Twins, St. Louis, Missouri. Photo by Erik M. Lunsford

Heaven sent, there are so many great comments on photography and life these last few days. As I juggle multiple personal commitments at the moment, please enjoy.

Alex Majoli at The F Blog.

“I say: “take some pictures.” And they reply: “of what? why?” So I’m taking a picture of it and they like it and say: “No! but you’re a good photographer!”. My answer is: “No I’m not! I’m just taking pictures, while you don’t!” It’s always like that! They need to have a big story, they need to go to Iraq to take a pictures. C’mon take a picture here!”

and more Alex:

“We should think of a photographer as a Samurai who makes rituals, moves and gestures in order to develop his techniques and his instinct.”

Matt Slaby on Luceo’s blog.

“I’m writing this as I’m about to step outside to do my gardening.  Which is turning into an interesting Holga project, slides of all the plants I’ve been growing in my yard over the past few years.  The thing about all this technology that kills me is that you gotta draw a line between your real life and reporting on your real life.  This stuff makes for an interesting lens on our lives but, all things said and done, I’m doing my best to keep it balanced.”

Alec Soth at NYTimes.

“I’m famous for sweating when I photograph people, which doesn’t seem to happen when I’m photographing landscapes,” he added. “My own awkwardness comforts people, I think. It’s part of the exchange.”

Carl Kiilsgaard on Facebook

“Fuck a digital SLR…my p/s now owns my world.”

(I agree, I love keeping a Canon G10 around my neck)
Michael McNamara on Sportsshooter

“Nobody got into photojournalism for the money…it’s something we do because we love storytelling and photography. But like any relationship, that love is not unconditional, and when you don’t feel it coming back, it gets harder and harder to put forth the same effort you once did.”

Jörg Colberg on his Tumblr page.

“A book publisher telling me they’re now charging for formerly free review copies. Should I write back and tell them I’m now charging for formerly free reviews?”

David Carson at Pictures:

“My job is better than yours….most days.” (note inflection)

Max Bittle on Whimsical Whatnots:

“confusion is fun, but at the same time drives one insanely mad.

what makes someone good?

is it the quality of work? maybe

their attitude? maybe

their friends? maybe

their awards? maybe

their looks? maybe

so so so confused……….

i don’t get the system, like at all.”

and the best of all, the JLP bible, courtesy of Aphotoaday.

“If you are not having fun then what is the point. Surround yourself with good people, work hard, and keep things personal.” (many more where that came from)

There’s a certain essence of raw finesse in Rebecca Rijsdijk’s collection, Plant People, on display at I Heart Photograph and her website portfolio. It seems in an industry deluged with heavy post-production and complex setups, Rebecca’s photographs have a staggeringly simple attention to form, content, and lighting. Her collection concept “my branches are not what they used to be” has a strong, symbolic, and personal feel represented in the images of intertwined humanity and nature. It seems as if Rebecca peeled away the layers of complexity and broke it down into the simplest denominator. It gives a certain child-like joy to browse these photographs. They may not speak to everyone directly, but they encapsulate that simple art of photographic study that we all practice. Imagine a shoot with no predetermined concepts, no meetings, no art direction, no editors — just you, your subject, your concept, your camera, and your lust to make tangible an idea that sprang forth from the creative well — that’s what I see analyzing this collection. If it’s the beauty and sophistication of simple photography that allures you, then check out more of Rebecca’s work on her website, and be sure to take an extra long contemplative work at her other collection, stiletto paradoxes.

Rebecca Rijsdijk’s Plant People, photographs copyright Rebecca Rijsdijk, used with permission.

I chose black and white for simplicity and consistency. Lately I have been learning towards it because it frees me from the color and graphic constraints that my mind constantly analyzes.  It lets me let go and play, since I have the bad habit of overanalyzing frames instead of actually shooting.  By combining a very simple piano piece by Kevin MacLeod and letting the piece extend a little longer than normal multimedia work, I hope to communicate a piece that is as much of St. Louis in the winter as my own emotional and behavioral response to it. Here’s the link to the same video, plus some very heartfelt comments from viewers, at our website, STLtoday.com

“I could feel the cold! So many of these pictures were untold stories, like the beautiful house with the furniture piled at the curb.What’s going on there? Thanks, Erik, for your observant eye’s view of the ordinary.”  – viewer and commenter Judy Stark.

Tire tracks in the snow, north St. Louis County, seen from Metrolink rail.

I’m trying to master layering — a pursuit I’m not particularly good at; a pursuit that is particularly difficult to master.  The attempt here is to capture several elements in one background that communicates *bike race* in a small town. I found this cyclist from Germany just as he was sitting down in front of a small knick-knack store near the main thoroughfare of town for the fifth leg of the 2008 Tour of Missouri.

