© 2010 Musilek Photography

Have a look at our video with Stan Musilek where he took time out from his shoot to give us some insight and methods behind his exceptional photography. You’ll see that he works with his whole team to plan, stage and shoot his striking images.

Stan makes some important points that will strongly resonate with photographers of all genres:

1. How he gets inspired, what catches his eye?
2. He sketches out his shot-ideas and keeps stacks of them for possible use.
3. The camera is the last thing to consider, the final element when everything else is in place!
4. Use a tripod to get out out the modern fast click-click attitude.
5. Lots more including seeing him at work on on the image above, you get to see bits of him working on this with his team.

Oh, you wanted to see another image from the shoot? Be sure to catch the whole video and tell me what you learned from it.

Check out this video where Vincent Laforet goes over his DSLR rigs, and shows you what he shoots with. It’s some pretty amazing stuff! It is hard to believe that buried underneath that Frankenstein of a rig is a Canon 7d. In this video he goes over what he pieced together to help him capture the amazing footage that he is known for.

Also keep your eye out in future to see our interview with the man himself.

Ernest Withers in 1941. Photo © Ernest C. Withers Trust.

Ernest Withers, who famously captured images of the segregated South in the ’50s and ’60s, was one of the most respected photographers of the civil rights era. But now his reputation is under attack after recent revelations that he was actually supplying information to the FBI.

A shattering report from the Memphis newspaper Commercial Appeal reveals that Withers, who died from a stroke in 2007 at the age of 85, supplied sensitive information about civil rights figures to the Federal Government. That includes candid photographs, license plate numbers, biographical information and scheduling plans.

Known as “the original civil rights photographer,” Withers’ black-and-white images of racial tensions and strife during the century’s middle decades — such as his photographs of solidarity marches and the infamous Emmet Till murder trial — were momentous in shifting the country’s attitudes towards the movement.

Still, Withers reported to the opposition. According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, Withers took advantage of the access he had to the inner circles of Civil Rights leaders, including Dr. King. The extent of information that he passed on is not fully known, and many believe there was nothing that Withers could have revealed that would have been particularly damaging since the movement strove for openness.

Now that the truth about Withers involvement with the FBI has been revealed, do his photographs still retain their power and authenticity? Withers’ work has been lauded for its candidness, and for capturing rare, intimate sides of civil rights leaders who were constantly in the spotlight. But does this recent revelation undo all that?

What do you think?

© 2010 Musilek Photography

The cure for the common photograph? Or I could subtitle this, have we gotten too fast, too hasty, to quick to click—getting shots blam, blam, blam?!

We did a shoot this week with commercial photographer Stan Musliek, with work that knocks your eyes out, like the simple elegance and quiet sexiness of Amber above. He has a list of clients that would make any photographer green with envy—Samsung, Adidas, Verizon, Absolut, Microsoft, Best Buy, Target, and the list goes on.

What’s Stan’s secret? You’ll get to hear him tell you in our next episode, but the short story is that he became very successful as a large format photographer (meaning he shot 8×10 inch negatives.)  This was a meticulous era, of testing and tediously getting your shot dialed in. Even viewing the image is upside down on a ground glass, which forces the photographer to really see and pay attention. Everything in the large format world is geared around slowly creating an image, not banging them out one after another hoping one would magically “pop.”

Stan said that the camera is the last and final component of the photograph. With large format, you are forced to pre-visualize the image, and as you’ll see, he sketches out his shot plans. In fact, he approaches his shoots very much like a film director, who is also the DP (Director of Photography.)

At the end of our interview he said his biggest piece of advice for advancing your photography was to—use a tripod!

Yes, that rather forgotten piece of equipment has more uses than just shooting in low light, and with ISOs now going to the moon, the tripod’s other uses may have been forgotten.

Could this single piece of advice really change your photography?

Stan said that for one thing, putting your camera on a tripod frees up the photographer from having this piece of equipment dangling around his neck, with more freedom and concentration on creating the image.

Ansel Adams said in his book, The Negative, “With the camera mounted on a tripod, the photographer adopts a more contemplative and precise attitude toward his subject…”

So, if you’re looking for a cure for the common photograph, grab your tripod, blow off the dust and use it this weekend to make some images.

Yes, consider this your assignment. Tell me what you learned and attach your images.

Off you go!

Corinne Day, the fashion photographer who helped catapult Kate Moss to fame with her images of the future supermodel as a teenager in the early ’90s, has died of a brain tumor. She was 45.

According to Day’s website, the photographer passed away last weekend “peacefully at home, after a long illness.”

As one of the most sought-after British fashion photographers, Day popularized the waifish look that would become so ubiquitous in fashion magazines during the ’90s. Regularly commissioned by Italian, British and Japanese Vogue, the photographer’s controversial “heroin-chic” style, especially in her work with a very young Kate Moss, drew heavy criticism.

Still, Day was acclaimed for her unrelenting pursuit of a gritty, visceral feel in her photographs. She refused to retouch her images, claiming that, as a former model herself, she hated being made “into someone I wasn’t.”

“Corinne was a photographer of huge talent and integrity,” said Alexandra Shulman, Vogue’s editor. “Her work for British Vogue was entirely original and will always be remembered. She could capture raw beauty like few others.”

More recently Day had ventured into documentary photography. The discovery of her brain tumor in 1996 after collapsing in New York prompted her to photograph her treatment and illness over the next decade, a project that allowed her to further pursue the idea of visual integrity.

“Photography is getting as close as you can to real life,” she said, “showing us things we don’t normally see. These are people’s most intimate moments, and sometimes intimacy is sad.”