This week I worked for a very talented product photographer here in town by the name of Greg Slater. Slater specializes in product photography and is one talented dude when it comes to lighting. I mean, look at how interesting he can make a cup of coffee look! When I was back at Portfolio Center we had a still life class where we had to bring in images from photographers that we liked. I found a really interesting image of a wrench that I wanted to try and copy in my own special way. What I didn’t realize when I picked that image was that it was from Greg and that he was based here in Atlanta. Needless to say I was surprised when I checked his website after getting a call for work and realizing that he shot the wrench that I loved so much. Greg is a cool dude and has an amazing eye for lighting. I decided to share with everyone my version of the wrench still life. Its not nearly as good as Greg’s but I will admit it is cool to see the two side by side. If you’re looking for more of Greg’s work you can find more at his website .

On a small non-photo related note, LET’S GO MAGIC!

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So this week I decided to do something a little lighter considering last week was kind of gloomy. You might have read the title and thought to yourself, “Oh great, Ross is doing another post about himself. Awesome.” But thats where you’re wrong! This weeks photographer might have the same name as me but its not me! After some google searching I found Ross’ work and was kind of surprised that there was another photographer out there with the same name as me. But not only does he have the same name but he’s also based in the Pacific Northwest which is where I was born! Martin used to be a staff photographer for a newspaper in Oregon before changing his focus to fine art landscape photography and moving to Seattle. Martin uses a 4×5 camera to make his photographs which I have to applaud. 4×5 cameras are a totally different beast and to be able to use one to make landscape images like this is a hard thing to do. Either way its kind of cool to find someone else out there with the same name doing the same thing that you do!

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This weeks Photo Friday brings you the work of Boogie. Boogie is a street photographer living in NYC and has made a real name for himself over the past couple of years. Putting out 5 books and shooting an ad campaign for Nike over the past 3 years, he’s been a busy dude. Born and raised in Serbia he was a first hand witness to the civil war and began documenting there before coming to the US in 1998. His work is gritty and raw which might sound cliche but its probably the best way to describe it. I came across his book Its all Good a few years ago and was blown away. Not only at the images them selves but that someone was actually able to get in that deep with gangsters, skinheads and some of the craziest slums in the world. For me his work is good in small doses but if you’re looking for some more you can check out more at his website here

Also as a little self promotion I have started a tumblr blog of my own which I will be updating daily with things that inspire and make me laugh. If you’re interested you can check it out here.

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Awhile back, we gave you a look in a studio session involving Demun Jones and our in-house photographer, Ross Martin. The reason for that session was the creation for an album cover for his first iTunes single (coming out soon). Our goal was to portray “The Man in Black” with a “Cali” vibe.

This week I helped out Morel Studio Support for a couple of days and got to work with my friend Bobby. He was telling me about how he got to assist for Peter Yang on the last cover of Rolling Stone with Lil Wayne. I remember seeing that particular image for the first time and how impressed I was with it. Really there isn’t anything to the image that blows me away as far as lighting and concept is concerned and I think thats why I love it. Everyone knows who Lil Wayne is but to see such a simple picture of him I think is such a great contrast to what we’re used to seeing on his album covers or hearing in his lyrics. Just another fine example of simplistic lightinig and how effective it can be and even an awesome success story. Yang is about 30 years old and started shooting for a newspaper in Austin, TX about 10 years ago and now he’s shooting covers for Rolling Stone. I wonder what he’s gonna end up shooting another 10 years from now? If you want to read more about his approach to another assignment you can check out an awesome article here (its kind of photo nerdish but still an awesome read).

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So I’m going to hate myself for writing this next line because of how cliché it sounds, but here it goes. I really like Tim Barber’s work because it leaves you asking questions. Okay, now that you’re done laughing, seriously take a second and look at the pictures. To me it seems like there is an open-ended question about something related to the narrative of the image, which makes me enjoy this work even more. Barber approaches photography in one of my favorite ways: simple, natural lighting, with a shoot-from-the-hip mentality; capturing everything and anything that comes his way. It makes for some beautiful images and this proved to be a good approach considering he is now shooting for the Urban Outfitters catalogs. Not only is he working on making photographs for himself but he’s also working on a really great magazine called The Journal which has some really great work. I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more of Tim Barber in the near future.

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While perusing the world wide web this week I came across something that made me stop in my tracks and sucked me in for quite some time. The work of Peter Funch is something that engaged me in the imagery, which is something that I could only say about a handful of photographers before I found his work. This isn’t to say that while looking at photography I am not totally engaged, but this work in particular is something that really drew me in. His concept is simple enough, take a series of images from a specific spot and then take sections that match and turn them into a single image. For example take everyone from one scene that walked through the frame that was wearing the color white and make a single photograph out of those people. Sounds simple enough but when you see the images it really takes you back. I’m a huge fan of images that suck you in like Funch’s work does and if you like what you see you can check out some more of his work after the jump.

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So as I have written on here before, I work primarily as a photo assistant for the majority of my income. What this basically means is that I carry around all the gear and put up the lights where the photographer wants them and then make sure everything runs smoothly so that the photographer has nothing to worry about except making sure they get the right picture. So yesterday I was fortunate to work with a really awesome photographer out of New York by the name of Ben Baker. One of the most refreshing things to see while working with someone is their total control with lighting. What I mean by this is that no matter what the image or situation the lighting is spot on and Ben is one of these people. Even while inside the Georgia World Congress Center with a million kids around he still was able to keep his cool and know exactly what he wanted his lighting to look like. I went through his website and tried to find the images that best showed this. Check out the rest of his work on his website, you might see some images you have seen before.

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Thanks to my lackluster work schedule lately, I have been fortunate to catch up on a lot of daytime television and one of my new favorite shows is Deadliest Catch on Discovery. I know that I am a few years behind on this one but over the past couple of days I have been glued to my screen biting my nails and freaking out over all the crazy stuff that happens over a single episode of this show. Now you might be trying to figure out what Deadliest Catch has to do with Photo Fridayz and here is the link. This weeks photographer made a name for himself by getting onto an Alaskan King Crab fishing vessel and creating a body of work from his time there. The images are like stills straight from the Deadliest Catch and are pretty incredible to look at. There are tons more images at his website and even an interview of how he got his start here.

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This week I bring to you Jerry Hsu. He’s not only an awesome photographer but an amazing skateboarder as well. I guess its a common thing these days for skateboarders to be photographers as well considering all the crazy/awesome things they get to see. Either way, Jerry has been around for a while and I’ve been a huge fan of his even before I knew that he was a popular photographer. After the jump not only can you check out some of his awesome black and white work but you can also see one of his best video parts from Enjoi’s last video, Bag of Suck.

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