David Bergman is a legend in the world of concert photography, and he is someone I have looked up to for a long time. That may be the best summary of David I can come up with, that I am a fan, and honored to call him a friend.

For those not aware of David’s work, David is a New York based commercial photographer and photo educator who specializes in action, music and portraiture photographer. David is one of the rare talents that can pull off any genre of photography. He is also a world class educator, something I don’t want to bury down in paragraph seven somewhere. I will go into detail there, but it needs to be stated early on in this discussion. His education talent, his ability to truly understand the art of photography and be able to teach it to others is front and center to who David is.

David has been on the show twice before, first back on Episode 48 for “Composition, Creativity, and Workflow”, and then as a guest on Image Critique #9. For that first show, I knew most people would expect a live music image, since David is the current tour photographer for country super star Luke Combs and is well know for being Bon Jovi’s tour photographer. I didn’t want to be that predictable however, so we chose an image he shot for Canon USA, knowing full well I would need to get him back on one day to talk music photography.

As I mentioned above, David’s current running tour gig is as the photographer for Luke Combs, one of the most successful country artists working today. As the official tour photographer for Bon Jovi and Luke Combs, he has documented bands on stage and on the road in more than 30 countries. He has also toured with Barenaked Ladies and Gloria Estefan, and has worked with Avril Lavigne and Joss Stone. David has also done a lot of celebrity work, for the likes of Drew Carey and others. All of this adds up to David being one of the top photographers working in the entertainment space today, and to David being in the rare class of photographers known as Canon Explorers of Light.

One of the things he is best known for is being a pioneer of the GigaPan technique for making very high resolution images, and his Gigapan of President Obama’s first inaugural speech was viewed by more than 30 million people. His 20,000 megapixel image of Yankee Stadium was printed at 130 feet wide and displayed at the Canon Expo in 2015, a technique he has also used for commercial clients including NBC and MLB.com. David at times seems to be able to do anything with a camera.

Hopefully you’re starting to see what I meant when I mentioned his level of talent. Before moving to New York City in 2001, he was a photojournalist on staff at The Miami Herald and covered news and sporting events around the world. Moving from being a staff photographer to where he is today has been an interesting path. David has had 13 Sports Illustrated covers, including his image of New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees raising his son over his head after winning the Super Bowl. He has covered multiple Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, NBA and NCAA championships, and Stanley Cup Finals.

That brings us to the education side of David. I would argue that this is where David shines. He stars in and produces a show for AdoramaTV called “Ask David Bergman”, which I would argue may be the best photography tutorial series there is. Short, straight to the point answers to questions that matter. He is also a sought after speaker, having done workshops and seminars for Canon, Apple, Adorama, Best Buy, and Columbia University.

Deserving of it’s own paragraph here are David’s Shoot From the Pit workshops. These in-person workshops are amazing, and I know because I took one this past year. Shoot From the Pit is a chance to learn how to photograph concerts from David Bergman. It’s starts early in the day with David doing a multi-hour presentation. He shares everything you need to know about shooting photos at a concert – the gear, the settings, and rules, and the tips and tricks. Then, you photograph an entire Luke Combs concert. This workshop included unequaled access to a top level arena show. I have had people ask why I would pay for a workshop, considering I have already photographed concerts for 15 years. Heck, I even teach my own remote workshops for Princeton Photo Workshops. The answer is I never want to stop learning. This is David Bergman we are talking about. He knows more about photography than pretty much anyone I know. I was able to pick up a few tips, get confirmation on bits of my workflow, and reinforcement that I still liked my way better for some things. This may have been the best education money I have ever spent.

So, going back to what I said at the start… Bergman is a legend. He has been published in Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, People, Entertainment Weekly, Blender, Kerrang, USA Today, and of course his current hometown paper, The New York Times.

Join photographer David Bergman and me as we take a look at how to make better action photos, and as we discuss how he made the amazing image of Luke Combs kicking a cup of Jack and Diet Coke, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

ShootFromThePit.com

Portfolio: DavidBergman.net

AdoramaTV on YouTube

ObamaGigapan.com

Brittainy Newman: brittainynewman.com

I have the feeling that Sam Abell has more stories than almost any photographer you know. Thirty-four years as a staff and contract photographer at National Geographic tends to have that effect.

