P&P Blogger Profile: Dave Beckerman

Dave Beckerman of Dave Beckerman Photography: New York

I photograph what interests me in New York City.

Why do you blog?
I started to keep a “journal” online in 1999. I had two motivations: 1) I wanted to try and document what I was doing with photography in real-ish time. 2) I thought it was a good idea to keep people interested in my site since I wouldn’t be able to produce pictures fast enough or often enough to keep them coming back, so there was a commercial aspect to it. I don’t know if there was even blog software in those days – I just wrote sequentially in my html editor.

If you only had time to read three blogs a day, which ones would they be?
I really don’t read any blogs regularly.

How long have you been using Photoshop/been a photographer?
I’ve been a photographer for about 45 years. I’ve been using Photoshop for a very long time. Maybe since 1998 or so.

What type of camera(s) do you shoot with?
I have shot with just about everything (read that as money poorly spent). I now shoot with the Leica M3 or the M6. I shoot with Tri-X film. (Spent one year doing digital with Canon 20D but I like film better – at least for b&w).

Mac or PC?
PC.

What is your favorite piece of photo or computer equipment (other than your camera)?
That is easy: Epson 4800 printer. It is the most important piece of equipment in the house.

What piece of equipment would you most like to get but don’t have?
I’d love to get a larger (wider) printer, but I can’t find a place to put it.

What advice do you have for a novice creative professional/photographer?
For fine art photographers – don’t think of yourself as a novice or a professional. Don’t do anything different as an amateur or a professional. Just follow the obsession. If you’re not obsessed – then no advice will help anyway.

What inspires you to create?
At this point – it’s just a way of life. I don’t need inspiration. The camera is with me and if I see something interesting I raise it to my eye – and shoot.

What would be your most important piece of advice about life?
I am not qualified to give advice to anyone about life.

Where would you most like to live (other than where you live now)?
I can think of lots of places that would be better – but I’m stuck in New York for some mysterious reason.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
Watch television.

What talent would you most like to have?
That’s easy: something athletic. Maybe the ability to play baseball; any position. But I’m too old for that now anyway. So an athletic talent for a 55 year old guy: maybe ping pong.

From Inside the Actors Studio:
What is your favorite word? Damn
What is your least favorite word? Bosh.
What turns you on? Sexy women.
What turns you off? Too many commercials during baseball games. Too damned many.
What sound or noise do you love? My cat, purring
What sound or noise do you hate? My neighbor doing singing exercises; she can make my teeth rattle.
What is your favorite curse word? Freakin’ and all the most popular ones. I curse a lot.
What occupation other than your own would you like to attempt? Definitely lead guitar in a rock band.
What occupation would you not want to participate in? Toll collector; even on a really big highway.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? I know you didn’t believe in me while you were alive – and I know that things just didn’t make any sense – but now – let’s sit down and I’ll explain it all to you.

*Note: If you would like to participate in the P&P Blogger Profile series, please email Jason with your blog's URL and he will send you a profile to fill out. Also, be sure to check out the P&P Weekly every Monday for news about this site and a roundup of what other Photoshop & Photography Blogroll members are posting.

Big Surprise: M.C. Escher

Open and raw, you would let your true self show for your portrait. And even if your painting turned out a bit dark, it would be honest.

What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?

P&P Weekly: #14

Here’s what’s been happening in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Michael over at eyes on the road has a post about grayscale conversions and model releases as well as a new photo gallery.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. My favorite this week is "Alternative Energy"
• Andy of Visual Realia has a number of interesting holiday shots this week.
• I posted on the launch of a new division at work that will provide photo restoration services.

Just a note: With New Year's Day coming on Monday, the P&P Weekly may be released a little later than usual again next week.

Want to be added to The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll? Click here to find out how! Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Happy Holidays!

Ancestral Photo Restorations

Today marks the launch of a new division of Moore Multimedia, Inc. We are always working to develop new areas of our business to serve our customers and clients in new and valuable ways.

