Five Fab Fotos with Jon Williams, A Visual Conversation with Imaginative Professionals

Meet Jon Williams, Outdoor Sports Photographer and Filmmaker:

Jon’s passion for photography and video comes from his father’s influence as a professional photographer (Jeremy Williams) and he grew up surrounded by cameras and photos. The combination of this and living on the North Wales coast inevitably led to a love of outdoor sports and landscape photography which feature heavily in his portfolio.  Jon graduated from the University of Bath in 2010 and has since done various work for companies including Apple, Red Bull, Sky Sports and N-Photo Magazine.

All Photos © Jon Williams

For more info: www.jon-w.com

1. I took this photo of Team GB snowboarder Jamie Barrow on a University ski trip to Val Thorens in France. He was only 17 at the time and a rising star in the world of snowboard racing. We happened to be sharing a room on the trip and I could tell that he was not only a great snowboarder but he had a real passion for pushing his limits. I think Jamie liked this photo as we have been working together ever since and the projects I have done with him have really helped shape my career.

2. This is a photo I took of my younger brother Harry riding his mountain bike in North Wales where we grew up. I was very lucky to grow up here and I spent my childhood mountain biking and climbing in Snowdonia. I am at my happiest when I’m in the mountains, doing something active and ideally capturing it with my camera!

3. This is my dad, Jeremy, when he was about 25, holding his first SLR camera. He worked as a professional photographer for most of his 20s in London and I grew up surrounded by his cameras and photos. My dad particularly likes the technical side of photography – having a real understanding of the camera’s settings and the way it works. This appreciation for the technology behind photography has rubbed off on me and I’m proud to say I’m a big camera geek!

4. In late 2010 I’d graduated from University and was working in Australia as a forensic psychologist, doing photography only as a hobby. Whilst I was looking for an upgrade to my old Nikon D100, I came across this video of Chase Jarvis road testing the new Nikon D7000. I was instantly hooked on Chase’s YouTube channel and it’s fair to say his videos changed my life. Within a few months, I had bought the D7000, quit my job and was following my passion for photography and video.

5. My latest video was the biggest and craziest project I’ve worked on so far – I filmed snowboarder Jamie Barrow setting the world snowboard speed record with electric jet engines on St Moritz Lake in Switzerland. I filmed the majority of the video with my Nikon D7000 showing just how impressive the video mode is on this Nikon DSLR camera. The video has gone down very well on the internet thanks to some major websites picking it up and I’m really hoping it’ll mean I can continue to make these fun and interesting films in the future.

Five Fab Fotos with Carlos A. Moreno, A Visual Conversation with Imaginative Professionals

Meet Carlos A. Moreno, Photojournalist:

Moreno, who specializes in editorial, documentary, corporate, fashion, product and visual journalism. His photojournalism work has been published and syndicated in The New York Times, The Rockefeller Foundation, voiceofsandiego.org, the Associated Press, the Bay Area News Group, and others. He is based out of San Diego, and lives near the U.S.-Mexican border. He travels all over California, parts of the U.S, and Baja California, Mexico for assignments, as well as for commissioned work. He is always open to new clientele. When he is not pursuing his own personal work or new freelance clientele, his day job is being a staff photographer at Designer Studio INC and teaching private digital photography classes over the weekend.

For more info: carlosmorenophoto.com

There are many images in my short career that have had an impact on how I work as a photographer.  None as vivid in real time as the story of the Abdullahs that I shot three years ago. I still recall the time I had met the Abdullah family outside their home, where I eventually would visit frequently, at a Santa Clara motel where traffic passed and bystanders where few and far between. They are covered in dirt and taking a load of metal parts in their hotel room with a shopping cart. No one noticed it around them, the amount of items they had collected. So I decided to see for myself. In the beginning I was seen with suspicion by them and was allowed not much to photograph. So I decided for two months not to shoot a thing and get to know them first. As time gave way to trust in me, as I to them, the realness of their lives began to show. I was given an entry and a way to begin to explore my own dealings in long form photo documentary story telling. It would take three years to get to this point. As I documented their life, I had no idea how much they would impact mine by listening to their story and seeing first hand the tough, happy and quiet moments of their daily comings and goings. Only after, by shielding myself with my camera, did I see how close I had become to their story. How through them, I felt their vulnerabilities and noticed the intimacy of my work increasing. A goal I had wanted to achieve for the longest time as a photographer. It was and has been my objective as a photojournalist to capture intimate moments that said something about people. Moments that perhaps we overlook. Especially now with everyone always keeping their eyes glued to their mobile screens everywhere they go. From the Abdullahs story, Picking up the Pieces, five images flash before me as I remember their story vividly.  All photos © Carlos A. Moreno

1. Denise, who was going through the dumpster picking up metal and computer parts. As I was shooting, all I could see was the Hawaii Warriors hoody she had on. To anyone it seemed like a regular sweater, to me the simple “warriors” name on the back said it all. Denise is a warrior in battle to survive. I truly believe that moment captured it for me. The essence of whom she is as a person and mother.

