A lot of my work touches on issues of media. I love the movie Blade Runner. Even though it is quite old you can watch it and the special effects still hoid up. That's amazing. But even more amazing was how Philip Dick, the author, foresaw a future where giant electronic screens followed you around through the city subjecting you to advertising. Ridley Scott, the Director, did a fabulous job of capturing this.

I explore this idea of living in a sea of media messages in many areas of my work. Here I take a slight different approach by looking at magazines ads which I have reinvented for my own purposes.  In this way I explore what these magazine covers are telling us to do? Do we need 75 ways to be better in bed? After we incorporate those 75 ways, will we be good enough yet? Or do we need another 75 ways?

By putting only the most beautiful women on the covers of these magazines is there an implication that if you are not that beautiful then you are not as worthwhile?

If your art is not on the cover of Art News does that mean it's not as good as the art on the cover of Art News?

Well, now my art is the cover of Art News and I have created these cover girls ...

 

 

I think it is safe to say that surfing is a sport. There are surfing championships, after all. But what about skimboarding? There are no teams, no spectators and no competitions. So, perhaps it is just a pastime rather than a sport. Who knows!

But I do know a good subject when I see one. Since I am not a frequent sports shooter I relied on good timing rather than a fast motor - my Canon 5D only shoots three frames per second. A frequent sports shooter, or wildlife shooter, would be wise to have a camera with a faster motor, but as you can see you can still get a good shot without one.

I shot this from the Manhattan Beach Pier with a long lens.

Equipment: Canon 5D camera, Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 IS USM lens

Exposure: 1/1000^th of a second, f6.3, ISO 200

 

For this past weekend's wedding I am choosing to focus on the Flower Girls. Kids are lots of fun to shoot. When I am with a bride who is getting her makeup done it is a good time to get some shots of the kids who are usually already dressed. Then I turn my attention to the bride and the bridal party.

A lot of my work explores the environment in which we live. We like to think of ourselves as civilized. But we are still animals, even if we are on the top of the food chain. We are the smart apes and we live in an urban jungle that is increasingly looking like a human zoo. This series explores our urban jungle.

See the whole gallery of images at www.larrybrownstein.com under Fine Art 2 portfolios.

Usually one thinks of scenic and landscape images as being done with wide-angle lenses. The classic landscape image depicts a sweep from just a few feet away, all the way to infinity.

But, what if you aren’t a classical kind of guy or gal? Maybe you prefer jazz, reggae or European Electronica to Beethoven and Bach! Well my friend, you are ready for the telephoto landscape. Using a telephoto creates a feeling of compression – the opposite of the expansive feeling of the wide angle. I like to use it to create a bit of a chaotic feeling in an image.

Here is an image of power lines in Torrance, California. The image was chaotic enough to my eye, but, by using a telephoto lens, it became hyper-chaotic (chaotidelic?)

Equipment: Canon 5D camera, Canon 100 – 400 f4.5-5.6L IS USM, Gitzo tripod

Exposure: 1/60^th of a second, f40, ISO 250

 

How can light be hard or soft? Would hard light hurt? Would soft light feel good. Well hard light won't make you bladk and blue, but it could sure bruise your ego after you see those ugly shadows and every skin imperfection. On the other hand, soft light will be like a nice warm Epsom salts bath to your ego, as it can make you, or your subject, look years younger.

Direct light from the sun is the best example of hard light. The light from a flash is hard light too. Of course, a flash can fill in shadows and make the hard light from the sun a little softer. But that isn't what I mean by soft light.

Soft light is diffuse. It could be directional. But it is more like a wall of light than a beam of light. That is why photographers put soft boxes over their lights in the studio. It turns a "point source" like the bulb into a "broad" source, which is more like an overcast sky.

Overcast skies are wonderful for photography, particularly people photography. (Now you too can laugh to yourself when you overhear a photographer talk about what a beautiful, sunny day it is fpr photography.) But sunny days can provide soft light too.

The sun bouncing off a building provides beautiful soft light. There is always shade to be found, too. And the best natural light can be found just after the sun has gone down as it has done on this golf course allowing me to make a beautiful natural light portrait of this bride and groom.

I placed them so their faces were bathed in the warm, sweet light and gave some simple directions and allowed them to do the rest.

 

Tech Details:

Equipment: Canon 5D, 70-20mm f2.8 IS USM lens

Exposure: ISO 800, f2.8, 1/125th of a second