Natalie Fobes: Creative InspirationsIntroduction| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:06 | Natalie Fobes: The great thing about the newspapers
that I worked for, both newspapers had
| | 00:10 | a healthy respect for photographers as
journalists. If we had a story idea, we
| | 00:15 | would pitch it.
| | 00:19 | Instead of fighting the light, I
am going to work with the light.
| | 00:23 | What I am looking at is there is kind of
a cool thing happening with that shadow
| | 00:27 | behind him on the wall.
| | 00:28 | What I really wanted to do was to
write a love letter to the people of Alaska,
| | 00:36 | who had really gone out of their
way to take me under their wing.
| | 00:39 | I mean, I kind of laugh and say that
my career is built on the kindness
| | 00:43 | of strangers.
| | 00:45 | I started working at
Seattle Central three years ago.
| | 00:48 | They all have personal projects that
they feel are very important for people to
| | 00:53 | understand, and it's great that every
week I come here, and I am reminded that
| | 00:58 | that is why I got into photography -
to do good things with my photographs, to
| | 01:03 | make a difference in this world.
| | 01:05 | So I went downstairs, I packed all the
film that I had, I packed my cameras and
| | 01:10 | I was on the next flight out.
| | 01:12 | I arrived there the day after the
spill, and already the town was in chaos.
| | 01:17 | And I find that with my wedding
photography, it's still a story.
| | 01:21 | In one day, I have a chance to get
all the photographs that I need.
| | 01:26 | It's a challenge, and it's very creative.
| | 01:28 | I am in a different space in my life.
| | 01:32 | I love seeing my
daughters come home from school.
| | 01:37 | I love going to their soccer games.
| | 01:38 | I am always up for adventure,
definitely, but I am enjoying where I am
| | 01:43 | right now, a lot.
| | 01:46 | (Music playing.)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Pursuing passion| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: I never, ever, ever thought that I
was going to be a photographer when I was a kid.
| | 00:14 | That was not what I wanted to be.
| | 00:16 | The reason I didn't want to be a
photographer was because my father was an
| | 00:18 | amateur photographer.
| | 00:21 | I can't tell you how many vacations we
spent traveling across the country on
| | 00:26 | dusty dirty roads, back roads,
where he would stop the car,
| | 00:31 | we would all be sitting in the hot car,
he'd jump out, he'd run out, he'd take out
| | 00:36 | his light meter, he'd set up his
little tripod. He'd take pictures of wild
| | 00:39 | flowers, not just one - two, or three or four.
| | 00:44 | So when I finally got to a point
where I decided what I wanted to be,
| | 00:48 | I knew that I was good at art, and I
knew I was very good at science and math.
| | 00:53 | And so I thought, "Hey, I'll be an architect."
| | 00:55 | That's cool!
| | 00:56 | I can be artistic and be an
engineer at the same time.
| | 01:01 | So that's what I went to school in at
Iowa State University, with a major of
| | 01:06 | architectural engineering.
| | 01:09 | So that lasted for about two years,
where I was just madly in love with
| | 01:15 | architecture, and then I got into
Strength of Materials, an engineering
| | 01:21 | course, and realized that gee, maybe
I wasn't as good as I thought I was at
| | 01:25 | this science and math kind of stuff.
I stayed with it, but took a photo course,
| | 01:31 | just because I had three extra credits
that I had to fill, and I fell in love with it.
| | 01:38 | I knew from the - about halfway
through that quarter that I was not going to
| | 01:43 | be an architect,
| | 01:45 | that I was going to be a photographer.
| | 01:47 | And not only was I going to be a
photographer, but I was going to be a
| | 01:50 | people photographer.
| | 01:52 | I was going to be a photojournalist.
| | 01:54 | I remember the day that I went to my
professor and told him that I wanted to
| | 02:01 | be a photojournalist.
| | 02:03 | I had to have a beer to get my
courage up, because I was so convinced that
| | 02:10 | he would laugh at me.
| | 02:12 | And to my surprise, and to my gratitude
to this day, he said, "Well, it's about
| | 02:17 | time you decided to do that.
| | 02:19 | You are going to be great."
| | 02:22 | I have no idea of what he saw in my photographs.
| | 02:25 | I could show you some of my prints
from my original portfolio, and I am
| | 02:29 | looking at them thinking, "There
would be no way that I would encourage
| | 02:33 | this person."
| | 02:34 | I mean, I did a Kodalith treatment of
some of the architecture at Iowa
| | 02:38 | State University.
| | 02:39 | It was very modern at that point.
| | 02:40 | It was all concrete buildings. And I
did this one photograph of a woman that I
| | 02:47 | had met raking her leaves.