2. Another was also a picture of Denise with her son Shadeed, playing with him. It was a lighter moment and a gentle side you didn’t see of Denise frequently. Her job toughens’ her, that you rarely see it when she is out pulling out copper wiring and metals of recycled materials.

3. The picture of Denise washing the family dishes at their bathroom sink; because their room is so small, as she fights tears, it was a hard picture to take. It was an unguarded moment from her, a symbolic gift to me as a photographer. It encompassed the hardship Denise faces as a provider and mother. Never having enough time to care for her own needs.

4. The image of Mahir staring somewhat off into space as he is dissembling some wiring somehow spoke to me as I shot the image. It tells of a man lost, possibly looking for answers and dumbfounded at the situation. The irony of once being a computer engineer and now taking computers apart to recycle them. Just barely making ends meet.

5. Finally the image of Denise looking out a window, as soft light hits her face and dark shadows surrounded her, left an impression to me that the darkness was symbolic of the situation. Her calm expression in the light hitting her face, spoke of hope to me. That they would make it somehow, regardless of the odds. That they wouldn’t be homeless, that maybe they’d escape their recurring circumstances. I hope they do. This is why I felt a strong need to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund an exhibition for the work and have the capacity to fundraise to allow a chance for their story to be told. I hope once we have funding for the exhibition, I might be able to sell the exhibition prints and give most of the proceeds to the family and to a charitable organization that focuses on poverty in the Silicon Valley Area.

Kickstarter campaign: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1760474967/solo-photography-exhibition-picking-up-the-pieces

**UPDATE**

Recently, I have found out that the family In the story were evicted from the motel they were living at and I am unable to locate them at this point (they have no cell phone or digital footprint from what I can tell to contact them, I went to the motel myself and found no one but the manager who told me that she had evicted them), which complicates our funding process and time of exhibition. We need their permission to exhibit the photographs since they are going to be sold at the gallery for sale and for their benefit. So my team, the gallery and I decided it was in everyones best interest to postpone it until we can locate them. I feel very strongly not just about the story but for the well being of this family, so I have decided to ask for help in locating them. I have already spoken to some local charities and homeless organizations that will be posting info about them in local food banks and shelters. My assistants, and I, will be going to their old stomping grounds and figuring out if we can get any clue on their whereabouts. I ask any local investigators and/or reporters in the Silicon Valley / Bay Area who are willing to help me track them, to please contact me at carlos@carlosmorenophoto.com.

Due to these unforeseen events, some of the sponsors who wanted to support this project have opted out for now, to hold funds, which therefore have affected out ability to get funding to what we needed from our Kickstarter campaign. Since Kickstarter’s take all or none approach for funding is pretty clear, we will lose what we have collected to fund the exhibition, which therefore will unable us to fund for printing of the images, to sell them in order to get any proceeds to the family. I feel, again, that my priority now is to find the family and see that they are first and foremost safe. Find them, get their permission and once all this is established, get a new fundraiser going. This time our team plans on launching our own fundraising website dedicated to the project, so we can secure funds for exhibition without a middle man. I ask those who have donated, as well as sponsors, that once all of it is settled to please take the funds you have pledged to us on Kickstarter to the our new site. That way the money will get used for exhibit, whether the outcome of funding is reached on the fundraiser’s end time or our own terms.

 

Check out some facts over at the History.com.

Five Fab Fotos with Rob Jenkins, A Visual Conversation with Imaginative Professionals

Meet Rob Jenkins, Portrait & Landscape Photographer:

When I was a boy, growing up in the U.K., I remember watching my father with his cameras. It all seemed so mysterious and technical, not to mention grown up, this little black box with dials and buttons – I was definitely intrigued.

I had my first camera before I was 10, and reveled in the whole process beginning with the choice of what to take pictures of, finding the right angle, the clicking of the shutter & then the magical period of getting the film processed and seeing the images for the first time. This has changed a little with the advent of digital, of course, but that feeling has never left me, in many ways it has intensified, and is really what keeps me taking photographs.
As a professional, the preparation that goes into each session is huge, but when I get behind the camera, and the choice of location, angle of light, the expression on a childʼs face, all comes together in one moment, captured by a click of the shutter, it is all worth it.
Photography has taken me on an amazing journey, from the happy days of art school, to working in Paris, a couple of years at sea as a cruise ship photographer (during which I met my wife), and on to the rich experiences of being a photographic assistant in both Portland, Oregon and here in New York City.
I have been involved in creating images of many subjects, and came to the idea of photographing children quite by accident. I took some shots of a friendʼs little girl as a favor – another mother saw the results & asked if I would do the same for her little boy. I enjoyed both experiences immensely, and was pleased with the images. When I presented the prints of this second shoot to the parents, the mother asked if Iʼd ever considered doing this as my specialty – it was the catalyst that started my business.
The premise of my work is to photograph children being themselves. I try to keep it simple, using available light wherever possible. To put my subjects at their ease I shoot everything on location, wherever they feel most comfortable – at their house, the local park, anywhere that will produce natural, happy behavior. Through this mode of operation I have met some wonderful families and discovered some beautiful, hidden corners that I may never have noticed.
Children have a way of not being self-conscious in front of the camera, which lends itself to incredible moments of serendipity. This is a gift and a challenge to me as a photographer, and attempting to capture that spirit is what continually draws me to them as subjects.