Given my skill and experience in Photoshop, it seemed like a natural step to move in the direction of providing photo retouching and restoration services. And so Ancestral Photo Restorations was born.

We are very excited about this new phase of our company and look forward to seeing how it will grow.

PSUser Awards Update

I've decided not to enter any of my photos in this year's Photoshop User Awards. There's only about a week and a half before the submission deadline and I just haven't had the time or the energy to focus on getting something ready. And with the holidays and the busyness of these next weeks, as well as preparing the launch of a new division at work (which I'll talk more about later this week), I don't feel like this is my year. I want to be at my best when I enter.

Thanks for your input and support!

Photoshop User Awards

Now is the time for entries into the Photoshop User Awards presented by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

I can enter up to 3 images for a chance to win a $2,500 prize package or the grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to Rome to design a cover for Photoshop User Magazine.

I have yet to decide which of my photos to enter and would appreciate your input as to which one(s) to enter. If you click here, you will be directed to a web gallery showing some of my work over the past year.

Simply send me an email or post a comment with the file name letting me know which one(s) you think are best and I'll post my final choices once I decide.

NOTE: This post will remain at the top until I make my selections. In the meantime, posts can be found by scrolling down.

P&P Weekly: #13

Here’s what’s been happening in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Michael over at eyes on the road, like many others, is posting about the new Photoshop CS3 Beta.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. My favorite this week is "Young and Resting"
• Andy of Visual Realia has a number of interesting shots this week, my favorites are the colors in "Obstacles," and "Opus 4" and "Viola 1"
• I posted on my very initial impression of our new printer, and links for where to get the new Photoshop CS3 Beta and the NAPP Learning Center to learn how to use it.

Just a note: With holidays coming up on the next two Mondays, the P&P Weekly may be released on different days than normal the next couple of weeks.

Want to be added to The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll? Click here to find out how! Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

It's True!

Here's the Adobe Press Release regarding today's launch of Photoshop CS3 beta.

And here's a link to NAPP's new CS3 Learning Center.

Photoshop CS3 Beta?

According to AppleInsider.com, Adobe is expected to be releasing a beta version of Photoshop CS3 sometime tomorrow through their Adobe Labs site.

Early Christmas

It has arrived!

So far so good. The first few prints look fantastic. I can see why Scott Kelby said, in reference to this printer, in The Digital Photography Book,

This is as in love with a printer as I've ever become.

Some Good Music

Over the past month or two I've bought a couple of movie soundtracks that have had a number of really good songs on them. On the Elizabethtown soundtrack (vol. 1) are two songs that have been especially moving for me. One is io (This Time Around) by Helen Stellar - which you can hear on the website - and the other is Hard Times by Eastmountainsouth.

No other comment, they're just good!

Hard Times
let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears
while we all sup sorrow with the poor
there's a song that will linger forever in our ears
oh, hard times come again no more

'tis a song… a sigh of the weary
hard times… hard times come again no more
many days you have lingered around my cabin door
oh… hard times come again no more

while we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
there are frail ones fainting at the door
though their voices are silent their pleading looks will say
oh, hard times come again no more

'tis a song… a sigh of the weary
hard times... hard times come again no more
many days you have lingered around my cabin door
oh, hard times come again no more

'tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
'tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
'tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
oh, hard times come again no more

'tis a song…a sigh of the weary
hard times… hard times come again no more
many days you have lingered around my cabin door
oh, hard times come again no more
oh, hard times come again no more

On Its Way

Epson Stylus Photo R2400 (& supplies)

P&P Weekly: #12

I am going to be out of the office for the week as we do rehearsals and performances for our first of 4 middle/high school musicals this season, so I won't have much chance to post.

