Upcoming Photo Shoot by Douglas Dubler to be held in Santa Barbara, CA on May 18

On Friday, May 18 a day-long “Live Shoot” by New York beauty and fashion photographer Douglas Dubler will be held at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre. The event will start at 9am and is free and open to the public. I’ve had an opportunity to see Douglas Dubler do a cover photo shoot on stage a few years ago and it was very impressive. At that event, there were many things I learned about lighting, high-end digital camera backs and working with models that I would never have experienced just by reading an article about the shoot or seeing the photographs from the event.

Seeing huge, sharp images appear on vertical 65 inch plasma screens seconds after capture was also eye opening. For this event, multiple Panasonic plasma displays will be used, including a Panasonic 103 inch flat screen. To get a small sampling of what you might expect to see if you attend the event, check out the CNN video segment highlighting a shoot Douglas Dubler did for a jewelry client on Dubler’s website at www.douglasdubler3.com.

Photograph © Douglas Dubler 3, all rights reserved.

The press release for the event has all the details and is reproduced in its entirety below:

Santa Barbara, Calif. – (May 2, 2007) — New York-based photographer, Douglas Dubler, will conduct a “live-shoot” on the stage of Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre on Friday, May 18 beginning at 9 am. This event is free and open to the public.

The live shoot is sponsored by Brooks Institute of Photography, Panasonic, Epson, Mamiya/Leaf, X-Rite and Samy’s Camera. The presentation presents a rare chance to see how a leading beauty and fashion photographer takes an assignment from concept to completion.

The public is welcome to come and go throughout the day to engage in watching this process come alive. For those who have often wondered what happens during an editorial or advertising photo shoot, this will be a chance to watch a production unfold live, complete with logistics and attendant production problems.

Doors open at 9 am when the photographer and his staff arrive on the scene. They will immediately begin pre-production, setting up lights and doing hair and make-up work on the models.

“We’ll do this exactly as I do it for a real shoot,” says Dubler.

The photographer hopes to be shooting pictures by 1 pm. However, the start time is somewhat uncertain since, like a movie set, this is an unscripted scene.

“This is not an accounting exercise,” says Dubler. “I can’t tell exactly how long pre-production will take,” he adds. “I shoot when all of the elements are in place.”

Panasonic will provide their new 103” and 65” Plasma screens so the audience can view the images as they are being produced. The shoot will include digital retouching on the scene provided by well known author/retoucher, Lee Varis. By the end of the day, Dubler will have printed out stunning color prints on the Epson Stylus Pro 3800 showing the final product of the day’s work.

Dubler works with the latest equipment and technology which includes the Leaf Aptus 75S digital camera, Broncolor lighting, X-Rite color management software and the Colorburst X-Photo RIP. Observers will see cutting edge technology being applied to the creative photographic process to produce results that are nothing short of spectacular.

An advance look at Dubler’s photography can be seen on his website at www.douglasdubler3.com. Both his commercial fashion and beauty work and his abstract fine art work are displayed.

During his career Dubler has based himself in the Caribbean Islands, South America, Los Angeles and for the last twenty years New York City. He has worked for such clients as Revlon, Max Factor, Redken, Lancome, Avon and Clairol. Editorial clients include Vogue, Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Town & Country. Celebrities he has photographed include Sharon Stone, Andie MacDowell, Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Jacqueline Bisset, and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Lobero Theatre is located in downtown Santa Barbara at 33 East Canon Perdido Street.

About Brooks Institute
Brooks Institute of Photography celebrates more than 60 years of educating students in the visual and media arts. With campuses in Santa Barbara and Ventura, California, the school offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in fields including Professional Photography, Visual Journalism, Film and Video Production and Visual Communication, and a Master of Science degree in Photography. Brooks’ graduates are visible nationally and internationally, working for distinguished organizations including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Los Angeles Times and other national media outlets, including Hallmark Publishing, Cousteau Society, HBO, Kodak and other industry leaders in the visual media arts fields. For more information about Brooks Institute and the school’s programs, visit www.brooks.edu, or call 805-966-3888.

Related Links:

Douglas Dubler’s website
Lee Varis’ book, Skin

My PodCamp NYC Experience and 50+ photos

I attended PodCamp NYC on Saturday April 7 and was really impressed by the venue, as well as the quality of the speakers and how well it was organized. There were more than 100 sessions in 12 different rooms, and they ran from 8:45am to about 6pm. It was also a great opportunity for me to catch up with some friends, and make new ones. I put together a photo gallery from some of the sessions I attended on my new Flickr page (yes, it took me this long to open a Flickr account-click on any photo to go to the gallery, which has over 50 images). For more about the history of PodCamp NYC and some thoughts from one of the lead organizers, I recommend visiting Jason Van Orden’s site.

Christopher Penn‘s Marketing 2.1 session at PodCamp NYC2007. I learned a lot about podcast and blog marketing, as well as Search Engine Optimization in this session. Photo ©Andrew Darlow

There was an amazing evening performance and CD Release Party featuring Brother Love (who absolutely rocked the house!) Another band who performed (I only heard a bit their performance, which was fantastic) was HER and Kings County. All proceeds from the show, called the Blubrry Jam to fight cystic fibrosis went to the Boomer Esiason Foundation Exercise For Life scholarship fund. For more info about Cystic Fibrosis and the campaign, which is running until May 15th, 2007, visit Blubrryjam.com.

Brother Love (a.k.a. BROLO) Photo ©Andrew Darlow

New Online Gallery and 100 Year Anniversary of Professional Photographer Magazine

I subscribe to Professional Photographer Magazine and Professional Photographer Magazine’s e-mail list, and I just received some interesting info through the e-mail list to share. I’ve been to about 20 PPA (Professional Photographers of America)-related conferences and seminars over the last 10 years, and for me, one of the most enjoyable parts of being at the state and national conventions has been seeing the competition prints. They are all sized to approximately 16×20 inches, and the range of photography I’ve seen at every convention is tremendous, including: portraits; sports; weddings; landscapes; still-life; industrial/corporate; and many other specialties.

On Professional Photographer Online, they’ve posted a new online gallery of award-winning PPA Loan Collection images from years past. What’s really special about the gallery is the story that accompanies each image. You can read how each was captured, and what equipment and techniques were used by each photographer. This makes it not just a showcase for great work, but also a fantastic learning tool.

Here’s a tip for using the gallery: After clicking on an image in the gallery, you should allow it to open completely, or the images may get stacked up on each other, requiring you to click the top right box in each image to close each window. That can then cause problems with reading the text when hovering over the images. The images load fast, so you probably won’t ever experience this issue. To avoid the issue completely, just wait for each image to load, which takes about a second or two. According to the newsletter, more images will be added to the gallery in the upcoming months.

I also highly recommend the printed version of Professional Photographer magazine. I’m a subscriber, and I believe that any photographer, whether or not they are a working pro can learn and be inspired from the photographer profiles, techniques, product reviews, news and technical advice that is in every issue. The most recent issue (February 2007) is especially good. The subscription price for 12 issues is under $20, which is a great value, and the most recent issue was over 130 pages. This year is the magazine’s 100th anniversary, which is quite an achievement for any publication. I plan to highlight other imaging magazines in the upcoming months, because I feel so strongly about their value to image-makers of all levels.

There are also many articles available on the Professional Photographer site, including this excellent article and online gallery featuring the work of celebrity photographer Greg Gorman.

Related Links:

Home page for Professional Photographer Magazine

Direct Link to new PPA Loan Collection Online Gallery

All the best,

-Andrew