Her eyes are closed because I had her look up
| | 02:53 | at the sun, and not everybody can look
at the sun without closing their eyes.
| | 02:58 | I don't know what he saw, but he must
have seen a passion that I had for telling
| | 03:05 | the stories of people,
| | 03:07 | a passion for going out and exploring
the world with my camera. And at that
| | 03:12 | moment, I just, ah -- it was just one
of the best moments in my career was that
| | 03:17 | encouragement from someone I
respected to go ahead and pursue my dream.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Finding visual journalism| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:06 | Natalie Fobes: After I decided to become a
photojournalist, I quit school, and I worked at
| | 00:12 | my family's deli
| | 00:13 | and I worked as a waitress at night to
get money for my cameras and also for
| | 00:18 | the tuition.
| | 00:19 | But during that time, I also started
hanging out at the Des Moines Register, the
| | 00:24 | biggest newspaper in Iowa -
| | 00:26 | in fact, the newspaper all Iowa depends on.
| | 00:28 | And it was a fantastic experience.
| | 00:31 | There were people there who,
| | 00:33 | photographers who took me under
their wings and let me go with them on
| | 00:36 | assignment, so I could
practice with the professionals.
| | 00:40 | There is a man there named Tom DeFeo.
| | 00:43 | All of these people, I mean,
they are just legends in my world.
| | 00:48 | And I was able to actually go
out and photograph with them.
| | 00:51 | The great thing was that a few years
later, when I was looking for an internship
| | 00:57 | while I was at Ohio University, I was
able to work at the Cincinnati Enquirer,
| | 01:03 | where Tom DeFeo had just been
appointed as Director of Photography.
| | 01:08 | And so it was kind of a
neat experience to come back.
| | 01:11 | And I already knew him, he already
knew my work, and just had the best
| | 01:16 | internship for three months where I was
bopping around southwest Ohio, taking
| | 01:22 | these pictures of motorcycle
gangs and things like that, that I had never
| | 01:26 | experienced in Iowa.
| | 01:28 | I kind of discovered my love of
telling these long stories, these multiple
| | 01:36 | photograph stories while I was in Cincinnati.
| | 01:39 | I would go out on my own, on my hours
before or after work, or on my weekends,
| | 01:45 | and start shooting the stories.
| | 01:47 | At some point then, if the newspaper felt
that it was a story that they wanted to
| | 01:53 | publish, they would assign a writer to them.
| | 01:55 | And then the writer and I would
work closely together after that.
| | 01:59 | Other times the newspaper would
assign both of us at the same time,
| | 02:04 | and we would go out and do the stories that way.
| | 02:08 | We found stories by going to the cafes.
| | 02:11 | We found stories by listening in on
conversations in the bars, and would just
| | 02:19 | look around until we found
some sort of cool story to tell.
| | 02:24 | The great thing about the newspapers
that I worked for - I worked for two,
| | 02:28 | The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Seattle Times -
| | 02:31 | both newspapers had a healthy
respect for photographers as journalists.
| | 02:36 | And so that meant that we were
treated pretty much equally with the
| | 02:44 | writers in a lot of ways.
| | 02:45 | If we had a story idea, we would pitch it.
| | 02:48 | And if the news team thought it was a
good story, they'd accept it, and they'd
| | 02:52 | assign us and another writer
to go out and do the story.
| | 02:57 | It didn't happen all the time.
| | 02:58 | I mean, photographers still were
there to shoot the assignments that the
| | 03:01 | writers - you know, for the stories
that the writers had come up with, or the
| | 03:05 | editors had come up with.
| | 03:07 | I, at Cincinnati, in Cincinnati I
would photograph five assignments a day.
| | 03:12 | You know, when I moved out to Seattle
Times, it went down to about two or three a day.
| | 03:18 | But when I tell my students that, you
know, try shooting five assignments a
| | 03:23 | day in eight hours, and spend two
hours of those eight hours in the lab
| | 03:28 | processing, they kind of
get an idea what it was like.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The salmon story| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:09 | Natalie Fobes: So this stream reminds me of
the first time I saw salmon leap.
| | 00:14 | My father had come out from the
Midwest to visit me in Seattle.
| | 00:21 | He wanted to do something very northwestern,
| | 00:23 | and so I took him out to a salmon stream.
| | 00:26 | As we stood there on the banks of
the stream, we watched the foam.
| | 00:31 | At first, we didn't see anything.
| | 00:33 | And I thought, "Oh, this is a waste of
time," but all of a sudden I saw a fin,
| | 00:39 | and I saw another fin.
| | 00:42 | And all of a sudden, this Salmon jumped
from the foam and hung there for what
| | 00:50 | seemed like minutes, suspended in the
air, and then slipped back into the foam.
| | 00:58 | And I was just overwhelmed with emotion.
| | 01:02 | I was happy, and I was sad.
