The Day I Became ‘World Famous’

Jiuzhaigou National Park

NOTE FROM JONAH: Before I begin this tale, for those not from New York or New England — please re-read the headline above in your most sarcastic inner monologue.

In front of me was a perfectly still and prestine alpine lake. There was no trash floating in the water, the sky was clear of pollution and I couldn’t hear a single car honking its horn. This was not your average Chinese landscape.

Then, when the Chinese man in the tight suit said “Jonah Mathew Kessel” I walked forward on a red carpet in front of the amazing landscape. As I walked forward one of the theme songs to Star Wars began to echo across the alpine lake behind me. Trying to keep my composure and not laugh at the choice of music used for my introduction, I gave an unrehearsed speech describing the beauty of Jiuzhaigou National Park, found in Sichuan Province on the Tibetan Plateau.

Behind me was a circa 10 meter red banner that read “World Famous Photographers Focusing On The Fairyland — Jiuzhaigou.”

Jonah Giving Speech

I introduced myself in Chinese and quickly switched to English in my speech to a large Chinese crowd of nature lovers and photographers. As I spoke in English a translator would repeat after me, giving me time to look around and reflect upon the situation. I gave one of the most generic thank you speeches anyone has ever given and then watched as a flood of cameras and cell phones snapped photos of me shaking hands with the man in the suit.

As hundreds of people took the same picture of me, I looked at the sign again. It read “World Famous Photographers … “. While I didn’t know it when I woke up, this would be the day, someone decided myself and 11 other colleagues were “World Famous.” (Again, if you aren’t from New York or New England, please re-read the last sentence using your sarcastic voice).

It was one of the stranger moments of my three years in China … But let me rewind and help explain how and why I got to this stunning place.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Two Months Earlier

Two months earlier an art gallery called and asked if I would be interested in going to photograph Jiuzhaigou National Park. They said I could stay for as little as three days or longer if I wanted and it would be like a “paid vacation.” For going to the park, saying a one-minute speech, and giving them 20 photographs — they would give me 10,000 RMB ($1500) and cover all of my expenses.

The circumstances were a bit fishy but I decided to give it a go. I agreed to their terms and hung up the phone. Minutes later they called back and asked “By the way, do you know any other foreign photographers in China?”

If you throw a rock at a foreigner in Beijing, you are most likely going to hit either (a) an English teacher or (b) a photographer. Having thrown many rocks at foreigners in Beijing, I happen to know a lot of photographers (and a lot of pissed off English teachers). I asked them why and they told me they needed many foreign photographers to go. I asked how many they were looking for, and the woman replied — about 12 or 15.

And this is when I realized, I had just signed up for my first “white guy job.” If you are unfamiliar with this term — in China, some foreigners get jobs, simply because they are foreign, not really from any merit, skill or ability. Also important to note, “white” in this sense refers to anyone, not from China.

My friend Mitch Moxley is actually writing a book about this right now. His book, tentatively titled “Tall Rice” details some of the funny jobs you can get in China, just by being foreign. Mitch uses these experiences to talk about greater topics from China.

Journalist Mitch Moxley’s TALL RICE: The High and Low Adventures of a Foreigner in China, inspired by the article “Rent a White Guy” in The Atlantic, chronicles Moxley’s outrageous adventures in Beijing, from fake businessman to Chinese propagandist to low-budget music video star, a young man’s search for identity in the most unexpected of places, to Katie Salisbury at Harper Perennial, by Stephanie Sun at Weed Literary (World English).

Based upon some of Mitch’s earlier writings on the topic we can definitely expect a fun read from this one due out in the summer of 2013. Check out some hilarious experts already published by the Atlantic Monthly here:

While I had heard a lot of tales from Mitch and others about jobs like this, I had yet to really take part.

Foreign Photographers

Although this was a bit of a “white guy job” — it was certainly a “white photographer guy job.” I called some friends and got a few signed up to either (a) endure or (b) enjoy the trip with me, pending on how it would go. Amongst photographers who joined me were the immensely talented Chi Yin Sim, Peter Carney, Jeff Lau, Keith Bedford and Jasper James.

While some of our foreign group were indeed photographers, a couple others slipped in — including some architects and some Italians who seemed to be more interested in smoking cigarettes than taking pictures.

Miss Jiuzhaogou 2012

The group was carted around for a couple days attending some very stereotypical Chinese events including an enormous banquet featuring traditional song and dance accompanied by a fog machine, bubble machine, snow machine, laser light show and a completely out of place psychedelic backdrop.

Our group was also given front row seats to the 2011 Miss Jiuzhaigou Finals. Hundreds of others crammed in behind us to get a look. But hey — we were now world famous. World famous photographers only sit in the front. The competition was hot, but in the end contestant number 9 took this years crown, although I was really rooting for number 6.

And just to put your mind a rest, in case you were wondering — in a Tibetan beauty pageant, there is no swimsuit contest.

Following these exciting events, we heard countless speeches by low level officials from … well, I’m not exactly sure where they were from.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Back at The Gorgeous Lake

Back at the gorgeous lake I was not the only one who had become “world famous” — the architect, the businessman, the smoking Italians and my five photographer friends were also now “world famous.”

When the ceremony was finished the large crowd dispersed. The group of world famous photographers would then spend three days photographing this amazing spot. Throughout these days, people who had seen the ceremony would continually stop me asking to take my picture or to talk to me. This was a strange juxtoposition.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

On one hand, I was photographing an amazing place. There was countless half frozen waterfalls, amazing walking paths surrounded by fields of moving water and clear lakes everywhere.

In a place like this, I think its actually hard to take bad pictures. And while the scenerio was beautiful, on the other hand, I felt a bit foolish being there. Knowing that it wasn’t the quality of my pictures that mattered, but the color of my skin that was important.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

A beautiful picture by a Chinese photographer, would not have been wanted. While China is certainly booming in some areas, in other areas there still seems to be so much value put on image — that all logic is forgotten.

While this did bother me, the place itself is simply fantastic. This I suppose, is the dichotomy of the “white photographer guy” job.

For more information and photography from Jiuzhaigou National Park — see last week’s post here.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

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Read more.. Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Not Your Average Chinese Landscape

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Mind-boggling. Exciting. Funny. Diverse. Contradictory.

There are so many words one can use to describe China. But one word I would not necessarily use is beautiful. While China is often stunning, it is rarely stunningly beautiful.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

In my three years in China, I’ve traveled to about 25 provinces. And after going to all of these place, very rarely would the word beautiful come to mind when describing them. Sometimes I end up in beautiful villages, however they are usually extremely poor and trash is almost inevitably scattered across the landscape. And when you do see stunningly beautiful areas in China, you are usually surrounded by 20,000 of your closest comrades.

Interesting, exciting, funny, diverse — sure. But beautiful — not necessarily.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

However, last week I had the opportunity of visiting Jiuzhaigou National Park on the TIbetan Plateau in Northern Sichuan. And after three years in China, this marked the first time for me that I found a place — stunningly beautiful. Although I was not alone, compared to visiting the Forbidden City, this place was like visiting a ghost town. While in the summer, crowds soar here, in the winter it feels much more like the Sierra Nevada than China.