Sam is an Ohio based teacher, artist, and photographer. I would argue that his magic is that those three skills merge to create, in Sam, the perfect storyteller. His story started like many of my guests, learning photography from his father.

It was after graduating from the University of Kentucky that Sam went to work for Nat Geo. That in and of itself is an accomplishment. Lots of up-and-coming photographers dream of being a Nat Geo photographer, but the odds of having that dream come true aren’t ones I would bet on. For Sam however, it was a career that fit perfectly with his work. Having read, and listened to a few interviews with Sam, it’s amazing to hear about his process. When he describes some photos taking minutes, and other 1.5 years to make, you start to understand… Sam makes photos in his head, often long before the photo is actually made.

Sam has taken so many iconic images, including one for the Marlboro Man campaign that was famously appropriated by Richard Prince – and Sam’s thoughts about being on his side of that situation have been widely covered. I won’t be going into that in this show.

As a Canon Legend, Sam is one of the elite photographers working today, and if you are going to attend a workshop I’d guess you could learn a ton from Mr. Abell. Links to all of his upcoming workshops are at his website here.

Sam has authored a number of books too, but at the time of this show they are all sold out. Watch his site for any updates on that.

Join Canon Legend, and National Geographic legend, Sam Abell and me as we discuss how the parts of an image work together to build the power of the final photograph, on this Behind the Shot.

Website: samabell.com

Nobechi Creative: nobechicreative.com

Alex Webb: magnumphotos.com

I have followed Zack Whitford on Instagram for as long as I can remember, in fact I think he was one of the first I followed after joining Instagram. You know how you have photographers whose work you like because it makes you feel an emotion, just makes you smile? Well, Zack is one of those photographers whose work speaks to me on multiple levels.

His images span from travel and humanitarian, to rock stars and red carpets, and all of it, every single image, makes me stop. For some, I just love the moment he’s captured, while for others I find myself dissecting the angle, the light, and the subject on a deeper level.

As a music photographer, my first introduction to Zack was his work as the tour photographer for Aerosmith. His dad is Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, and I’d say that Zack’s talent with a camera is equal to that of his dad’s with a guitar. Whether the creativity gene is an inherited trait or not, Zack has it.

If you stop after calling Zack a music photographer then you’ve missed the point. Zack is a documentary, commercial, event & music photographer. His website has portfolios for Street, Music, Portrait, and Lifestyle and his work has been seen in Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone, GQ, Billboard Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and People Magazine to name a few.

There is a quote in his bio, where he is talking about training to be a stage actor when he was younger. His acting teacher said something that, looking back now, seemingly changed his life.

“As actors, you are investigators of humanity”

The way Zack tells it, that statement made him realize that he had a fascination with “seeking out the contrasting emotional moments that occur within ourselves, and between one another: The monumental disquiet that we work so diligently to mask, and the allure of human triumph”.

Read that again… “The monumental disquiet that we work so diligently to mask, and the allure of human triumph”. Wow. I love that. That. Is. Deep. Now, contrast that with an interview I found of Zack with HuffPost where he says at one point ” Most people love dogs. I’m not really interested in people who don’t like dogs”. I agree with him on that!

The problem, from a podcast point-of-view, when setting up an episode with someone like Zack is picking the photo we break-down. It wasn’t easy but, luckily, Zack was patient with me. Of the image we settled on, Zack said “that’s one of my personal favorites, and the story behind it is good”, so as I am writing this I am really looking forward to sitting down and chatting with L.A.based photographer Zack Whitford.

Join photographer Zack Whitford and me as we discuss his life as tour photographer, his humanitarian work, and his beautiful black & white image of Steven Tyler and Amiee Preston in the rain, on this Behind the Shot.

Website: zwhitford.com

Kes Glozier: @kesglozier

Usually, I struggle when I write these. To start with, I’m not a writer, but more importantly I want each post to convey to you how much I admire the guest I am writing about. Today however, I gained inspiration from my guest, Leah Horstman.

Leah is someone I have followed on Instagram for a long time, and a prime example of when Instagram helps me find new creatives to follow. She was a music photographer whose work I admired, so following her @lah_rockshots accounts was a given, but then the unexpected happened. I saw her @lahorstman account that focuses on her landscape and commercial work.