In the slideshow, you can see how I engaged the subject and waited for more elements to converge in the scene. The cyclist looked at me for a few frames while his colleague and the store owner appeared. Then a female colleague stepped in as a photographer walks through (for a second time). Which one of these frames is layered correctly — if any? I need to rely on some better talent (ahem, you) to give me some better direction on how I could have shot this better. Should I have been closer? Tighten it up or let it loose? Does any of this even work at all? This feels like a Dear Abby letter.

Gemini 12 spacecraft seen during EVA

I’m a complete space junkie. If it lifts off, splashes down, glides in, orbits, docks, I love it. Now I love Mr. Colberg even more after he published a link to the Project Apollo Archive, an expansive project of unedited scans and complete Hasselblad magazines prepared by Kipp Teague from the entire (and pre and post) Apollo missions in the teenage years of our space program. How did I not know this?!

Plus I would have posted this a lot earlier if I just had the inclination to move from the couch while watching the Lord of the Rings (sad, I know) trilogy marathon on TNT this weekend. I even glossed over the closing ceremony from the Olympics (it looked better in pictures) to see for the umpteenth time if Frodo actually throws the ring in the fiery river he doesn’t, the selfish jerk.

Okay so a scrutinizing viewer would look at the first photo and rightfully say: that’s not even an Apollo photograph! You’re right, but the archive has pre-Apollo images and this image was the first in the archive that tugged at my visual and emotional sweetspot; that the power of photography takes me right to the scene and impress upon me similar if not the same feelings the astronaut must have felt when he stepped foot off the spacecraft into the vacuum of space.

[NASA Astronaut Neil] Armstrong’s first photo after setting foot on the Moon.

The beautiful facet of this project is seeing the images “in between” the iconic images that we have seen repeated in history textbooks, NASA promotional materials, stupid advertisements, and other outlets. The image above is from Armstrong’s first photograph on the moon.

[NASA Astronaut Jack] Schmitt stands beside the flag in what is likely the last photograph of an Apollo astronaut on the Moon. [ed note: it appears to be the last photograph taken from another astronaut on the surface as well]

Will I live to see the next manned mission to the moon? I hopefully think so, and Mars would be an extra bonus. Certainly you’ll find me watching the launch of the new generation of rockets once they retire the Space Shuttle in 2010. Poor old rickety thing.

At the end of our summer LUXE fashion book shoot and with a half-day left on our model’s paid time, my  editor tasked me with the Fall fashion preview. We only had a few hours to illustrate six completely different outfits. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you crimp and curl and do makeup touch-ups things slow down considerably. We decided to keep the shoot in-house, and I chose the frighteningly old freight elevator at the Post. My theme was being “stuck in the elevator.” The grimy, dirty, smelly (yes, it kind of smells like solvents and wet newsprint) freight elevator has been on my a-list of places to shoot since interning at the paper eight years ago. Plus, that would afford several looks like fearful, broken-down model tired, angry, relieved, stuffy; basically a good spectrum of feelings one may experience in a broken elevator. I would also say it was a little luck when our model said she was scared after getting stuck in an elevator on the morning of our shoot. Perfect!

Welcome to hell. No, really, it’s on the wall. Check it out on the upper right corner. Oh, and it made the paper – by permission of course. I didn’t write it, thankfully. Some nameless soul who works midnights in the sub-sub basement must have. It’s a nice touch.

I had the fortune of using Canon’s 1Ds Mark III camera, a 21-megapixel gargantuan that churns out frames with some of the sharpest and smoothest tonality that I’ve ever seen. However, don’t be fooled by the 1Ds’ behavior – using it in the LUXE shoot with non L-series glass produced some of the worst results with sharpness and detail that we’ve ever seen. The frames lacked a clear focus point and detail in specular highlights and fine detail were essentially non-existent. So, be warned. There are also other autofocus issues with the camera and it’s brother ID Mark III that can be found here. Aside from that (I used a 24-70 2.8L for this shoot), the camera performed flawlessly using a AlienBees ABR-800 Ringflash and some creative reflective materials. I know, I know…what am I thinking? Another shoot with a ringflash? Well, yes, but how can you turn down a ringflash opportunity with reflective walls, amazing textures, and an overall killer venue? Yeah, that’s right, you can’t.