The national park, which is indeed a famous tourist attractions in China, is also an UNESCO World Heritage Area. UNESCO describes the area as:

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Stretching over 72,000 ha in the northern part of Sichuan Province, the jagged Jiuzhaigou valley reaches a height of more than 4,800 m, thus comprising a series of diverse forest ecosystems. Its superb landscapes are particularly interesting for their series of narrow conic karst land forms and spectacular waterfalls. Some 140 bird species also inhabit the valley, as well as a number of endangered plant and animal species, including the giant panda and the Sichuan takin.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Although the park does get crammed full of tourists in the summer and fall, during winter — for the most part this place was extremely empty for Chinese standards.

The road through the park gives very good access to countless waterfalls and lakes. The fauna and landscape are perhaps the only place I’ve been in the world that reminded me of Yosemite National Park. I’m not sure if the rock climbing crowd has truly explored this area, but even from the road, it looks like there is an endless amount of untouched surfaces to climb.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

For me this was a great change of pace and it reminded me — there are still pristine areas left in China not completely over run by tourism, pollution or enormous sky scrappers. The facilities that were there, were actually very nice. There were a few resorts scattered around the park and within the park hundreds of kilometers of walking trails — many of which are on very cool wooden paths surrounded by waterfalls on all sides.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Photographically, getting to this park in the winter was truly a treat. Waterfalls, ice and gray skies make some longer exposures during day time hours pretty easy. At f/32, ISO 50 I could get a lot of exposures up to 1.5 seconds and create some nice motion blut. If I were to go back, I would surely bring an ND filter. I saw a couple Chinese photographers with ND filters shooting 30 second+ exposures, which I would love to see how they turned out.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

Beyond long exposure waterfall photography the color of the park is very cool. The alpine lakes remind me of those I had seen in New Zealand and in volcanic areas in Hawai’i. Unique minerals in the area create some amazing colors in the water. Combined with some stunning visibility, the colorful lakes contrast very nicely against the white snow and green trees.

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

According to Wikipedia:

Seven of the nine Tibetan villages are still populated today. The main agglomerations that are readily accessible to tourists are Heye, Shuzheng and Zechawa along the main paths that cater to tourists, selling various handicrafts, souvenirs and snacks. There is also Rexi in the smaller Zaru Valley and behind Heye village are Jianpan, Panya and Yana villages. Guodu and Hejiao villages are no longer populated.

While we did visit some of the villages, like many Tibetan things I’ve seen, the areas seemed a bit fake and people were scarce. However, our guide told us we could rest assured “The Tibetan people here are both very happy and rich.” Sadly, the current series of self-immolation monks is just around the corner from this area … The propagandized statement was just one of many our guide would make.

Oh yes … my guide. The circumstances in which I was being guided around this place is a story in itself.

And while the story itself is not nearly as beautiful as the park, it is a pretty entertaining and includes me walking down a red carpet to the music from Star Wars.

Ill tell that tale next …

Juizhaigou National Park - Sichuan Province

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Read more.. Saturday, January 14th, 2012

The Strap that Changed My Life

Blackrapids RS-7 Side View


I can break all reviews into two categories: those that are solicited, and those that are not. This is the latter. And I write this unsolicited review because I believe Blackrapid’s straps have changed my life in a significantly positive way.

Jonah Kessel with Blackrapid's RS-7

DSLR News Shooter is a great resource for finding out about new gear and user opinions of the most up to date technology. Looking at the past couple weeks there are reviews of new cameras, new sliders, new glass and even a new user medium. As technology (and our gear habits) advance its easy to forget about some of the most basic parts of our kit.

But its ok, Blackrapid has not. The relatively nascent company rethought the most basic element of our kit — the strap.

Here’s how it works:

Blackrapids RS-7 Screw

FasternR System: Each strap uses a small screw which attaches to your cameras tripod mount. Between the screw and the camera is a small rubber washer unit which both protects the camera from getting scratched as well as stops the screw from unintentional loosening. After two years of using the system — the screw has never become loose enough to which it came even close to following off. I’ve climbed mountains, crossed rivers and sat on the side of helicopters with cameras hanging from this screw.

Blackrapids RS-7 on Canon 60D

ConnectR System: On the other side of the camera mount is Blackrapid’s ConnectR System — which is essentially a carabiner that allows the FasternR to swivel. These two items together make an amazing combination because you can have the camera move at your side, without the strap moving — or without needing to adjusted your clothing as you move. The straps then sling either diagonally (RS models) across the chest or vertically down the torso (DR models), distributing weight across the entire body.

Blackrapids RS-7
Blackrapid Diagram

Comfort Level: The strap has done wonders for my physical health, but beyond general comfort Blackrapid has made a strap that is completely adjustable to any body type. On each strap — there are two “stoppers” which can be placed where the user wants the camera to either fall or stop when at desired shooting position. If you place these right, pulling your camera up from your side will be smooth and the camera will stop exactly where you feel comfortable shooting. In addition, Blackrapid make’s male and female models for … varying chest shapes.

Health: For years after work I had neck and back pain from using traditional camera straps that place a heavy weight across the neck. Within weeks of changing straps, I actually felt physically better. I was less soar, my posture improved and I even began to sleep better.

Crowded Street

Mobility: Here I am in sunny India. I often find myself shooting in crowded places. With Blackrapid’s straps, the camera hangs upside down, and you can rest the camera either on your hip or toward the small of your back. Either way, the camera is not sitting right under your face like a bullseye. This is great for a number of reasons. In a crowd like the one above you can sneak through protecting the camera with your body. Second, the straps allow you to hide the camera. In Bihar, India (where the average annual income is $350) you might stick out a bit being foreign and walking around with $10,000 around your neck. When using Blackrapid straps in dodgy places, you can keep the camera out of direct site, making it a little easier to blend in and possibly — a little bit safer.

The system also allows you to use your hands for other stuff, while still keeping the cameras safe. Below, I’m using a Blackrapid DR-1 Double Strap, moving a three meter jib with a Canon 60D on it, with a Canon 7D and Canon 5DMII safely at my sides.

Jonah Kessel with DR-1 Blackrapid's Double Strap

For video oriented DSLR photographers: These things are great. I hate shooting video with a strap attached to the camera. Blackrapid straps come instantly on and off. Since I normally have multiple cameras rolling the straps come in handy all the time when one camera becomes unneeded but I want to have either a lens or a camera on standby.

For still oriented photographers: These things are also great. Above, I’m at a Prada Show shooting a new collection of clothing. While its great to have 10 lenses with you, sometimes space is an issue and being nimble helps. With one Blackrapid DR-1 Double Strap I can shoot all night with two cameras, no bags and no accessories needed to tie around my waste. For fashion, news and wedding photographers two cameras and two lenses is often enough.

MODS: There’s also a ton of add-ons and modifications that work with these things. when shooting stills a Brad which helps stabilize the camera a little.

Normally, I’m not so head over heals, “ready to propose” about a product — but between the utility and the physical health benefit — this one definitely has me.

Photos of me using Blackrapid’s straps by Swedish photographer Jojje Olsson. See his site here.