I want to talk about something Leah said to me that reminded me of something I mention on this show a lot, but let’s back up first. Leah Horstman learned to love photography from her father, who was an avid travel photographer, and who gave her a Minolta XRT101 at age 14. She studied photography in High School, and had a photo of Half Dome published in 1980. After college things changed. Leah traded the photographer life for horses. She competed in the event of “Cutting”, and even won a few world titles. Unfortunately, due to an illness, that life came to an end too. But, as he had done years before, Leah’s dad once again suggested that she pick up a camera.

I think her dad might have known how good she was, because just a few years later Leah entered the Nature Conservancy’s Annual Photo Contest – along with over 17,000 others that year. Her image “Xmas on the Merced” won the grand prize, and was named their “photo of the year”. That image went on to hang in the San Diego Natural History Museum too.

It seems that Leah was destined to get a lot of these awards. In 2018 National Geographic emailed her to say they were interested in her image of a longhorn steer in Gainesville TX titled “Quintessential Texas”. Seems they were working on an article about the history of Texas and felt this image would make a great addition to the piece. Her image “Ice Climber” won the International SD Photo exhibition’s Best of Show in 2019, and recently she was published in the Harper Collin’s pocket book, “Canada”.

Leah’s day job is working for Professionals Choice, a company that manufactures horse products. Her years of riding gives her a unique eye for the timing and composition needed for horse events. This is where her love of these two worlds collide, and while her horse riding competition days may be in the past, she was recently asked by 37X World Champion Bob Avila to take the portrait of him that is now hanging in the AQHA Hall of Fame for his 2021 induction. It’s almost as though life guides us to where we belong.

Her commercial work has led to her working with “Buggy Whip”, which still requires timing, but for dune buggies instead of horses. That connection led to her working with NASCAR driver Kyle Bush.

Leah’s path through photography is exactly as we often hear it described… do the work, and make the relationships. Be the person clients know they can call on and trust, and the the work will find you.

Speaking of relationships, I mentioned that I originally found Leah because of her music photography. That came about because of someone she was dating that was in a band.

And this brings us to that thing Leah said to me that I mentioned above. While picking the image for this episode we were mostly looking at her horse images when Leah said she had an idea. She suggested we could touch on “not being afraid of shooting iconic spots… just do[ing] it in your own style and put[ting] your own twist on it”. That resonated with me.

If you have listened to Behind the Shot for any length of time you might have heard me use the phrase “photographic voice”, or “creative voice” for those in areas other than photography. I firmly believe that when people talk about find their “style” that what they really need is to find their voice. Style, to me at least, leans towards the processing side of creativity. Your creative voice, on the other hand, encompasses everything. It’s how you express the creative thoughts you have, starting early in the process. As creatives, we need to be true to who we are, and to what we see in our mind’s eye. That is how I see Leah Horstman’s work. She creates from her own place, and in her own wonderful voice.

Join landscape, music and commercial photographer Leah Horstman and me as we take a deep dive into her image Grist Mill, and as we discuss finding your creative voice, on this Behind the Shot.

Website: lahorstmanphotography.com

Sleek Lens: sleeklens.com

The Orton Effect Explained: capturelandscapes.com

Jami Bollschweiler: @jamibollschweilerphotography

Trying to write a post about Ryszard Horowitz has proven to be tougher than I had imagined. Ryszard Horowitz is a legend, literally. His life, and his journey through the art of photography, is almost impossible to distill down to a blog post. There is simply no way I do him, and his legacy, justice here. Still, I will try…

Ryszard Horowitz was born in Krakow, Poland four months before the Nazis invaded his homeland, and his entire family ended up being sent to a series of concentration camps. Miraculously, they survived, and at the war’s end they were amongst the few Jewish families who were able to re-establish their lives in Krakow. Ryszard is one of the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz, and to be listed on Schindler’s list.

His path to becoming the artist that he is started with studying art at the High School of Fine Arts in Krakow, before going on to mjor in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1956, when the government awarded subsidies to encourage new and original art forms, Krakow emerged as a center of avant-garde jazz, painting, theater and filmmaking. Ryszard, who was seventeen at the time, took full advantage of being at the heart of the action and consequently became fascinated with American photography.

