Whispering Secrets I Know I’m Not Supposed to Hear, originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk.

Thomas Hawk posted this amazing photo taken at the end of our very cold shoot! He was out in the water with a long exposure, as you can see from my iPhone shot: .

Here’s what he said:

I had a lot of fun a few weeks back out at the Golden Gate Bridge doing a video interview about my photography with Marc Silber for his new photography series Marc Silber’s Photo Show. We talk about my style, my equipment and what personally motivates me in photography. Thanks to Marc Silber for having me on his show and to Rocky Barbanica for doing a great job as usually filming and editing while out at Baker Beach at the Golden Gate Bridge. If you want to watch the video you can watch it here.

Sandisk is sponsoring Marc’s new show and I think it’s really great that they are willing to invest in social media this way. I’ve personally used Sandisk cards for many years and think they’re great! You can follow Marc’s blog here and his great new video series here.

The shot below is one of the shots I got of the Golden Gate Bridge while out shooting with Marc.

Tune in to to Thomas Hawk on Marc Silber Show

A few weeks ago  as the sun was about to set into the Pacific, Thomas Hawk and I, along with our producer Rocky, met up at Baker Beach in San Francisco–a tremendous view of the Golden Gate Bridge. With the bridge as our backdrop, I talked to Thomas about how he got his start in photography and some of his key points that he uses every time he takes a photograph. Click to view our show.

Top of his list:  He carries a camera with him everywhere, and I mean he always has his photo-backpack with him.  You’ll see what he carries in his pack and hear him talk about his “tipping point”– when he decided on his mission to publish one million photos, I’ve posted a few of his shots here but check into his blog to see more.

Thomas has gone out and recorded our modern life, prolifically.  You know, 20 years from now–or more, we’ll look back nostalgically at his images and wonder why we had missed those shots. He’s not missing them, he’s grabbing them and chronicling life all around him, every single day.

In late January, Del Mar surfer girl Elizabeth “Lizzy” Clark set sail in her 40-foot sailboat on the adventure of a lifetime — San Diego to Baja, Baja to Mainland, Mainland to Central, Central to South American, South Pacific to New Zealand, and on and on — in search of waves, in search of adventure, and in search of herself.

Another email from Jeff Clark- dang  Jeff this is your “job”?

“Liz Clark — was hanging out on her sailboat at Teahupoo  during the Billabong contest.
I shot these portraits of her for the “Green Issue” of  Surfing Mag.
(I know, i need to change the temperature (color) of the underwater portion of the picture.)

Here’s her blog

Amazing to see these shots coming my way–look at these two just taken today (that means TODAY as in May 20, well, OK with the date line not exactly our today, but dang close) in Tahiti by Jeff Flindt. As an avid surfer I can’t resist these waves but, but look at how Jeff uses the light and gets right in the “tube” with the surfers. If you haven’t seen my interview with him click here  you’ll get some great tips that you can go right out and use.  One point he mentions is getting out early for the “Larry” light, which is exactly what you see in these shots–wow.

Moon & Half Dome by Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams’ Son Michael, told me the story of how his dad got his most famous shot “Moon and Half Dome” in Yosemite: He took it on his way to the grand hotel the Awahnee– just like you or I could have! Tune in here and hear the story for yourself.  What was really most remarkable about this moment was to be standing in the exact spot where Ansel took this shot, hearing the story as told by his son.

Moon and Half Dome © Ansel Adams Gallery 2009. All Rights Reserved, special thanks to them for allowing us to use this image.

Well dang– nothing like fresh work! Jeff Flindt sent me this shot of Kelly Slater yesterday, casually saying “I shot this photo this morning.”

Nice work Jeff, say hi to Kelly for us! Bet sure to catch our video here

As an avid surfer myself,  if was especially fun interviewing Surfing Magazine’s Senior Staff photographer, Jeff Flindt check out the video here. I love doing these interviews and learning how each photographer got started, their stories and tips. Jeff got his start working for Surfing Magazine, under the close direction of Larry “Flame” Moore who gave him no-nonsense, real world critiquing and taught him how to really use the light.

Jeff has shot some of the biggest names in surfing — guys like Kelly Slater (left), Rob Machado, Taj Borrow–and has earned their respect. This is point in common with all the greats of photography–the work really hard and they get it right.

Some of the points that Jeff talked about:

1. Get out and shoot early, get that full morning light (yep you don’t find the pros snoozing in.)

2. Get to know your equipment really well and take good care of it. He gave an example of “babying” your cards and keeping lint, sand, etc from getting in them “when you’re 1,000s of miles from a camera store you’ve got to have your equipment working.”

3. Don’t be obtrusive when taking live photos, get your shots without “barging in.” When going out in the culture try to blend in (Cartier-Bresson mastered  this.)

4.  He composes in the camera full frame, does very little post production, so when he’s done shooting he can process fast and get his shots to his editor.

5. Shoot a lot– you’ll hear this over and over. There is no substitute for production here. He works hard and it has paid off.

Check out out our video, take your shoes off and dream of being on one of his assignments!

BTW after our shoot Jeff went off to Tahiti and sent me this link showing his tough job, sigh.

I had a very enlightening talk with Ken Rockwell this afternoon about focusing in on composition.  He said that whereas painters have rules they go by, their objective is to put elements into the painting, building on each for the overall composition; photography on the other hand is more about taking things out of the shot.  But then how do you arrive at a really powerful shot?

We got into this discussion by talking about my interview with Chase Jarvis, Ken mentioned that he had posted a reference to his iPhone shots, “he can get better shots with it than all the expensive equipment many photographers use, or get hung up on. What makes him so able to see and shoot those shots?”

We interrupt this discussion for an important message from Chase about getting iPhone shots…

We return you to our discussion…He said it would be insightful to have photographers talk about why they took the shot, how they came to compose it, what made it a strong shot. This of course brings up Edward Weston’s definition of composition as “the strongest way of seeing.” Oxford defines strong as powerfully affecting the mind, senses or emotions; intense; clear or prominent; distinctive.  I think we agree that a strong photograph has those qualities, but exactly how do you get there?

Ken went on to say that there are some rules, for example, you can have out-of-focus elements in the background and this works, but it’s confusing to the eye to have out-of-focus foreground.  Strong contrasts of light and contrasting elements work too. Edge burning of the print works.  But what about getting these points (and many more) all together in one place? He said, “There are books and resources about the technical aspects of photography and there are books showing photographers work, but no one has really put together a good resource for composition.”  This struck me as important questions to add to interviews on my Photo Show, “how do you compose your shots? Can you take us through the process step by step?”

I can hear the protests –”you’re trying to make the art of photography too clinical”– but if it has been done with painting, why not with photography?

So Ken, thank you for helping me to see how answering this question for our viewers would be an essential addition to the mission of Photo Show: Learning how to express your strongest way of seeing, week by week and shooting in between. What do think?