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Read more.. Friday, December 16th, 2011

Dissemination and the Art of Entrepreneurial Journalism


NOTE FROM JONAH: The following blog post is a guest lecture I am giving to the International Multimedia Journalism MA in Beijing, Wednesday night. The course is based in Beijing, and is a collaboration between the Beijing Foreign Studies University and the University of Bolton in the UK. The course leader is Dr DJ Clark.

DISCLAIMER 1: Dear Biel Calderon, Stephanie Thiedig, Mark Esplin, Joseph Djima, Dirk Claus, Jeff Kennel, Lui Chen, Tracey Shelton, Michela Orlandi, Olga Papakonstantopoulou, Yi Song, Lee Ryan Perkins, Chen Mai, DJ Clark, Sharon Lovell and BFSU social media and photography students,

In talking about online promotion for photographers, there is no correct answer. There are certainly best practices, things to avoid and techniques to help, but the information that follows this note is simply my quasi-guerilla (social) warfare technique that I employ to promote me, my photography and my business. The online atmosphere for #togs is constantly changing and in many ways, to stay up to date with the blogosphere, microblogosphere and visual communities — would be a full time job. While we have other full time jobs already, doing every step below, every day, is simply not always possible … but we can sure try.

DISCLAIMER 2: Yes, I am promoting myself, by talking about promotion.


WHY SHOULD WE PROMOTE OURSELVES?

The first question we might ask before we get into how I go about promoting myself, might be — why should we promote ourselves?

We are currently living in an over-saturated photographic world. Nothing says this better than the latest iPhone update. While the phone has improved a small bit, the big push from Apple this round was a photographic update. For $399 mobile phone users now have an 8MP camera and a video camera shooting 1080P at 30 fps. Apple’s attention to this detail (over some more practical things) is certainly a testament to the world’s current obsession with photography.

Meatheads with an iPhone

Given that the average meathead has at least 8 MP in their pocket, and thousand of talented graduates come out of J-school, photography school or multimedia programs like yourselves every year, it becomes increasingly important that we as professionals not only separate ourselves from the general amateur photo community, but also within the professional community.

By promoting ourselves efficiently we gain two things. First and most importantly, we gain eyes on our work. Second and also most importantly, we gain income. While some will disagree, our work is heavily based on technology that is constantly changing and improving. To keep these toys in our hands, we need money. Increasing our revenues to keep up with technology is important (as is money to live comfortably while tackling this competitive world).

While no one will put a knife to your throat saying “promote!!!” there is a great risk in not promoting because everyone else will be doing it. This has a semi-swing effect for photographers who don’t have web sites, have no Google klout or place in online social communities. At least from the public perception and online eye, you could become buried under those who do. For some this is very tough. I have plenty of friends who truly dislike social media and online promotion — but who are great photographers. You can chose not to play the game, but given the online environment for #togs, you are walking a slippery line.


PREPRODUCTION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM: YOURNAME.COM

When I was going through J-school I was always told — if you are looking for money, you might want to try the business school across campus. Post univisity, in my first years as a staffer at newspapers I was paid the equivalent of peanuts by Swift Communications, a chain of newspapers in America’s west.

While you probably won’t become a millionaire by being a photojournalist, for the entrepreneurial journalist there is a world of financial opportunity out there. To get a piece of this, you need to think about your images, as your business.

Freelancers often think about themselves as independent contractors going from job to job. This is true. However, what you are really doing is creating a business. So whether you sell cupcakes, lemonade or photos — you should have a plan. Brand yourself as your business. Branding is essential to any business.

The first step to this branding, is creating a web site. And the first step in creating a web site is creating a name for your web site. I see a lot of questionable decisions at this early stage of the game.

Do you want to brand your name or some other abstract title? For example, you might have a portfolio site that has lots of breathtaking photos form Asia. You want a web site to show case this work and call it “asiaphoto.com.” Now, let’s say this site becomes popular. The average person will now know asiaphoto.com instead of your name (.com). I see this very often with nascent production companies and individuals who chose a name which makes them look like companies. In the much more likely scenario that the business doesn’t succeed, you’ve also wasted time branding a business that doesn’t exist anymore, while you as a person, photographer and business — will always exist.

My first web site was called kesselimaging.com. This site branded “Kessel Imaging” which was actually just me. After a couple years I decided to pull the plug and stop wasting time promoting an ephemeral brand, and instead brand me (a real person … I think) and moved my branding efforts to jonahkessel.com.

• For more on entrepreneurial journalism check out Steve Buttry’s post “Jonah Kessel and Carmen Sisson discuss entrepreneurship and photojournalism” here.


STEP ONE: YOUR ONLINE BACKBONE

Jonah_Kessel_livebooks_website

The backbone to my online presence is my web site (not to be confused with my blog, photoblog, microblog, etc.). First, in no way does Facebook “cut it” as “your website”. Neither does Flickr, Picasa or some other photo sharing site.

I meet photographers almost daily who don’t have personal Web sites. Many of these folks will have Flickr pages or Facebook pages — but don’t be confused, these become largely invisible to the public eye, expanded social networks and bots who will be your friends in getting visitors, clients and eyes on your work.

While bots are increasingly indexing social media, by hosting your works on these sites, you end up promoting them, sometimes more than yourself. They gain traffic. They gain Google status. And perhaps worst off,they can gain the rights to your media. On an subconscious level or psychological level, hosting your content exclusively on a social media site such as Facebook or Flickr, can create an unprofessional association with your work.

BEST PRACTICES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS CORE WEB SITES: The top five concerns I have with my site, and also the top four problems I see with other photographers’ sites are: usability, compatibility, search-ability, share-ability and load times. Let’s quickly go through these elements:

  • USABILITY: On a basic level, your web site should be easy to use. In fact, it should be so easy to use — an idiot should be able to navigate. For the busy client who is checking dozens of photographers’ sites, fancy and hidden buttons can turn mean a click off or closed tab.
  • COMPATIBILITY: Your web site should function not only across all browsers but all platforms — and for all users. jonahkessel.com may look like a flash built site, but there’s more than meets the eye backstage. Underneath the flash site is a mirror HTML site for users who don’t have flash as well as for bots who are indexing content. There is also a site for mobile users, a site for tablet users and another site for disabled users.
  • SEARCH-ABILITY: Photographers who simply have one flash built site lose a tremendous amount of traffic because bots can’t truly search the content of the site. Every image on jonahkessel.com has: (1) file names specifically labeled for SEO, keywords specifically labeled for SEO, titles specifically labeled for SEO. While this information is not contained in the flash built site, it is contained in the HTML site. When bots cruise the Web they see this information, index it and then make it available for users and potential clients browsing. Then when they click the link, the images forward to the flash built site. If your content is not searchable or findable, its almost as good as it not being there.
  • SHARE-ABILITY: I’m assuming you are all children of the 21st century and understand the power of sharing. A viral video or a photo can take off putting millions of eyes on your work. Let’s hope that content links back to you — but in the meantime, let’s make sure there is a sharing button accessible ALL OF THE TIME. By not having these buttons easily accessible, or accessible at all, you are simply loosing out to potential traffic, eyes and income.
  • LOAD TIMES: Unlike print journalists, our media unfortunately requires some space. It is critical to keep file sizes on videos and photos down to the smallest point possible. A long load time can be the difference between a click off and view. You could have the best content in the world, but if it takes too long to see it — no one will.