In the meantime, here’s what’s been happening in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day continues to post images of life in Mexico.
• Andy of Visual Realia has a number of interesting shots this week, my favorites are "By Laws of Time," "In the Light of the Moon," and "Blue Morning"
• I posted on the milestone of a great comic strip, my discovery of an excellent online photography magazine, and on the story of one of my recent shots.

Want to be added to The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll? Click here to find out how! Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Triggering Memories

I had been working on this shot for a few weeks. In my head was exactly the image I wanted to capture. I knew it would be black and white. I knew what would be in focus and what would not. I didn’t know exactly where I would stand, but I knew how the framing would work going in.

I waited for an overcast day to get the even lighting I desired and to have a little definition in the sky without it being a dominant element in the shot. I hopped in my car and drove the ten minutes or so northward to the location I had been to numerous times throughout my youth.

I walked from my parking spot at the entrance across the spongy ground to a location opposite of that which I usually find myself when visiting, only a stones-throw from the snack bar and projection booth. I pulled out my cheap, spindly tripod – I desperately want a “real” one – and set it up to capture my shot.

With a little post-processing – converting to black and white, getting the exposure and contrast about right, split-toning, and adding a bit of sharpening and lens blur where necessary – I came up with a shot that is fairly close to what I had envisioned weeks before.

Photography is more than just capturing moments. It’s about expressing emotion, telling a story. Beyond that, a photograph is meant to conjure up memories in the mind of the viewer so that one can move from looking to engaging.

I know some artists are out to say something with their art. They have a specific idea of what their work is meant to be and evoke. Some even get upset when their work is misinterpreted or taken out of the context the artist had initially intended. We all put a little bit of ourselves into our pieces and, for me anyway, photography is a means to share a part of ourselves. The act of creating, in fact, is itself a great reward and worthy goal.

I’ve always said that art, in any form, is never complete until it is experienced. For the creator, the act of creating and manipulating the work in order to express a certain emotion or story brings the art to completion for the artist. But we can’t expect another, who comes to the piece with their own personal history and perspective, to relate to it in the exact way it was originally planned. So true completion comes when it touches the viewer in a meaningful way.

So, for me, even though I had a particular idea in mind for this shot I began to think back across my life and remembering the fun I had growing up heading off to the drive-in (this very one, at times), staying up late, watching lots of movies, bringing all sorts of food that we could never have at a theater, and running around with the other kids.

I remember sitting in the back of a mini-van and ducking down, almost uncomfortably, to see the screen. I remember, more recently, sitting in folding chairs with my brother and his family while my nephew hung his feet over the edge of the car with the hatch back open as we swatted bugs of all kinds. I remember the night the fog rolled in and I could only hear the movie and all I could see was some flashing beams of light. I remember late nights in high school with my girlfriend asleep in the passenger seat as we drove home from a late show with the warm summer breeze flowing in and a good song softly playing on the radio. And I always remember the silly intermission films (“Let’s all go to the lobby. Let’s all go to the lobby. Let’s all go to the lobby, to get ourselves a treat!” It’s stuck in your head now, isn’t it? You’re welcome!).

So the next time you encounter a photograph, don’t just look, engage. Once you acknowledge the aesthetics and how it makes you feel move deeper, not only into the image, but into what stories and memories it sparks in you.

Bending Light Magazine

Today I came across Bending Light Magazine via Kathleen Connaly's photoblog. According to their site:

People tend to think about photographs as mere images on paper. Worth a thousand words, nothing more, nothing less. But photographs are much more than the visual representation of a moment. They are also energy frozen on film. The products of light bouncing off objects, then bending through the camera lens to produce a tangible reflection of the world.

Every quarter BLM, an online photography magazine, releases a new edition featuring amazing photographs and thoughtful, inspiring articles on the stories behind the images as well as interviews of photobloggers and essays about the many ways photography impacts our lives.

Take a look for yourself!

"What the Duck" Turns 100!

My favorite online photography-themed comic strip is celebrating it's 100th daily edition today. Stop by What the Duck and check it out!

