Powell Street Festival

Took a break from the computer on Sunday to walk the neighborhood with the 7D. The Powell Street Festival was in full swing a couple of blocks over from my space, thought I'd check it out.


It's actually a Japanese cultural festival, celebrating the Japanese heritage of the area as well as the alternative and street culture. Makes sense considering the area is called 'Japantown' and the 'street culture' is nothing but interesting.


The wee park was quite crowded with people listening to the live music, sampling the assorted Japanese dishes offered up by the very colorfully dressed vendors and cheering at the 'Sumo Wrestling Challenge'.























On stage, various traditional dances were performed; fans were... well... fanned, hats were waved and the breezes that caught the colourful kimonos only added to the fluidity of the movements.Quite the spectacle.

Aspirations

This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with one of the photographers whose work I've admired for some time; Art Streiber.

It was incredibly inspirational and quite refreshing to work with him & the crew as we sculpted light around the talent on various sets of the television show Eureka. He's a very hands-on photographer. Every light that went up did so under his direction. The resultant images were lit efficiently and to perfection.

Thanks to my friend Wayne H. (quite a magician with lighting himself) for getting me on the project. Check out his work at Ordeal.

Brave, New World

http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/04/19/DigitalRights/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=190410


A friend of mine passed this link along to me. It's very informative as well as being testament to the way photography is perceived by creators and non-creators alike in this day and age.

While I'm a firm believer and staunch supporter of copyright and rights retention by creatives, articles such as this make me wonder more and more about the medium as a viable career choice, at least in the way it was when I graduated from college, as well as what a successful imaging business model might look like in today's 'free' society (Google, Wikipedia, Flickr).

Compounding the stress on the medium... photographers knuckling under and giving their images away for next to nothing continue to push the medium's value down. The market continues to be flooded with substandard images that people accept as 'professional' because they just don't know any different. Clients offering what amounts to less than minimum wage for projects because they KNOW some photographer out there will take the gig. It ain't pretty.

I spend more and more time these days trying to come up with a business model that will cater to the way images are used (and abused) in the current marketplace yet maintain my professional ethics and moral integrity AND keep the dog fed. Jury's still out...

Stand out. Focus your vision. Get noticed. Offer great value for client dollars. Create what you love. Success will follow.

These are the thoughts I repeat while rocking myself to sleep in the fetal position every night.

Fast Food

Super Size Me

Finally had the opportunity to watch Super Size Me last night. It's a documentary of a man who decided to eat, as an experiment, nothing but McDonalds food, 3 meals a day, for 30 days. If you haven't seen it, give it a look.

Remarkable what this type of sustenance does to the human body, right down to ADDICTION!

Unbelievable.

20 days in he had done very serious damage to his liver, not unlike the damage copious amounts of alcohol will do. The doctors he had examining him and his progress strongly suggested he give up his experiment after about 25 days citing irreversible internal organ damage and health issues.

Know what's in your food. Seriously.

Next up, Food Inc.

My Instructorial Debut...

For the first time in my career, in my life actually, I got excited about, wrote and presented a seminar at Vancouver Photo Workshops, a seminar covering various points on how to run a successful commercial photography business.

Everyone is aware of the general apprehension to public speaking that pretty much every human on the planet suffers from, myself included. For some reason I never felt nervous immediately prior to or during the presentation. I did have the 'Who am I to be presenting this material?' thoughts prior to writing the material for the big show. I kept telling myself that 'Someone has to get this info out there!' though and persevered.

We experienced a projector malfunction toward the end of the last class and I wasn't able to post my list of thank-you's to the people who donated time and information to the seminar. Here is the list:

Thanks to the following people & associations for the
information shared this weekend:

David Ellingsen, Photographer
www.davidellingsen.com

Jennifer A. Marles, Intellectual Property/Copyright Lawyer
Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP
Intellectual Property Lawyers

Barry M. Robinson, Photographer
www.barrymrobinson.com

Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua, Photographer's Consultant
www.burnsautoparts.com

Selina Maitreya, Photographer's Consultant
www.1portauthority.com

Elyse Weissberg, Photographer's Representative

Canadian Association of Photographers & Illustrators in Communications (CAPIC)
www.capic.org

American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)
www.asmp.org

I hope that I was able to open a few eyes and minds as to the value of the medium I work in and love. It's the duty of every photographer to pass along information to the up-and-coming shooters out there. They're going to get their info from somewhere, let's make sure they're getting the proper information from reputable sources.

Frozen Wasteland

Image outtake from a recent project I shot. It was a bit of a test from a post production point of view. The lake image was made some time last December and the man in the ice image was shot in-studio just the other day. The man in the ice is a professional actor. I have to say, working with a great actor makes my job SO much easier. The expressions he came up with were so diverse! It was difficult choosing the best expression. Just the sort of shoot to remind me that I love this gig! Oh, one more thing, the actor is my brother, Ted. Big thanks to him for his time and talent.

image copyright Dan Kozma/Koz Photography 2010

More Catch-Up...VPW

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a class that my friend Wayne (Ordeal) teaches at the Vancouver Photo Workshops; Creative Lighting for Fashion and Editorial Portraiture. Interesting to watch someone else light something/one for a change. One tends to get into a groove with their own lighting, it can be inspirational to sit in on another photographer's set. The workshop covered various lighting techniques for both in-studio and on-location situations. Each student was afforded the opportunity to work with professional models, make up artists, assistants, etc. Great value for the price of admission!

This is an image I made at the workshop...

Vancouver Photo Workshops runs quite a few different types of courses suitable for budding amateurs and seasoned veterans alike. Something for everyone, you might say. I've been asked to teach a business seminar; licensing, copyright, estimating and basic marketing strategy. Tentative for the last weekend of November. If you're thinking of becoming a real-live working photographer, get your business savvy wired tight or you'll get eaten alive.

Check out the site:

Vancouver Photo Workshops

All image rights reserved. Copyright Daniel Kozma/Koz Photography 2009

Catching up... Sunday, Sept. 27

Big day in the studio! I finally arranged all the talent and crew and we made the talent images for my big promo campaign, "Noir". 7 composite images based on the Film Noir genre (with a bit of a modern twist). This is my Homicidal Genius, pre-composited. Stay tuned for finished images!

Catching up...

Been a while since I made the trip over here. Here are a few items to hip you to what's new-ish...

Sept. 25-26 found me photographing for INIRA as the not-for-profit organization arranged a cd of original music by various artists. The cd is to be distributed to troops stationed through various military theatres.

www.cd4thetroops.com

A few images I made during the recording session

New Station in Town...

Local radio has always been a bit of an issue with many acquaintances of mine. "Nothing to listen to on the radio" reverberates endlessly. With the proliferation of the ipod and it's various accoutrements I wonder where and how people listen to radio these days.

During my formative years back in small town Alberta we listened to the radio quite a lot. It was always on in the kitchen in the morning, set on the local country and western station, CFCW out of Camrose. Hearing those old-tymey country tunes by the likes of George Jones, Conway Twitty and a host of others will forever remind me of sitting at that kitchen table in the sunshine, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and pushing the cereal in my bowl around with my spoon.

I still listen to the radio when driving, I just can't seem to be bothered with pushing a cd into the deck. Being more of a listener than a talker, I suppose it's like having someone in the vehicle with me, talking at me without expecting any sort of verbal response, and then shutting the hell up when the music comes back on.

A friend of mine, Patrick Zulinov, introduced me to a new station to the local Vancouver market; Shore 104; Roots, Rock and Rhythm. He's been an integral part of the start-up of the station, assuming many roles including on-air personality. I like to think of it as radio supporting the musicians with the talent, as opposed to the label/suit-generated groups and pop schlock that seems the order of the day with the younger set.

Check the station out, here's the link. Give a listen. Any of you with an appreciation for great music by very talented people and dialogue that doesn't insult one's intelligence will be glad you did.

http://www.shore104.com

Do it!

The Ol' Swimmin' Hole

New Brighton Pool, Vancouver

Got back to the pool the other day. The beauty of where I live here on the west coast never ceases to amaze me. This trip I remembered to take my small camera with me and capture the view from the pool deck. Flippin' awesome!

As far as my swimming capabilities go, let's just hope I'm not on a sinking ship any time soon...

Dig the kid in the red shirt fleeing the scene!

Half way to 90

Turned 45 years of age on the 12th. So much to do. So much up in the air. Taking stock of things and people in my life as well as things and people who've become part of my past. Goals achieved, goals to be reached. Becoming the person I aspire to be. Loved and lost, definitely worth the price of admission. Looking ahead to things that will be, people who will come into my life. When I meet people I sometimes find myself wondering how long they'll be part of my life.

It's been quite interesting watching my shooting style evolve into what it is now. It really has shaped into a reflection of who I am.

Further updates as events warrant...