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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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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NOTE FROM JONAH: This blog post was originally written as a guest post for Dan Chung’s DSLR News Shooter.

As 1.4 billion Chinese people celebrated the Lunar New Year yesterday — cameraman Paul Morris, journalist Kit Gillet and myself packed our bags to capture the remarkable pyro-chaos that welcomed the Year of the Rabbit.

According to ancient Chinese mythology, an evil spirit known as Nian (年) would terrorize villagers on the first day of the new year. To protect themselves, villagers would create loud noises to ward off the evil spirit. Millennia later, the Chinese still uphold this tradition by setting off fireworks continuously for a two week period.

Unlike in the West, where firework safety is paramount, safety is far from people’s minds in China, where fireworks are set off within high-rise compounds, tossed on the floor, set off in narrow alleys, and even thrown at friends in the spirit of good humor.

To capture the spirit of the Spring Festival, the three of us hit the alleys, streets and roofs of Beijing to capture the pyrotechnique display put on by the Chinese people. The truly remarkable aspect of the events that take place on New Year’s Eve is that all of the fireworks you see in the video are bought and set off by regular Beijingers – a perfect visual representation of the overwhelming size of China’s population. This creates a unique organized display of chaos which lights up the sky and echoes through the streets of China.

Our goal in filming the event was to show this organized chaos and grab some colorful frames. We were packing …

• Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• Canon EOS-7D
• Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
• Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
• Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
• Canon Extender EF 2X II
• De-Clicked Custom Tamron 24mm F/2.5
• 190Cx Carbon Fibre Q90 4-section Tripod
• Manfrotto 3021 Pro Tripod with Manfrotto 3047 Head
• Dan’s old 20″ compact slider, made in Singapore
• Custom Jag 35 Straight Rig with Red Rock microHandGrip
• F-Stop Gear Tilopa Backpacks

During hours of close-up filming, we were subjected to flying debris, ear-splitting explosions, and even the occasional stray firework that would ricochet off lenses, nearby cars and even my ass.

Technically shooting at night can be a bit tricky. Our ISOs ranged from 400-3200. We found with higher ISOs a lot of images came out with a cooler color temperatures or blue color casts. In the case of shooting fireworks, this isn’t such a bad thing. Most of our frames had a large variance in color anyway. With a few of the close-up shots involving rapid firework explosions the cameras had issues with the rolling shutter.

Sounds and music for this production were purchased from www.stockmusic.net.

Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing-based freelance visual journalist and interactive art director specializing in photography, video, news and Web design.
Paul Morris is a Beijing-based freelance assistant producer and lighting cameraman.
Kit Gillet is a Beijing-based freelance journalist and documentary maker.

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While video is rendering and I’ve reached a bottleneck in my work flow - I want to rewind a couple nights ago to where I found myself hanging out with my usual gang including Miuccia Prada, Gong Li, Lindsey Wixson and the Pet Shop Boys.

While I normally hang out with these folks in Paris, Milan or New York this time we gathered in Beijing for the Prada Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Show (for those of you who don’t know me, please insert a sarcastic tone and reread the last sentence).

When you look at indicators of a global culture shift in relationship to China — this one is easy to see. And while working for Woman’s Wear Daily, it has become increasing evident to me that the fashion world wants a piece of the China action too. Last month I shot gigs with Versace, Comme de Garçon, fashion designer Rei Kawakubo as well as some Beijing street fashion street photography where I had to photograph strangers on the street who I thought were fashionable. In the eyes of the fashion world — Beijing is becoming increasingly more hip (and in my realization of this, I’ve become increasingly aware of how unfashionable I am).

While I’m not fashionable — the lady above certainly is. This is actress Gong Li, drinking champagne backstage at the Prada show. While I was a bit busy to be drinking champagne at this exact moment in time, Ms. Gong was not the only celebrity drinking champagne and turning heads around me.

For example, above is model Lindsey Wixon. While waiting for the Pet Shop Boys to play I spent a couple minutes with Ms. Wixon.

Wixson then went on to Milan where she opened the Spring 2010 Prada show as an exclusive, thus making her one of the most successful newcomers that season. She has since walked in shows for many notable designers in the Milan, Paris, London, and New York fashion weeks including Miu Miu, Missoni, Tommy Hilfiger, Victoria Beckham, Louis Vuitton, Versace, and Sophia Kokosalaki.

After the gig, while writing captions I looked up the young lady. And this is when I realized, she is in fact, a young lady. Lindsey was born in 1994.

However, when on stage the presence these models give is not that of someone who might not be able to drive in their home state. Lindsey (above, middle) as well as the other models seem a bit ageless. Unlike movie stars or rock stars, high fashion models have a lot of ambiguous features. They don’t look old. They don’t look young. They are all extremely skinny, but usually don’t have too many curves which can indicate age. In many ways, as someone recently said to me — they are kind of like clothes hangers. They are chosen to highlight the clothes, not necessarily them.

So — who are these skinny ladies? I’m not exactly sure, but after some preliminary research, it does appear that super models are actually — kids.