| | 01:05 | I was melancholy.
| | 01:07 | I was in awe.
| | 01:11 | And I turned to my father to see if
he had seen the salmon, and his eyes
| | 01:17 | were filled with tears.
| | 01:20 | Now my father was raised on a farm.
| | 01:22 | He was a hunter.
| | 01:23 | He was a fisherman.
| | 01:26 | But there was something about that
salmon that had touched him deep in his soul.
| | 01:32 | From that moment forward, I knew
that I wanted to learn more about the
| | 01:38 | mystery of the salmon,
| | 01:40 | and what it is about the
salmon that touches us deep inside.
| | 01:46 | So that was the beginning of a ten year project.
| | 01:50 | I didn't think it was going to be ten
years, but it ended up being ten years.
| | 01:58 | After that day, I went home, and I
wrote a proposal for National Geographic
| | 02:01 | Magazine to see if they
could fund me to do this project.
| | 02:07 | Well, they sent back - Bob Gilka, bless his heart,
| | 02:11 | sent back a very nice letter saying,
"Well, thank you Natalie, but no thank you.
| | 02:14 | Who gives a damn about fish anyway?"
| | 02:17 | And at that point, I realized I
had written the proposal wrong,
| | 02:20 | that this is not only a story about
the salmon, but it was, more importantly, a
| | 02:25 | story about the cultures that depended
on the salmon around the Pacific Rim.
| | 02:29 | So I rewrote the proposal, applied
for and received an Alicia Patterson
| | 02:34 | Fellowship of $25,000
| | 02:36 | that allowed me to take a year off
of my newspaper job and travel around
| | 02:41 | the Pacific Rim.
| | 02:43 | So after 14 months of traveling
around the Pacific Rim, photographing and
| | 02:47 | writing stories about the salmon,
I got back to The Seattle Times.
| | 02:53 | And they asked me to put together a
special section for the newspaper from my
| | 02:58 | photographs and my stories.
| | 03:01 | It came out as a twelve-page
special section, filled with these stories
| | 03:05 | from Alaska to New Zealand, that I
had written and the photographs that
| | 03:10 | went with them.
| | 03:11 | And I was asked if I could
submit them for The Pulitzer Prize.
| | 03:17 | And to my delight, I ended up being
a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,
| | 03:22 | not in photography, but
rather in a writing category.
| | 03:27 | So after the Times story came out, I
talked to Tom Kennedy, who was the Director
| | 03:34 | of Photography at that time.
| | 03:37 | He asked me to continue working on the
Salmon Project for National Geographic.
| | 03:42 | He gave me a warning that if after six
weeks the photographs that I took were
| | 03:48 | not up to the expectations of the
National Geographic, that he would have to
| | 03:54 | assign the project to someone else.
| | 03:56 | Well, I made sure that the photographs
were up to the caliber of the National
| | 04:02 | Geographic photographers.
| | 04:05 | After the Geographic story came out,
I found a literary agent who started
| | 04:10 | shopping around the book idea that I
had dreamed about from the very first day
| | 04:15 | I saw salmon.
| | 04:19 | After a few months she called and said
that she'd actually found a publisher for it.
| | 04:24 | And in 1994 this beautiful book
called 'Reaching Home, Pacific Salmon,
| | 04:29 | Pacific People' came out.
| | 04:31 | I wrote extended essays for my photography,
| | 04:37 | but we had two really wonderful,
insightful writers write the other chapters
| | 04:44 | of the book,
| | 04:45 | Tom Jay and Brad Matsen. And the synergy
between our insight and our skills made
| | 04:53 | this book so special.
| | 04:55 | In fact, today it is still used as
almost a primer on the salmon story,
| | 05:02 | because it covers not only the biology
of the fish, the cultures of the fish,
| | 05:08 | the people who use the fish, the
commercial fishermen, the sports fishermen, but
| | 05:13 | it also deals with the habitat destruction.
| | 05:16 | It's really satisfying to know
that that book is still out there.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting the shot: Tulalip Fish Ceremony| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: I had some unforgettable experiences
during the ten years that I photographed
| | 00:10 | the salmon and her people.
| | 00:13 | I remember the Tulalip First Fish
ceremony, in particular. The Tulalip
| | 00:19 | Indians and a lot of their native
tribes around, not only in the Northwest,
| | 00:23 | but around the Pacific Rim, felt that
the salmon were a gift from the Creator,
| | 00:28 | and there were certain rules that they
had to abide by in order for this gift
| | 00:32 | to continue coming.
| | 00:34 | The first role, of course, was to
not take too many fish, no be greedy.
