Sondre Gogstad VisCom

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Chase Jarvis

Chase Jarvis is another commercial photographer who has kind of the same style as Ravi Vora. They have the kind of realistic documentary style to their photos. They show the product in use rather than in a studio. Or as in the Naked ad, a mix of both still life and action.

If I remember correctly I have heard Chase Jarvis describe himself as a Commercial lifestyle photographer. I think that is a great way to describe what he does, cause he really has a special way of showing of the product he has to and does it in a way that gives you the feeling of how it is to be a part of whats happening in the photo rather than just seeing it.

http://www.chasejarvis.com

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Impossible photography

Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes -- capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.

Ted talk on photo realism

This Ted talk isn’t directly connected to my project on commercial photography. But it does combine some of the same elements. In the talk he talks about that it’s important to be creative and understand what you want to make. You need to plan everything very well. First then you can create something amazing even though it’s just a composite of many images. The way I think this connects best to my project is that the do need to do a lot of planning. They work under a lot of press from their client who needs the photos before a deadline. Therefor planning is absolutely key and it needs to be done.

Secondly a lot of commercial photographers use Photoshop. Some more than others, but almost every photographer I’ve seen use it at least a bit. They do need to make sure the product and everything looks as good as possible when it’s delivered to the client, so I think it’s only fair that they have the opportunity.

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Ravi Vora

Ravi Vora is an American commercial photographer. He’s work is completely different from Karl Taylor’s work. Even though they both do the same kind of work. 

But if you look at it from a companies prospektive I think they could benefit using both of the photographers if they release a new product. They usually want a still life shot showing of the product in a detailed way, and thats what Karl Taylor specialise in.

But they would also want to show the product in use, how does the new running shoes perform when running, or at least how do they look? Thats when Ravi Vora’s kind of photography is perfect. He shows products being used and he does it in a very nice way.

http://ravivora.com

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Karl Taylor

Karl Taylor is a UK based commercial photographer. He specialises in still life and fashion photography. Compared to Joey L. he has a much more clean and shiny look to his work. Most of it is shot in a studio lit by strobes. 

He also have a lot of tutorials online on youtube, showing different techniques and tips he uses. 

http://karltaylorportfolio.com

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Joey L.

Joseph Anthony Lawrence, best known as Joey L, is a fairly young commercial photographer. He has a distinctive style with amazing lighting and very natural looking images. He often combines natural light with strobes, and blends them together beautifully.

A lot of his commercial work has a kind of documentary style to it. It feels like he has been there to capture the moment rather than being in a studio. 

In addition to all his commercial work, Joey also do a lot of portraits. He has shot countless celebrities.

He also have some amazing personal work thats worth checking out as these are some of the photos hes most famous for.

http://www.joeyl.com/overview/category/quick-portfolio

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Glenn Meling interview

Here is my interview with Glenn Meling, I have translated as good as I can, but there might be some small mistakes. He did not answer to all of my questions, but he said he was gonna answer the rest when he got time, but I haven’t heard anything from him since.

The questions without an answer is the ones he didn’t write anything on.

What motivates you?

How to you get ideas?
I get ideas from movies, tv-series, different kids programs that I watch with my daughter, comics and random things I see when I’m outside walking or driving.

When did you start working as a photographer professionally and what motivated you to start professionally?

What kind of qualities do you feel is important for a photographer to have?

Do you work as a photographer full-time or do you have another job on the side? 
I’ve got a flexible 50% job on the side which makes it so that I can work on photography whenever I want. I don’t think I will go away from that no matter how good money I would make on photography. I really like things as they are now.

Whats the best part of being a photographer? 
I think that has to be to get the opportunity to meet people and execute ideas and what I want with the photos with the people. (kind of hard to translate that one)

How do you get inside the door to the industry? How do you get jobs?
My experience is that hard work and never giving up. Have a lot of photos to show and last but not least have or get contacts.

Whats the hardest part about working as a photographer?

Where did you get the idea to photograph action figures? 
I’ve always been a fan of Superman. In 2011 or 2012 I found a very good action figure of Superman that I bought. When I got it and looked at how good the quality was I thought: Why not try to photograph it. So I did, and then I though it would be cool with a picture of Superman and Batman so I ordered a Batman in the same quality. Then it just continued like that. I now have about 50-60 action figures and statues.

What kind of equipment to you use? And what’s on your wish list? 
I use a Canon 5D Mark II with 24-70mm, 100mm and 14mm. When it comes to flash I use Paul C. Buff’s Einstien. I have no wishes for new equipment, but I’m considering buying Canon 5DS R when that comes on the market.

How is the job market in Norway for photographers?

Do you use assistants? Do you have one person working on every project or do you get different people every time? 
Yes, I use assistants/get help. Some times it’s friends, and some times it’s people who calls or email me and ask if they can be a part and help. I also pay for assistants some times. I don’t have any permanent.

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Transitioning to Commercial Photography - Benjamin Von Wong Interview

Article link: http://www.slrlounge.com/exclusive-interview-with-benjamin-von-wong You may remember Benjamin Von Wong from his Von Wong Does Europe tour that ...

This is an interview with Benjamin Von Wong, he was a photographer doing a lot of creative personal projects where he always does thing over the top and really cool. In this interview he talks about how his transition to doing commissioned work and working as a commercial photographer with an agent and the other aspects of it.

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What is commercial photography?

During my research I came across a forum on Fstoppers.com where professional photographers answer different questions sent in. The question was “What is commercial photography?” which was perfect for me and my project. 

Above I have screenshot the answers I liked the most. And I think they made the answer pretty simple. 