However, not everyone at the show was a child and some big names in fashion were there, including Italian fashion designer (above) Miuccia Prada.

Miuccia Prada is an Italian fashion designer and entrepreneur. She also has a Ph.D. in Political Science. Prada was born in Milan, the youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, founder of the company and according to Forbes, was on the top of the World’s Richest People 2001 list.

Before the assignment, I was told by my editor to attempt to get a shot of Ms. Prada at the end of her show. I was also told that when she comes out, she usually only appears for about 3 seconds. In attempt to actually be in the right spot during those 3 seconds, I did manage to get 4 frames off, one of which appeared in print yesterday (below).

While this shot was tricky, these assignments are always difficult for me. I’m constantly having to back off frames to show what people are wearing, head to toe — which is intrinsically backwards of what I like to do. Details, tight crops and most creative photography is also pretty much not needed. However, while I shoot for them — I continue to pull the trigger when it seems like I should.

For example, this shot of Chinese actress Tang Wei (above) has almost no value to WWD because you can’t see her outfit. While I like the frame, the shadow and detail in the portrait — it doesn’t see the light of day in terms of being published (at least for this source).

Here’s another example … I’d be happy to crop a dozen models bodies off at the knees to highlight the detail in color in their shoes. Seems like a good idea? Nope. No value.

And yet, another … The shoe of one model passes in front of the runway entrance where another model watches before making her walk. Seems like a good idea? Nope. No value.

Or a shot we don’t normally see form the high fashion world — a model lineup with ordered pin-up style photos of the models on a whiteboard backstage. Seems like a good move. You know the answer.

This isn’t to say that the other photos aren’t nice or fun to take. Most of the entire event produces interesting frames wherever you look.

But it does take some concentration to continually take photos that stylistically are against your instinct.

While Beijing’s place on the global stage is growing, the fashion industry is not missing out on the Asian invasion. Prada’s move to hold this event in Beijing is just a representation of more-and-more eyes on China — both within the fashion world and for those of us who only see it from the outside.

Video is done rendering! Next blog post will bring you back to the Philippines — Now, back to work.

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Yesterday, Beijinger Web editor Dan Edwards asked me to apologize to the Beijinger, a local metro styled magazine and Web site.

Why Dan thinks I need to apologize is an interesting story that brings up some relevant issues any freelancer living in the developing world will have to deal with and also highlights publishers continued bias to the medium.

Let’s rewind to last weekend when a hundred Beijing residents donned Santa Clause outfits and paraded through town leading to a spectacle in Tiananmen Square. I shot the event, and in the nature of the holiday season told any participants or local bloggers they could have access to the photos. At the top of my blog post I wrote:

Beijingers — are you in one of these photos? In the Christmas spirit I would like to offer high resolution photos for personal use (no commercial use please) to anyone who might want one.

Within hours of the initial post emails from participants started rolling in. As word got around, soon state media outlet Global Times called to inquire about photo usage. Their offer of 50 RMB ($7.51 USD) wasn’t really quite enough to make me get off my couch. Then came Beijing Today, which quadrupled the Global Times offer. Next on the list came the Beijinger who in an email wrote:

Hi Jonah,

I work at the Beijinger and was wondering if we could use your photos from the SantaCon pub crawl.

We’re interested in putting them up on out picture gallery and would credit all images to you. We’re also posting a blog on the pub crawl and have mentioned your blog as well as used some of your images. I’ll send on that link when it is posted.

You have some great pictures and the day looked like lots of fun. I’m sorry I missed out. Please let me know your decision by replying to both emails.

Thanks,

employee

Although I could tell from the email they weren’t interested in paying for the usage I was curious and responded:

Hi employee,

I’d be happy to release some/all images to you; however, I do make a living licensing photos. Does the Beijinger have funds for freelancers?

Thanks,

Jonah

The Beijinger took this statement as — yes, you can use my photos without payment and proceeded to post them on their Web site.

While I’m completely used to having images ripped off in China, I’m not used to people asking to use them first and then proceeding without permission.

The images remained on the Beijinger’s blog for about 24 hours and two emails later they were taken down. It’s possible they didn’t read the top of the blog that said “no commercial use please.” Its possible they took “however, I do make a living licensing photos” as “but in this case, I’m not interested in making money.” And its possible this is just the timeline they respond to emails, and they didn’t let the bulk of their traffic flow to the site and then take the images down.

Nonetheless, small fish — No big deal. Another site rips off images. I would have let it go, had I not been provoked multiple times by Beijinger Web Editor Dan Edwards who writes to me:

As employee explained, the use of the photographs was due to a misunderstanding, and the images were removed as soon as you made it clear you did not want them on our site.

Employee has apologised for her mistake – perhaps you would like to consider doing the same for being so rude and abusive towards someone you do not even know.

Regards,

Dan Edwards

Dan refers to some strong language I used asking them to take the photos down which occurred when I couldn’t get an answer from them. In reality, beyond the initial misunderstanding and not responding to emails – the writer handled this situation well. They were polite and easy to communicate with. However, when the editor came in swinging his title around things became more unpleasant.

