New website up!!

I've been working on a new website, and it's finally done. Now I'm stumbling through social media after listening to a teleconference Monday on social media marketing. Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Website. Could take a full time employee just to keep up with all of this stuff. Now, on to an e-mail blast!

Check out the new website and don't forget to share it, or you can just 'like' me on FB! Or follow me on Twitter.
http://www.smcintyre.com

shooting for a cause

Pro-bono work is work done for free or at a very low cost for a client that is doing some good in the world, usually a non-profit helping the poor. At it's best pro-bono work is a way to get involved in the community, network with other creatives and often do award winning work. Giving your time as a professional is worth so much more than volunteering to do a job that anyone can do. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it in terms of hourly wages, i.e., how much would I make per hour as a photographer, versus how much would I make per hour as someone serving food? Donating time as a professional allows you to give more. In the past I have shot an award winning campaign for Caritas of Austin, and in San Francisco worked with the Taproot Foundation. 


So when Avance-Austin approached me for photography for a new website it seemed like a good chance to do some great photography and give to a worthy cause. Avance is a non-profit that provides early education programs for low-income Latino families. On average, children living in poverty enter kindergarten far behind their middle-class peers, which affects them through out school. In the Avance program parents are taught to be a partner in their child's education, allowing for school readiness and a much greater chance at high school graduation. 


I want to point out that in my experience doing this sort of work, I've found it to be more rewarding to work with an advertising agency. Mainly because the work has follow through; the ad agency will make sure the work gets seen by an audience and that it will look good. (I've also worked on projects that did not have back end support and the photos were never seen by anyone, a waist of effort). On this project I worked with a company called i2i Group. We worked as partners, meaning, they did not give any art direction, but are putting together the website (it's still in production). After evaluating Avance's needs, I came up with art direction and did the photo shoots.


See more work at http://www.smcintyre.com/

Bad weather makes good photos...

On our Bay Area Christmas trip this year we decided to go the beach one day. At that time of year the weather at the beach is a very hit or miss-that is if you're looking for sunny weather. On this day we had very heavy fog, it wasn't quite what you would call rain, but it might as well have been, everything, including my camera was getting soaked. I put it under my jacket in between photos (until I got smart and went to get an umbrella out of the car). Despite, or maybe because of the weather, I loved this day. It wasn't just that it was beautiful. I looked around and saw all of these people completely enjoying themselves; kids playing in the sand, families playing soccer, groups huddled around fires, who cares if it's wet and cold? An authentic Northern California day. 

see more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

 

Hipstamatic love it or hate it?

It's crazy how easy it is now to create interesting imagery now. I used to carry a Diana camera around, complete with a changing bag, a light tight bag that I would use to load and unload film with. I couldn't do it in the day light because the paper backed rolls of film wouldn't wind up tight enough, so the film would get exposed when taking it out of the camera. I would process my film, none of it straight, usually cross processed or pushed 3 stops. After getting the rolls and contact sheets back I would go to the dark room and print the ones I liked the best. Because this whole process took a certain amount of knowledge, time and money, it was somewhat unique. And I loved it.

When I got an iPhone and started seeing Hipstamatic imagery about, it was not just annoying, it kind of made me angry. Making plastic camera images was now available to just about anyone, you didn't even have to care about photography to do it. For the first year of having my iPhone, I wouldn't even buy the app. I was happy with my Shakeit Polaroid and a few others, intentionally avoiding the Hipstamatic, like it was developed just to be my menace.

In an effort to make peace with new technology, I've started using the Hipstamatic recently. It's far from perfect, I always want to tweak things and I don't like most of the lens and films. But the ones I use, I really love. I must admit that I don't have time now for dark room, and for the most part, even shooting film. So it makes me extremely happy to take these quirky little keepsakes.

Most of the time I use these:

Color: the John S & Blanko film 

Black & white: Lucifer VI and Black Keys

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

These were taken with a Diana for a book I did on New Orleans.

I always took my Diana on my travels. The photos above and below were taken in Spain.

Tom Smothers

Another story that didn't make it to the About page:

I don't shoot celebrities often. It really is easier to do my job if I'm not distracted by the giddiness that comes from meeting someone bigger than life. But I loved spending the afternoon with Tom Smothers. He was the John Stewart of his day, and had many incites to share, not all of them funny, some in fact, rather dark. But he loved to tell them, loved having an audience to share with. A real people person, you don't often meet.

See more portraits: http://www.smcintyre.com/

Shooting naked

While working on my new website I wrote some stories for the About page that didn't make it into the mix. I thought this blog would be a good place to share them. Here's one:

Most challenging shoot: 5 naked sax players on Auditorium Shores for the Naked Austin Calendar.  I've had more physically difficult shoots, like shooting in a clean room in silicon valley with a mask and gloves on and high humidity (try seeing through a plastic mask when your breath keeps fogging it up), or shooting out of a helicopter, but this shoot sticks out in my mind because of pesky passersby and their camera phones. I like my subjects to feel comfortable, and while this was a very uncomfortable shoot, people stopping to take photos bothered me and I had to run a few off. Note to self...next time maybe don't shoot the naked guys on Auditorium Shores.

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/

Found that country feeling in middle of Austin

At the beginning of August Austin Monthly contacted me about shooting a cover for their 'Weekend Trips' September issue. They had a good idea of what we would shoot; a family with a Wagoneer and a canoe on top, but we needed a location. I wanted to shoot out of the city, but logistically it's a little difficult to coordinate so many elements; kid, couple, car, canoe, us, did I mention a dog? I suggested an empty lot in middle of the city where I had shot in the past, which turned out to be just the trick for a easy shoot. The grass had grown up nicely and caught the afternoon sun beautifully.

See more work: http://www.smcintyre.com/