Me on the floor shooting a vampire called Deborah Ann Woll on a rooftop in Hollywood…
Me on the floor shooting a vampire called Deborah Ann Woll on a rooftop in Hollywood…
of course, I love digital and a lot of things connected to digital photography. But let me tell you, I miss my polas.
We used to take polaroids on every set, right after the makeup, the hairstyle, the styling was done, ready to start shooting, with those relaxed and private faces… not the ones you saw later in a magazine.
Here’s an old polaroid shot with a Mamiya in Key Biscayne, Florida.
How different points of view can differ for different people.
Looking at the same subject, NUMBERS.
Numbers are my last priority. I’ve never been taking care of how many visitors my website has. I’ve never been taking care of how many likes I have or comments or retweets. I’ve never been interested to do this job for money. I mean, we all work for money, but I’ve never been selling my time or my job for something I disagree.
And that’s a problem in this business.
Because all the people around me, all of them take the numbers like the very first priority of their job.
Every single day when I talk with them it’s all about how many visitors we had the day before on the website, projections about how we can turn the website in a very profitable business and so on.
Alexa ranking, followers, social networks, likes or dislikes. Posting with advertising messages inside, cooperating with brands and so much more.
Everything comes back to the numbers and you can imagine how difficult is for me and for them considering that I don’t care about social networks or likes. I don’t really care what other people think about me and I don’t really need to be a party man.
I have full respect for everything I just mentioned, but I’m just a very private person and I don’t need social networks to know how good or bad I am.
I try to do my best and I always think it’s not enough and I can do better, that’s my philosophy of life, with myself, with my daughter and with my horses.
Nothing for me it’s a matter of numbers but I respect all the people making the numbers a priority.
So, everything like twitter, instagram, facebook or pinterest and tumblr can mean money. I get it.
And this website is ranking high because a lot of people are coming back.
I started years ago not thinking to make any money and I’ll keep going that way.
I can of course talk about what I see and what I use like pro tools, but I must be free to tell the truth.
Numbers we can’t really live without…
Yes it’s crazy. Everyone is using the cameras to take a metering for the shooting. But in some cases I still ask my assistant to take a double check about the light, the direct and the bouncing light.
And very frequently I still do it myself. I love to have total control of the situation and I love to know exactly what the size of the light I’m working with.
Some of the guys I have on location still ask me what am I doing…
This is photography, not the old or the modern style, just photography. And metering is a strong part of it.
We can’t let the cameras to take control even of this side or we’ll end up one day that we’ll have camera shooting by themselves. That has nothing to do with real photography and creativity.
I don’t mean to say that we don’t have to trust in the cameras we work with, and I check the metering on the cameras I use every day, but sometimes I need a double check and I still check the light myself.
I will never let a camera to tell me how to use the light as I will never let one to tell me how to compose or to shoot.
I love metering.
It’s been since the very beginning, I was shooting in Paris and Milan and it was around 1994 and 1995 and I really loved to shoot clothes and models keeping that crazy idea of movement.
I know everyone during that time was searching for perfection and perfet forcus on the eyes… one more time I was not.
I was always looking for something that was not just a normal shot. I needed something more and I started to shoot blurry images both for editorials and campaigns.
But a magazine is not going to publish a blurry image unless they are Vogue or W magazine and this image had the same end.
So I’m happy is someone else can see the power of the beauty of Francia Raisa in this image and the little blurry is pushing this image even stronger.
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