Guest speaker - Amber Terranova

Last week I met with a friend to dish the dirt and shoot the shit as we usually do and he told me about an email he received from Dawson college. Now considering we are both alumni, and I didn't receive that email i was a little peeved. Regardless, it was good news. On Monday Feb 15th, PDN's photo editor Amber Terranova was speaking for Dawson students on photographic trends in various markets. She spoke about how to navigate the world of art buyers and photo editors in order to reach the decision makers in the photo industry. As an emerging photographer, I jumped at the opportunity to join fellow colleagues and students and take it all in.

Coming from the mouth of a photo editor of a magazine I've been subscribed to for years, her advice was not taken lightly. Who to contact, how to do so and how often? A few key elements I took away from this two and a bit hour lecture were vision, "bodies" of work and not simply images and persistence. Those that stand out are the minority and its because of there vision. However, that alone may not cut it. Their vision must be expressed as a body of work or images and not single images. Years of effort to create large volumes of example to express a single vision is what makes them stand out. Finally, in order to accomplish such a volume of work, persistence will be what keeps you going.

I was happy and humbled to be there. If only that were all, also the following morning she graciously spent a few hours reviewing portfolios of those willing to share. In my opinion she may have kept a few comments to her self and was more gentle in judging the work, but the overall experience was a first for me and many attendees.

Since then, I've been assembling promotional materiel to send to local and American publications. Here are my preliminary samples.







Also, because i was actually paying attention here are a link to some of the artists she discussed:
Elinor Carruci
Ryan McGinley
Alex Prager
Cole Barash
Corey Arnold
Ryan Heffernan
Yassine Ouhilal
Kittra Cahana
Lucas Zarebinski
Brad Dececco
Jacqueline Di Milia
Redeye reps - Maren Levinson
Visitcenter.org
Lillian Bassman
Jim Fiscus
Terry Richardson (she didn't mention him, I just like him.)


Thats enough for now.

A little late, but hey!!

Well late last year, I shot some free time and used by shooting a friend. Let's call her S.B.
It was a pretty run and gun shoot, meaning that there was no prep, preprod or planning. Basically she needed some images and I was more than happy to indulge her needs... sounds dirty!!!
Her requirements were simple.
S.B.- I need shots of me.
Me - Ok cool. I'd love to help out. Do you know what you are looking for?
S.B.- Ya shots o me!
Me- LOL!! I get it.. I'll take car of it.
Now this isn't necessarily a quote of the conversation we had, but its a close approximation.
I have decided to shot a straight forward set, due to a time constraint, but I knew I wanted to stylize the images in post. So her image would be a starting point. Now these are tests, and I dont usually divulge tests to the public, but I dont think too highly of myself, so I dont really care anyways. Also I had a new toy I wanted to try out.

All images bellow are © 2010 Michael G. Manoukian ALL RIGHTS RESERVED and may not be reproduced used in any other way.

About the test I was talking about earlier, I had purchased an Orbis ring flash adapter for my Nikon Sb-800 flash unit. I loved the results. Didn't have much time to play more with it, but its been real useful for 3/4 shots of people or used in large aperture fill light settings.



This wraps up this post for now.