For more info: http://robjenkinsphotography.com

On Twitter: @Therjphoto

Markerstone on the old London to Harlech road 1976. Photo by Fay Godwin, http://www.faygodwin.com

1. Back in the Halcyon College days, I became friends with a photographer in the year above me, who introduced me to the work of Fay Godwin. Growing up in Birmingham, the UK’s second city, life around me was full of energy and chaos, much like any urban environment. Fay’s work was a window into a peaceful, simple, seemingly uncluttered world of the rural British landscape. To me, this represented an escape, a breath of fresh air. The image that I recall seeing is ‘Markerstone on the old London to Harlech road 1976’, an image depicting the round-shouldered hills so common in the UK, punctuated by the linear form of a dry stone wall and, in the foreground, what appears to be a standing stone, leaning over with age. Not only do I love this as a photograph, but to this day, I still want to step into that frame and walk to the top of the hill.

U2’s Joshua Tree. Photo by Anton Corbijn

2. My second photo is an image familiar to millions of music lovers around the world, and is the work of a dutch photographer, Anton Corbijn. It is a shot taken for U2’s ‘Joshua Tree’ album, and shows the band clustered tightly on the left hand side of a panoramic frame, while the remainder of the space is given to the stark, desert surrounding them. Seemingly flaunting the golden thirds law of framing, having the group almost pushed to the edge allows the landscape to take equal billing, mentally balancing the importance of the musicians and the environment. As with the Fay Godwin image, I am drawn to this shot for the location, this time the American Southwest, an area I fell in love with through pictures and movies long before I visited as an adult, but also for the unconventional framing. I cannot look at this without hearing the echoing guitar, and feeling a desire to lose myself on a hot, dusty, desert trail.

The Endurance trapped in the ice. Photo by Frank Hurley, OBE

3. I cannot recall when I first saw my next photograph, only that it made me want to know everything about it. Taken by Frank Hurley OBE, an Australian photographer, who shot through both world wars and for several expeditions to Antarctica. He was a part of the team, led by Sir Earnest Shackleton, who attempted to cross the Antarctic continent on foot in 1914. Their ship, The Endurance, became trapped and eventually crushed by sea ice, ending the expedition as intended but beginning a story of survival that ended two years later with all crew being saved. Throughout all of this, Frank Hurley documented it all, on glass plates, on a hand-cranked movie camera, and finally on rolls of film and a pocket Kodak camera. He was described as “a warrior with his camera”, doing anything to get a shot, once lugging 40 pounds of gear to the top of a mountain to photograph The Endurance at anchor in South Georgia. He used a pioneering technique, the Paget process, to capture color images of the expedition. When the ship eventually sank, Shackleton threw his gold watch and other possessions onto the ice, ordering each crew member to save only two pounds of belongings. He and Hurley went through every negative that had been shot, selecting those to keep – when a glass plate was rejected, Hurley smashed it to avoid second thoughts. All in all, he destroyed about 400, keeping only 120, a heart-breaking moment after all his effort. He sealed the remainder of his record in a metal can, and it now provides a glimpse into the golden age of exploration.
The shot that drew me into all this is one of the ship held fast in the ice, taken in the middle of the Antarctic night, and illuminated by more than 20 individually triggered hand-held flashes. The sheer determination to accomplish this one image, under those circumstances, is amazing to me.

Serra Pelada. Photo by Sebastião Salgado

4. My fourth image is another black & white (I’m seeing a pattern here), and was taken by Sebastiao Salgado. When I have the time, I love browsing the shelves of the photography section in any bookstore, losing myself in pictures from a diverse range of disciplines. This is how I came across the shot of the gold mines in Serra Pelada, Brazil. It feels biblical in scope and content, a huge muddy pit, seething with humanity, and in the foreground is a man leaning against a pole, glancing over his shoulder, above it all both physically and in attitude. There is so much going on here, my eyes drift across the frame, finding new details all the time. It is one of the richest frames I’ve ever seen, and the polar opposite of every experience in my life. It reminds me that everyone’s reality is different.

Duke and Dutches of Windsor. Photo by Philippe Halsman, http://philippehalsman.com

5. The fifth image that I will include here is by Philippe Halsman and, upon first glance, is a straightforward portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Indeed, when I chanced upon it as I flicked through the pages of a book of portraits, I gave it only the a perfunctory viewing before turning the page. Something about it stopped me several pages later, so I turned back and realized what it was – the subjects were jumping! Not in an exaggerated, or extroverted manner, but holding hands, dressed formally, and set against an unassuming background – GENIUS! That moment not only made me smile, but began a series of self portraits that I have continued to this day, and intend to keep adding to for the foreseeable future – jumping in dramatic or iconic locations! I began back in 1995, and am still going strong:-)