Had the emails been responded to the entire situation would have been avoided. When I asked about why it took so long to respond to any of my emails Dan writes:

Hi Johan,

Your email would have been responded to. Believe it or not we deal with dozens and dozens of inquires a day, and well over a thousand pieces of user generated content being posted to our site every day. We are not machines and your question about whether would have been interested in working with you on a freelance basis required some consideration and discussions with more than one person in the company.

Since it was they who approached me, I thought this was a weird stance. Apparently, they have time to ask for photos — just not time to wait for the answer.

While its hard to imagine apologizing for them using my photos illegally, a couple unrelated issues have come up in between these lines and emails.

Value of the medium

The more interesting topic that came out of this debacle was the Beijinger’s stance on paid contributor photos. Over the course of the messy email tirade, the Beijinger employee wrote:

On our blog we are unable to offer fees and can only cite and tag photos that we use.

While the incident above bothered me, this actually bothers me more. This problem is not only a Beijinger specific problem, but it illustrate a greater issue showing publishers remaining bias to to the medium. This statement is saying: we will pay for photos for our Web site articles and magazine, but not on our blogs.

Beijinger staffers are paid to write blogs. The Beijinger sells advertising that appears with and next to the blogs. Then why would a photo be worth less on a blog then in an article?

Perhaps publishers believe the informality of the blogosphere gives it less value.

The reality is blogs have become just as reliable of a news source than our newspapers, magazines and Web sites. While some progressive media has recognized the societal importance of the blogosphere, others still hold on to the past trying to save pennies and kuais. There is some type of irony in that the Beijinger doesn’t recognize their value — its almost counterproductive to their business.

Competing with the local market

This situation also reveals another problem a foreign freelancer will face in the developing world. Regardless of what currency goes into your back account, you have to compete with locals who work on a much different scale. While I wasn’t willing to give Global Times a photo for 50 RMB, someone else will.

Its hard to really figure out exact numbers; however, I most likely charge about 25 times more for my work than a young local photog. Fortunately for me, the large bulk of my work comes form outside of China, making it possible to work within the system without disrupting it.

However, every time I have to quote a price I’m at risk of having the client say, “well, I think I’ll just save money and pay a Chinese person to do it.”

Finding the balance between charging a fair wage for your work and not blowing the market is a delicate thing.

Santacon 2010

If you missed the enormous series of posts from this weekend’s incident here are some links:

• Beijing Daze: Santacon 2010: Santa Brings Cheers to Beijing, Media Brings Controversy
• Beijng Boyce: Beijing SantaCon Diary: With mulled wine, Christmas carols, a Tiananmen scuffle, and more
• Global Times: Police say Santas were naughty this year
• Agance France Presse: Bah humbug: Santas booted out of Tiananmen Square
• Spiegel: Polizei in Peking verjagt Weihnachtsmänner
• Beijinger: Tiananmen Flooded by Santas
• Beijinger: More on the SantaCon Weekend

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Here I am with my new friends (from right to left) model Haizhen Wang, American actress Marisa Tomei and TV hostess and model Linda Yi.

Since leaving China Daily, I’ve taken on a wide variety of clients. In the past two weeks I’ve found myself in classrooms, on mountains, hanging out with marketing executives, photographing private house parties, hutongs, forgotten cities underneath Beijing and recently — a red carpet event.

This was shot for Woman’s Wear Daily, a Condé Nast publication commonly known as WWD. WWD is a “a fashion-industry trade journal sometimes called the bible of fashion.” While this isn’t the first time I’ve worked in fashion, these situations are always slightly amusing to me.

First, it’s always fun to see someone with a ton of money throw a party in China. You get a lot of bang for your buck. This party, thrown by Italian fashion mogel Diego Della Valle, actually took place in a converted coal gas storage tank. Known as Tank 751 in Beijing’s 798 Art District, the Italian shoe maker turned the industrial era building into a visual spectacle he called “An Italian Dream.”

The contrast of this party to what is going on 100 meters away in the nearest alley or street is just stunning. In general, the China dichotomy is stunning — but when events like this happen its like walking into a different planet … A fashionable planet with fancy lights and chairs so modern I’m not exactly sure how to sit on them.

The party included a red carpet entrance, a spherical, mixed media art exhibition projected onto the interior walls of the former coal tank, a lot of free booze, dinner and a post-modern ballet featuring atonal music, small amounts of clothing and androgynous costumes.

Here is my friend actress, Zhou Dong Yu. She is pretty fashionable.

While I clean up pretty well and know when I should tuck in my shirt, I would describe myself as … far from fashionable (at least in relativity to Zhou Dong Yu). Its never really something that has interested me that much. However, photographing it is an interesting experience, especially in China.

My experience photographing Western celebrities from Yao Ming (although he is a Chinese -> American celebrity), Michael Jordan, President Barak Obama, John Elway or Chris “Jesus” Ferguson have been far different then photographing celebrities in China.