| | 00:39 | And the most important was that the
first fish that returned to the river and
| | 00:43 | was caught by the Indians, that fish
was treated as a visiting chieftain, as
| | 00:51 | someone of great importance,
| | 00:53 | because they felt that the salmon
were people who each year would don their
| | 00:57 | salmon costumes, return to the
rivers to sacrifice themselves, so mankind
| | 01:04 | could survive.
| | 01:06 | Every tribe that I had the opportunity
to talk about this with had a similar
| | 01:13 | story, from the Ainu of Japan all
the way around here to the Tulalips.
| | 01:17 | I was so fortunate and grateful that
the Tulalips allowed me to photograph
| | 01:22 | during the ceremony.
| | 01:23 | They welcomed the community to
come in, and it's a great time of joy.
| | 01:29 | During that day, again, I got there a
little bit early as photographers always try
| | 01:36 | to do, and I saw Raymond Moses tuning
his drum, highlighted by a shaft of light
| | 01:44 | that was coming down from the roof.
| | 01:46 | The cedarwood fire's smoke had
filled the longhouse, and the smoke filled
| | 01:55 | this light, and it was absolutely beautiful.
| | 01:59 | And in the old days with film, you're
not quite sure what you have, and so I
| | 02:05 | started bracketing my exposure to
make sure that that shaft of light was
| | 02:10 | brilliant as it possibly could be, and
to make to sure that the light that was
| | 02:13 | reflecting from his drum into his face
highlighted his features just right.
| | 02:20 | And about three quarters of the way
through, I heard the sounds of people
| | 02:26 | surrounding us with their drums and
their voices, and began their singing and
| | 02:31 | drumming, facing Raymond, with me
in the center of the semicircle.
| | 02:35 | They were drumming, drumming, drumming.
| | 02:40 | As a photographer, that's the
epitome of what I want to experience.
| | 02:48 | I'm there.
| | 02:49 | I'm photographing.
| | 02:51 | I'm learning about these people.
| | 02:53 | But for those few minutes, surrounded
by the dancers and the singers and the
| | 02:59 | drummers, and watching Raymond drum
in this shaft of light, I was part of
| | 03:05 | this community.
| | 03:06 | I was part of that world.
| | 03:08 | It was a gift.
| | 03:10 | It was a gift that I had that experience.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| National Geographic: Exxon Valdez cover story| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: I was at home recuperating from
knee surgery when I first studied about
| | 00:10 | the Exxon Valdez.
| | 00:12 | A friend of mine called and told me
that there is a massive spill in Alaska.
| | 00:17 | I immediately called National
Geographic and talked to my editor there and
| | 00:21 | said, "Hey, there's a huge spill. Send
me up there," and he said, "Oh come on,
| | 00:24 | Natalie. No, no, no.
| | 00:25 | Don't worry about it."
| | 00:30 | Then I called the fishermen up in
Alaska and talked to some of them about what
| | 00:34 | was happening, and they were
telling me how horrible it was,
| | 00:37 | how already it had spread unbelievably.
| | 00:41 | So at that point, I called an air taxi
service in Valdez and booked an airplane
| | 00:46 | for the next day to do aerials.
| | 00:48 | Then I called the National
Geographic again and talked to my editor.
| | 00:51 | He was a little bit more interested,
but still not enough to send me up there.
| | 00:57 | And then I did a little bit more research.
| | 00:59 | I booked a hotel up there and then
called back and said, "I've got to get
| | 01:03 | up there. It's massive."
| | 01:05 | And at that point he said,
"Oh, Natalie. Go, just go."
| | 01:10 | So I went downstairs, I packed all the
film that I had. I packed my cameras, and
| | 01:15 | I was on the next flight out.
| | 01:17 | I arrived there at the day after the
spill, and already the town was in chaos.
| | 01:22 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:35 | Because of my experience on the
salmon project, I knew that the fishermen
| | 01:40 | would soon be heading out to try to
clean up the spill, and so I started
| | 01:46 | working with the Cordova District
Fishermen's Union to see if I could ride
| | 01:51 | along on one of those boats.
| | 01:54 | The beauty of who I was working for at
that time, for National Geographic, was
| | 01:59 | that I didn't have to file everyday.
| | 02:02 | I could file every two weeks.
| | 02:05 | I could file every three weeks if I wanted to.
| | 02:08 | So, I could afford to just go out
on a fishing boat and hitchhike my way
| | 02:12 | around the Sound on the fishing boats, or
the mail planes or the helicopters that
| | 02:16 | might touch down where I was.
| | 02:20 | And one day I was on the fishing boat,
and there was a plane that flew
| | 02:24 | overhead, and they said, "Hey, is
Natalie on your boat?" and then the skipper
| | 02:32 | said, "Wow Natalie!
| | 02:33 | Yeah, someone is asking for you."
| | 02:35 | And basically the pilot dropped down
and said I know where there's an animal
| | 02:40 | rescue boat, and I'll take you out there.