In 1959, he finally achieved his ambition of immigrating to the United States and enrolled at New York’s famed Pratt Institute. While still a student at Pratt he was given a scholarship to be apprenticed to Alexey Brodovitch, one of the most influential figures in the world of editorial design and photography at the time. In 1967, having worked for a number of film and design companies and as an art director for Grey Advertising, he opened his own photography studio. Photography would be his lifelong career and passion.

Ryszard’s work has been exhibited, published and collected around the globe, and he has been awarded every major accolade that can be bestowed on a photographer. Take a few minutes to scroll through the list on his Bio page, it’s amazing. His awards include the Gloria Artis Gold Medal of Merit to Culture Awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland, and Doctor Honoris Causa Awarded by Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. As a music photographer, his images of American jazz legends like Dave Brubeck, Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, Thelonios Monk, Count Basie, and Louie Armstrong are amazing. His creative works, in both analog and digital will blow your mind.

He is recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography predating digital imaging – yes, before digital and photoshop – using techniques such as darkroom retouching, multiple film exposures and manipulation of his camera. His complex photographic composites have been compared to the surrealist artworks of Magritte and Dalí. A former Canon Explorer of Light, Ryszard is a current member of Canon Legends, and he was inducted to the International Photography Hall of Fame in November 2017. Go look at the names in the Hall of Fame… Ryszard is one of the best to ever practice this art.

Join International Photography Hall of Fame Inductee, and Canon Legends member, Ryszard Horowitz and me as we chat about his life, his photography, and his complex photographic composites, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

Website: ryszardhorowitz.com

Inductees of Photography: iphf.org

Polański, Horowitz. Hometown: imdb.com

PHOTOCOMPOSER, 2009

Yasuhiro Wakabayashi: wikipedia.org

Allegory: YouTube.com

If you’ve been watching the show for a while then you may have seen the “Aurora and the Night Sky” episode with Dave Williams. Dave is a travel photographer, based out of London, and one of the most adventurous people I know. More on that in a minute.

I met Dave by chance a few years ago at Photoshop World. I was interviewing people in a hallway when I asked two people walking by if I could ask them some questions (they kindly said yes). What I didn’t realize at the time is that it was Dave Williams and Sian Elizabeth. Before this chance meeting I was aware of Dave Williams, due to his work with KelbyOne, but I really didn’t know it was him when I asked for that interview, until noticed his instructor badge. Since that time I have gotten to know Dave a bit better, and have even had the pleasure of hanging out with him at a Platypod dinner. He is one of the most knowledgable guys in the business, and yet one of the most humble.

Dave’s mantra is, ‘lend me your eyes and I’ll show you what I see’.  I like that saying, and it sums up his work well. Dave’s images take you places, and make you feel like you’re there, and that work has been featured in publications and campaigns for clients including Time, National Geographic, Forbes, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, Triumph, Conde Nast, and Shell to name a few. He also works closely with several companies within the photography and travel industries, including Platypod, Wandrd, Litra, Drobo, Blackrapid, Passion Passport, and Lonely Planet.

You can find Dave’s tutorials and writings in various places, and I have the links below, but many will know him the same way I did, his classes at KelbyOne, along with his writings for Photoshop User Magazine and ScottKelby.com, and through Photoshop World. He also writes writes journalistic and inspirational articles for DIY Photography.

Since that last episode, Dave’s life has changed a bit. He now lives in a van he calls “Kofifernweh”, and this is not a ‘normal’ van. Seriously, this thing is insane – you can read about it here, and take a tour of it here. While living in this van, Dave is traveling, and photographing, and writing, and doing a cool new series called Due North.

Due North is a series documenting his winter mission to hit as many Nordic countries as possible. You get to follow along with Dave as he drives through some of the most photographic landscapes in the world. You can catch the show over on his YouTube channel.

I’m so glad Dave has found the time to come back on the show, and for this episode we will be talking about his image of the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. This location, and the old trains that travel it, has been seen in four Harry Potter movies, The Crown, and in many other shows and movies.

