In the interest of organization, I finally set up my portfolio site at justinkohmetscher.com. Actually, Michael set it up, and I’m using the template for right now. I’m still working on styling Bradley’s site, which is more important than styling my own site. (And I’m almost done Bradley, I swear!)

However, I did upload a bunch of images. I’ve been scanning some film from the two years before grad school and found some interesting stuff. I don’t have everything from the last year and half up yet because I’m still trying to go through it all.

Blah. Blah. Blah… Blah.

Anyway, go look at my pictures!

After Tessa and I enjoyed a fantastic dinner at AMcS’s parents’ house (featuring tortilla soup, which should probably be a New Year’s Eve dinner standard from now on), we made it downtown to see in the beginning of 2008. We were both astonished at how quickly 2007 went. Brendan just made a lot of noise.

Over the summer, Michael built a sailboat. He ordered the plans, bought all the wood, hardware, a sail and lifejacket, with the intention of setting sail in the Hudson river. Last Saturday, he accomplished his goal. He launched from a small beach off of Dyckman Street in upper Manhattan. I documented his excursion, starting in his studio earlier that morning, as he finished building the mast, and attempted to help him move the boat into a van to transport it to the launch spot. Unfortunately, halfway through getting the boat into the vehicle, I experienced a relatively bad (and recurring) back injury, and had to spend the rest of the day limping along, using the tripod for support.

I plan on creating a short video documentary about Michael and his boat project (which somehow relates to his MFA thesis and his painting practice). I shot almost 3 hours of footage (using Ben’s thankfully borrowed digital camcorder), detailing the various difficulties (carrying the damn thing, my back going out, the rain that threatened to cancel the whole thing, trying to find Michael after he disappeared up the Hudson), and plan on shooting a debriefing of sorts sometime next weekend. Hopefully, I’ll have a working edit done in about a month.

We were welcomed at the beach by a friendly group of Dominicans (and a curious Polish guy named Robert), who were having a great time getting drunk and high as they played maracas and other noise makers to music blaring on a portable CD player. We were also helped by a woman named Nan, who employed her Rascal-type scooter to go up the trail and keep us posted about Michael’s whereabouts after he sailed out of sight.

It was a very interesting and difficult experience - but not nearly as hard as it’s going to be to not somehow incorporate Michael, Row the Boat Ashore into the documentary.

For the last seven days, I’ve been editing photographs for WireImage (now owned by Getty Images which also owns FilmMagic).

I’ve seen enough runway models and clothes for many lifetimes, and greatly admire those who do this for a living more than ever — it is difficult to work with photographs in that capacity and not become jaded, cynical or tired about artmaking and its eventual commodification.

However, this particular freelance job pays a lot, we’re treated very well — we’ve been fed sushi, lots of fancy coffee drinks and we get cars home at night — and we get to stare at pretty women wearing incredibly expensive clothes for 10 hours every day. So it’s not really all that bad.

As the week progressed, we began to come up with themes for the day. Today was hat day, and as you can see, we are all indeed wearing hats:

And those hats stayed on throughout our entire shifts. Even Jen’s bunny ears. We are all about commitment.

It has been great to meet some fellow photographers (and geek out all day long talking about tech stuff that no one else in the world cares about), but I am happy the week is almost over. Tomorrow is the last day, and after some drinks, I will be thankfully back out of the fashion loop, where I belong.

The interwebs (via reddit) have given some time to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, usually considered one of the three – along with William Henry Fox Talbot and Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre – best known inventors (discoverers? pioneers? instigators?) of photography.

If you follow the link to the Harry Ransom Center’s The First Photograph exhibition, you’ll be treated to a relatively comprehensive history of Niépce’s involvement with the revelation of photography. Although not as tragic as poor Hippolyte Bayard, Niépce did not get to enjoy the spoils of his research and work (mostly because he died 4 years into his 10-year contract with Daguerre).

And here’s an interesting statement from an article on Niépce’s first photograph by Jim Lewis:

The quality of a photograph lies not in its subject matter but in the irreducible entanglement of photographer, apparatus, and image. The most interesting fact to contemplate is that someone had the will and the opportunity to take it at all.

Is this different that the quality of any art?

Yes. My life is like a headline from The Onion. Only less funny because I don’t have a staff of writers, and these things really happen to me.

Anyway, thanks to Shahee Ilyas for his barecity WordPress theme, that I took and modified. And by modified, I mean that I picked and poked at the littlest things so that what took me roughly 4 hours looks basically identical to his original design.

Tessa says it’s too sparse. It probably is, but I’ve always been afraid of design. I figure it’s better to be too sparse than too busy. It was difficult to find a template that just provided the basics for the blog - most of the themes available have a billion graphics for everything, and I have yet to find one with really well written CSS (thus the 4 hours, and I didn’t improve it much) (yet).

So that this space doesn’t become a scrapbook of doggington (which it would), Michael has kindly set us up with a subdomain and another blog: tony.championbeginner.com.

From now on, Peeps McDinkledog will be featured over there, and I’ll try to keep the conversation over here a little less… er… doggy.

Just read this quote and thought it could start a blog war.

“There is as much ‘art’ in photojournalism as in ‘fine art’ photography, its just more grounded, more practical and less narcissistic.”

Wikipedia seems to agree (sort of): “Fine art photography, sometimes simply called art photography, refers to high-quality archival photographic prints of pictures that are created to fulfill the creative vision of an individual professional. Such prints are reproduced, usually in limited editions, in order to be sold to dealers, collectors or curators, rather than mass reproduced in advertising or magazines. Prints will sometimes, but not always, be exhibited in an art gallery.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_art_photography

So we’ve had Tony for a week. Or, Tony has had us for a week. I suppose it depends on your perspective. He is now 4 1/2 months old, and has gone two days with no “accidents.” He has also mostly learned his name, “sit,” and “come,” and kind of learned “down.” He is hard to walk (he pulls a lot and still doesn’t really understand the leash), but hilarious when he runs (which lasts about 4 seconds).

Here he is to scale (the grid is composed of 1 x 1″ squares):

And here is his latest trick compilation video:

Our friends Dave and Amanda got married yesterday, and Ben and I photographed it. The wedding was in a loft in midtown Manhattan, in one of the most beautiful spaces I’ve ever seen. I’ve been editing today a little - I shot only digital and ended up with about 360 images from my first rough edit. I think Ben shot (after a brief memory card fiasco that was resolved through a recovery program) probably about twice the number of images did; so between the two of us, I think we’ll be able to provide them with a good amount of photographs.

And I got really drunk.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be a good event photographer, but I know that having a few free gin and tonics sure makes me better at photographing strangers. The problem is, usually event photographers don’t get to drink at the bar and eat at the tables (as Tessa and I were invited as guests, and Ben became one as soon as he offered his services).

So - anyone need a wedding photographer/guest? Hire Ben, Tessa and me as professional photographers/drinkers/eaters at your next event!