| | 02:43 | I don't know if they'll let you
onboard, but I'll take you out, so you can
| | 02:47 | photograph that aspect of what's happening.
| | 02:49 | It's really horrible.
| | 02:50 | He said, "I want you to get out there,"
and so he picked me up, and we flew over
| | 02:55 | to this other bay, and we landed.
| | 02:58 | I asked the skipper if I could come
onboard for a few days, and he said,
| | 03:02 | "Hell yes, you can. I want people to
see what's going on out here.
| | 03:05 | This is horrible. This is horrible."
| | 03:08 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:23 | Now of course, I also interviewed
people along the way, because my experiences
| | 03:29 | were so different then what the riders
experience would be, and I really wanted
| | 03:33 | my photographs to have as much
information with them as possible.
| | 03:37 | I kept my journalistic notes
separate from my personal notes, from my
| | 03:44 | personal journal.
| | 03:45 | I did that by having my
journalistic notes in the front of my notebook,
| | 03:49 | but then at night, I'd write about my
feelings and what I saw and experienced on
| | 03:57 | the back part of it.
| | 03:58 | So, I really have kind of like a
dual personality going on in that, in
| | 04:05 | that notebook of my coverage, but that
was the only way I could keep it from
| | 04:11 | overwhelming me.
| | 04:12 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:28 | It was happening so quickly that there
was no chance whatsoever to do anything
| | 04:34 | outside of gather information.
| | 04:36 | I mean, I felt very strong
that I was part of history,
| | 04:39 | and that it was my job to photograph
this, so that generations from that time
| | 04:48 | would be able to view these
photographs and get a sense of what was
| | 04:51 | going on.
| | 04:53 | My editor back at Geographic had
been looking through it, and had been
| | 04:57 | editing it during the time,
| | 04:59 | and I flew out there, presented the
photographs to the editor, and there was
| | 05:05 | just stunned silence when people
were looking at the photographs.
| | 05:10 | So the spill happened in March, and the
first set went in in August, in
| | 05:14 | the August edition.
| | 05:16 | And then the full story went in
January of 1990, with a picture of a dying
| | 05:22 | bird on the cover, that I took.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Telling stories with images| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:08 | Natalie Fobes: So this is the wall where I
display some of my magazine work.
| | 00:13 | It's not always about photographing
the big story for the big magazines, but
| | 00:19 | I've also diversified in the last few
years and started doing some weddings, and
| | 00:25 | I find that with my wedding
photography it's still a story.
| | 00:28 | It's still telling the story of the
person's day, of that couple's day.
| | 00:33 | I kind of tease them when I say
"National Geographic, Smithsonian - those are
| | 00:36 | my long-term stories.
| | 00:38 | You are my short-term stories."
| | 00:40 | In one day, I have a chance to get all
the photographs that I need. It's a
| | 00:45 | challenge, and it's very creative.
| | 00:48 | This photograph was taken just
moments before the bride was going to be
| | 00:53 | delivered to the ceremony site, and
she looked up and saw one of her friends
| | 00:58 | outside waving at her, and all of a
sudden the joy of her day just became so
| | 01:04 | obvious on her face.
| | 01:07 | My training as a photojournalist in
capturing the moment came in handy, because
| | 01:11 | there was one frame that I was able
to grab of this particular expression.
| | 01:17 | It was a fleeting moment, and I love
that about the weddings. Not only can you
| | 01:22 | do some of the more traditional setup
shots, the more portrait shots, showing the
| | 01:27 | bride in her glory, but you
have to capture the moments.
| | 01:32 | Here, a childhood friend, a Methodist
minister, is dancing with a belly dancer,
| | 01:39 | which the couple had hired
to kick off the reception.
| | 01:43 | Wonderful moments that happen
everywhere in life, not only on the big
| | 01:49 | assignments, but also on smaller
assignments, the weddings - these moments
| | 01:55 | happen everywhere.
| | 01:57 | Another area that I've diversified into
in the last few years is into personal
| | 02:02 | portraiture, and I love that
| | 02:04 | I can still tell those small stories,
those small moments like a mother's love
| | 02:09 | for her child, or the pride of my
daughter when she turned six, complete with
| | 02:16 | missing teeth and everything else.
| | 02:19 | This was a piece that was really fun to work on.
| | 02:22 | It was a commission piece for the
Seattle Arts Commission, a temporary exhibit on
| | 02:26 | salmon, and the title of the piece
was 'Salmon in the Trees.' And the whole
| | 02:31 | point of it was to hang these flags in a
park, in the trees surrounding a salmon
| | 02:36 | stream, emphasizing the importance of
salmon to the health of the ecosystem of
| | 02:41 | the forests of the Northwest.
| | 02:43 | It was wonderful;
| | 02:44 | it was really a lot of fun.
| | 02:46 | This was a wonderful shot that happened
by accident when my oldest daughter put
| | 02:52 | a tattoo on my youngest daughter's face.
| | 02:54 | Well, and as a mom, I wasn't very
excited about that, but the next day I
| | 02:58 | realized, what a wonderful symbol,
the dragon on my daughter's cheek.
| | 03:04 | So I created this portrait and then
tried to do something a little different by
| | 03:08 | having it just printed right on the
canvas, to see how the texture of the canvas
| | 03:14 | would help with the texture on her cheek.
| | 03:17 | When I took this shot, it's a high
school senior, Riley, wonderful young man,
| | 03:23 | a very talented trumpet player, but
when I took this shot I knew it had to
| | 03:27 | have a presentation that was a little
bit different in order to truly tell that
| | 03:32 | story, the story of Riley.
| | 03:34 | I did a little bit of work with the
saturation to pull it back a little bit and
| | 03:38 | intensify some other areas, and then
found an incredible master printer to print
| | 03:45 | this photograph, and put this
soft beveled edge on the mat.
| | 03:49 | I think it really is important when
you're looking at the photographs to figure
| | 03:55 | out the best way that the presentation
can help tell the story of these photos,
| | 04:03 | because that's what it's all about,
telling a story with your photographs.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating photo-books| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: So the salmon book, which was my
first book, my little pride and joy,
| | 00:13 | when I came up with the idea of doing a
story about salmon and the cultures of
| | 00:17 | salmon around the Pacific Rim,
| | 00:20 | this was going to be a book.
| | 00:22 | I just felt it.
| | 00:23 | I shot for it.
| | 00:24 | I planned it that way.
| | 00:25 | It was going to be a book.
| | 00:26 | I was lucky that it actually was
published, but in my mind there was no question
| | 00:32 | that this was going to be a great
book and a book that needed to be done.
| | 00:37 | Now, another book that, my second book,
'I Dream Alaska,' came out of a number
| | 00:42 | of assignments to Alaska, traveling
all throughout the state, in winter and
| | 00:47 | summer, and having just some amazing
experiences up there. And it was only then
| | 00:55 | when I got back and started looking at
this collection of work that I realized
| | 00:59 | that I needed to do a book on Alaska.
| | 01:04 | And the twist with this one is that it's
a book with a little, a little bit of a
| | 01:08 | quarter turn approach.
| | 01:10 | What I really wanted to do was to
write a love letter to the people of Alaska
| | 01:16 | who had really gone out of their way to
take me under their wing, and to show me
| | 01:21 | things that I'd never seen before, and to
have experiences with them that I never
| | 01:27 | would have had if they hadn't been kind to me.
| | 01:33 | I laugh and say that my career is
built on the kindness of strangers, and
| | 01:38 | it's true.
| | 01:39 | It's very, very true.
| | 01:41 | So this book was done in a
Polaroid transfer technique.
| | 01:44 | You would take a picture of the slide,
and then before the dyes had a chance to
| | 01:50 | fully develop on the Polaroid medium,
you would strip off the negative, lay it
| | 01:56 | down on a piece of prepared
watercolor paper and then roll it.
| | 02:00 | Wait for about 60 seconds and then
hope that you got all of the blacks down,
| | 02:07 | slowly peel back the negative, and the
result would be that you would have these
| | 02:13 | wonderful textured photographs, where
the dyes had actually transferred over to
| | 02:19 | the watercolor paper.
| | 02:22 | Again, I wanted something that was
just a little quarter turn off of reality.
| | 02:26 | These photographs had been taken over
15 years of my travels to Alaska, and I
| | 02:32 | didn't want people who looked at the
book to think I had just done it yesterday.
| | 02:36 | I wanted to give them a little bit
of a feeling of age, a little bit of a
| | 02:41 | feeling of history, maybe a
little bit a feeling of magic.
| | 02:46 | Now, not all books are
done as a starving artist.
| | 02:52 | In fact, this is one of the
fun books that I did, and this was
| | 02:58 | a commissioned piece.
| | 02:59 | I was commissioned by the Seattle
Mariners to spend two years photographing the
| | 03:05 | construction of Safeco Field.
| | 03:07 | I would go down there for a couple days
every month and just head down there, and
| | 03:13 | whatever I thought was
interesting I would go and photograph.
| | 03:16 | So I got to do some really cool things
like hang out with the ironworkers on top
| | 03:22 | of the roof before there was any
kind of way to get up there, and I still
| | 03:27 | remember climbing 200, about 230 feet
straight up on an open ladder that had -
| | 03:35 | it was fixed to the structure with
bailing wire, and getting up through the
| | 03:42 | hatch, and my legs just collapsed underneath me.
| | 03:47 | I mean, fortunately I was on top of
some sheet metal at that point, but the guy
| | 03:52 | that was with me said, "Hey, what's wrong?"
| | 03:54 | And I said, "Oh, I just need a moment.
| | 03:58 | I'm enjoying the view."
| | 04:01 | But the fact is I could not - I was just jelly.
| | 04:04 | But there, it was really fun.
| | 04:06 | I got to know some of the guys,
and it was really neat to be a part of
| | 04:11 | something that has changed
the skyline of Seattle forever.
| | 04:15 | It was a neat project.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting the shot: Portrait shoot| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:08 | Natalie Fobes: So Roger is an old friend of mine
from way back in the Geographic days.
| | 00:14 | I photographed him early in the `90s
for a Corbis CD project that he was
| | 00:19 | working on.
| | 00:20 | So today, I'm just going to be doing
some pretty simple portraits of him, and
| | 00:24 | we're going to have some fun, and just
kind of see what the creative minds
| | 00:30 | can come up with.
| | 00:37 | Okay.
| | 00:42 | One thing I am seeing is that we do
have some reflection off of the cars,
| | 00:46 | so maybe now would be a good time
to move them, before I blind people.
| | 00:52 | So Roger, you've got some props here.
| | 00:55 | Roger: Yeah, a stack of books,
Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 00:58 | Roger: in case you want me to be an intellectual.
Natalie: Okay, we can do that.
| | 01:02 | Roger: I have got a camera.
Natalie: Yeah.
| | 01:03 | Roger: I have got a baseball glove and mitt
and hat, in case you want me to be a dad.
| | 01:06 | Natalie: Hey Roger, stand up
real quick for a minute here.
| | 01:09 | I'm just seeing something
happening that's kind of cool on the old light.
| | 01:16 | I'm just going after your eyes here.
| | 01:21 | Let me back up just a little, nice.
| | 01:27 | Natalie: Sweet. That's nice.
Roger: Yeah, you got to.
| | 01:29 | Roger: We have got the sun and --
Natalie: Maybe we shouldn't.
| | 01:32 | Natalie: Let's not move that truck yet.
| | 01:35 | This often happens when I'm shooting.
| | 01:38 | My intention was not to photograph
him against this wall; otherwise, I
| | 01:42 | would have repainted it.
| | 01:43 | But --
| | 01:45 | Roger: You can do that in Photoshop.
| | 01:46 | Natalie: I can do that in Photoshop, and so
instead of fighting the light, I'm going
| | 01:52 | to work with the light.
| | 01:53 | Okay, let's have your hands crossed,
| | 01:56 | at your elbow - at your -
there we go. Got it.
| | 02:01 | Okay, turn just a little bit that way
and lower your chin just a little.
| | 02:06 | What I'm looking at is there is kind of
a cool thing happening with that shadow
| | 02:11 | behind him on the wall.
| | 02:13 | I'm getting his profile.
| | 02:21 | Nice.
| | 02:24 | Okay. Let's do a real serious one.
| | 02:29 | Nice.
| | 02:30 | Wohoo! Let me show you.
| | 02:33 | I normally don't show photographs to
people, but Roger is a photographer.
| | 02:39 | We're old friends;
we know what we're doing.
| | 02:41 | Roger: Beautiful background,
Natalie: Yeah.
| | 02:42 | Roger: even though you didn't paint it.
Natalie: Yeah.
| | 02:45 | Natalie: Anytime you can do a portrait that is
personal, that is about the person, then
| | 02:52 | you're much better off than just doing a
staged portrait with a background, a
| | 02:57 | back cloth, a dark cloth or something.
| | 02:59 | It's really about creating
photographs of that person that tell what that
| | 03:06 | person is about.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Giving back: Blue Earth Alliance| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: So I started talking to some
corporations in the Northwest about the
| | 00:10 | possibility of them donating some
money for me to put this exhibit together.
| | 00:16 | I got the same answer from every one of them.
| | 00:19 | Unless I was a nonprofit, a 501(c)(3), I
would not be able to receive money from
| | 00:26 | them, but that was their policy.
| | 00:28 | So one day a friend and I, another
photographer named Phil Borges, and I
| | 00:33 | were sitting over lunch.
| | 00:35 | He also was trying to put together
a museum exhibit, and again, looking
| | 00:39 | for funding.
| | 00:40 | We were complaining, you know,
| | 00:42 | "We can't get funding, and it's a good project."
| | 00:45 | So he looked at me at one point.
| | 00:47 | I looked at him, and we had the same thought.
| | 00:50 | If we are having trouble getting
funding for these exhibits, then other
| | 00:55 | photographers are too.
| | 00:56 | And why can't we form a nonprofit
501(c)(3) foundation that would be dedicated
| | 01:02 | to helping photographers do those
documentary stories that need to be told.
