Chatting about nothing in particular

Yes I have been quite the slacker updating this blog.  Sorry folks.  At least I have a great excuse.  Outside of being crazy with work, I am moving to India this Tues.  Four days from now.  Adam’s working there; he’s revamping the Caravan, an English language literary magazine.   Move, not move, arg, my life and work are here in NYC.  Oh, what the heck - let’s go!

We’ll be in Delhi.   Wahoo!  I’ve never been and I’m going in blind.  But I can’t wait for the shooting opps!  Ok, my plan is to continue my street food project, shoot portraits and possibly get some freelance work.  I think I’m gonna totally rock it there.  I mean, NYC experience, I’ve worked with top people.  I wonder if they shoot PhaseOne there or just the 35s…

Anyway I ramble.  Before leaving I was able to get one last shoot in - for Edible Manhattan, a foodie magazine.  I’ve been wanting to shoot for them for a while and was stoked on the assignment.  I shot Roni-Sue of Roni-Sue Chocolates in Essex Market.  She makes divine chocolates and has a thing for bacon.  Bacon dipped in dark or milk chocolate.  Bacon-maple lollipops.  Ba-Corn (popcorn with bacon bits).  And the Fuster Cluck.  Bacon, Special K cereal, peanut butter and bananas.  MMMMMM.  It’s in the current Jan/Feb 2010 issue out on now.

Off to pack.  See ya in the sub-continent!

Alright kids, if you’re in NYC (or LA Sept 11), watch for me in The September Issue, the documentary of Anna Wintour’s making of Vogue’s 2007 September issue, the largest one ever - 4lbs!  I don’t have a speaking role, but you do see me on set in Paris with David Sims and Grace Coddington!

I’ve been really bad about posting the last while.  We were finishing up the season, so work was crazy until last week.  Here’s a brief run-down of July so far:

* Beginning of July: come back from London.
* 7/7: Work in NYC.
* 7/8: Stupid early flight (6:30a) to LA for a Nike shoot.  Fly out red-eye that evening back to NYC.
* 7/9: Arrive at JFK at 6:30a, pick up the rental and drive out to Montauk (scouting another job along the way).
* 7/10 - 7/12: Shoot in Montauk at an amazing house above the beach with a private entrance down to said beach.  One day this will be me…  We drive back to Montauk on the evening of 7/12.  Get back home at 1a.
* 7/15: Drop off portfolio for review at a major NYC magazine.
* 7/16: Get up before the crack of dawn to meet at Milk by 4:30a, then drive to Montauk.
* 7/16 - 7/17: Work in Montauk at Camp Hero.  We’re essentially on the beach for two straight days in blazing heat.  I am now super tan, slightly burnt and a bit lightheaded from the sun.
* 7/17: Drive back to NYC.  We miss the turn onto the 495 (Long Island Expressway), and because we’re in a commercial vehicle, a cube truck, we’re stuck on 23, a local road, ALL the way back to the City.
* 7/18: Work in NYC.
* 7/19 - 7/20: Another job in NYC.  It’s editorial and we are in the studio 14hr the first day and 15.5hr the next day.  Finally walk out of Milk at midnight.  The boys (assistants are still there finishing breaking down the equipment).
* 7/21: Wahoo!  Leave for JFK at 5:45a.  Man, I LOVE getting 3hr of sleep.  Fly to LA.
* 7/22: Shoot another Nike job at Smashbox in LA.  Fly back that evening on the red-eye.
* 7/23: Finally pass out at 8a.

While the season is done with my main photographer, I’m still working here and there.  Can’t complain about work.

And for the reason of today’s post.  I’ve added 5 new images to my site, including Robert the Schwinn guy.

Hope you guys had a great Fourth!   Mine was pretty mellow - no parties and no work (for once!)  - just cleaning up the house and getting some pesonal work done.  I was a slacker last month about postings; I was slammed a good portion of the month!  Spain, then back to NYC for three days, then Ohio, back to NYC and straight work.  Then last weekend, I went to London.  Anyway, I’m back until Tues, then it’s LA-Montauk-NYC-Montauk.  And that’s just through the middle of July!

Good thing I had free time this weekend because I FINALLY got around to retouching a beauty image from the Urban Chic story and a portrait of Robert, the Schwinn Man.  Robert lives in the neighborhood and is obsessed with Schwinns.  If you’re in NYC and have been to any parade or big bike event, well, you’ve probably seen the Schwinn guys.  They’ve decked out their bikes with TVs, multiple colors, figurines - really awesome these bikes.  Here’s a video of Puerto Rican Schwinn Club.

Robert’s got over 200 bikes kept primarily in two of his houses.  When I first met him, he gave me a quick tour of one basement jammed with bikes and parts.  A lot of bikes he keeps unassembled because of space constraints.  Generally, the bikes are older and restored; some stay “antique” looking (His bikes are also used in film/TV, so they’ve got to fit a variety of decades).