One of the nice things about the 1Ds is the raw file. The majority of the toning was done in Canon’s Digital Photo Professional by cranking the contrast, desaturating the colors, click-white balancing, and exporting to a huge 100mb TIF file with the toning malleability of Play-Doh. I used the highlight/shadow tool in Photoshop to eek out some of the blacks and curves to coerce detail out of the details in the clothes.

For some reason this outfit (above) was the hardest to work with. Maybe it’s the skirt of the ruffles, I’m not entirely sure. But it looks decent with a nerve-wracking balance beam act that our model has going on. It was miracle we didn’t lose any fingers.

Will I survive? Will them come rescue me? Sure they will, after we wrap up by 4 pm. Now let’s do broken-down tired. Nice, that looks good. Keep it up.

This last image, fittingly a look of saving grace, worked out perfectly when I slowed the shutter and decreased the ringflash output while letting the elevator take us to the top floor. There is a hair of motion blur and camera shake (the elevator was moving, and it’s one of those hugely clunky ones that jolt you back and forth), and I think (emphasis on think) it works. Hooray, we’re saved. Life goes on.

The piece ran several pages in our LifeStyle magazine and has an online component here. And don’t forget, do not board. Oh, and black and greys are in this season.

All photographs from Pigeon Culture are Copyright Casey Templeton.

The former CPOY Templeton spent a considerable amount of time researching and shooting this story. He also compiled good audio interviews which served as perfect additions to the still photography. I am also particularly excited about a group of photographs Casey made on “thoroughbred” pigeons that really lets this remarkable project sing. I sat down with Casey over email for a few questions and here are his words:

Erik: How did you become interested in photographing pigeon culture?

Casey: I started this project when I was doing my internship with National Geographic.  I wanted to find a story that everyone could relate to but I wanted try my best to give people a whole new perspective on it.  I was taking a walk around downtown DC to try to brainstorm and I saw this lady get bombarded by pigeons and it was like a light bulb went off.

Erik: From planning to publishing how much time has this project taken you?

Casey: Throughout the project, I most likely spend 95% of my time researching and making phone calls and if I was lucky, spent the other 5% on actually shooting. From shooting to editing, to putting together a multimedia package, I most likely spend around 250 hours.

Erik: Your photographic style seems to take a radical and exciting shift in the “thoroughbreds” section. You move from documentary to almost studio portraiture. Could you tell me why you chose this style and elaborate on the technical details?

Casey: Shooting the project I started by really concentrating on the men in the sport and only photographed the birds as an accessory to the story.  Then, I was knocked back into place by my mentor Tommy Thompson, who told me that I needed to remember what the story was about.  So I realized I needed to show how these birds are such amazing flyers. We see pigeons flying everyday but these are not your standard pigeons so I wanted to show how graceful they could be.
Technically, I rented a Jeep Commander on my second trip down to Spring Hill and created a PVC pipe studio with $250+ of black velvet.  I set up 3 flashes in the back;  2 of them were pressed against the ceiling with the PVC on the top left and right, and the last one was shooting straight up from the floor.  All were connected to a pocket wizard.  The settings on the camera were a different story and I can’t give all my secrets away!

Erik: The story of love seems to anchor the project. The love relates to us on a human level. How did that inspire you with the project?

Casey: Pigeons are certainly hopeless romantics and so am I.  That is why I ended the project on that note as well as placed it in the section called “Why Pigeons.”  I attribute the same philosophy that the pigeons have to my life and photography career.  Keep my priorities straight and always keep my faith and family first above all else.

A Coltrane tune
A breath of fire
A hazy moon
Your heart’s desire

The summer project, part of my Four Seasons series at the Post, came to fruition early this week. This is the second installation following Spring’s awakenings in April.

For this project, my intent was finding photographs that carried a very definitive visual style. For example, the track lines and saxophones seem to complement the lines in the car and the sno-cone stand’s siding. The roof lines of the fire breather and stand mimic eachother, and if you look close enough Post designer Tippi Thole carefully tied the two roofs together with the slope in the letter N of night and accented the opposite slope with the car’s rear windshield. Beautifully and expertly done. Post Features Editor Christy Bertelson, one of my favorite editors for her passionate drive for visuals, sealed the presentation by writing short poetry for the piece (above). I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it.  Lynden Steele, Post features photography editor, really captured the essence of our drive for artistic perfection in this eloquent quote:

Don’t let the fact that there are only four pictures fool you. They represent about two months of work, thought and assignments that didn’t make the cut. It exemplifies the luxury we have as artists and the exacting persistence needed to pull it off.

All photographs are copyright Carl Kiilsgaard

Recently I sat down and interviewed with Carl over email regarding these latest selects from the project.

