The Nation's First-Photographer?

Malia Obama, First-Kid and First-Photographer, AP Photo

Her Dad is the President. Her Mom is the First-Lady. She and her little sister are the First-Children. But might Malia also be the First-Photographer? She looks quite comfortable wielding that Kodak point-n-shoot.

CLICK HERE to see more pics of Malia snapping pics at the inauguration and elsewhere, as well as some great commentary about her doing so.

War Photographer

Recently, a reader and fellow photographer, Kenn Ellis, sent me a copy of director Christian Frei's documentary film, "War Photographer." He also sent along the BBC's most-excellent series, "The Genius of Photography." (I'll post some words about that series in a future update.)

I know I've posted about Nachtwey a number of times on this blog. I suppose, in part, because I so admire the man and his work. I think you'll agree, my admiration (and most likely yours) is well-earned.

"War Photographer" examines the work of photographer James Nachtwey. It provides many insights into the photographer's working life as well as his thoughts on his experiences. It also contains scads of powerful images he's captured plus plenty of footage of Nachtwey shooting in dangerous environments. His images are often captured in places where the closest many of us will come to them is by reading about them in print or watching sanitized video clips on the news.

I was mesmerized by this film. If any of you have opportunities to view it, don't hesitate. It's powerful, illuminating, and thought-provoking.

Shorpy's Blog

For the few of you who semi-regularly visit this blog, you've probably figured out I'm more than a little interested in history and things of a historical nature including, but not limited to, all things photographic.

As such, I was happy to discover the photographic wonderments of Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog. (Hat tip to Pop Photo's State of the Art blog for pointing me to Shorpy.)

No, the Shorpy blog itself isn't 100-years-old. D'uh. Blogs didn't exist 100 years ago. Neither did the internet... except, perhaps, in the futurist minds of writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, although I don't believe either of them ever wrote about it. (But I could be wrong.)

Instead, Shorpy is a photoblog featuring high-definition images from the first half of the 20th century. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a 14-year-old boy who worked in an Alabama coal mine and ironworks in the 1910s. I doubt Shorpy could ever have dreamed his name and likeness would someday grace the masthead of something called a "photoblog." But who knows? Perhaps Shorpy, like Verne and Wells, was somewhat precognitive? Stranger things have happened!

At the top is a picture of a young, grease-soaked, Shorpy, photographed by Lewis Wickes Hine, standing front-and-center amongst a group of his (also quite young) co-workers at the old mine and ironworks. Hine is one of my all-time-favorite editorial photographers. His images of child labor in turn-of-the-century American industry, as well as his photo-documentation of the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City, are indelibly etched in the history of American photojournalism.

If you're like me and you enjoy viewing photographic glimpses of the past, you'll probably spend some quality time at Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog.

Build It and They Will Come

Cue the drum rolls and the trumpet blares! Here it is, TA-DA! First post for my new, *other* blog!

Okay. Cut! Someone send the musicians home. Enough with the rolling and blaring.

What's the deal, you might ask? Well, I created this *other* blog, this I, Shootist blog, for a variety of reasons.

First, I wanted to create another opportunity where I could hear myself talk. Technically, I suppose, to read myself talk. (Obviously, one of my favorite pastimes) And what will I hear/read myself talking about now? Duh! More photography, what else? (Photography being my other favorite pastime.)

I also wanted a place where I can post images that are not appropriate for my Pretty Girl Shooter blog. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Ya see, when I began writing the PGS blog, I decided I wouldn't mix in images of A) people under the age of 18; B) Pictures from other genres of photography I might engage in; and C) Photos that are off-topic for the PGS blog. While it's true the vast majority of my photo work involves beautiful, unclothed women (that being. after all, what I most often get paid to shoot) there's other stuff I photograph: Sometimes for pay and sometimes just for fun! Like the simple, editorial-ish snapshot of a child, above, cooling herself off on a hot, Venice Beach, day.

Next, I'm not a completely altruistic person. So, I'm going to get involved with some (photography-related) affiliate programs that, frankly, weren't interested in hooking up with a blog that is mostly focused on shooting pretty women, often of the naked variety. Do I expect to get rich off this new endeavor? Cue the laugh track! But if I'm gonna take the time to write this stuff then I don't think it's completely unreasonable of me to hope for a small amount of compensation. After all, I live in a capitalist society, this blog is part of a mostly capitalistic world wide web, and I ain't no freakin' commie!

Finally, I'm hoping the work I'll be putting into this blog will help motivate me to find more time get off my freakin' ass and go out and pursue new avenues of photography and/or simply move me to shoot all kinds of other stuff that might interest me, i.e., other than sexy women sans their clothing. Not that I still ain't interested in shooting pretty girls cuz I am!

I know it's going to take a little while to get this blog rolling and to work the bugs out. I haven't done much of anything with the layout or providing links or any of that stuff yet. But I'm gonna build this I, Shootist blog... and they will come: Readers, that is. Leastwise, I'm hoping they will.

Below is another candid shot from Venice Beach. In this one, I spotted a very determined young boy shooting hoops with a tennis ball. I remained fairly stealthy when I snapped these images, parents being quite wary of photographers pointing cameras at their children and all. So they were shot, pretty much, from the hip.

The images in this first post aren't particularly stellar, far from it, but I wanted to attach some photos that are about as far away from what I usually shoot as possible... just to get a different ball rolling. Sort of a Monty Python-like segue without the laughs-- Think, "And now for something completely different."

That's it for today. More to come. As with the PGS blog, you can click the pictures to see 'em bigger. Also, I'd love to hear comments-- Good, bad, or indifferent, or suggestions, advice, whatever. I'm all ears... I mean eyes. You know what I'm saying.