Join traveling photographer Dave Williams and me as we chat about his life in a van, and as we discuss his image of the iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

Website: idavewilliams.com

YouTube.com

Dave Williams on KelbyOne

Amazon: The Complete Aurora Guide: for Travelers and Photographers

diyphotography.net

Kersten Luts: kerstenluts.com

Portfolio: sianelizabeth.co.uk

I first met Australian music photographer Michelle G Hunder when she was a guest on the Sunday Night Photographer Hangouts I used to do with Adam Elmakias. We had such great time on those shows. After hanging out with Michelle there, I started watching her Twitch channel, where she does everything from workshops and viewer challenges, to interviews with some amazing photographers.

As big as Michelle is on Twitch, it’s her photography that has gotten her where she is today, and the designation as an official Nikon Z Creator. Michelle is a sought after creative, and has two separate portrait series in the National Sound and Film Archive of Australia.

In 2015 she released her photography book “RISE”, a detailed insight of her personal journey into the world of Australian Hip-Hop, and that in turn led to a successful career photographing both live performances and portrait images, used for press, publicity and album covers.

She has been the tour photographer for Ruel and Seth Sentry & Illy, and she was the Official Festival Photographer for “Come Together” at Sydney’s iconic Big Top at Luna Park for 4 consecutive years.

We have discussed personal projects on Behind the Shot before, but Michelle’s personal project “Her Sound, Her Story”, celebrating Women in Australian Music, across all genres, took it to another level. Along with her with her project partner Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, she worked with over 80 women, both artists and behind the scenes in the music industry,  across all genres, shooting portraits and interviews for this highly ambitious project. The full length documentary of “Her Sound, Her Story” premiered with huge industry acclaim in May of 2018.

Recently, Michelle has entered the world of podcasting, along with her co-host and friend Tammy “Tamma” Martin, for the show “You’re Killing It“.

One of my favorite things about Michelle is her passion for the art and business of music photography. I’m a firm believer in helping other learn the ropes, and Michelle is helping the industry too. If you want to learn more about being a professional music photographer, Michelle has created an Online Masterclass that goes through the different pathways to shooting both small and major shows. She covers everything from building a portfolio, to charging for your work.

Join music photographer, and Nikon Z Creator, Michelle G Hunder and me as we chat about her life in Australia’s music photography scene, and as we explore her techniques for blurring the lines of creativity, on this Behind the Shot.

Website: michellegracehunder.com

“Her Sound, Her Story”: hersoundherstory.com

You’re Killing It: acast.com

Gabrielle Clement: @gxbriellemxry

The Canon EOS R3 looks to be a beast of a camera. Like so many others, I want this camera, and like 99% of those people I won’t be buying one. Why? Because the Canon EOS R3 is for people like Jeff Cable. Ok, also because it’s more than I can afford for what I shoot, and yes, I would buy it in an instant if I could, but for now I am sticking with the not buying it.

So, why do I say it’s for people like Jeff Cable? Jeff is the market this camera is made for. I won’t go through all the specs here, but let’s just say that when you are photographing the Olympics for Team USA you cant miss the shot.

We knew Jeff was using an R3 at the Olympics, it was semi-public knowledge. Plus, Jeff was posting images to his blog and Instagram, and as DPReview mentioned here, some Canon Rumors forum members checked Jeff’s meta data where they saw was something that had not been revealed by Canon, that the R3 was 24MP. When I saw Jeff mention on Instagram that he was shooting at the Olympics at 30 fps my brain stopped for a moment. That instantly meant he was using the electronic shutter… FOR SPORTS. This has usually be something to avoid due to rolling shutter effect. If you are not familiar with that issue, here’s a great video by the legend David Bergman on his Ask David Bergman: Mechanical vs Electronic Shutter. I asked Jeff in an Instagram comment about using electronic shutter for sports, and his response was a cryptic “it depends what body” he is using. Ah Ha! The R3 solved the issue! It has a fast enough read speed to shoot 30fps for action, and that is amazing.

I asked Jeff that day if he might be willing to come back on the show – he was on before on the episode Capture the Action – to talk about his real world experiences with this new Canon R3. Luckily he said yes, and he even wrote a blog post about it too: Finally – my real world review of the new Canon R3 camera!

Now that we have the idea where this show might go, let me introduce you to my friend Jeff Cable…

Photographing the Olympics has got to be the pinnacle of a sports photographer’s career, and for Jeff Cable it’s one he’s reached many times, having photographed the last 7 Olympics for Team USA.

I am always amazed by how many photographers either come from, or are in some way involved with, the tech industry. For more than 25 years, Jeff was a marketing executive at companies like Symantec, Magellan, and Micron, but while traveling the world for his corporate job, his interest and passion for photography grew quickly. He left the corporate world in 2016 to dedicate himself full-time to his photography.

Since then, Jeff has earned respect around the globe for his creative images, and for sharing his love of photography with others. He’s best known for capturing photos for the US Olympic Committee, photographing the last six Olympic games, in Beijing, Vancouver, London, Sochi, Rio de Janeiro, and PyeongChang.

As an educator, Jeff also leads photo tours where he teaches photo enthusiasts and professionals around the world. He has taught in Africa, Australia, China, Europe, Central and South America, and across the United States. He is one of the most watched and respected instructors of photography, with millions of views of his free online photography classes.

Join me as I chat with Jeff Cable, one of the most accomplished sports photographers working today, about his real world experience at this year’s Olympics with a pre-production Canon EOS R3, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

Jeff’s Blog: blog.jeffcable.com

Website: jeffcable.com

Chris McLennan: chrismclennanphotography.com

Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey: skrewballwhiskey.com

Periodically I get a guest on Behind the Shot that makes me nervous. This episode is one of those moments.

Wish me luck…

David Hume Kennerly is a legend. In fact, I would wager money that other ‘legends’ look to David Hume Kennerly as the standard by which they are judged. All of that is to say that there is no ‘starting point’ when trying to explain the photojournalist David Hume Kennerly. Still, the blog is here, and I have to start somewhere. Travel with me back to 1972…

(insert way back machine sounds here)

David was awarded the 1972 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Featured Photography, with a winning portfolio that included Ali being knocked down in the 15th round during the Ali v. Frazier “Fight of the Century,” images of the Vietnam and Cambodia wars, and refugees escaping into India from East Pakistan. David was just 25 at the time. Two years later, at just 27, he was appointed President Gerald R. Ford’s Personal White House Photographer, the third person to have that job. Again, I have to stress this, by the time David was 27 he’d seen and documented more history that most of us learn in school.

In the years since, David has photographed U.S. presidents from Johnson to Biden, and covered thirteen presidential campaigns. He was a Newsweek magazine contributing editor for ten years, and a contributing photographer for Time & Life and George magazines.

American Photo named Kennerly “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography.” Washingtonian Magazine called him “One of the 50 most important journalists in Washington, DC”.

That is David Hume Kennerly. One of the most important photographers ever, and his TedX talk has a title that really sums it up:

Telling the Story in 1/60th of a Second

As an author, David is just as successful. Kennerly has published several books of his work, Shooter, Photo Op, Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld, Photo du Jour, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford, and David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone. He was also a major contributor to the CNN 2016 book, Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything. His exclusive portrait of Trump is on the cover.

He was executive producer of The Spymasters, a 2015 CBS/Showtime documentary about the directors of the CIA. He also produced The Presidents’ Gatekeepers, a four-hour Discovery Channel film about White House chiefs of staff.  Kennerly was nominated for a Primetime Emmy as executive producer of NBC’s, The Taking of Flight 847, and was the writer and executive producer of a two-hour NBC pilot filmed in Thailand, Shooter, starring Helen Hunt. Shooter, based on Kennerly’s Vietnam experiences, won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography.

In 2019 The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography acquired the David Hume Kennerly Archive that features almost a million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents. University President Dr. Robert C. Robbins appointed Kennerly as the university’s first Presidential Scholar.

When trying to pick an image for this show I lost over an hour browsing through David’s site, specifically his ‘Greatest Hits‘ gallery. The image of U.S. President Gerald Ford at the desk in the Oval Office, feet up is amazing. This was the day after he became president, August 10, 1974, and the bookshelves are empty because Nixon’s things had been removed, but Ford’s memorabilia had yet to arrive, due to the suddenness of the transition. The image of Mohammed Ali being knocked down in the 15th round at Madison Square Garden by Joe Frazier was part of Kennerly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning portfolio. Then there was “The Hug“, an image where Michelle Obama is hugging former president George W. Bush. Picking one image was hard, but with David’s help we found the shot.