When I showed up for the portrait, 8 of his top bikes were lined up, and a couple more waited across the street.  This green cobra Schwinn is one of my favorites.

And this is Robert, the Schwinn Man.  Click on it for a larger version.  For some reason, it won’t get any bigger in the post.

Hey all!  If you’re looking for my Rebiya Kadeer portraits from the June 7, 2009 issue of SCMP Sunday Magazine, for some reason the links are not working and I can’t find the article on the site anymore (was up as of this past Saturday).   I did receive a copy in the mail so will scan and post it.  So cool - the portrait was the opening and full page!

Also, I’ve returned from Ohio and will be working on an image from a shoot I did last Saturday.

Morning!  I’m writing this from set in A Coruña, Spain.  Big news!  I’ve two images in yesterday’s South China Morning Post’s Sunday Magazine (Hong Kong’s largest English newspaper) - an environmental image and a proper portrait of Rebiya Kadeer.  You might remember, Mrs. Kadeer is a political activist and face of the Uyghur people.  Online, the images don’t get that big, but the newspaper is posting me a hard copy of the magazine, so hopefully the photos ran at a decent size.  You can click on the images though and they open up a little larger.  

I would’ve posted this yesterday had my laptop not died.  We kept smelling something burning on set and then in the afternoon I saw cloud wisps by the top right of it (near the power button).  And the battery stopped charging yesterday.  And it turns off randomly and may or may not boot on the first try.  At least it’s not the shoot computer.  Luckily, we’ve two towers, and 2 other 17″ Macbook Pros here.  

Dude, you can never be too prepared.  

Anyway, A Coruña is in the Northwest by the ocean.   It’s been rainy and cold - very San Fran like in weather.  The last two days ‘ve made it a point to eat as much jamon as possible and dinners were Galacian seafood blowouts.  

Talk to you when I get back in a few days!

From the NYTimes:

“Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web. And it will draw on The Times’s own pictorial archive, numbering in the millions of images and going back to the early 20th century.”

  Check out Lens

Dude, only Vogue’s Anna Wintour can get the daily hair styling and $200,000 clothing budget.  Oh, and how many times can Morley Safer of 60 Minutes say “bitch” to her?

Watch CBS Videos Online

Riveting journalism.

I went to the 2nd Annual New York Photo Festival on Saturday.  While I was a bit underwhelmed by the work, I really liked Tim Hetherington’s sleeping soldiers still and video project and “I don’t really know what kind of girl I am” curated by New York magazine photo director Jody Quon.  I also attended “Click, Tweet, Repeat. Why taking good pictures isn’t enough to succeed in the 21st century” presented by PhotoShelter.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a bit, you’ll probably remember that I used PhotoShelter Collection for stock; that is until they shut down.  Well, PhotoShelter itself is still around and I quite liked how approachable and knowledgeable they are about the business end of photography.  What the heck, I’m sure my online presence could use a boost.

Allen Murabayashi (Co-Founder and CEO, PhotoShelter) discussed three online areas that you probably need to work on more: website, blog and social networking sites like Facebook.  One technique he focused on was SEO.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique by which you bump up your site on engines like Google.  Ok, so I knew top-line what it was and, stupidly enough, thought that my site was optimized because I’d type in my name and BOOM!  Jocelyn Baun Photography, top listing!  Ugh, yea.  Actually, that was the very example he used to say, naw you ain’t optimized.

The point of SEO is to generate unsolicited traffic via keywords.  Right.  So begins my learning of SEO.  PhotoShelter has a free SEO toolkit that you can download and I’ll link to it below.  My site is through clickbooq and I know there is a Search Engine Setting box where I’ve put in some keywords.   Thought I was good to go.  Optimized? Nope.  Say you google Brooklyn+portrait+photographer, I don’t even come up in the first 10 pages of results!  (I didn’t bother to go further.)

Ok, I’m going to SEO-it tonight along with thinking about a business plan (yes, I was supposed to do that a while ago).   Check out the links below.

Toilet Seats, Photography and SEO

SEO Is Not Just For Wedding Photographers Anymore

PhotoShelter’s SEO Toolkit - FREE!

My photo of a closed basketball arcade and psychic advisor storefront was displayed at the New York Photo Festival.

Dear Photographer,

Congratulations! Your image was shown at the NYPH ’09 festival yesterday. Enclosed you will find an installation view of your image as it appeared on the festival’s screen.

The festival is enjoying great crowds. The organisers are all grateful for your participation in this global project. Thank you again for enriching the visual experience of festival goers.

Sincerely,

William A. Ewing
Curator
New York Photo Festival ‘09
Director, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne

And here’s what is really looks like: