Today’s guest came highly recommended from past guest Gabrielle Geiselman. Drew Gardner is a world renown photographer out of the United Kingdom who’s been in the business for three decades this year. He is respected by the best in the business and has a great story. He quit high school at 15-1/2 and began working as a pro at 16. He is completely self-taught. In this interview Drew talks about his history, what it was like as a young boy hearing stories about raids on Londoon during WWII from his grand parents, his relationship with his parents and how that has affected his photography, and the relationship with his own daughter. He also talks about what he feels is the future of the industry: the HD DSLR revolution.
You can keep up to date with Drew and his work on is blog: www.thedarkart.com.
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Bumper music for this show is “Close to You” by Steve Hefter and Friends of Friends, part of the “TRUE ROMANCE” collection, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
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Next week we have photojournalist turned wedding photographer Matt Mendelsohn.
Seems like every industry has those young wunderkinds that accomplish more in just a few years at a young age that many professionals do their entire lives. Today’s guest is Joey Lawrence. No, not the 80s teen heart throb, but the young pro photographer from Canada made famous for his work shooting the “Twilight” movie poster. As of the taping of this interview, the dude had just turned 20 a week earlier. In this engaging interview we get up close and personal with Joey. He shares with us how he got into photography, what he likes to shoot and why, how we got into pro photography, and he shares some stories about his travels to Africa that may make you cringe. (NOTE: due to the graphic nature of one of his stories, parental guidance is suggested). He also chimes in on his feelings about using tools like Photoshop. This interview will either inspire you, or piss you off that he’s done so much at a young age. Hopefully, it’ll be the former.
Remember you can catch a new episode each week at fstopbeyond.tv and you can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/fstopbeyond.
Bumper music for this show is “Close to You” by Steve Hefter and Friends of Friends, part of the “TRUE ROMANCE” collection, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
SUPPORT FSB AND GET A GREAT THANK YOU GIFT
Speaking of Triple Scoop Music, as a sponsor and long-time supporter, they are offering a great gift. As a listener supported show, your donations will help keep our great programming going. You can donate whatever amount you feel comfortable. But, for those of you who donate $20 or more, Triple Scoop Music will give you a song of your choice from their collection of over 5,000 amazing tunes you can use legally in your slideshow or video productions. That’s a $60 value for only a $20 donation. Not bad. Just click the “Donate Now” button below and the rest is self-explanatory. Only while supplies last, so act now.
And now, on with the show.
http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://blip.tv/file/get/Fstopbeyond-FSB100JoeyL650.mp3
Download MP3 | Subscribe in iTunes |
We’re back from our month-long hiatus. And I’m really excited about the lineup we have over the next few weeks. Today’s guest got a D- in his high school photography class because he didn’t take the kind of pictures he was supposed. He took the pictures he wanted to take. Ever since then, L.A. fashion and commercial photographer Jason Christopher has been a rebel. After working as a stand-in in Hollywood and being amazed with the lighting set up, he decided to quite to pursue photography. It was very hard at first. He even went through a time where his utilities were turned off. But he didn’t want to ask his parents, so he hit the streets, going to modeling agencies, doing head shots, etc. He then got the opportunity to work under celebrity photographer Jerry Avenaim and things took off. In this episode, Jason talks about the importance of knowing business, the difference between the industry now and how it was back in the film days and now, the importance of knowing the greats, and the value of sharing.
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Next week we have celebrated San Francisco wedding photographer Anna Kuperberg. Don’t miss this one folks!
I don’t know what it is about Nashville, but it seems like they have a knack of churning out amazing pro photographers in a short period of time. A few weeks ago we had celebrity portrait photographer Jeremy Cowart who started out as a graphic designer, then switched to commercial photography, and now after only about 4 short years, he’s photographed the likes of Sting, a bunch of other celebrities, and was the official photographer of Britney Spears’ Circus tour. Today, we have a good friend of Jeremy and a wildly successful photographer in his own right. David Bean is also in Nashville, started out as a graphic designer, switched to photography, and now only about five years into this business is a sought-after celebrity portrait and commercial photographer. My wife discovered his website and brought it to my attention when she read a blog post of his where he decided to take a sabbatical from self promotion. After reading that, I knew I had to have him on the show.
David story is such an inspiring one. He talks about how he got his start, how his faith and morals play into his business (in one year he turned down $90,000 from two jobs), how sharing and building relationships have helped him, and ironically how a month after his sabbatical from self-promotion, he made more money in one month than he’s ever made in his life. I think you’ll find both David’s passion, experience, and advice very enlightening. (Oh, and you’re going to love the story he tells near the end of the interview about the “grumpy” old-school guy who sent David a seething email after David invited him to a workshop.) Enjoy.
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Due to some travel and work, the next two weeks we’re going to have re-runs. Then in September we’re back with all new episodes, starting off with the bright and energetic portrait photographer Jen Basford of 3 Girls Photography.
This week we continue our re-run of the Photog Entrpreneur series from last year about this time with Scott Bourne. Scott is a nationally recognized leader in the field of photography and technology. His 30 year experience as a pro photographer has covered the entire gamut: fashion; sports; commercial; and yes, even weddings. In the 90s he made it big with the IPO of NetRadio.com (the first online radio network) and then retired. He was co-founder of the popular podcast This Week in Photography, and he is currently the producer and host for the photography podcast Photo Focus. To give you an idea of how big Scotts following is, when Photo Focus launched a couple of months ago, it immediately rose to the #1 technology podcast on the iTunes store.
Scott has written numerous books and is an avid teacher. He has recently been added to the speaking docket for the highly anticipated Skips Summer School occurring this August 16-19 in Las Vegas.
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Sometime the stars all align for a guy and an innate talent can quickly lead to super stardom. Jeremy Cowart is such an individual. He started his full time commercial and music editorial photography business in April 2005. In December of that year he was photographing music legend Sting (yeah, as in the ex-lead singer of “The Police”. When he was first discovered by his agent, he didn’t even know what an agent was). It’s been all up hill from there. His client list reads like a who’s who of entertainment: Sting, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cirus, Denise Richards, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, ABC, E!, Fox, FX, Capitol Records, Island Records, and on and on and on. Last year he was the official photographer for the Christian concert tour Passion (comprised of four of the top bands in the Christian music scene), and he was the official photographer for Britney Spears’ Circus tour (talk about diametrically opposed. 
Oh, and did I mention he has NO formal photography education? Crazy man!
In this insightful interview, Jeremy tells us the story of his path to success, what life on the road for months at a time is like (hard when you have a wife and two kids waiting at home for you), where he gets his inspiration, and how his faith plays into his work. He also talks about his first foray into video production shooting his first music video for the group Abandon (using a 5D Mark II of course). He mentions on the blog post for that video how he just jumped into it without knowing anything about video (kind of like how he started in photography). I’m confident you’ll find this another inspiring interview.
Next week we have mother/daughter portrait photog sensations Sana Antisdel and Kia Bondurant of Antisdels Photography. Another example of an uber-successful studio in a small town.
At some point you have to ask yourself, why am I doing this?
If youre not familiar with your own subconscious, when it does arrive, it will scare the s#*! out of you. ~ Gray Scott
I first discovered Gray Scott at liveBooks Photographers in Focus video series. His work has a brooding, almost eerie sensibility about it. After watching the short video, I knew that hed be a terrific guest for the show. His sense as an artist, his talent, and his passion for his work are right up our alley. Whats even more amazing is that hes gained a great deal of success in the commercial and fashion world after only picking up a camera five years ago. His artistic career started with oil painting as a kid. But somewhere down the line he got into make-up of all things. But, whether it was a desire to be the guy in charge (as opposed to just the support staff), or his need to say something with his work, he dove into professional photography full time (he was shooting his first editorial only after 3 months). In this very inspiring and vulnerable interview, Gray shares with us about his career growth, his view as an artist, the pain in his past that has such a profound influence on his work, and how his work has evolved over the years. You get a sense that hes a man on a quest. For those of you who are passionate artists, Grays words will be like honey to your ears. This is quintessential F-Stop Beyond. Enjoy.
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Next week we return to the world of social media with the woman who actually came up with the name WordPress. Wedding and boudoir photographer and social media maven Christine Big Pink Cookie Tremoulet.
“You know, the thing that stops everybody is fear…If you don’t swing for the fences and take the risks, you’ll never achieve the dream.” ~ Doug Menuez
When you think of a photographer’s photographer, the kind of guy whose work and viewpoints on life inspire other greats, look no further than today’s guest, Doug Menuez. His 30+ year career has taken him from being a top notch, highly sought-after freelance photojournalist for top periodicals, to forming a multi-million per year commercial photo business working with Fortune 100 companies. Perhaps his most intriguing project to date was the 15 years he spent documenting the world of Silicon Valley. He’s had access to greats like Steve Jobs and John Doerr, and his work on the project was recently purchased by Stanford University for a proposed documentary. He’s even worked with Robert Redford to create a Sundance catalog. He’s had an amazing career. Despite his incredible financial and commercial success, Doug has also maintained his artistic integrity, at times turning down $100,000 (or greater) gigs because the creative wasn’t what he wanted. But, he’s been smart about it, creating a business plan for his career and sticking to it (kind of). No matter what kind of visual artist you are, this is an interview that will ignite your spirit. I’m excited for you all to hear it. This is one of those episodes you should just play on a continuous loop.
Next week due to a number of gigs I have to shoot and prep for, there won’t be time for me to put up a new show. So we’re going to have a re-run of my interview with “Reverie” director Vincent LaForet. Luckily, we were able to get an interview with him before he shot his ground-breaking short film with the pre-released Canon 5D Mark II. If you’re relatively new to the show and haven’t yet heard this interview, you won’t want to miss it.
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WHAT’S AHEAD
We have a plethora of amazing interviews down the pike from all aspects of photography. Scheduled guests include commercial photographer Gray Scott; new media darlings Christine Tremulet and Jack Hollingsworth; Senior Portrait Artist owners (mom and daughter team) Kia Bondurant and Sana Antisdel; photojournalist Ira Lippke; and we have a very special duo planned for June that I can’t say yet. They’re on the calendar, but their schedules are such things might change. But, trust me, when we have them, it’ll be BIG. So, there are many exciting things in the works. Stay tuned my friends.
Chase Jarvis is hot! (I mean that from the standpoint of his place in the industry, although he is a good looking guy too.) Chase is the youngest photographer to be named both a Nikon and Hasselblad Master. He was the guy Nikon hired to launch the D90 when it first came out. His commercial clientele have included Volvo, Reebok, REI, Helly Hanson, Windows Vista, and too many more for me to name. He’s also a motion picture and music video director, and has a passion for philosophy. In fact, he was getting a PH.D. in philosophy when he decided he wanted to pursue his artistic passion rather than continue to learn about dead white men (his words, not mine.) Prior to his pursuit of philosophy, he was about to go to medical school. He actually got up and walked out of his interview for medical school because it dawned on him right then he didn’t want to be a doctor.
Chase’s very first gig pursuing photography was a commercial one. He bypassed the traditional routes to commercial shooting. He was pad $500 for taking ski photos. Now he has a staff of five, travels the world, works with Fortune 500 companies, and directs film and videos. And, just like last week’s guest, Chase is 100% self taught. I am confident you will find this one of our more inspirational interviews. Chase covers everything from his take on appreciating the masters, the influence of philosophers and twentieth century artists on his work, how his love for art history and philosophy informs his work with art directors, the convergence of video and stills (he actually think the whole movie is UNDER-hyped), how one can make a move into the commercial world, and his disdain for the caste system in the photography industry (he gives much props to you wedding photographers out there.) Enjoy!
Today’s musical outro is Ten O Four by Trip Throttle, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
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Next week, video producer/photographer Curt Apanovich of PhotographyMentor.com chimes in on his take about the fusion of video and stills.
Scott Bourne is a nationally recognized leader in the field of photography and technology. His 30 year experience as a pro photographer has covered the entire gamut: fashion; sports; commercial; and yes, even weddings. In the 90s he made it big with the IPO of NetRadio.com (the first online radio network) and then retired. He’s spoken at a number of conferences (e.g. PPA, PMA), has authored four books, produces photography related tutorials on Lynda.com, and co-hosts and/or executive produces about a half-dozen various podcasts, including the hugely popular This Week in Photography. His following is huge. So much so that his decision to switch camera brands generated an incredible amount of buzz (and even garnered him death threats). In our continuing series this month on entrepreneur photographers, we get a peek into the life and mind of this photo luminary and hugely successful businessman.
Next week, don’t miss the inspiring interview with the owner of one of the most successful wedding studios in Southern California, Jim Kennedy.