I believe there are two parts to this equation. First, while the fascination with celebrity certainly exists in China — I think its not quite as extreme as in Hollywood or Bollywood. If you show a picture of Paris Hilton or Brittany Spears to a random person in America, there is a good chance they will know who they are. However, in China celebrities are mostly known by those with the means to indulge in this culture. Therefor, most people not living in a major city will have no idea who one celebrity is over another.

I think this makes for less arrogant celebrities, although to be fair two of the western celebrities at this event Diegeo Della Valle and Marisa Tomei (above) were extremely pleasant and friendly to be around. Perhaps, if everyone in your country knew who you were — you could imagine how you could get a big head. However, in a country with 1.4 billion people, with the vast majority living in some level of poverty, only a small percentage know celebrities.

The other part of the equation which makes photographing celebrities different in China than America for me, is I usually have no idea who these people are. While I grew up watching Michael Jordan play basketball, when the time came years later to photograph him, it seemed kind of natural to be a little bit nervous – or at least get hit with their celebritydom. However, that doesn’t exist for me in China. The most famous actress in the country could walk up to me, and chances are I might not recognize them. This makes photographing them — much easier.

Shooting on the red carpet

While on a cross-cultural or sociological level shooting celebrities on a red carpet in China is interesting the actual photography part is far from exciting. Above is (from right to left): Former Chinese National Ballet Principal Ballerina Hou Hong Lan, Brazilian model, socialite and lead singer of the all-girl rock band Thrush Metal, Alice Dellal and Actress Gao Yuan Yuan. For these events you simply show up and push a button next to dozens of other photographers doing the exact same thing. Lights are set up. They tell the celebrities where to walk, when to walk and when to stop. Its really not brain surgery after you have one exposure correct.

However, trying to find a candid moment is more difficult but once in awhile it is possible. The celebrities know when to “ham it up” so I don’t really think anything that happens on any red carpet is any indication of reality, but it does allow for some slight variation in photography.

On a different level, this type of photography is actually difficult for me because of the nature of the publication I’m working for. I like big frames. Or another way to put it: my naturally inclination with the camera is to fill the frame up with content. Unless I’m specifically using it for a reason, I don’t like negative space. If you look at this portrait gallery, you’ll see my tendency.

However, for a fashion trade magazine like WWD, readers want to see the outfits of the models and celebrities. This means, backing off frames and allowing the viewers to see at least 3/4 of their bodies, generally in a portrait (or vertical) orientation. This is about the opposite of what my eye wants to do.

This type of shoot is great practice in teaching your eye to work for your client, rather than only for you. WWD published a slideshow along with an article (again, behind a pay wall – sorry) on this event and included mostly shots containing 3/4 bodies with some head shots. So most of the photos in this blog post, were one’s not used actually, but one’s that I would probably prefer.

I have three more similar shoots for WWD booked for this month. We’ll see who shows up next.

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On a recent polluted Sunday Beijing afternoon, I took 2000 pictures while a friend of mine drew a picture. With each stroke of the pen, came one photo. When sequenced together they create the video above.

After experimenting with a stop motion photography project titled Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’, I wanted to give the same concept a go with mixed media.

“1, 2 , 3 Viva Algerie,” is a stop motion photography project completed in collaboration with injured Chilean artist Jose Cornejo. The 1 minute and 47 second video is comprised of over 2000 still photographs taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM Lens. Photographs are animated at 25 frames per second.

The three color picture is based upon a photograph I took in Oran, Algeria, June 20, 2009 after the Algerian national football team defeated Egypt sparking both happy and dangerous riots throughout the North African country.

As the aggressive population took to the streets in a fiery celebration, the rhythmic chant “1, 2, 3 — Viva Algeria,” echoed from the Sahara to the ancient alleys of Old Algiers to Oran’s Mediterranean coastline.

After learning a little bit more about this — I think its a ton of fun with an infinite amount of room for creativity. Our plan is to now to start working on projects like this on a larger scale using art, animation, urban environments and photography.

The story behind the photo

On June 20, 2009 I was sitting in a hot office neck deep in work on the tail end of a redesign of an Arabic language newspaper called Sawt Al Gharb. When the match ended I could tell something big was going on outside of the office.

On a normal day working in Algeria, there would be a constant raquette of sounds coming form outside the office. Cars honking, people yelling and of course, the general sound of the third world riff-raff which I’ve become so keen on.

However, on this day, a year before the South African World Cup, the sounds I was used to hearing were drown out by a flood of chants from the streets. I peaked out the window to see just about every citizen of Oran screaming in the streets. The excitement of the population was just a bit too much to take so I put the redesign on hold and charged into the mob.

Shooting a mob like this is an interesting experience.

While people are clearly happy — it can get fairly dangerous, and I was told a couple people usually always die during these occasions. Crowds got so large in the streets — at some points it was reminiscent of Mardi Gras. Entire blocks would be so packed full of people, that you couldn’t really move so easily. Your only choice, is to sway with the direction of the crowd.

Others were driving through the streets lighting things on fire or simply just spraying a lighter through hairspray on the back of a truck. Others thought the best way to celebrate was to knock over cars or knock out teeth and fight.

I call this a “happy riot.”