Erik: Tell me a little about yourself and this project and how you found your subjects:

Carl: I started this project during the 2006 ACP Workshop, which takes place in Whitesburg, Ky., and I found my family in Colson [KY]. I came across the family completely by chance. I was driving down a random hollow and saw two of the men playing basketball outside. I pulled over, struck up a conversation, played a couple basketball games and then they asked if i wanted to see their cock fighting roosters. It went from there.

Erik: What are you trying to communicate about your subjects and how did you gain access to them?

Carl: Access to my subjects has been a long, arduous process involving lots and lots of time. At first they were all convinced I worked for the FBI. Only after coming back two or three more times and bringing them pictures each time did they really start to open up and allow me more intimate access. I am still not completely sure what I want to say with the project. I guess on the most basic level I want to show people how a small portion of the country lives and that we don’t have to travel outside the USA to find third world poverty. On a deeper level I want the project to be about intimacy and to show that these people lead extraordinary lives despite how different it is then your average white bread middle class living/upbringing such as mine and many of my fellow photographers.

Erik: You have a lot of powerful imagery that speaks of sexuality, drug use, poverty, violence, and family. There is a certain balance between pity and anger against your subjects, and I fear that this exposure will adversely affect the children. Could you elaborate on their situation?

Carl: Some days I want to scream at my subjects for the actions they take but I cant, other times I want to hug them and tell them they are wonderful parents despite obvious setbacks. Its a very ying and yang situation. As far as the children go, its becoming more and more obvious to me how the younger ones emulate their surroundings and attempt to be like their parents. Its frustrating but at the same time it is the vicious cycle of life that exists in Eastern Kentucky. Two of the children I have high hopes for…they will most likely graduate high school and one, a daughter, will most likely go to UK. She is a freshman though, so lots of
things can happen in the next four years.

Erik: Where do you see yourself progressing from this point in the project, and more broadly, your photographic career?

Carl: As far as progression in the project goes, I’d just like to keep shooting it for the next two years I’m in school and hopefully for the rest of my life, just following the family as they grow older. I’d like to work on portraits of each of the family…im currently working on a lighting setup that will be easy to transport and photograph them with. Photographic career wise? Haven’t a clue at this point…find a way to fund personal projects would be the simplest answer.

Erik: Could you list several influential photographers that have affected your overall style and photographic vision?

Professional photographers that have influenced me? Gueorgui Pinkhassov for his incredible way of seeing the world. Alex Webb for his use of light and composition. Eugene Richards for just being a badass. Jonas Bendiksen, Carolyn Drake, and Luc Delahaye for pushing the boundaries of documentary photography. I’m also very influenced by my fellow college students such as Andrew Henderson, Christian Hansen, Tyler Bissmeyer, and Matt Eich…all of whom I consider dear friends as well.

Special thanks to Carl for allowing the use of his work and taking the time to talk. I encourage you to submit new and unknown work to uncommons. Finding good photography is truly a way we all progress and inspire eachother to make compelling and personal photographs. The new email address for submitting work is:

senditmyway[at]eriklunsford[dot]com

Police pursuit, I-64 westbound, Washington Park, Illinois

This worked because I had fallen behind the pack of police cars and other photographers trying to catch up. Instead of making a run for it, I pulled off at a nearby exit when it was announced that the police pursuit had changed directions, putting the group of cars and the suspect on a direct path towards my position. At an approximate speed of 100 miles an hour, there was little more than 14 seconds from line-of-sight to passing underneath me.

On a sidenote, it has been a very long week and I haven’t properly taken the time to post. I’m sorry about the delay. This is due partially to the launch of the Post-Dispatch photography department’s new blog, titled PICTURES, that launched a few days ago. Also, we adopted a wonderfully docile dog carpet over the weekend and yesterday someone ran a red light and hammered me in my staff car. I’m still a bit sore and suffering lately from a bit of ill-temper.

If you’re interested, I have written a few extra lines on the police chase here. Also, our Metro Photo Editor Teak Phillips added a very insightful comment regarding his decision-making process on the metro desk.

Our staff did a terrific job sticking with this event. The key to coverage of these things is to be able to put several people in positions to cover the outcome from different angles while having somebody in the newsroom monitoring police traffic and, if available, live television coverage.
As soon as I heard that the chase had turned back toward St. Louis, I had one photographer go to the MLK bridge and another to the I-70 depressed section, figuring that the chase would cross one of them. Anthony Soufflé happened to be in the right place at the right time when the suspect vehicle stopped. David Carson and Erik Lunsford were both right behind the chase so they, too, were able to make great photos of the event. Ultimately, the news of the chase was relatively minor, but that’s not something we know until it’s over and officials release information.