There is a quote on David’s website from James Earl Jones that wraps up David’s career perfectly:

“David Hume Kennerly is like Forrest Gump, except he was really there.”

David has photographed wars, the Queen, athletes, stars, and politicians, and twice he has been able to capture five presidents together in one image. For this show, we travel back to focus on a special moment in 1991.

Join Pulitzer Prize winner David Hume Kennerly and me as we take a look at the career of one of the top photojournalists of our time, and as we examine the first of his Five Presidents photos, on this Behind the Shot.

Website: kennerly.com

Telling the Story in 1/60th of a Second: YouTube

In a Glass:

1 Quartered Cherry Tomato

Carol Guzy: Meet a Pro: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist Carol Guzy, via Adorama

To introduce the guest on this show I’d like to start by giving a bit of background…

The first time I met Troy Miller I was doing a presentation at a local photo group, Inland Empire Professional Photographers and Videographers. I had never been involved in groups like IEPPV, but they had asked me to speak at one of their monthly meetings. The way it was explained to me, after years of having landscape, wedding, and portrait photographers speak, was that they wanted something different. As a music photographer, I knew most of the people there would have no connection to my genre, but within 5 minutes something odd happened. While I was setting up, someone walking in said “Hi Troy” to me. I assumed they’d simply gotten my name wrong, until it happened again.

Come to find out, Troy Miller was a real person, and like me he always wore a black beanie. These two people though I was Troy. I wouldn’t know until later what an amazing compliment that was.

I met Troy later that night and, in all honesty, my life changed at that moment.

Over the years since, Troy has become one of my closest friends, I’d argue… family. That may color my opinions a bit, but much of what I do today has a direct link to Troy.

I ended up joining IEPPV because of that friendship, and ended up on the board. I started entering image competitions, and then judging them, at his suggestion. I was able to speak at the PPC Convention and Expo, because Troy told them about me, and that led to me liking the education side of things so much that I now regularly teach workshops. When I left the old network I was on, I had decided that I was done with podcasting. I was not going to re-launch Behind the Shot on my own. In fact, I had zero desire to manage the backend of a podcast. When I mentioned that to Troy his response was straight to the point… “you have to do it”. In fairness, he had to say that about 10 times before I decided to give it a try, but Troy Miller has been encouraging and supportive throughout almost my entire journey in photography. Most importantly, I see images in my head differently than before I met him.

So, why did I need this back story before talking directly about Troy? Because he does this for everyone he knows. He helps, mentors, teaches, and encourages people. He is passionate about photography at a level I am not sure anyone else is.

That brings me to Troy Miller, The Photographer…

Troy is a wedding photographer for a living. Along with his wife Marjorie, they run Imagery Concepts, a successful wedding photography business based in Southern California. He is also a fine art photographer, that loves photographing the world around him. His site spicyjello.com is home to his fire, ice, water, and kelp images, but this is a guy that can shoot anything. I have walked down the Las Vegas strip with him confused at what he’s photographing… I actually couldn’t “see” what he could. I am baffled at the way he sees light.

Troy is an educator, lecturer, image competition judge and PPA Master Photographer. He has done a few online classes for my old network, This Week in Photo, and recently released his Capture One 21 Complete course for TWiP Pro members.

My first introduction to Infrared photography was also through Troy. We were at Photoshop World, and Rick Sammon suggested we all head out to Red Rock the next day. I of course asked “what time”, and Rick suggested we pick him up at 4:30am. As a side note, 4:30am is hell to me. I would rather stay up until 4:30 than get up at 4:30. Still, that chance to shoot the sunrise with two of my favorites creatives won, and we went out early the next day. I was fascinated by IR, and I have watched him since as he has created some amazing IR images.

Join my friend Troy Miller and me as we explore the world of infrared photography, from the gear required to the different way you need to see the world, and as we take a look at the making of his image Moonrise Over Hearst Castle, on this Behind the Shot.

Fine Art Portfolio: spicyjello.com

Website: imageryconcepts.com

Capture One Complete: thisweekinphoto.com

Galen Rowell: wikipedia.org

Spencer’s Camera & Photo: spencerscamera.com