“Commercial photography is photography created with the intent of making the end user money.” - Mike Kelley

I think the quote above is a really good description of what commercial photography really is. And it kind of answers one of my questions for this project, but I’m gonna have a look at different aspects of the practise and answer some more questions.

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Frank W. Ockenfels

Frank W. Ockenfels is a photographer who does a lot of things. He has tanken photos of musicians, celebrities, corporal heads and everyday people for the last 3 decades. And by looking at that I would say he’s a portrait/editorial/corporal photographer, but looking at his other work I would say hes a commercial photographer as well.

He has shot very many posters and photos for movies and series. He has some of the biggest series from the last 5 years in his portfolio. And a lot of album covers too.

But what separate his commercial and noncommercial work? What can be classified as commercial and what not.

I would say that all of his work that isn’t made to promote a series, film og album is non commercial. You could maybe argue that his photos used on covers of magazines is commercial photography, but those photos are there to show people that the magazine has an interview with an actor or a reportage of something happening. And since cover photos can be both journalistic, landscapes, portraits, fine art, etc. I mean that his work for magazines should be looked on as portraits/editorial work rather than commercial.

http://fwo3.com

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Tom Hind

Tom Hind from Getty images was the talk that suited me and my project the most. He really have a lot of knowledge about the industry that was really interesting to listen to. And what he said about agencies having a set of photographers with one for each genre was  kind of surprising.

Especially for a commercial photographer I think that being a part of an agency is a smart move. Of course that depends a lot of the amount of work you already have and if you can manage everything on you own or not. And as he said there are pros and cons for having an agency or not. With an agency you will have to give up part of your pay check, but you will also get more work (hopefully).

After what he said I think agencies are something at least commercial photographers should consider, but I would not say that it’s for everyone. Personally I would love to work without one if I could, just because I would be more free to do what I want myself and also keep the money to myself.

But the talk Tom gave was really interesting, and he had a lot of information that I think is really valuable for us.

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Hannah Coates

Hannah Coates does photography thats very far of what I like to do in a way, but she was really interesting to listen to! And her work was really good! Her shoots seemed like a lot of fun to take part of. It’s really nice to see a former student who specialise in kids fashion, cause there are so many who wants to do regular fashion.

She also gave some really good tips on how to enter the industry and how to work with kids. I think she was really interesting to listen to, and she seems like a really good photographer.

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Darren Woolway

I thought the talk Darren Woolway had for us was very informative and interesting. It was really interesting to hear how he started out to get work, and how he got on the inside of the magazines and then worked himself up to be called in to do work for them.

He had some great images on cars. Personally I’m not that into photographing cars, but I think they are really cool to look at and I want to try some myself.

Also his insight in the industry was really interesting to hear. It’s fun to hear from someone who has a lot of experience already even though hes still in third year.

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Questions for MYP

A. If your were to hire a photographer, how would you go about to find a photographer?

B. If you were having an event with a budget, would you rather hire a photographer or take the photos yourself?

C. If you needed to take some photos to use for something, would you take them on your phone or use a camera?

1. Ravensbourne Hire Phone

2. No idea Yourself Phone

3. Facebook Hire Camera

4. Online and blogs Hire Phone

5. Ravensbourne Hire Phone

6. Facebook Hire Camera

7. Online Hire Camera

8. Social media Hire Phone

9. Google Yourself Camera

10. Online Hire Camera

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Commercial photographers

Here are some commercial photographers I’ve found so far. I have tried to find some Norwegian photographers as well as some other, this is because that will give me a chance to have a look at the industry in Norway as well and it might be easier to contact some of the “smaller” Norwegian photographers compared to some of the bigger who work with big crews.

Photographers:

- Joey L. http://www.joeyl.com/overview/category/quick-portfolio - Chase Jarvis http://www.chasejarvis.com - Erik Almås (Norwegian based in San Fransisco) http://www.erikalmas.com - Glenn Meling (Norwegian) http://www.glennmeling.com - JH Studios (Jens Edgar Haugen -  Norwegian) http://jhstudios.no

These are the photographers I’ve found so far. I’ve noticed that what they photograph and their style is very different from one another. I think the fact that this is genre that has so many sides makes it more interesting to have a look at.

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Focus group questions

What is one quality every photographer should have?

- Determination 

- Enthusiasm 

- Imagination

- Creativity

In commercial photography, do you think it’s better to specialise in one area or to rather do a bit of everything?

- You should specialise, but it’s a good thing to know something about other kind of styles/photography as well to make you more versatile 

- Bit of both

- Go broad and do bit of everything

If you were a commercial photographer, would you like to travel and shoot or shoot in your own studio/hometown?

- Travel 4 - Home - Two would ideally both have a studio and travel around the world shooting.

Would you rather have your own studio or work for a bigger studio?

- Own 3 - Travel 1

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Staying Power V&A

When we go to the Staying Power exhibition at V&A on of the photographers I want to have a closer look at is Dennis Morris. 

I think he has some very interesting and powerful photos. Some of the photos on the V&A website had some strange, but interesting subjects, but I think it will be interesting to see more of his work.

I’ve checked out some of his other work and he has some strange and kind of different portraits of several people, but they are all interesting in a way and I like much of his work.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/staying-power-dennis-morris/

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Joey L. Commercial photographer

This is Joey Lawrence, he is a commercial photographer. I really like his photos and his style. He is a self made photographer and made it big at a young age. I’ve seen a couple of interviews with him a while ago, but I’m going to watch/listen to them again, I’ve also found some more interviews I am going to watch.

More post about Joey L. will be uploaded soon