Ben and Jen Again

Got another one of my exclusive shots of Ben, Jen and Violet in OK Magazine again this month. It's from the same set as last time, but it is a different photo.

And in context

Puperazzi

Puparazzi

On my way down to Florida I ran across a dog store called Puperazzi. I thought the name was pretty creative so I took a couple photos of the store. Oh, there was also a really friendly dog in the store.

Making It Part 7...Two in a week

Allright thus far I have had two pictures published on the same day in one publication and I have had the same picture published in two different publications in one week, but I have never had two different pictures published in two different publications in one week. The first one was my exclusive, published in OK Magazine, and the other is a picture of Eva Mendes in Us Weekly.

...and in context.

Making It Part 6...First Exclusive Publish

Well here it is, another milestone achieved as a paparazzi, my first exclusive photograph has been published. Everything I've gotten published thus far has been non-exclusive, which means there was always other photographers photographing a subject at the same time as me. This photograph, though, the one with Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and their kid Violet, out and about in NYC is all mine. Yup, that's right, nobody else got it. The cool thing about exclusives is they command a much higher price then non-exclusive shots, at least two to three times the normal value. If the exclusive is something note-worthy, or newsworthy, and you can start a bidding war between publications then you can get almost anything you want for certain pictures.

Check out issue #52 of OK Magazine to see the picture in person.

Here's the picture in context.

Double Exposure

SJP - DBL Exposure

Well it was certainly a windfall week for me thanks to one particular photo of Sarah Jessica Parker I shot on the set of Sex in the City last week. This one photo of SJP's undies got published in not one, but two magazines, the Globe and Star. This is the second time I've had one picture published in two magazines, and the other time was with SJP as well! So, if your reading this, THANK YOU SARAH!

Mainstream Paparazzi

Just finished reading an article in Variety about the Paparazzi job field. It was very interesting to read about the field I currently work in. The author really nailed what it is like to be in this business and expressed every single issue currently facing our job field. From too many shooters, to magazines not paying enough, the overall job field is really going down from what it once was. I know I'm producing really stellar work and I am published rarely.

Here's a link to the article.

Black Friday

Black Friday

I went out to a local Circuit City and Target to capture the feeling of Black Friday.

Life is Like Photoshop

Life is like Photoshop. In Photoshop there are many different ways to get the same result, the finished image. Some ways are easier, some ways are harder, most of the time the ways are just different.

In life there are many different ways to succeed, and there are many different types of success. Don't let anyone tell you that your way is wrong because that's not how they would do. No one knows exactly what to do, and just because one way is tried and true, safe and easy, doesn't mean it's the correct path for anyone.

That's my two cents.

Being Web Published

While this doesn't have the same gravitas as being published in a magazine, it is still a paycheck, and it still feels good to be acknowledged for the work I do. When working as a freelancer I only get paid if I get published so everything and anything helps. BTW, this isn't my first web publish, I was published somewhere before, but I never saw that image. Here's the link to the page if you'd like to see it its entirety.

Times Ledger

Times Ledger Pubs

In addition to working as a Paparazzi I've also been working on the side with the newspaper the Times Ledger. This allows me to maintain my photojournalism expertise while I work as a Pap. So, I've included a link to all the stuff I've gotten published in the Times Ledger as a way for you to see it all. Click on the picture to see all the clippings.

Making It Part 5...The Multi-Publish

For the first time in my short career as an "Entertainment Photojournalist" I have the same picture published in multiple publications. Here it is a photo of Sarah Jessica Parker from one of the sets of Sex and the City. This photo was published in the Sunday New York Post (I'll post that image later) and now OK! Magazine. It's a great photo, she's looking at the camera, smiling and waving. It deserved to get published. What's funny is that as I took this picture someone else also took it at the same time and they shot with flash. So this frame was actually over exposed because of the other persons flash, but through some slight Photoshopping I was able to salvage it.

What's great about the multi-publish is that every time an image I produce is used I get paid for it, every time and for every usage. So if I shoot a picture that gets published 7 times in one week, then each one of those publishings is a paycheck. If I'm the only one to shoot that picture, making the picture exclusive, the price received per photo can be double, tripled or even more.

Jennifer Hudson

Got a picture published in today's Daily News, September 27, 2007. Its a picture of Jennifer Hudson, the Oscar winner who starred in Dreamgirls. She's in the new Sex and the City movie and I got her waiting outside for her part to begin. This is my third publishing in the Daily News, and my fifth publishing so far.

Making It Part 6...Going International

Sold my first picture overseas I found out. It was a picture of Nicole Richie I shot a few weeks earlier. I don't know exactly which picture it was but I know it ran at half a page and it was on page 26 of whichever publication published. Let me just add a check in the box for international sales.

