The Photographic Community

What I'm about to say has absolutely nothing to do with F stops, apertures, depth of field, or depth of focus. It has to do with the photographic community, how I was brought up in it and how it translates to 2010. When I started (x) number of years ago, there was an unwritten law that you would always try to help out a fellow photographer. As the age of the computer and internet arrived, things became a little less personal. I don't believe anybody made a change in attitude with malice of thought but there was obviously some changes. Maybe it had something to do with business becoming tighter and tighter. To be quite honest, I really don't know. Yesterday, I had an hour and a half conversation with one of the greatest photographers of our day, John Iacono. Johnny Eye stated at Sports Illustrated when he was 16 and I think he's now 29, maybe a little older. We've been friends and neighbors for a long time and Johnny is just one of the nicest people God put on this earth. In case I didn't mention it, he is also a great photographer. Earlier yesterday, I ran into another great photographer, Marty Rosengarten from Ringside Photos. Marty is a world class boxing photographer. There's an old Italian adage for someone like Marty, he's a mench. Marty was kind and generous enough to make a photograph of me with my dear friend Yuri Foreman. In the five years I've known Yuri, no one has ever done that- so Marty was the first. Exactly what is the purpose of this blog? What I'm trying to say is the family/community of photographers is alive and well. Thank you Marty, thank you Johnny, thank you Yuri.

Photos © Marty Rosengarten

Backstage Passes

This particular workshop will be unlike any other workshop ever conducted by Joe DiMaggio. Each team member will be expected to shoot 6 or 7 variations on the Bobby Kyle Band; an environmental portrait, an action shot and a candid. The end result will be a final selection of one great photo from each workshop participant. They will be expected to sign a release and they will be the owner of the copyright. Bobby will also have to right to use that photo for the internet, CD or DVD. The photo must not be any larger than 100 dpi. Each participant will have access to some very fast long lenses which will allow them to hopefully push the envelope. Unlike any other workshop, this one will start in the afternoon and go until quite late. The concert will start at 8:00 P.M. There will be rooms available at both Greeley Inn and a few B&B's in the area. Please visit http://www.dimaggio-kalishworkshops.com

This workshop will be quite small and it will be first come

first serve. Looking forward to seeing you. Thanks. Joe D

©Joe DiMaggio

Simon Says

While recuperating from my bilateral duel hip surgery, I was visited by friends - Monica Cipnic (which we will talk about at length in another post) and a shortly after Simon Jacob. Simon is an amazing man. He's not only a world class business man but also has one of the most beautiful families I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. From his amazing wife, Barrie, to all of his lovely children. It's all good. In Simon's case, it's all great. He took time out of his very busy schedule to come visit me twice. We spent 10 great days in Israel with Simon and we'll be going back this December. Remember - what Simon says, you better do. That's me trying to be funny again. For the record, this is the 4th photograph I've taken with my phone but I always forget the area code.

Phone? Camera? Phone? Camera?

You have to know that most people do not want to go to the hospital and visit. Let's be honest, there isn't a whole lot you can do or say and most people would rather be having a cup of coffee or maybe a Jameson's straight up. Hell, maybe they would rather be sparing 2-3 rounds with somebody, but nobody really wants to go to the hospital. What a pleasant surprise when my dear friend James Moore showed up and stayed for an hour. Everyone in the rehab gym wanted to meet James so we went down and introduced him. James is not only a great fighter and a great husband but he is one of those genuine people who really cares about his friends. He's going to make history on June 5 in Yankee Stadium. There hasn't been a fight held there since 1976. James will have a 10 round fight with Pawel Wolak. He'll be leaving Brooklyn for his Pocono training camp and he will be coming to Chez DiMaggio for at least one dinner. It's going to be a tough fight but if James fights his fight, I think he's going to be victorious. When he digs in a right hand to the body, my teeth shake and I'm 15 feet away. He's very strong and tough and he's got a heart of gold. Good Luck James.

Bob Mladinich

Bob was not only a great New York City Gold Shield detective, a great writer, author of several books, but he's now a T.V. star. On Sunday night, he was on the one hour special with Paula Zahn- check it out on the internet. On top of everything else, he's a sweetheart. I also forgot to mention, he did two other one hour specials with Paula Zahn. Bob is also a great aficionado of boxing and has written scores of great boxing articles. Bob was also extremely gracious to come and visit me at Hospital for Special Surgery. On top of everything else he's a mensch.

Why Will Yuri Foreman Win on June 5, 2010?

I make it a practice of never gambling on boxing matches or horse races for that matter. I try not to predict winners, it's just not what I do. With this upcoming WBA Junior Welterweight Fight, it's simple and straight forward; Yuri Foreman is bigger, stronger, faster, moves better left, right, back, and forward. He is never a stationary target and is always a moving offense. I forgot something- he's probably the most dedicated trained fighter I've ever seen. I believe he will win convincingly. I hope for the safety of both fighters, it's a great fight, and no one gets hurt.

© Joe DiMaggio

Tech Information: 24-70 mm @24 ISO 50, 30th of a second, F/8

tweak down strobe light 3/4 stop

© Joe DiMaggio

Tech Information: Yuri Foreman Shadow Boxing 24-20mm f/2.8 ISO 50

1,000th of a second at f/2.8 approximately 80mm

Hello To All the Ships at Sea

How many of you have had a bad day? How many of you have had a bad day turn into a rotten day? About 24 hours ago, I was having one of those days, then my cell phone rang. A voice on the other end said, "I'm sitting at the Sea of Galilei watching the sunset and I thought of your smile and I had to call you, my brother." The phone call came from my brother Amir Orly. It was Amir's birthday and of course I forgot to call him but he knew that I needed his smiling face to make a bad day magnificent- and thats what happened, it turned out to be a great day.

My brother Amir and his lovely wife, Hannah
Photos © JoAnne Kalish

It's Springtime

© Joe DiMaggio

I had an assignment to photograph a springtime event. I chose to photograph a mother bird feeding her newborn babies. How would I go about doing this? One way would be to walk around find a nest, set up a camera, wait for the mother, and spend 2-3 weeks photographing mother and her chicks.

Possibly this alternative is much simpler... At the end of the cycle of life, mothers and babies abandon their nest. So what I suggest is to go out and collect one or two nests the year before and put them in an elevated position extremely close to your home in a place safe from harm. Why would you do this? Because it allows you a mini studio. The mother discovers the nest, she lays her eggs and you now have a period of 3-5 weeks to make some interesting photos. Your going to want to shoot at least 1-2 times a day over a period of a couple weeks. This is also a great opportunity to utilize your electronic flash. What I used for this photograph was a 300mm f/2.8 lens and a 1.4 extender, at maximum aperture. You want a very shallow depth of field to throw background clutter out of focus. I used a Dyna-lite Uni 400 and a Jack Rabbit power pack on absolute minimum power. We were not looking for a flash photograph but rather a fill light and a catch light. By moving the strobe away and using less power I was able to utilize mixed light successfully. I also used a Gitzo carbon fiber tripod, self timer on-camera, and a Lastolite reflector. You may read this and say to yourself, isn't that an awful lot of work to get the photo? The answer is no. Pre-production is what its all about. One of the greatest sports photographers in the world was Neil Leifer. Neil had literally hundreds of Sports Illustrated covers and the reason for this was he was a fanatic about research & pre-production so he would get the best possible photographs. He covered all the bases all the time. There were no accidents.