also experience how it moves and drapes in different conditions. What will happen to the standard printed catalog verses the electronic catalog? No mailing or printing fees for the company-the largest part of a catalog's expense, plus being able to instantly change the e-catalog if the product's style or color changes or sells out. Why view a product from a single angle when you can entice the viewer with movement and sound? Simple tools for 360 degree product viewing already are in use, but in the near future when we set-up a fashion, product, or food photo shoot, how important will the background or location be if it can move and interact (sell) with the product?

I find this all to be exciting, but it also makes me nervous. There are lots of questions that we need to ask ourselves, and new industry standards will need to be invented. Who will lead, who will follow and who will fade away? Can still photography compete with or complement the interactive or liquid image? Will printers, who are already being squeezed in a tight market, disappear? Will 'hot lights' replace strobes in the studio? Will food stylists also have to be 'hand models' because techniques can be filmed live? Will the standard photo shoot now include sound technicians, a lighting crew, and a producer and director? How do you dress a set, make-up a model, prop clothing, or style food if the camera will pan around, over and even under the product? (I think we need to study the film industry for this.) And will the standard still advertising/catalog photography studios be replaced by video production companies? What will happen to our fees?

The web is notorious for its low fees, but the iPad is not just the web. It is also a magazine, a book and a catalog. How do we use our businesses to cross all these platforms? And if more skills and larger crews are needed will the cost of producing an electronic advertisement, article, brochure or book go up? Or will clients expect a 'one-man-band' someone who can shoot, style, compose sound, and even appear 'on camera'? Will their costs saved in mailing and printing be off-set by the added expense of production? And is the 'standard' once-a-month, 12 magazines with 12 covers and 12 feature stories per year gone? With electronic, publishers can add new articles every day. Companies could update catalogs and add merchandise instantly (putting an end to the standard spring-summer-fall-winter catalog format). Does this mean more work for us in the future and what about us independents and small businesses? Will the work go in-house because 'instant' turn-around times will be required?

I have lots of questions, as I know many of you do. I want to invite all of you, as professionals, to add, remark and discuss together, where we think our industries are going, what were doing about these changes, and the lessons we learn.

Gregory Bertolini Photography
www.gregorybertolini.com
Gregory is a food photographer based in New York and part of the Photo Styling Workshops team, teaching food photography in our live workshops. The next Food Styling & Photography Workshop will be held in Chicago, IL June 5-6, 2010.

Prop Shopping for Public Enemies

When we watched the DVD of the Johnny Depp movie about John Dillinger, Public Enemies, I remembered that Beth Reiners who teaches at Photo Styling Workshops had mentioned prop styling for the film. I asked her for more details and she told me about the project.
“I helped the LA Prop stylist pick out all the props for the scene shot right here in Crown Point, Indiana! It's the jail scene (it is the actual jail Dillinger escaped from as well) where he escapes and steals the sheriff's car. We went to all the local antique stores and found anything that pertained to the jail and to a later scene in downstate Illinois at the prison; old buckets, old irons and ironing boards, old stools, old keys, paintings, brooms, tables and benches, etc.”

What a fun and fascinating job! Frequently a set stylist will call on a local stylist to help with prop shopping. We know all the best places to shop, the thrift stores, and antique stores that will rent or sell us just the right, obscure item. We drive them around and follow the creative trail to the props that are needed.

After Beth described the scene she helped to style, we re-watched the film. In the jail scene I could see a few of the props she helped to track down. But just a few – that’s the way it works with props. You need to bring many options to provide a few select items for the shot. You can’t have any attachment to the others and can’t expect that everything will be chosen. Beth’s props helped to make a perfect scene, in my opinion.

Beth Reiners teaches the 4-week, online course Prop Styling 101 at Photo Styling Workshops. Next session begins March 16, 2010.

7.5 Ounce Coke Cans

What a great idea! I have to hand it to Coca-Cola for coming up with these handy cans. While I found several blog reporters who hated them, resenting the fact that they cost the same as an 8 ounce short can and may not help dieters, I think they’re kind of neat. They seem more tech-y, more European to me. They’re just the right size for a bag lunch and just as much Coke as I want to drink. The cans seem to be lighter too, meaning less aluminum used. On the other hand they do come in 8-packs with the plastic holder that is harmful to sea life. One of the little things in life (one that probably involved months of work for the researchers, public relations people, can manufacturers, and designers behind the scenes).

Café Press Customer Service

I recently had a great customer service experience from Café Press, the on-demand T-shirt print service and host of online stores. I have two stores on Café Press where I have baby T-shirts and other products based on my hand-drawn illustrations of vintage toys. (Some of them weren’t vintage yet when I drew them but that’s the nature of time.)

Last weekend I went to my own store, Linnet Baby to buy a onesie for friend Raquel in San Pedro, CA, who was having a baby shower and I ordered this one to be sent to her. But I forgot to enter the recipient’s address until I hit the button completing the purchase. So I emailed Café Press customer service. I got the nicest email back on Monday saying “I do apologize for any inconvenience. I have taken a look into your account information and notice your order has already shipped. Therefore, I have processed a replacement order for you at no additional charge. … There is no need for a return! Please go ahead and keep the original order as our way of saying thanks for shopping at CafePress.com!” Isn’t that nice? I am using the extra shirt as a blog story about the thrill of good customer service.

You can visit my online stores at www.cafepress.com/linnetbaby and www.cafepress.com/linnetstudio.

Help for Haiti

From www.whitehouse.gov: