Phew!  Just got back last night from a commercial shoot in France & Switzerland (as well as spending a couple weeks of personal time in Norway, Paris, Andermatt, & Como), which was just the first of three stages on as many continents.  I fly out again Monday morning for stage 2 in Oregon, then stage 3 in Australia after that, which makes this really more of a 4-day layover…

Anyway, a lot needs to get done today and things in the office are a bit crazy, but I have a few minutes while the hard-drives are humming away; so I thought I’d start a short journal of my day and see where it goes.  Menial stuff for sure but hopefully I can make some of it worth your while:

• 10:45p arrived in SLC
• 11p completely crash after traveling for nearly 24 hours

• 4am wide awake from jet-lag (GMT+2 -> GMT -6)
• 4:30 sync MacBookPro documents back to MacPro
• 5 check facebook, or ‘FNN’ (Friend News Network) as I like to think of it / read up a little on the APE blog & some news / get caught up on emails
• 6 start backing-up 2TB G-Raid2 road drive.  Only 451GB to go…
• 6:10 shower
• 6:30 research materials for constructing a location/computer case for my 17″ MBP.  Inspiration is a mix of the portable monitor kits I saw the film-crews wheel around while on location for The Home Depot jobs, and a video posted by Chase Jarvis a few years back.  I have a traveling iMac kit, but it’s too big & heavy for remote and/or mountain locations, and requires external power.  This one will be a lot sleeker & mobile
• 7:15 notice there’s some very nice cirrus clouds outside, which I like to have for my library of background cloud plates. Load up the car with the H3Dii kit and race down the road to Brighton High where I can get a clean horizon
• 7:25 shoot a few dozen plates of clouds at three focal lengths
• 7:45 back in the office / download images / catalogue in Lightroom 3
• 8 backup progress: 300GB to go.  I use a program called Intego-X5 to synchronize my primary A drives with backups B & C.  Simple, cheap, and easy to use
• 8:30 unpack / eat breakfast
• 9 stop by the post office to pick up the month’s mail.  Received 2 Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts for image series appearing in the 2010 Photo Annual!  A super lightweight mountaineering harness (the ‘Couloir’) from Black Diamond also arrived.  Just the thing for quick trips up to Lone Peak or the Tetons, or ski-rappels next winter
• 9:15 work on finishing up the expense reports for Europe trip. After spending nearly a month traveling by planes, trains, rental cars, and aerial trams & shooting in 5 countries, I’ve got hundreds of receipts / transactions to account for.  Expenses are tallied in Numbers, and then summarized in BlinkBid which handles my billing and basic business financials
• 10 phone call with producer to go over production details for the Oregon shoot.  Location permits secured
• 11 booked travel for Australia shoot.  35 days ought to be enough.  Booked it a bit wide since the shoot dates are still being pinned down, and to have some personal shooting/skiing time afterwards in New Zealand.  I do almost all my bookings on Kayak.com which has great dynamic filters and a relatively simple interface

• 12p 2TB backup done.  Run to the bank to swap out hard-drives.  All of my images are backed-up in triplicate, with the 2nd & 3rd copies rotating shifts in my safe-deposit box every two weeks or after jobs, just in case my office gets robbed, struck by lightning, or worse.  Everything is also backed up in triplicate while on location for jobs, only on smaller 250GB FireLite drives.  As at the office, the third drive always stays in a separate room, or with me, in case my hotel room gets sacked while I’m out
• 12:15 phone discussion with ad agency about changes to next week’s shooting schedule & go over the Australia dates
• 12:20 call with my producer regarding changes
• 12:25 call to assistant in Oregon regarding changes
• 12:30p drive downtown
• 1 lunch at the Taqueria Lolita on 9th & 3rd with my friend Paul
• 2 picked up a few things at Pictureline: a Pelican 1550 case for the location kit & a Canon 24mm f/1.4 lens.  Although I shoot on a lot of different formats, both film & digital, the Canon L-series primes are hard to beat for speed, sharpness, and reliability in extreme conditions.  Both me and my 1DsMk3 were completely and repeatedly drenched by ocean waves during a portion of the shoot in France, but the weatherproofed lenses & body thankfully kept the saltwater out (which is why the H3Dii played the role of backup and hid in the watertight pelican case with the 4×5)
• 2:50 call to my parents, let them know I’m still alive
• 3 picked up a few things at REI: new TSA locks for 4×5 case to replace ones damaged in Europe and a better travel pillow (I hope)
• 3:45 another call with my producer
• 3:50 post office again to pick up today’s mail, return home
• 4-7 working in the office on the new location/computer case.  Contents will include a 17″ MacBook Pro, 3x FireWire 250GB hard drives, a 6×8″ Wacom Tablet, cords & adaptors, extra battery, and ambient light shields for easy viewing outside.  Will post some photos when it’s done
• 7:15 respond to stock image request
• 7:30 emails with ad agency & Marianne about licensing additional images from the shoot
• 7:45 keyword & upload a few new images from Switzerland to my stock site
• 8:30 off to see Inception for the second time with some friends.  Hopefully I can stay awake with a mix of serious jet-lag and Hans Zimmer’s musical ambiance (which I love, love love!)
• 11p crash again, and hopefully don’t wake up till 6 or so…

Went for a ski down to the fjord on New Years Eve with my Nordic muse outside her home on the island of Jeløy.  It was a refreshing change in pace from the sort of skiing I’ve become accustomed to here in Utah, where performance, adrenaline, and technology reign supreme over wooden skis, wool sweaters, and simple pleasures.

To be sure, Norway today has one of the most sophisticated ski teams in the world, rumored to spend more on just their nordic wax R&D than the entire US Olympic ski team combined.  However, strong vestiges remain from an era when skiing was simply the most efficient way to get around during the dark half of the year (see exhibit A).

Exhibit A: Knud Bergslien's 1869 'Rescue of Haakon Haakonsson'

Consequently, I’ve spent the last year or so stockpiling their instant films whenever I find it (and can afford it .  Suffice to say, it’s getting more expensive: a 20-exposure box of Type 55 used to sell for around $75, and now regularly sells for $150 on eBay.  15-exposure boxes of T809 that sold for $225 are listed for over $600.  $40 per shot – ouch!

Anyway, here’s a few of my favorite polaroids from over the years.  Enjoy!

Portrait of Jim from December 2008:

Green Monster crack, Rock Canyon, Utah (Type 59 – polaroid lift):

Skógafoss, Iceland

El Tajín, Mexico

When I followed up with my friend a couple weeks later, he sounded disgusted and said something to the effect of, “You photographers are all a bunch of selfish idiots.”  Apparently his buddy had balked at his suggestion, stating that he had no intention of associating with ‘the competition’.

Lame.

Years later, I encountered a much different philosophy while working with a successful advertising photographer.  Even though he was well aware of my intentions to eventually go out on my own, and knew that we would likely compete for jobs (which we have!), he nevertheless shared generously from his wealth of knowledge in order to help me succeed.  He was, and continues to be, a great friend and mentor.  And, while his success is obviously a result of his creative talent and wise business skills, I like to attribute at least a part of it to good karma.

Ironically, the latter photographer probably had much more in the way of ‘proprietary trade secrets’, and thus much more to ‘risk losing’ by sharing.  He also happens to be much more successful of the two.  I think there’s something to be learned here.  I think we as photographers often assume the stance of the former, reluctant to share our knowledge and know-how with others.

Now, I definitely recognize that maintaining proprietary information has its place.  The magician’s motto of never sharing secrets has a striking parallel with photographers.  We are, in a way, hired to do the same thing: magically produce surprises out of our little black boxes in a way that no one else quite can.  Incidentally, I believe this explains why so many photographers are upset about the preponderance of cheap professional-quality digital cameras.  It’s like magicians getting upset because WalMart now sells magic kits.  But that’s just it.  They confuse the box itself with the ‘magic’ at work behind it.  There’s no way we can coast along if our craft can be reduced to simply a specific camera, lens, lighting scheme, or Photoshop filter.

In the end, I think it has to do with relationships.  I’m frequently asked how I do what I do, and my responses vary widely, usually depending on who’s asking

I’ve had some late nights recently.

Actually, I stay up late all the time, putting-off sleep in a form of procrastination that (ironically) allows me to do more.  That’s the general idea anyway…

I’m interested in the mood, drama, and color inherent in artificial light, especially when it plays out in ways that those who placed the lights didn’t likely anticipate.

While I’m very surprised at how well my 1DsMkIII renders scenes in low-light, these images have also allowed me to experiment with HDR, with which I’ve never had much success in the past.

HDR images have always seemed to have a plastic-like quality to them, much like a 3D CG-rendering.  Turns out all they need is a little coaxing after converting the HDR images back to 8-bit…

Please feel free to comment at any time.  I would love for my blog to be the place for lively discussions!

You can contact me directly at any time via email at matt(at)matthewturley(dot)com, with questions or suggestions.  While I may post a response to your emails on my blog, I will never reveal your identity without your permission.

Enjoy!