There are about a thousand choices for web sites. For the past three years I have been a client of Livebooks, a company who makes web sites for photographers. For the most part, I’ve been very satisifed. The company has lots of options including custom options. Might site is custom built off of my own functionality and front end visual design.

jonahkessel.com backend

The company allowed me to give them the blueprints of how everything should work and look, and then they build the back end. The back end (in screenshot above) has a graphic user interface that makes managing the web site extremely simply, easy and fast. When I update the GUI, it updates the site and all mirror sites (including mobile and tablet sites). While this isn’t free — I couldn’t imagine updating 6 web sites manually every time I make a small change. The money spent on the site surely is made up in productivity time later.

In my continued efforts to brand myself as a business, the details of the site will also cross into the upcoming topics. Fontography, color schemes, link functionality and logos will be cross-branded across all of my web sites. Although these are small details and are largely ignored, the subconscious effect of branding continued out over multiple platforms turns you as an individual — into a brand.

You can sell a brand. Selling yourself is much more difficult … or illegal (in most places).


Jonah Kessel's Blogs

STEP TWO: YOU HAVE A SITE, NOW WHAT?

After creating jonahkessel.com, my goal was to create a continued traffic stream to it. While there are a number of ways to do this, we can split it up to a couple key categories: the blogosphere, the microblogosphere and social media communities. By engaging in these three keys elements, you will bring direct traffic to your site, while creating a Google ranking that will bring clients to your doorstep.

  • BLOGOSPHERE: The site you are currently viewing is my blog, hosted by Wordpress. This site, named “Nomadically Curious Visual Thoughts” (note visual branding/attention to myname.com over title in logo) is dedicated to long form blogging and details images I take from traveling, as well as commentary about work I do. The general topics are journalism, photography, technology, video, China and travel. In an active month I will update it eighth to ten times. In a inactive month (which probably means I’m too busy to even sleep) I will update it two or three times. Since I am always working or traveling — there is never a shortage of items to blog about.

    The Wordpress community is often a more mature community and technically sound one, than some of its counterparts (i.e. Blogger, Tumblr, etc.). People who use Wordpress generally know HTML (at least enough to update a blog) and in general, the professional blogosphere is found here.

    I also host a photo blog called “Good Light and Good Luck” hosted on Tumblr. The Tumblr environment is very very different to that of the Wordpress community. In general demographics of users seem to be much younger. Narrowcasting seems to be much greater in the Tumblr environment as well. While in the Wordpress arena we see blogs on China or technology for example, on Tumblr, topics are widdled down to a much more specific level. Some of my favorite examples of narrowcasting on Tumblr include Kim Jong-il Looking at Things, Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Beiber, Fuck Yeah Girls on Bikes and Awesome People Hanging out Together.

    I do believe a monkey could use Tumblr. Its extremely simply, extremely efficient and requires no knowledge of HTML. While I target a general audience with my Wordpress, I am targeting a younger demographic with the Tumblr blog. However, my Tumblr account is linked directly to my Twitter account and Facebook account, and these are updated simultaneously to a Tumblr post.

    The photoblog I update (at least) every day. However, this process is automated. About once a month I will update the blog for the next 30 days. I program the system to release one picture a day that includes a large caption with some backstory about the photo. I initially started this blog as a simply traffic fishing device that required little effort; however, over time I have come to like the community and its ability to focus on very narrow subjects.

    My Google Analytic report for last year shows my Wordpress blog as the eighth largest traffic generator toward my mane site, and Tumblr coming in at eleventh.

  • MICROBLOGOSPHERE: While my blogs rank eight and eleventh in traffic generators to my main site, microblogs are ranking much higher, coming in at third, only behind Google and direct traffic. When I talk about microblogging I am primarily talking about Twitter. I believe Twitter is the single greatest tool we have for promoting ourselves as photographers; however, without the assets listed above (site, blogs) it becomes a much different beast.

    Twitter is something that has become integrated not only into my work but my life. It is always on. While I have backed off a bit compared to where I was at about a year ago (in terms of time actually spent watching Twitter feeds), it is still an intrigal part of my life. It connects me people who see and view my work. It gives me the opportunity to let those people who do follow my work, do follow it as it develops.

    From posting cell phone photos during shoots, to talking about the process as it happens from shoot to edit, Twitter helps me create transparency in what I do. People ask me questions daily about photography, technology and the stories I am working on. As a journalist I believe transparency in our work creates exponential value to our content. When readers, viewers or users have a connection to both the content and journalist, this becomes a lot easier.

    Making Twitter an effective tool for promoting is not as simple as just placing a link to your content when it becomes available. In fact, per article you publish you might have a specific roll out plan just for Twitter in how to best promote your work. But first, you need an active community of followers and aggregators to help spread your links around. And this means actually being part of the community, helping to promote other journalists and photographers works and engaging in dialogue.

    If you have 100,000 followers, but you are not active with them — the tool will be much less powerful. However, 200 active followers can be a huge help in getting your work into their networks.

    Here’s a couple things I keep in mind when using Twitter to promote my work:

    • TIME ZONES: Your followers most likely follow many people, and probably exist in many time zones. Therefor, if you post something once at 9:00 am its probably unrealistic to think Sahid in Qatar, Jaques in France and Chen in China all see the link. This makes it necessary to post things for different audiences in different time zones. Now look at times during the day when people might most likely be online.

      Right before lunch, when desk employees are killing time before they can take off. Right after lunch, when people don’t want to do work cause they are tired and full. Maybe 45 minutes after people arrive at work and are finished checking their work emails and thinking about how long till lunch. 30 minutes before the end of the work day is another great time when the Twittesphere becomes very active.

      If you post during those times and based on different time zones, you’re sure to get a little more attention.

      However, if you post the exact same Tweet twice, or Tweet too often, you’re followers will likely be annoyed with you for clogging up streams with content they’ve already seen. There is a fine balance between tweeting often enough, but not too often to be annoying.

      To give your followers more than just your content its important to stagger tweets linking back to your content, with tweets leading elsewhere, or commentary on other people’s works. If I put out a big piece that I thought could really go viral, I would link out to it every four hours for a day, and in between link to other things. With an article that was not as important, I might do it twice in a day (once for the Eastern hemisphere and one for the West – usually separated by 12 hours exactly).

    • TIMED TWEETS: You may be thinking … well, that seems like a lot of work. And it is. However, you don’t need to be sitting next to a computer the entire day waiting for 4:30 to roll around in every time zone. Instead you can use tools to automate Twitter. For example, right now, I am talking to you; however, I have programmed Twitter to automatically send tweets out during this lecture every 10 minute pointed at one of your Web sites.

      Having a presence on Twitter during all time zones will create a bigger following in more places. So take advantage of technology and tweet while you are sleeping.