Showing up as a foreigner with a camera in this situation is also a lot of fun. While people could be extremely sensitive to street photography in Algeria, this opportunity was great to show people in a time where they didn’t care they were being photographed. In many situations, people were even posing for the camera, attempting to let anyone and everyone see their enthusiasm for football.

Football seems to be one of the only unifying things throughout the world. In almost any third world country, football acts as a unifier – bringing together otherwise separated populations.

For more photography from Algeria click here.
For my last stop motion project, Tibet to Nepal: ‘The Journey Not the Arrival Matters’ click here.

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Night time photography has been a hobby of mine for many years. When I used to live at Lake Tahoe, I was constantly doing this. Now living in a small Chinese village of 20 million people, opportunity to do this is less frequent.

Even less frequent, are opportunities where clients need bulb exposures.

However, recently I worked an assignment for South China Morning Post where bulb exposures were needed — however, unlike my experience at Lake Tahoe shooting long exposures, this shoot in Hebei Province, China had some time restrictions. With bulb exposures and the nature of Camera RAW, you never want to be in a rush.

For those that don’t know, a bulb exposure is:

Bulb, abbreviated B, is a shutter speed setting on an adjustable camera that allows for long exposure times under the direct control of the photographer. With this setting, the shutter simply stays open as long as the shutter release button remains depressed. An alternative setting common on film cameras is Time, abbreviated T, where the button is pressed once to open the shutter and again to close it.

So — a bulb exposure allows a photographer to shoot for extremely long periods of time, up to many hours. However, digital cameras shooting RAW images, require the same amount of time to take a photograph as to process the image. Ergo, one would have to wait 10 minutes to see a 10 minute exposure in the LCD of the camera. This brings you back to the film era where you can’t actually see what you are shooting directly after you push the button.

The tricky thing about this: often when you shoot bulb exposures you want to shoot, then see results and adjust your settings but not the frame. Which means you have to commit to not shooting while the camera processes the image, wasting time. In this situation, I had no time to waste — or perhaps a better way to look at it is — you have no time to screw up.

The assignment was to photograph the LAMOST Telescope. A massive telescope on a mountain near Beijing. “The telescope is the result of a 300 million yuan (HK$350 million) project that took more than a decade to complete.” After completing the telescope, cities like Beijing and Tianjin have grown so much that light pollution is making the telescope less powerful. My idea, was to shoot long exposures from around the telescope to show light pollution.

I was driven to Hebei province and given 1 hour to take photographs in complete darkness. The photographs above and below all range between 10-15 minute exposures — meaning, I had to guess on three exposure times without seeing the result. It wasn’t till I was in the car on the way home where I could see the images. Due to the processing time, this meant I could only take three photographs before leaving.

Growing up in a digital world, this was quite scary. Leaving an assignment without seeing your photographs — or even knowing if you have a backup image is something I don’t have to do very often.

Fortunately, after doing this type of photography as a hobby for years I was pretty comfortable and was fairly happy with the results. Two out of the three frames I thought came out well, while I didn’t like the third so much. Funny enough, the photo that South China Morning Post actually used, was the photo I didn’t like. C’est la vie.

If you are interested in the story behind this image, read the SCMP story here, but unfortunately, it is behind a paywall.

Here are some of my favorite bulb and longer exposures from the past, where I haven’t been under time pressure.

Round Mound, Zeyphr Cove, Nevada — 538 seconds.

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe, California — 399 seconds.

Lake Tahoe, California — 30 seconds.

Heavenly Mountain Resort, California — 30 seconds.

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The first of December marks the end of a 1.5-year-long contract with China Daily, China’s National English Language newspaper.

While China Daily provided me with some great opportunities I’m very excited to move on from this position and this organization to pursue independent projects. I will continue to be based out of Beijing working as a freelancer with video, still photography and design.

Although its a little scary jumping into the freelance network in a city of 20 million people, my independence from China Daily allows me to work with a greater range of clients from all over the world. Working on my own terms will also allow me to travel more and pursue some longer term projects that require extended periods of time and geographic mobility.

When I first graduated college I spent some time as a freelancer, scrapping for work wherever I could. Years later, it feels funny going back. Although I have work already rolling in, in some way it takes a little bit of getting used to being – self employed and not unemployed.

I know a large network of freelancers here in China and throughout the United States. Looking at the difference between this freelance group and my friends who are staffers at newspapers is pretty interesting. As a large generalization, the general happiness level of my freelance friends seems to be higher than that of the newspaper staffers. Although, its pretty clear that the pockets of the staffers are deeper.

When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about layoffs … When you are freelance, you don’t have to worry about furloughs … However, as a staffer you don’t have to worry about money coming in, health insurance or finding a place to publish stories and photos.

There are clear benefits to both sides — however, the glim shadow of the newspaper industry’s state seems to be hanging over the staffers’ heads a little more than that of the freelancers. Although to be fair — both sides are clearly effected by the obvious economical and identity problems going on in the news industry.

