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frequently asked questions
I tend to hear the same few questions all the time. Here are some answers.
(If I've missed something obvious, drop me a line.)
- I'd like to buy a print.
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As of January 1, 2007, prints are available only through my two galleries:
The Jen Bekman Gallery
6 spring street
new york city 10012
tel: 212.219.0166
info@jenbekman.com
wall space
600 First Avenue, Suite 322
Seattle, WA 98104
206.330.9137
info@wallspaceseattle.com
complete list of available prints and more details on purchasing
- How can I browse all your photos?
- Archives of all the photos on joe's nyc, listed by week, are kept on my about page, arranged chronologically starting with the current week and going all the way back to February 2004.
- My online fine art portfolio is maintained at my separate portfolio site.
- Would you list my photoblog on your site?
- Sorry, I no longer list photoblogs.
- Why do you use your middle initial?
- I go by "Joseph O. Holmes" to avoid confusion with famous photographer Joseph Holmes who preceded me. Holmes is not only an amazing nature photographer, but an internationally recognized expert on color spaces and digital printing.
- Are you showing prints anywhere / lecturing or teaching / appearing in magazines?
- Please sign up for my announcements mailing list, an occasional email about my photo activities and publications. (I don't ever sell or share email addresses.)
I maintain a list of exhibitions where my prints are hanging, though the list can get out of date at times until I have a chance to update it.
Finally, I also post news items on my sitenews blog.
- I would like to use one of your photos on my Website / brochure / CD cover / book cover...
- The images posted on the Web are licensed under a Creative Commons License. This means that you are allowed to make and use a copy (hosted on your server, not linked to mine) for noncommercial purposes as long as you give me credit and don't modify the image. Please credit "joseph o. holmes/joesnyc.com"
If you'd like to use an image for commercial purposes, or you'd like an image larger than what's on the Web (for print, for instance), email me. I typically charge a licensing fee. More details here.
- Are you available for assignments?
- Yes. Please email me and let me know what you need.
- How do I create a permanent link to today's photo?
- Click "previous," then click "next" (not "today"). The URL of that page is the permanent link.
- Which brand camera should I buy, Nikon or Canon?
- You can't go wrong with either Nikon or Canon, and I hear good things about recent and upcoming Sony, Pentax, and Olympus dSLRs.
- Which do you prefer: film or digital?
- Digital is so much easier. Film is so much more beautiful. It's a shame to have to choose. I spent a few decades shooting film and I paid my darkroom dues, but I'm 99% digital these days.
- What camera do you use / what lenses / what equipment?
- I shoot almost exclusively with a Nikon D200. My favorite walk-around lens is the Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 DX, but I'm also enjoying the Sigma 30mm f/1.4. (My favorite used to be the 12-24mm DX.) Sometimes I shoot with a Holga, a Diana, or a Yashica Mat. Many more details are on my Tools page.
- I'd like to take pictures like yours. What camera/lenses should I buy?
- If you use exactly the same equipment I use, your photos won't look like mine. But you already know that. I use some of the most common and popular digital SLRs and lenses on the market. That said, I believe it's harder to take excellent photos with anything less than an SLR. Not impossible, just harder.
- How much Photoshop work do you do on your photos?
- I almost always do a contrast bump and minor sharpening to all images I post on joe's nyc. For prints, I'll do a bit more. That said, my motto is "Shoot as if Photoshop had never been invented."
- What's your workflow?
- (Links to the products below are on my Tools page.)
I dump RAW files from the CF card into Microsoft Expression Media for review, trash the dogs, label the best few with yellow (7) tags, then import those into DxO tools where I use only two of the tweaks — the Optics fixes (distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting) and chrominance noise reduction (never luminance noise reduction). I save those files in .dng format so that I can open them in Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw, where I'll do minor contrast and brightness tweaks and fix the white balance (often in batches) by eye with the eyedropper.
In Photoshop, I'll do whatever needs doing — as little as possible. I use a few of Fred Miranda's inexpensive plug-ins for Web resizing, sharpening, and the rare black and white conversion.
Twice a month I add EXIF keyword tags to all the photos and then archive them onto DVD-ROM.
- I want to be a better photographer. What magazines or books should I read / what courses should I take / should I frequent the forums, mailing lists, Web sites...?
- You should get up out of your chair and take more pictures.
- You should also get out and look at real prints — galleries, museums, restaurant walls, whatever. Not books, not Web sites, not flickr. Real prints by good photographers.
- Do you teach photography?
- Three to four times a year, I teach a course called Digital Photography Shooting Workshop at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies, aimed at new dSLR owners and those who use a dSLR but want to improve. For four consecutive Saturdays, we walk around the city taking pictures. On the Wednesday evenings following the shooting day, we meet to view a sample of the pictures we took and talk about them.
- Your class is already full. Can you recommend another class, teacher, or school?
- I have no experience with the various schools and classes, so I can't recommend any.
- I think Jen Bekman would be impressed with my photos. Can you introduce me?
- Jen does not review portfolios. The only way to have Jen look at your pictures is to enter the quarterly Hey, Hot Shot competition. It was through that process that I became represented by Jen.
- How do you shoot people on the street? Do you ask permission? How do you get so close? I'm nervous about shooting strangers. Do people ever confront you?
- The way I take candid street shots of strangers is always different and always evolving. I use a huge variety of techniques to get candid shots, everything you can imagine. If I described those techniques, I would deprive you of the extremely valuable experience of getting out and discovering your own, superior methods. Imitating me is a dead end.
Finally, I only ask permission if I want a posed portrait, which is seldom.
- Displaying pictures of strangers will get you sued.
- I can't stop anyone from suing me, but they'll lose.
Don't take this as legal advice, but in the United States, it's not against the law to take pictures of strangers in public. It's also legal to show those pictures in galleries, magazines, books, etc.
A recent NY case ruled on the difference between commercial (e.g. advertising) purposes, which require a model release, and art, which is protected by the First Amendment.
Of course, you should use your best judgment. If you're uncomfortable shooting strangers, don't do it. Or ask permission, take posed street portraits, and get a model release.
- Hey, that's my friend in your street photo!
- Please have your friend drop me a line.
- Take a look at my Web site / my pictures / my photoblog design / my upcoming show.
- I take a look at all those URLs I get in email, but please don't be insulted if my response is limited to just a few words. I'm not qualified to offer a critique. One thing I've learned about photoblogs, though: if the first two or three photos don't grab me, I never end up clicking any deeper, and I never return.
- I like your Web site design. Can you help me with mine?
- I couldn't have designed my site without lots of help from Dave Nightingale at Chromasia, who shared his knowledge and even his code with a guy he'd never met in person. That's how Dave is. Sadly, that's not how I am. Also, despite Dave's help, my code is a hodgepodge of patches, leftover code, hacks, and cruft. I can't help you. Sorry.
- I'm coming to New York. We should go out shooting.
- I tend to be a loner when I shoot. Shooting with someone else — outside of Keith — makes me unproductive and cranky.
- Dear photoblogger - I'm writing my senior paper on photoblogs. Would you please answer the following thirty / forty / sixty essay questions about photography? I need your answers by tomorrow.
- Dear student - um, no.
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