    • SEO: You only have 140 characters, and Google is watching, so make them count. Just like writing a good headline, writing a good Tweet will make be clip or pass over.
  • SOCIAL COMMUNITIES: Beyond Twitter and the microblogosphere, other online social communities are critical in creating traffic to your sites. Last year, Facebook ranked fourth (only behind direct traffic, Google and Twitter) in generating traffic to jonahkessel.com. In the last six months of this year, Vimeo ranked eight, with stumbleupon, YouTube, Google+ all also ranking in the top 20.

    Social communities can build your profile independently of your web sites as well. Today (November 23, 1:52pm), I had 2,300 views on Vimeo alone. This doesn’t count YouTube, Youku and Toudu where I also host videos.

STEP THREE: BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

So far, we’ve discussed the basics of online promotion. This is the bare minimum. However, if you want to excel I believe with each article or project you produce you can have a promotion plan and weasel your content into more places. Let’s take a couple examples, going from simple to some more complicated methods.

THE TEASER: If movies can have teasers, why can’t you? As cinematic journalism increases you’ll probably see more of this. I’m currently working on a project for Save the Children documenting disabled people around China. On December 1 a series of six videos will release on a new channel on Youku to promote the NGO and the channel. The videos are funded by the European Union as well as Save the Children.

The client requested a teaser to help promote their screening as well as the upcoming online dissemination. This can be a great money maker because, hey, its easy. Most of the content will already be ready to go: edited, color graded, codec-ed, etc.


THE REEL: In the past, it was normally just cinematographers, cameraman and movie people making reels. However, in the realm of cinematic journalism putting images with music can create a great self promotional tool. Having a reel ready, also opens up the doors to working outside of the traditional journalism fields. While I am largely video based now, in the past I would still make an annual reel made up of still images.

Creating a reel can be effective and fun. However, there are many things to think about when creating one. See this post “The Science of the Reel” for more thoughts on journalists using a reel as a promotional tool.


THE GUEST BLOG: Alright, so you have a blog, a photo blog, a microblog — now its time to guest blog. I guest blog on a number of different sites, one of my favorite being DSLR News Shooter. This community is mostly film makers and visual journalists, but plenty of audience members too. The video above, which was made mostly for the fun of it — has received over 5000 views, just on this site. For taking 20 minutes out of my day to write a blog post, I would say this is worth it.

Guest blogging also opens up the door for community members of that blog, to find your blog, increasing your core audience. On all major articles I produce I try to write at least one guest blog talking about what went into the production or some type of backstory, on top of creating content for my own blog. Here’s a couple examples:

Video above, guest blog post here:CHINESE NEW YEAR GOES WITH A BANG FOR SHOOTERS JONAH KESSEL AND PAUL MORRIS WITH CANON DSLRS


PRODUCT REVIEWS: Reviewing products can benefit more than just a manufacturer. When reviewing gear, you can use your own work as an example of what can be done with the kit. By speaking out on your experience with gear and kit, you can help create dialogue for both users of technology and the creators.

In this example, I combine a product review of Kessler Crane’s Pocket Dolly, with a promotion for my own work. Guest blog post here: KESSEL ON KESSLERCRANE – JONAH KESSEL REVIEWS THE KESSLERCRANE POCKETDOLLY V2.0


PEOPLE HAVE QUESTIONS, YOU HAVE ANSWERS: People are curious. That’s a universal truth. One of my favorite new sites (which admittedly I had more time to use) is called Quora. Its a social media based Q&A site with an excellent community of experts on various subjects. As journalists we’re always (at least attempting to) answering questions. Often when I have a new story I think about what question it might be answering. For more on Quora and its potential see this post “Curious on Quora.”

In the example above, I created a video on censorship. I searched Quota for questions relating to censorship and China and found a couple that it related to. For example, one user had asked “When will China’s web censorship stop and the government’s attitude change?” While my video didn’t exactly answer this question, I did have an unused quote that I added to the conversation. I then gave some links to help push viewers from this site to my content in other places.


UTILIZING YOUR ASSETS: Often I see great content with short legs. This means, I see a great article but I don’t think the journalist (if its a freelancer) necessarily got all they could out of it. If you can promote your content efficiently, you will have the capability to make more money while getting more eyes on your content.

This means one project can have many different lives. In the fall of 2011, journalist Kit Gillet and myself created a project called “The Fate of Old Beijing.” This was an interactive project funded by the Asia Society and included three videos, a digital tour and two photo essays. You can see the project in that form here. However, we wanted more eyes on the content.

While we had an audience in the nonprofit sector, we then found a home for the video package in the editorial, or news sector. We sold the package to Global Post, who published all three videos in a series called Beijing’s vanishing act. You can see those videos here.

After a nonprofit and online newspaper — we moved to television and sold the rights to the Archeology Channel, where the videos were shown in the summer of 2011. Their posting about the series here.

Using our own contacts in the media, we started offering interviews and screenings of the films. This might seem like an obvious thing to do, but you will gain a greater audience by simply making yourself available to other journalists. Here’s some links of some of the places I interviewed, blogged or helped promote my material:

Beyond online media, we had enough content on this one to flip it around into a print article. As DSLR shooters, you always have the option to shoot stills and video. I often grab a still shot before I shoot video, to examen the frame. This gives me still photographs of most subjects and places I go. When video is rolling, you are grabbing quotes. So the only thing left is to fill in the details of the story where the quotes leave off.

The Fate of Old Beijing - print

This video appeared as a print article in UK based Geographical magazine in November of 2011, nearly six months after its first publication at the Asia Society, again — bringing in more revenue while getting more eyes on our content.

THE WIDE WIDE WORLD: You may have noticed a great variety of places mentioned above. Geographic variation can be another great asset to your content. When I publish an article, often times I think — “Ok, its published in China. Where’s next?” While publications like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal won’t make this possible, other publications have looser rules surrounding the issue.

HONG KONG: SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Hong Kong - Underground Beijing

In many instances this can be a great asset to you and publications. For example, it is unlikely a reader in India will read a newspaper in Hong Kong. Above, you can see an article titled “Tunnel Vision” which appear in South China Morning Post in May.

BEIJING: THAT’S BEIJING
Beijing - Underground City

Three months later, a slighter shorter version appeared in That’s Beijing’s August edition. The article would again be printed in Caravan, an Indian magazine. And of course, a blog post. Looking at your content as dynamic assets will get more eyes on your content while at the same time raising your profile and your income.

RE-EDIT/RE-SELL: Keeping control of the rights to your content is perhaps the most important thing you can do in repackaging and reselling. While NGO’s and the nonprofit sector don’t necessarily pay well, its usually pretty easy to control the rights to your content while helping out a good cause. Most NGOs are very happy in this scenario as it creates greater awareness of their cause. Here’s an example:

I support a couple different NGO’s, one being Shanghai Roots & Shoots. In the fall of 2011 I helped create a series of twelve, two-minute videos detailing one of their projects called “The Million Tree Project.”

The NGO paid for my expenses to travel to Inner Mongolia and film their volunteers planting trees in the desert. While there I grabbed more content that I knew would not be needed for their films, but might be useful for an additional program. In the end, I had enough content to create their videos as well as another long form piece here:

I find the nonprofit and NGO sector to be a great resource in doing ethical work while gaining assets that would otherwise be expensive and hard to find. In my experience, its pretty rare to encounter newspapers and magazines that will pay freelancers expenses (lodging, flights, food, fixers, translators). However, NGOs can do this — and as long as you can keep yourself separated as a journalist from their agenda, you can put yourself in a great position to gather unique and sellable content.


FINDING THE TIME

If the above plan sounds daunting, it is. On good days, I can get it all done. On days where hundred of emails are stacking up and the clock clicks away toward deadline, this can become tough. However, I have found the effect of my dissemination and promotional plan to be invaluable to both my career and content.

Now … Any questions? Those of you in class, ask away, those of you not in Beijing, feel free to write in questions in the comment section below or email me.


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Read more.. Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

An expat visits his own country – Part II

Lake Tahoe, Full Moon

For Part I of this post, click here.


The sweet is never as sweet, without the sour.

After driving 2,200 miles (3500 km) in California, Oregon and Washington I ended up at my former home at Lake Tahoe. Perhaps it was the juxtaposition of San Francisco’s relatively crazy population to a waterfall lit by a full moon over Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay, or perhaps it was the ease of simply traveling 2,200 miles with no road blocks, police questionings, landslides or other unavoidable catastrophe that would be inevitable if traveling that distance in Asia — the West Coast of the United States is simply a beautiful place.

Road Trip

And those that are looking beyond America’s economic woes and broken political system seem to still be living the good life, with or without money.

After leaving San Francisco, I dropped in to see old old friend Jeremy Leffert now making wine in Paso Robles, California (B on the map). We walked through his vineyard, examined wine blends in a celler full of oak barrels and ate cheese that probably cost more than some people’s annual income in Asia.

Hearst Winery, Jeremy Leffert

While Jeremy’s fingernails are stained from the juice of the grapes he grows and his hands reflect those of someone who works the land, the people tasting his wines don’t share the same physical characteristics. I wondered if the people tasting the wines around me thought about the largely migrant populations picking the grapes. I wondered if the couple arguing about wine and cheese pairings thought about the winemakers regular 14-hour work day.

These people were about the opposite of those who I saw on Mission Street. While I can make a guess if the wine drinkers surrounding me thought about how their wine got to their glass, in an attempt to not judge anyone too much — I’ll leave my conclusion out. However, the real revelation here was seeing the sweet balance the sour — a tough life, balancing a good life.

Wine Tasting in Barrel Room

Balance is something I don’t necessarily see very often. The world’s growing interest in China’s nouveau riche puts me in many situations where I’m photographing symbols of growth or Asia’s cremé de la cremé. On the contrary, I find myself in places with great social, environmental or economic problems. So for the most part, I find myself photographing the extremes. And due to deadlines, timelines and logistics I often miss points between A and C.

However, in the land of the car — its normal to drive 20 hours just to go camping. Taking a road trip in America allowed me to see America’s rich, America’s poor and in general, a high degree of diversity — culturally, economically and in the physical landscape.

Road Trip

I very rarely have the opportunity to take long road trips in Asia. I find myself on planes, trains and cabs daily. And when I am in a car, I am never the driver. The great American road trip had become a foreign concept to me. And traveling like this, allowed me to see point B, in between A and C. Perhaps these are often the points between the extremes. The points that don’t make the news.

Weeks later I found myself climbing a rock high above Lake Tahoe. The deep blue of Lake Tahoe almost reflected the color of the sky above. While this was once my home, the view to me now was foreign.

Climbing at Lake Tahoe

Minutes away from my old home at lake level (6200 feet) I sat on an enormous granite slab I used to frequent. I dont think any body of water in all of Asia is this clean. I think I actually avoid going into the water in most of Asia simply out of mistrust of the cleanliness. You can only read so many “bag of dead babies found in river stories” out of China, before you make the decision that a lot of water might not be good to swim in.

Sitting on the rock I thought about my time at this lake. I covered local news here for three years — and the lake was consistently the biggest news maker. While it made sense at the time, having spent time at some of the world’s most polluted waterways since my time here, it makes the lake even more special now.

Lake Tahoe, East Shore

This lake is a symbol of the great beauty that exists on America’s West Coast.

As I traveled up the West Coast and through the Sierra Nevada the amount of friends I saw and reconnected with grew like a snowball, as did the many differences I saw between the East and the West — both physically and metaphorically. The sky here is blue (you can actually see it). The water here is clean. People obsess over wine and not beer. People drive cars long distances, they don’t take trains. Tacos aren’t in hard, stale yellow shells. A red pepper could cost ¥35, not ¥0.35. People don’t smoke in elevators and throwing your trash in a lake or out of a moving car would be taboo. The list goes on forever …

However, for an expat there’s no better way to see the differences in where you currently reside and your former home — than by actually visiting the place where you grew up. For me, that’s Vermont — which might be the complete opposite place of Beijing. That’s where I headed next and where Part III picks up next.

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Read more.. Thursday, August 25th, 2011

India in a Row

Kids in a Row

NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

  1. I’m not alone here
  2. People ‘like’ my diarrhea
  3. Dancing In(dia) the Streets
  4. Indian trains: Contemptibly cozy, crammed and claustrophobic
  5. Feeding a City Part II: From Macro to Micro
  6. Confusing realities of child labor
  7. Enlightined in Bodh Gaya बोधगया
  8. Kathmandu — You’ve met your match: Varanasi वाराणसी
  9. Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum
  10. From sea to sand: Welcome to Rajasthan
  11. Holy cow!
  12. Gender inequality in a Blue City
  13. Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking
  14. Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal
  15. India in a row



While looking back from the thousands of pictures I took in India, I began to notice some patterns in unrelated images. This pattern came in the form of the row or a line. People, structures, shadows – even animals making geometric shapes across my frames. I find this happens frequently with travel images and while most of it is coincidence, when you put the images together you can make some fun sequences. However, some of the images actually reveal some behaviors in culture that actually show something about a culture and place — even on a wide scale.

This might be seen in the way a person rests while on a job. It might be the distance in which people walk apart from each other. In other cases, just two squirrels passing food together creates a line across an image.

While in India I was focused on video production for a story (that’s still in the works), the stills that came out of the trip revealed some fun rows or lines. While these images don’t have much of any other purpose (both thematically or financially) I can give them a home here. So — without any further need for words, I give you India in a Row.

Varanasi in a Row
India In A Row - Veranasi

Monkeys in a Row
Monkeys in a Row - Rajisthan

Turban in a Row
India In A Row - at the Taj Mahal

Squirrels in a Row
Kissing in a Row

Workers in a Row
Workers in a Row

Reflection in a Row
Reflection in a Row

Ladies in a Row
Colorful Row

A View, In a Row
A View, In a Row

Shadows in a Row
Shadows in a Row

Taking a Picture, In a Row
Striped Picture

Students in a Row
Students in a Row

Wedding, In a Row
Wedding in a Row

Boarding a Train, In a Row
Train Passangers in a Row

Sitting in a Row
Sitting In a Row

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Read more.. Friday, May 6th, 2011

The Science of the Reel


Do video journalists need showreels? While I don’t know the answer to this question, for the past two years I’ve gone with —yes. However, the science of creating a (show)reel is seemingly far more complicated than one might believe.