I think to avoid the newsroom, you have to ask yourself — how unstable are you willing to be? If a paycheck from a job comes in 6-months late, can you still pay rent? And perhaps most importantly, are you self motivated enough to play the freelance game, constantly pitching stories and getting strung along by potential clients that don’t always materialize.

While I don’t have an answer to some of these questions — at this moment I’ve switched to the freelance side after five years as a full time staffer at different news organizations. If (and hopefully when) the right staff job comes along, I’ll jump back; however, at this moment in time — some freedom from a staff job and the Chinese media system is pretty exciting.

Some early observations

WHO TO PITCH TO: While this might seem obvious, for photographers it can be a bit tricky. Writers and reporters can pitch stories directly to editors. However, for photographers — we often find ourselves pitching to reporters, who in turn pitch to editors. While photo essays can sell and run independently, for the most part, assignments must include a story. Once you become a stringer for specific organizations, work will come to you — however, if you just sat around waiting for that to happen you would be wasting time you otherwise could be finding work. This is one reason why video production can be a little easier. I can pitch stories directly and complete the entire project independently.

WHERE TO WORK: There seems to be three options here: (1) Work at home (2) Rent an office (3) Work in coffee shops. After one week I’m finding working at home is more productive; however, there are distractions everywhere. Having a distinct environment to work in seems important — however, if your home and work environment become one, you might always feel like you are working — or worse, never work. The option of renting an office seems more healthy and productive but your monthly expenses sky rockets. I’ve been experimenting with coffee shops, which seems ok once you find the right one. Friend, neighbor and freelance writer Mitch Moxley works out of coffee shops daily. He says, he spends about 70 RMB (10 USD) a day on coffee. While this isn’t cheap, it is cheaper than renting office space — and it is catered.

UPDATING YOUR BIO: Whenever you move on from a job you need to update your resume. However, in this digital age its not as simple as updating one document. Photographers and journalists have bios all over the place. Every social media outlet (I think looking at at least 20 web sites) I subscribe to needs to be updated, Web sites, blogs and professional associations. While this isn’t that big of a deal, it is something different than what people did years ago.

TRANSFER FEES: For a couple clients who are based in Asia, I’ve been extremely amazed at what people charge for international electronic payment. In some cases for small jobs, I’ve found the wire fee is almost 20% of the total payment. This is tricky, because 80% is surely better than 0%, however, at a certain point it doesn’t make sense to even take money in this form. I have bank accounts in China and the US — but keeping too much money in China can be a problem for legal reasons here — in the case you need to leave the country.

WHEN TO TAKE A JOB: Should a freelancer take any job? While the bottom line plays a big factor in this, I will repeat advice photographer Corey Rich once gave me. When asked when he decides to take a job or not Corey responded (paraphrasing): To take a job it must meet two out of three criteria. The job has to either:

• (1) Be something I really want to do, or something I really want to photograph.
• (2) The job has to be with good people — who I would like to hang out with.
• (3) The job has to pay a shit load of money.

If it doesn’t meet two out of three of those criteria, he wouldn’t take the job. I think this is great advice that would certainly make your life meaningful and more fun and something all freelancers should aspire to.

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As a photographer, designer or creative professional creating your own brand can be very difficult. How do you stick out in a sea of competitors? Now anyone can make a Web site and amateur photographers take amazing pictures. Although I live in a society that is heavily addicted to business cards, whether you happen to be or not, this is often the first tool you have to gain someone’s attention.

I just received new business cards from Moo.com and after a lot of feedback and questions on Twitter, I wanted to share with you my impression of this company.

I’ve always been very wary of photographers who have images on their business cards. What if your client doesn’t like the photo you happen to have on your card? What if you print 1000 of them, and the color bleeds in all of the cards? How can you possibly pick one image that completely represents you as a photographer?

These are all tough questions to answer and have made me stick away from this sometimes cheesy form of self-promotion. Until now.

PHOTOGRAPHIC VARIATION
Moo.com allows photographers to use up to 100 different images on your cards. So theoretically if you ordered 400 cards, you could have 100 variations of cards (4 kinds of each picture). For photographers like myself who do a large variety of work this is nice. You can give a restaurant a food shot, a magazine editor a commercial or fashion shot and a newspaper editor an editorial style image. So – plus one point for Moo.com from me.

PHYSICAL SIZE
I’ve also been very intrigued by non-traditional sized business cards. I think it already makes whoever you give it to, take a second look which might result in them remembering you more. I went with Moo.com’s mini cards, which with a full bleed measure out at 70mm x 28mm (2.75″ x 1.10″). For reference, this is about 2/3 the length of an iPhone. So – plus two points for Moo.com from me.

CROP FACTOR
This relative crop size I’m very happy with. Its very narrow, but not too narrow that I couldn’t find images that I thought worked in this format. I found 100 images that I could crop this narrow in my archive with ease – and honestly, it was kind of fun (although I spent far too much time on it). What your seeing above and below are some of my favorite of these cropped images. So – plus three points for Moo.com from me.

