Ok, I confess, it's been a few months since I dropped a monthly desktop, and I was recently asked if I was going to do it again. Well, it was a good reminder. The last few months have been spent mostly on the road with little time to spare. All good things.
This desktop is from the previous post (The PCH & Elena). This is my favorite shot from the whole shoot. I love the esoteric feel of the windblown sunburst. It seems like blissful dream, and now it's actually a favorable memory.
Enjoy…
As I've posted before, it's always great to mesh business with pleasure. A couple weeks ago, I hopped in the car at a moment of spontaneity with my new friend Elena. We road tripped from LA-SF up the PCH, stopping along the way for many adventures. We had an amazing time, and generated some stock images amidst the adventure. Its always nice to have a beautiful friend to photograph. Beautiful Subject + Beautiful Location = Beautiful photo. Some of the elements that inspire me the most.
The story comes in 2 parts. The first half is LA-SF, which you can view those images here:
http://www.nickonken.com/Stories/Elena/
The second half came from her convincing me to fly back to SF and finish the trip to Seattle. Those images can be found here:
http://www.nickonken.com/Stories/ElenaII/
I love Brazilian art. Brazil seems to appreciate and put a big emphasis on art. Most of the art there is very Edgy(for lack of a better word). I just caught wind of this installation on the Method blog. It's a piece by Eduardo Srur that was installed in a river in Sao Paulo. It's pretty fascinating in it's scale and concept.
Check out the whole exhibit on Eduardo's site.
I thought I'd take a posting opportunity to share the process I just went through in finding a new rep. It was by far a huge learning process, and I learned a lot about the business on a national level. Most importantly, I believe finding the right rep is about finding a repping house that ultimately resonates with your business goals, perspectives, and someone you can mesh with personality wise. Different reps are right for different photographers. Within this post, I can share what my business objectives, and personal requirements for a rep, and how I came to the final decision. For the reps I talked with and met with, in this last round were all fantastic options. Because they were all great rep houses, it made the final decision a very difficult one. I had to weigh the pros and cons of each and make a calculated decision based on my personal/business objectives. So for anyone who I met with who is reading this post, thank you for the opportunity to be potentially repped by you.
If you haven't read A Visual Society's post on "Getting a Rep", you should. It's a great preface to this post. I read it a few times to help me prepare for what I was getting into.
Onward to the story… Naturally you never know how something will actually be until you give it a try for 6 months to a year, at least in this business. Due to the progression of a business and relationship, it takes a rep at least that much time to build and develop your career and to start seeing the results. My decision was based on the results of the agency from an outside perspective as well as interview I had for each one. I feel I was well prepared in the list of questions I brought to the table in the meetings(thanks to Amanda my consultant). I wrote down the answers on the prepared questionnaire so I could properly evaluate the differences in the end between all five agencies.
Due to my style and what I gravitate to, the nature and goal of my business is commercial advertising photography, with a minor in editorial on a National level. Editorial is something I definitely want to keep building, but advertising is where I want to be. Thus being I needed to look for an agent who's primary focus was the same. Secondly, the my other focus was having an agent that is based out of New York City. New York is the epicenter for out industry with more ad agencies, magazines, and other clients than any other city, and probably most of the other major US cities combined. It's better to start from the epicenter. This also became the major deciding factor in the end. I also found a big difference in the way New York agencies do business than west coast agents.
At the point in my career now, I've been meeting with Art Buyers in ad agencies on my own for the last couple years doing meet and greet portfolio showings. I still believe personal referrals are the most important element in this business as with any other especially from the right person. My art buyer friend from a huge ad agency in LA was kind enough to refer me to a few repping houses. What better to be recommended to a rep by their clients? That's the approach I took, and naturally A: we have the rapport for her to refer me, and B: she believes in my talent to feel confidant in the referral.
Some of the things I evaluated with the different agencies was, their roster of talent and the status that brings, location, promotion/marketing strategies, reputation with art buyers, how their vision meshed with mine, how they interact with me, services they offer, etc. One big thing that was important to me at least at this stage in my career is mentorship. I wanted a rep who can guide, and coach my career, while at the same time not being so involved that they're spending more time doing that than getting my work out there. As I said, another huge factor was a rep based in the epicenter of this country, New York. The roster of talent is a huge factor as well as I'm realizing. Being repped by an agency that only reps a certain level of talent, automatically takes you to that level(at least it appears that way from the outside). Brand association is huge, and by associating with other brands that are maybe bigger than you, creates a credibility. Something that stuck out to me with the agency I went with was their follow up with me as well as the art buyer that recommended me. I received a followup email from the two owners thanking me for coming in, and how they think I was a good fit for their agency. They also called my art buyer friend and personally thanked her for the recommendation. This said a lot on how they deal with their clients and with me. The New York agencies end up costing a little more to be with, but I think it's the place to be.
In the end, I made the best decision with the information I could obtain. You never know the real answer until you give it some time.
So the winner? http://www.greenhousereps.com
Yet another Santi Fontana fantasy, that he is in a music video. Check out the Stop Motion of his 30 second dance…
Santi Music Video Stop Motion from nickonken on Vimeo.
So in his fantasies, Santi dreams that he eats concrete for breakfast. Afterall, What else do hard core runners eat? Check out the 20 second stop motion of Santi and his morning nutritional breakfast.
Santi Desayuno Concreto Stop Motion from nickonken on Vimeo.
Back in April I shot a print ad campaign for Nike Brazil, but we shot it on the Nike headquarters in Portland Oregon. The ad finally was printed and released, so I can show you guys. It's a Nike Just Do It ad, with the the Brazilian Soccer star Lucas Leiva, who plays for Liverpool. Rodrigo from Saatchi Brazil was the Art Director, and makeup artist. (Mud and water)
The shoot was mad crazy. I had about an hour and a half to prelight with my assistant Matt Brush, and about 5 minutes with Lucas in between Omri shooting the tv commercial. All said and done, it was a lot of pressure, but I nailed and everyone was happy.
I thought I'd break down the lighting and show you what we did. Nick Onken use artificial lighting you say? Yes, he can.
Here's a diagram of the lighting:
A photo of the setup:
Some other Behind the Scenes photos:
If you haven't checked out Studiolighting.net, you should. It's a great resource for photographers. Bill and Ed have a podcast called LightSource you can subscribe to where they talk about new products and happenings in photography as well as interview some great photographers.
That said, they did an interview with me that they just posted yesterday. You can download it at this link: http://www.studiolighting.net/e069-onken-lightsource-photography-podcast/ Or if you subscribe to their podcast in iTunes you can download it there.
Here are the topics we cover in the interview:
•Work in Lifestyle and travel photography
•Definition of a successful lifestyle image
•Natural lighting as a focus
•Waiting for the right moment
•Shooting many frames to get the right shot
•Connecting with a subject
•His camera equipment (Canon)
•Favorite lenses 35mm f1.4 20mm f2.8 70-200 f/2.8
•Looking for the right light
•Controlling natural light
•Using flare creatively
•Photographing people on the beach
•Scouting
•Getting started in a photography career
•Building client relationships
•The importance of style
•Capturing action in the image
•Getting great in-camera results
•Travelism
•Upcoming travel photography book
•Video of shoots on Nicks blog
•Backing up photos on location shoots
•Advice for photographers
PDN just posted their "People on the Move" article. You can only see it if you have a subscription to PDN Online, which if you don't have it you should. You get access to great articles that are only available to subscribers. One of which is PDN's People on the Move.
That said, my next move has now been published. I've signed with a new agent in New York. Greenhouse Reps. More to come…
Here's a screenshot if you don't have PDN subscription.
Santi Dance Stop Motion from nickonken on Vimeo.
As you might have gathered, I’ve been really getting into stop motion. This is the first Santi stopmotion of 4 yet to be released. I will blog them as they are released to the public. I’m pretty excited about this one!