Also a congratulations to cartoonist Aaron Johnson for such a great run so far and all the best for the strip's continued success. I'm proud to be a "Friend of the Duck!"

P&P Weekly: #11

Here’s what’s been happening in The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll:

• Michael over at eyes on the road posted a few shots from a Catholic church on Easter Island.
• Jon at San Miguel Photo of the Day posts images of life in Mexico. My favorites this week are "Full Gallop" and "Resting"
• Andy of Visual Realia has a number of interesting shots this week, my favorites are "Breath of Morn, "On Silent Haunches," and especially his two black and white shots "Closed for the Season," and "Not Just a Tropical Treat"
• I posted a short article on the difference between taking pictures and photography, and a note about one of my recent shots being selected as an Editor's Choice for this week over in the NAPP member portfolios.

Want to be added to The Photoshop & Photography Blogroll? Click here to find out how! Update your blogs often! I will only include links to posts added since the last P&P Weekly.

As always, if you have any suggestions or notice a discrepancy, please email me.

Editor's Choice #4

For the second time since October, and the 4th time overall, one of my recent photos has been selected as an "Editor's Choice" by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). It's one of the photos of Lake Neatahwanta near my apartment in Fulton, NY that I took during sunset the night before Thanksgiving.

Once again, I am humbled by the kind words posted along with the selection notification in the comments of my portfolio. Thanks to everyone over at NAPP!

From Taking Pictures to Photography

"Owning a lawn mower doesn't make you a landscape architect."

My dad uses this quote (borrowed from a friend of ours) over and over again when talking to people who want to do-it-yourself instead of getting someone who knows what they're doing to do the job. What you end up with will be passable, but will it be effective? Will it be good?

Anyone who owns a camera can go out and take pictures. However, unless you know what it takes to make a shot look good, you will end up with the same, everyday snapshots that anyone could get, which may be ok if you're just out to get snapshots. Sure, you might get lucky every now and again but would you call that photography or simply taking pictures?

First off, I'll be the first to admit that luck certainly plays a role. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Sometimes the moment that an image captures trumps all of the other rules because, after all, the subject is key. But luck isn't everything.

A lot goes into a single photograph even before the shutter is released. There's framing, paying attention to positive and negative space, the rule of thirds, lighting, color, contrast, textures, line, balance, angles, thinking about output format, what mood you hope to set, what emotions you hope to evoke, color or black and white, etc. And not everything can be easily fixed in Photoshop (unless you really know what you're doing) so you have to pay attention to the placement of everything in the shot at the front end to save extensive post-processing.

With cameras on cell phones and the quality of point-and-shoot digitals growing and becoming more and more affordable, the landscape is flooded with images and galleries made up of snapshots being passed off as "photographs." Personally, I think there's a big difference between the two. It's one thing to shoot in a documentary style where you get shots of who was at a birthday party or family gathering or on a vacation. At the same time, though, how much skill and creativity is really used to take those shots?

The distinction between photography and taking pictures is art. It's not about knowing the ins and outs of your camera and knowing a lot of the technical stuff - though that certainly helps in consistently capturing great shots - it has more to do with the "artistic eye." It's being able to see the world around you and find beauty in the unexpected places or to show what is common in a new way. It's seeing detail and "big picture" and putting the together in a powerful way within the frame.

It's hard to define what separates a photo from a snapshot. It certainly has to do with those things I listed above (framing, balance, color, lighting, texture, etc.), to some extent, but it also has to do with capturing the moment, moving the viewer to feel something deeply authentic within themselves. It's the difference between conveying information (who was there, what was happening, etc.) and telling a story.

During stretches of time when I feel uninspired and unmotivated (like now) I know that one of the best ways to get back into the groove is to just start shooting anything, to force yourself into looking at the normal, everyday things as subjects so that you will find yourself again. But I don't want to just "take pictures." I want to create photos.