PAPER WEIGHT
The weight of the paper seems like a very good compromise between, won’t be too bothersome to keep some in your pocket, yet, it won’t bend in your pocket. A lot of very heavy stocks make holding business cards actually annoying. Moo’s 350 gram stock (which they say has been sustainably sourced) won’t bend yet is thick enough to hold ink to allow for good photo reproduction. The cards themselves have a smooth matte laminate. So – plus four points for Moo.com from me.

PHOTO REPRODUCTION
Photo reproduction was good – but not excellent. Some cards printed a little dark, but nothing to the point that I’m unhappy or would complain. Detail is good in the highs and mid range; however, the lows become blown out at some points. When you upload photos to Moo.com they actually have a small photo toner which recommends lightening your photos. I’m always weary of these online photo editors and usually avoid it. Perhaps I shouldn’t have. So – minus one point for me.

PRICE
Price wise I think its a fair deal, although its not cheap. In a world where business cards are free if you want them to be, its hard to justify spending too much. For 400 Minicards (100 variations) and 1 Black Supernana Mini Card felt holder, plus international shipping from England to China I spent $65.05 USD. If you are investing in yourself as a creative professional and want to stick out amongst the circus of photographers around you, this seems like a good investment. So – plus five points for Moo.com from me.

DELIVERY
Although its hard to tell if its a China thing or just slow shipping, it did take awhile. My cards arrived today, November 18, 2010. The ordered was placed on October 19, 2010. I paid for DHL Standard shipping which cost about $11 USD. Moo’s estimated time of delivery was November 12, 2010 which still wouldn’t have been too fast. So – minus 1 point for Moo.com, minus 1 point for China for probably taking their time moving the package around.

CONCLUSION: MOO.COM 4, JONAH -1, CHINA -1
Overall I’m very happy with this product and company and bassed on the score above, they are the clear winner between themselves, China and me. I believe a photographer’s business card is extremely important and something you shouldn’t go cheap on. Business cards from Kinko’s or your local supermarket’s photocopier just don’t give a good impression of you or what type of quality you represent. Below, are some more of the images on these cards.

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Note from Jonah: This is a follow up post to a discussion from last week concerning comercial usage of Flickr photographs. Read that post here.

Within 24 hours of last week’s blog post titled “Air Canada trolling Flickr for free photographs,” I received an (understandably) angry email from enRoute’s photography editor. I told them I would give them a chance to give their opinion on the matter, and asked it they would answer a couple simple questions to help make the situation more clear.

About a day later, the editor of enRoute took over. Although they have sent me a letter, they did not answer all my questions concerning their practices with Flickr — and after a small amount of investigation some discrepancies in their official practice have come to light. The only real clear fact I’ve gotten is both the photo editor and managing editor are blaming the intern for giving false information.

Here’s a sequence of quotes that show the morphing opinions from enRoute:

1) INTERN: “Unfortunately, we do not pay for those images. We give credit to the photographer and we hope that this is a chance to be shown through onAir, Air Canada’s e-zine, by 2.5 million people monthly.”
2) PHOTO EDITOR: “We often do compensate with a fee.”
3) MANAGING EDITOR: “We pay for these photos with a fee comparable to the same quality stock photography.”

This seemed a bit confusing to me. I asked enRoute to provide me with a Flickr user they had used and paid. They refused citing a privacy policy, which I though was strange given that photographers have bylines. However, after a quick search on enRoute’s Web site, I found a photo they had sourced from Flickr and contacted the photographer via Flickr mail. She says:

4) FLICKR PHOTOG: “Basically they didn’t ask. I think it’s an awful article and no I’m not happy about it. I’m a fan of Andrew Keane and his wonderful book “The Cult of the Amateur” and I believe this sloppy behaviour from corporates is putting professionals out of jobs. – Some may argue that my behaviour in publishing content online is doing the same, so there’s fire in this argument!

I know Air Canada and their agency have not used the image incorrectly from a legal perspective, but morally, this is pretty bad. It’s just nonsense copy wrapped around a few images from Flickr. The copy doesn’t really even make sense. It’s insulting to people who share their content for the community – (in my case the artist community at Mediamatic who the photo is about). This article is sadly earning Air Canada money from the ads they have wrapped around it. However I’m sure it’s not strengthening their brand with anyone who reads this sloppy journalism.

If I was Brand Manager at Air Canada, I’d be disappointed in this output from the Agency I’d hired.”

So according to enRoute’s editor “It was her error. She’s an intern and has been in our office for a couple of weeks.” This makes sense. A nascent intern decided to make a budget decision without the advice or instructions form a supervisor and in fact, the policy of the company is to pay all Flickr photographers as the managing editor says. This seemed strange to me given the Flickr photographer’s response. Things weren’t really lining up with the companies statement and their emails became more defensive, offensive and uncooperative. Nonetheless, to be fair to the company I would like to print their official statement. It reads (verbatim):

Hi Jonah,

I’m the editor-in-chief of enRoute, and I wish you had taken the time to contact us directly before posting on your blog. My photo editor has reached out to you to resolve any issues you may have with enRoute or Spafax, which publishes the magazine for Air Canada, but you continue to misrepresent my team and the creative work they produce.

One of our core values at enRoute is to promote the work of writers and photographers. Our stories are a curated collection of what we feel are the most interesting people, places and ideas circulating through the world at the moment, including profiles of artists and photographers. It is one of the most award-winning and respected Canadian publications, in fact.

You are reducing the efforts of an entire creative team down to a single correspondence with an intern, which was never verified with anyone else at the magazine, regarding a tiny photo in the back pages of the magazine.

Flickr photographers are usually compensated with a nominal fee, comparable to what we pay for stock photography. The advantage, of course, is that their work is shown to over one million readers, and some people are happy to have their work showcased to our influential readership. This is absolutely in keeping with industry norms. We never violated anyone’s copyright and, in fact, ended up using a shot available from a tourism board, which is why a fee wasn’t offered in this case.

We commission almost all the visuals in the magazine from some of Canada’s (and the world’s) best photographers and illustrators. To suggest otherwise shows that it is unlikely that you’ve ever read one of our issues.

We use a small amount of pick-up, from Flickr, photo agencies and other sources, like virtually every magazine on the planet. In all cases, we credit photographers for every photo, including websites where requested.

Again, my team at enRoute works very hard to put an engaging magazine in our readers’ hands, so I’m not sure what “corporate machine” you are referring to. It’s also available free of charge, in hotels, spas and restaurants across the country, and on our website, enroute.aircanada.com

Perhaps it might be worth taking a look.

Thanks,
Ilana Weitzman

While the above contributor wasn’t paid or asked according to her, in a different situation Flickr user Old Shoe Woman says: “Yes, they asked for my permission. I had to send them an invoice with the agreed amount for the photo. They told me I would get credit. They actually did give me credit. I just couldn’t find it at first. I emailed, and they told me where my name was located. They paid me $50 for the picture.”

So perhaps there is some inconsistency involved in their practices, where some photographers are being paid and some are not. Regardless, my point is the same. Amateur photographers: your work has value. If a commercial enterprise such as enRoute wants to use your image in a magazine (even if its a “a tiny photo in the back pages of the magazine”), you should be paid for it.

The discrepancy in voices between the editors, the intern and photographer is certainly suspicious in my mind if there is an actual policy — or the policy is simply, try to get it for free. Based on the tone and voice of emails I’ve received its hard for me to trust them.

Thoughts from industry professionals

I thought it might be good to get a few more opinions from industry professionals on the matter. A creative director at a major Asian stock imaging agency (being kept anonymous) writes:

“Sourcing images from Flickr or public domain isn’t something new, and Getty Images even has a partnership with the former. Although the biggest difference here is that Air Canada is a big corporation trying to source images for commercial purposes without compensating the photographer (a credit line isn’t compensation in my book, no matter what). As far as I know, Getty at least compensates hobbyists for licensing their work through Flickr. I personally think that if a company considers an image good enough to be published in a magazine read by millions of readers, then it’s good enough to pay for doing so.

In all our years, we have never accepted a credit line as means of payment. We advise all photographers who sign with us not to accept this as well, because it undervalues not only their own work, but the work of other photographers who make a living from photography. The only exception is when images are used for charities or NGOs, with the content provider’s permission.”

Another European agency writes:

“Hi Jonah

Interesting debate! The stock industry was the first to monetise hobbyist and amateur content with the growth of microstock companies.

From where I sit I see the stock industry has utilised Flickr to source new talent. Getty Images has partnered with Flickr to source talent for its Royalty Free and Rights Managed collections. Giving hobbyists an opportunity to move straight in to the previously somewhat ‘closed’ macro market. Those represented are renumerated on sales of their images like any professional would be. http://www.flickr.com/help/gettyimages/

There is no doubt many companies are seeking ‘cost’ driven content and to a large extent this is satisfied by the volume of content available in microstock. However the photographers whether professional or hobbyist are paid royalties.

From a personal perspective I believe photographers (hobbyists and amateurs included) ought to be paid if their work is being used. Large corporates can certainly find the financial muster to offer something!

A professional photographer whose work and experience has spanned large portions of the globe says:

“As a professional photographer, I am very careful about how my work is used and for what purpose. This is because I feel my images have value.

The perceived value of photographs taken by an amateur may differ from that made by a professional, but an amateur’s photographs still have value. They may not realise it but they are hurting the professional photography industry if they give images away for free.

At the end of the day, every photographer deserves to be compensated for the use of their images, whether they are professional or amateur. A byline is never enough”

While I can’t seem to come to a conclusion of what’s actually happening at enRoute, beyond veterans shamelessly blaming a newbie, a couple things are clear:

1. Industry professionals agree if a photo is good enough to be published, it should be paid for.
2. A credit line, is not compensation.
3. Cost driven content makes amateur photographers a great target for publications looking to save a buck.
4. Giving away photographs to commercial clients undervalues not only your work, but the work of other photographers who make a living from photography.
5. You will not be seeing my byline in enRoute.

RELATED: Journalist Tom Spender just sent me a link to a great NYT article titled: “For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path.” Worth a read on the industry and its use of Flickr.