Showreels have traditionally been made by cameraman, DP’s and those of us in the photography industry that find themselves on the film side of things. However, as I explained recently, video journalists, cinematic news photographers and documentary makers are certainly in a gray area between film and traditional video journalism.

When DP’s, directors and producers need cameramen its normal for them to request to see a reel. Since going freelance, I’ve had weekly requests for these from various people around China. However, it would not be so normal for a newspaper or magazine to ask to see a reel. So if you work in news photography, why would you make one and what are the challenges?

WHY: With converging media, its certainly becoming easier for photographers to jump from one industry to another. If you can film a news clip, chances are you might be useful as a cameraman in motion picture or documentary. So having this tool together is useful when someone is in your office asking for it.

WHAT: Now comes the tricky part — what do you put in your reel? I’ve found this tricky because it really depends on who you are showing it to. In many ways, this creates the possible need for more than one reel. You might have one to show documentary makers and another for a commercial client. Further more, you might need another one to show your ability with motion graphics or post production work. If your video has too much post production, it might reflect negatively if the inquiry is for documentary where the look is supposed to be more natural.

While last year I was doing much more still photography, the product became more of a photography show with small video clips embedded. This year I’ve been much more focused in video production and created the entire film with just video. If you notice, the footage kind of shows a cultural and developing world theme. I tried to add some clips of people from different countries to show a larger demographic of who I work with (westerners, developing world peoples and indigenous peoples). However, does this peg me or ‘type cast’ me? And if it does, am I ok with that since this is the type of work I want to be doing? I’ll ponder those questions and get back to you …

SEQUENCE: If you’ve figured out which content you want to include in your reel, you next need to decide how to order it. Since its mixed footage and in many ways simply eye candy — putting the images in an order that logically makes sense might be different for everyone. I’ve been trying to make mini sequences that flow together from one to the next. However, the logic behind these sequences and the order in which they appear is quite subjective. Trying to find logic in this can be difficult.

SOUND: Music is another tricky part. The song I used this year from Hanggai I personally love. However, its pretty distinct and different than what most chose.

Most of my friends’ reels and reels I see online use relatively ambient electronic music. By doing this you certainly push the focus to your images. For me however, I’m involved in production and photography. So I wanted the music and images to compliment each other in making a self contained visual demo of what type of imagery and films I’m interested in producing.

If one does chose this route, you become a bit a risk of offending someone (musically). While I like Hanggai, I can certainly imagine someone not liking it. So by choosing something more subtle, you might be a little more safe of not offending anyone.

I however, aren’t really trying to be subtile with my images. I prefer high impact images. But, this is certainly a style thing as well as a time-and-place thing.

NEVER ENDING FOOTAGE: Perhaps the most difficult thing is trying to figure out when it is done. I’m always creating new images and therefor, feel like I can always replace images with better images. In many ways, this means — you are never done. The images keep coming. So I think its always a work in progress. The version above is a third draft and I have a fourth draft in the works already.


If you’re interested — comparing last years reel to this years I think it shows a larger change in my visual direction and a bigger push towards video production. But for a quick look at 2010 – check out this video in still photography form.

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Read more.. Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal Morning

NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

  1. I’m not alone here
  2. People ‘like’ my diarrhea
  3. Dancing In(dia) the Streets
  4. Indian trains: Contemptibly cozy, crammed and claustrophobic
  5. Feeding a City Part II: From Macro to Micro
  6. Confusing realities of child labor
  7. Enlightined in Bodh Gaya बोधगया
  8. Kathmandu — You’ve met your match: Varanasi वाराणसी
  9. Varanasi वाराणसी: Full Photographic Spectrum
  10. From sea to sand: Welcome to Rajasthan
  11. Holy cow!
  12. Gender inequality in a Blue City
  13. Indian Failwhale Tiger Tracking
  14. Good Light and Good Luck: The Taj Mahal



There’s some things in life you are supposed to see. One of these places is India’s Taj Mahal. While working on a story last month, I was in the neighborhood of the mighty Taj and although I hate massive tourist attractions, lines, groups of tourists and the rif-raf that goes along with said ingredients — I thought it best to put my negativisms asside and go see the iconic mausoleum.

Sunrise on Taj Mahal

And while over 11,000 people visit the marble palace every day — I decided to attempt to avoid the crowds and woke up before the sun did. I thought avoiding the crowds at the Taj would be impossible — however, I was actually presently surprised with my luck this March 5th of 2011.

When you leave your hotel in Agra (home of the Taj) its hard to believe a place could be that special. Agra itself is far from exciting. Tourism has overrun the city and marble workers, rug makers and fake jewelers seem to be a dime a dozen. Streets are crowded and lines for the Taj are said to be a kin to Disneyland.

However, on this day of March 5th, I beat the lines and was greeted with some fantastic light. In this shot above, I actually managed to pull a frame of the entire East side of the Taj – sans people.

In case you are wondering which lenses to pack while visiting the Taj — this was shot with a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM (f/4, 1/1000, unexposed .3 stops, ISO 100) which coincidently will frame almost the entire width of the Taj from the side (without too much distortion).

Reflection / Light

Although I’m partial to the “golden hour” sunset light, the pink hue of sunrise light combined with the white marble of the Taj Mahal makes for some pretty fantastic hues, that kind of reach pink on the color spectrum. As the sun rose and the marble structure illuminated, colors around the structure, property and waters began to light up with some fantastic variation.

Taj Mahal Sillouette

Light blue reflections off the still pools of the mausoleum, pink hues from the dome of the Taj and the never get’s old “golden backed silhouette” trick, toward the rising sun. While this is an easy trick (f/2.8, 1/3200, underexposed -0.7, ISO 100), arriving at the Taj Mahal early will allow you to get some pretty cool shaped silhouettes.

Half Reflection

While getting good light involves a bit of luck and avoiding crowds requires basic logic, finding unusual frames is a bit trickier when it comes to photographing international symbols. The Taj Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and thus has been photographed probably from every angle with every lens possible. While its possible to create some more unusual frames, it was hard for me to not get drawn toward the iconic images of this building (i.e. the top photo).

On an annoying level, photographers are not allowed to bring in tripods or even big bags to the site. This makes video possibilities tricky if not impossible. I shot some video off the marbled grounds that came out pretty neat; however, in general you can count as your hands being your tripod. While this is annoying, it would probably be more annoying to be next to 11,000 people who all also had tripods taking picture of the same thing at the same time.

Marble Wall

So — One more sight crossed off the always expanding global “to see” list. A couple more posts on the way from India before the photo blog returns to the Philippines. And with that I wish you “Good Light and Good Luck.”

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Read more.. Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

A converging media gray area



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Like so many shooters around the world, I’m a convert.

I come from a still photography background but as my career and technology have advanced I’ve been transported (gladly) into the video journalism world. While initially this was creating two minute feature videos all shot on a stationary tripod that accompanied a print story and photo, today my technological and journalistic world have been spun right-side-up and I’m making independent short films where I feel like I’ve reached a gray area of video journalism that merges into documentary film.

You might ask yourself: What’s the difference between video journalism and documentary film making? A couple years ago you might have talked about production value and venue of dissemination. However today, given the production value you can bring to news video along with the fact that your target audience might likely be web based, the two forms of visual communication have certainly crossed paths.