Making It Part 3...Going National

This is my third publishing, but my first in a major national publication. What's cool about this is that you can find this image in any US Weekly around the country, just find the August 27, 2007 copy of the mag. BTW, mine is the picture of Megan Fox taken on the set of "How to lost friends and alienate people."

Making Whoopi

Just wanted to announce my second published photo. This time it's Whoopi Goldberg trying to get the attention of the Paparazzi taking her photo. Nice shot I think. This is an actual street picture of a caught celebrity, while the other photo was from the set of a photo shoot. This photo was published on August 9th by the Daily News in New York City.

Paparazzi

I'm officially a Paparazzi today, as my first paparazzi photo was published by the Daily News, a New York City paper. The shot is of Sarah Michelle Geller at a Self Magazine photo shoot. Is my credibility now ruined, I don't think so, I'm just another photographer trying to make a buck with his camera.

Roslyn Heights

New York Sight Seeing

2006_06_16

Just arrived on Roslyn Heights, NY, which is located on Long Island. I've been looking around for work and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. My goal is to find a job in the world of photography soon.

In the meantime I just posted some photos from a little sightseeing tour my girlfriend Ania and I went on yesterday. These aren't portfolio pieces, just some vacation photography.

"The Zipper" on PhotoSIG

I posted my image of a ferris wheel on PhotoSIG today. Click here to see it and give it a critique. PhotoSIG is a great site for posting imagery and getting it critiqued, or if you want to critique imagery yourself. I encourage any photographer, professional or enthusiast, to publish their photos to this site.

Various Pictorial Imagery

2007_06_10

Just some pictorial imagery I shot today, June 10, 2007.

Can I Get a Witness

Hundreds of Jehovah Witnesses were out and about on June 9, 2007, working together to construct a new congregation in Jacksonville, N.C. Members of the church from the North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia areas came out to help put together the church in a two week period which started on Wednesday, June 6. Age and experience weren't factors as members ranged in age from 16-76, and many had little to no prior construction experience. The group was also made up of diverse set of races including white, black, Hispanic and Asian. Every person working on the project volunteered their time.

The new congregation is designed to serve both the English and Spanish speaking community. The building will have two libraries, one English, one Spanish, along with two services, one English, one Spanish. The completely volunteer force will complete the Kingdom Hall by June 17, and it will be ready for use by late July or early August. One factor holding up use of the building are chairs, which will not arrive until early to mid-July.

Photo Credibility

I am a photojournalist. As a photojournalist I maintain the highest level of integrity when I take photos of my subjects. Unless I'm photographing a model in the studio, or a portrait, I do not manipulate my subject or environment. I do not manipulate my images in unethical ways. I do color correct, crop and tone my images to give them the highest impact, but I do not delete anything or add anything that isn't in the picture. I, along with every other photojournalist in the field, am taught to maintain this high level photographic integrity. Unfortunatly there are those in the field who don't maintain their integrity and they unfortunately make it harder for the rest of us.

I bring this up because I talked to anther photojournalist friend of mine who told me that he wanted to make a statement on his website which basically read like the statement I made above. I asked him why would he do that, why would he feel he needs to state what is basically a given for people in our field. Dishonest photographers are the exception, but there are always going to be these people in are field. These people are always going to be there but they are the exception, not the rule, and I do not feel that any photographer has to state that they are an "honest" photographer, and that they do not manipulate their images.

Why? The ethos of photojournalists are that we don't manipulate our imagery, and this should be understood by all who view images. By stating this in a mission statement the photographer sets themselves up as an exception to other photographers. By standing up and saying "I do not manipulate images," you are basically saying that every other photographer is an image manipulator. No genuine photojournalist who adopts the tenants of a photojournalist should have to tell anyone what should be understood.

Also in the news profession there have been quite a few reports of reporters who faked stories, or just made up facts. Have you ever heard any reporter telling their readership that they are dishonest. No. They don't because people understand that these manipulators and dishonest people are the exception not the rule. As long as we identify these people and make them a public specticle then we as a bringers of the truth will be admonished of the wrongdoings of others.

Workshop: The Musical

The Eddie Adams photography workshop known as Barnstorm is one of the most prestigious and well known photography workshops in the U.S. It is currently in its 20th year of nurturing the talents of young photographers in upstate New York, and a recent YouTube browse found this little gem from Barnstorm XIX. Workshop: The Musical is a little gem which encapsulates all the feelings and emotions related to first trying to get into the workshop, and then the actual experience of the workshop. There are six parts to the musical and you can see them here.

Starting Today

Starting today I will be working to create a completely new portfolio. The portfolio I currently use is culled from nearly 8 years of photographic work. I spent the nearly my entire weekend+ pouring over my photography to come up with the photos in that portfolio, and I can say one thing conclusively, I am sick and tired of looking at all those old photos. So my plan, as of today, is to completely revitalize and revamp my portfolio by this time next year. Every single photograph in my portfolio next year will be completly new. One thing that won't change are my photo stories, this is because they are important to me and have a significance far greater then just the photos themselves. So stay tuned to my website will see what I can come up with by this time next year.

Shooting Raw

I used to always shoot in JPEG format. The way I saw it, why would I want to deal with RAW when JPEG works just as well and can be edited in Photoshop easily. In addition JPEG gave me more the ability to take more photos. Also in the beginning when dealing with RAW it was a pain because each image had to be opened and edited and resaved before anything could be done with the image. It wasn't until Photoshop created their RAW utility that shooting in RAW became a quick process, even faster then shooting with JPEG.

When I shot in JPEG I'd save my images, then make my selects, then open each image and edit them individually in Photoshop. This process worked fine until I discovered RAW editing utility in Photoshop CS 2. With this utility I can shoot in RAW, preview and make selects in Adobes great preview application Bridge, and open all my selects at once. Photoshop places all the selects together in one dialog box and I can go through each image making all my color correction edits I can think of. I can also crop and fix tilted images as well. It's really great, and when I've made all my corrections to each of my images, which can be done in a few minutes, I let the application convert my edited images to JPEG format. In addition to saving my images the application also can be used to rename my images to my specifications.

At this point I have my archival imagery saved, and I have my selects ready to use transmit or publish. So now I only shoot in RAW format.

File naming conventions

I've been going through my archive of 8 years of photography and I'm coming to the realization that file naming is very important to the archiving process. It's good to set up a system early on otherwise you'll just be doing more work in the future. In the military, combat photographers, videographers and illustrators use a system known as Visual Information Record Identification Number (VIRIN) to label their photos, videos or illustrations. A VIRIN is made of an assortment of information which help an organization as large as the military keep track of who created what. Here is an example VIRIN:

070401-M-0948M-001

The first six numbers are the date, in year, month, day format. The letter M represent the service I'm in, in the case the M stand for the Marines. The four numbers and the letter represent the last four numbers of my social security number and the first letter in my last name. And the the last three numbers represent the number of the image. The last four of the social and first letter of the last name are essential in identifying who took the picture.

This system works great in the military where you have hundreds of photographers, videographers and graphic illustrators all contributing their work to a cohesive whole. While the meta data and caption information also hold ownership information, the VIRIN allows for quick visual identification of ownership.

In my personal work the VIRIN is both unnecessary and inefficient. Because all the work I produce comes from me and is captioned and identified with my name in the meta data, I don't need to brand the file names with my social. Also because the imagery I produce in my own time with my own equipment is mine, I don't associate it with the military . So for my personal imagery I use this file naming convention:

2007_05_28_001_Memorial Day Observance_Wilmington NC

The first part of the file name is the date, it is a simple year, month, day format, but I have chosen to use the full four number year format. Also I chose to use underscores to separate information because I find it easier to read then by bunching all the information together. I don't know if I'll still be taking pictures in the year 2100, or whether I'll still even be alive, but at least with a four number year I won't have to worry about which century my photographs are from. Next I have the sequence number, followed by the event title, and the place. The last two are optional and can even be replaced with something completely different, but I try to choose something which can identify the shoot, even if different subjects are photographed over the course of a day.

When scanning years of photography this naming convention allows me to find certain photos much more quickly then by simple date naming. Also, by using this naming convention I can use any computer to scan through my files to find something. I don't have to rely on specific software which organizes photos.

Memorial Day Observance - Wilmington, N.C.

2007_05_28_Memorial Day_Wilmington NC

Veterans, civilians, and military members were all in attendance at the Memorial Day Observance on May 28, 2007 aboard the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial in Wilmington, N.C. The event included a Presentation of Colors by an all-service color guard, in memoriam remarks by ADM Kirkland H. Donald, USN, Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, and a Wreath to the Waters presentation.

Photos by David J. Murphy, all rights reserved, Copyright 2007.

The NEW DJMphoto

Welcome to the new DJMphoto.com website. I've decided to let Google host my website which will primarily be through this blog. I've chosen this route for a variety of reasons but the most important of which is that I now have an easy and quick way to update and modify my site, with or without my computer. If you've followed my site for the last couple of years I hope you appreciate the site redesign.