In the past I always identified myself as a journalist, photojournalist or visual journalist. Recently, I finished a project with journalist Kit Gillet that received some media attention. In newspapers and press releases I was reading things like “… documentary makers Jonah Kessel and Kit Gillet found …” I was like “Wow, now I’m a documentary maker. That’s a bit different.”

We made an interactive package for the Asia Society that included a three-part video series, two still slideshows and a digital tour of our subject. Given that you watch the three films sequentially it does follow more of what we might recognize as documentary film style. While I won’t decide if its a documentary, news clip or something completely different, this gray area is certainly a sign of converging media and the converged journalist. So — now the question is: Why does all this matter? Who cares if you are a documentary film maker, video journalist or a photographer?

In my mind, the answer has three parts.

  1. AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF MEDIA: I think people will perceive things differently if they hit play thinking they are watching a short documentary film vs. a news clip. Perhaps people watch news clip thinking the content is unbiased, or perhaps they watch a documentary knowing that the film makers invested so much time on the subject, they have gained intricate knowledge that a typical journalist on a deadline probably couldn’t get. Regardless of how they receive the information, there is a culture shift in perception, be it a subconscious one.
  2. PHOTOGRAPHER’S IDENTITY: This culture shift also effects how we shoot. Does how you identify yourself impact your photography? I believe if you set into a project as a documentarian you might get a different result than if you were a journalist. In the documentary world, its total fine to take an angle (ala Michael Moore) and go with it. You might have a point and then go and (attempt to) prove it where a journalist would go and record what has happened and then let the audience decide what to take away from it. By calling yourself a documentary maker are you taking more control of the audience?
  3. SUBJECT, PHOTOGRAPHER COMMUNICATION: You will get different types of interviews and quotes if you approach your subject and tell them you are a journalist rather than a documentary maker. During this project, almost all of our sources were found by walking around talking to strangers over and over. Since we were making the films for the Asia Society, a nonprofit organization — we always made it clear we were working for an educational institute and not a newspaper. However, sometimes we introduced ourselves as journalists (mostly out of habit) and subjects would almost always become more shut off and more apprehensive about their words or talking to us at all. When we introduced ourselves as film makers, they were much more open to talking to us candidly.

If our work ends up in this gray area it also transplants us as photographers into a gray area with clear costs and benefits. As DSLR shooters we can end up here pretty easily and a lot of it has to do with the technology we use. These films were shot with (what I would call) a very, very basic kit:

With this small kit and a laptop you can produce a feature film or a 2-minute news clip using the same technology. And in this case our product was a (combined) 18-minute feature, or 3-part Web video series. This project started ages ago, with a single photograph I took of a friend’s former neighborhood after it had been half-demolished. From a photograph, to a photo series, to some video clips, to a video, to a video series, to an interactive package — the content developed over the course of a year. It was just a project in my back pocket for a long time. When the Asia Society jumped on board I grabbed friend and journalist Kit Gillet and we began forming content into what you are seeing here.

It’s obviously ok to be both a journalist and a documentary film maker. Or for that matter a photographer, videographer and a sword-swallowing-carnie: but given technologie’s impact on what we do, I think it’s worth a thought early in the process — it might change what you create.

– To see the greater project “The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs” click here.

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Read more.. Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Blackout Beijing: Earth Hour 2011

Earth Hour - Beijing



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My apologize in the delay in the India photo series — busy as a bee back in Beijing. However, before commencing again in Rajasthan I wanted to give a public awareness announcement tonight is the World Wildlife Foundation’s Earth Hour. What does this mean? It means everyone should turn off their lights in a glorious global blackout to promote environmental awareness of our massive energy consumption. For the event I’ll be helping WWF shooting the massive blackout in Beijing. We did a test run last night, which gave me access to some high ground in Beijing’s CBD, which can be a bit difficult to access.

If you were unaware, one of my most common things I say is “If only I had a helicopter right now.” While no commercial or private helicopters exist in China yet, I’m still always looking for a high point to shoot from. To demonstrate the black out in Beijing’s Central Business District I put out the wild idea of getting on top of the roof of the China World Trade Center. When I asked, the response that came back was — “we’ll see.=,” with the typical tonality you would expect to actually mean “no.” So, I made this small very technical diagram and sent it to along with my request:

Diagram of Shoot

Lucky for me, the WTC actually granted me access to the massive structures in the city of 22 million people. While the real earth hour is tonight, I got to check it out and do some testing last night.

China World Trade Center - Earth Hour

So although this was a practice, the World Trade Center cut off power (almost completely) to the main tower to help setup the shot and their systems for the actual event tonight. I’m hoping to get similar shots to the above (shot with a 24mm prime) – however, with the rest of the city blacked out along with the massive trade center tower. While I can only be in one place at once, to help out – we’ve positioned photographer Gabriel Clermont at the Water cube and Bird’s Nest to show other iconic spots of Beijing.

Beijing usually doesn’t feel like a big city to me. In fact, if you stay in the old cart of the city you won’t ever see a skyscrapper. However, from on top of these buildings its a little easier to see that Beijing is in fact — one big F-ing city.

CCTV Tower Beijing

Above, you can see the iconic CCTV television building (or as I like to refer to them as – “the legs”) from above at night. If you look behind “the legs” the sprawl hits the infinite mark of the depth of field.

Beijing Lit Up

While I stood on top of the building last night trying not to freeze my a*s off, it was hard not to look around and actually be overwhelmed by the energy used on a nightly basis — just to light the environment of 22 million people. Photographically this makes things fairly difficult to show darkness. The light pollution which I’ve seen as far away as Hebei province, is extremely strong within the city center. Strong enough to light up the sky.

Beijing - looking West

With the advise of Jane Goodall earlier this year, I’ve been trying to not take elevators as a method to save energy. In this scenario, the 50 odd floors with the enormous camera bags warented it – but this is my small goal this year. No more four story elevators.

So while everyone should shut down their tweet decks (although there is an Earth Hour Twitter application which will turn your Twitter profile black for the hour), living room lights and televisions for an hour at 8:30 pm, in the meantime we can get a perspective of light in China’s capital city. Here is the release from WWF on Earth Hour:

What is Earth Hour?
It is the biggest environmental awareness campaign ever seen!

When is it?
Earth Hour takes place once every year. On the last Saturday of March.

What’s the aim?
To raise environmental awareness and get us doing small things in our daily lives that together can have huge impacts.

What does it involve?
Simply turning off your lights for 1 hour. Earth’s hour.

How useful is this?
Earth Hour is a highly “visible” symbolic act.

One that millions of people can easily join in with. And one that allows you to have fun while sending out a serious message to our politicians and governments, that says: “I care about my planet!”

Beyond the Hour
Earth Hour 2011 will go beyond the hour and beyond climate change, marking a moment where every individual, government and business can make their commitment to environmentally sustainable action for the forthcoming year. Homes, offices, government buildings and iconic landmarks will go dark to acknowledge the actions of people from all corners of the globe that go beyond the hour.

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Read more.. Saturday, March 26th, 2011