| | 01:09 | We kind of brainstormed a little bit more;
| | 01:11 | we talked to a friend of his, named
Malcolm Edwards, and the three of us created
| | 01:16 | Blue Earth Alliance.
| | 01:18 | Well, here we are in the
offices of Blue Earth Alliance.
| | 01:21 | And with me is Malcolm Edwards,
who is one of our co-founders.
| | 01:26 | We're dedicated to helping
photographers do amazing documentary stories, around
| | 01:31 | the world, of environmental stories,
cultural stories and social issue stories.
| | 01:36 | Malcolm Edwards: One of the
projects is by Florian Schulz.
| | 01:41 | This photograph here is a part of that.
| | 01:43 | His project was Yellowstone to Yukon,
which emphasized the importance of
| | 01:49 | having corridors that wildlife could
go on other than just being inside a
| | 01:55 | national park.
| | 01:56 | Natalie: The benefits that Blue Earth
gives me is that it is an opportunity to
| | 02:03 | affect change.
| | 02:04 | You know that's as simple and
straightforward as I can tell you.
| | 02:08 | The projects that Blue Earth Alliance
has sponsored have made a difference
| | 02:13 | in this world.
| | 02:14 | I mean, the Subhankar Banerjee story,
he wanted to be a photographer, and
| | 02:19 | he wanted to do the story of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, and the book
| | 02:24 | that came out of it was actually so
instrumental in continuing the ban of
| | 02:28 | drilling in the Arctic, that it was
held by Senator Boxer on the senate floor,
| | 02:34 | and she said, "If you think there is
no life in the Arctic National Wildlife
| | 02:37 | Refuge, look at this book."
| | 02:40 | It was just amazing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Seeking out adventures| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: I remember when I was in eighth
grade, we always had to, in the yearbook
| | 00:12 | back then they asked you to do, you know,
what do you want to do with your life?
| | 00:16 | And I put down that I wanted to be an
international jetsetter, and I had no idea
| | 00:24 | that I would actually be able to do that,
| | 00:27 | all because I carried to camera, and I was
able to get assignments to travel around
| | 00:33 | the world and take pictures of places
and people that few people ever get to
| | 00:37 | meet, or see or experience.
| | 00:39 | Most of the time I spent in Northern
country, my brother called me Nat
| | 00:45 | Nook of the North, because I
spent so much time in Alaska, Siberia.
| | 00:51 | I camped out with
reindeer herders in the winter.
| | 00:54 | You know, so that's the kind
of thing that I really miss.
| | 01:00 | I miss those experiences.
| | 01:02 | I love talking about the adventures
that I had traveling through the night in
| | 01:07 | Siberia on a visdehot, being on the roof
of the visdehot, and looking up at the stars and having
| | 01:15 | stars so brilliant and so amazingly
massive that you couldn't see any black,
| | 01:25 | in the cold, 30-below
| | 01:28 | wind on my face, and
snuggling up in my furlined parka.
| | 01:34 | I mean those are wonderful,
wonderful memories, but then I can tell you about
| | 01:38 | traveling that way for 24 hours.
| | 01:41 | I mean that kind of travel, you spent
half of your time surviving, getting
| | 01:46 | food, getting water, trying to
find a warm place to stay at night.
| | 01:51 | And then the other half of the time
you tried to get the energy up to go out and
| | 01:55 | take these photographs.
| | 01:57 | Those are grand
adventures, and that kind of travel -
| | 02:01 | I'm so glad I did it at that point.
| | 02:03 | I'm just so thankful I had the opportunity.
| | 02:06 | But now if you said to me, "Natalie
would you like to go and go back to the
| | 02:11 | reindeer herders' camp?"
| | 02:12 | I'd say "Yeah, but I'd like to have a helicopter.
| | 02:14 | Is that okay?
| | 02:16 | Can I do that?"
| | 02:17 | So I'm in a different space in my life.
| | 02:19 | When my husband and I decided
that we wanted to have children,
| | 02:24 | we thought long and hard about
how that would impact my career.
| | 02:29 | Up until that point, I was traveling extensively.
| | 02:32 | My husband and I actually met each
other because I was recuperating from knee
| | 02:36 | surgery, so I was in town for more than
a few weeks at a time, a few months at a
| | 02:41 | time, and so we knew that that I
would have to dial it back quite a bit.
| | 02:47 | Then that was when I started shooting
high-end weddings and started doing a
| | 02:53 | little bit more portraiture.
| | 02:55 | I love seeing my
daughters come home from school.
| | 02:58 | I love going to their soccer games,
and yelling for them to throw some
| | 03:04 | more elbows.
| | 03:06 | Get aggressive. It's not -
don't be polite Phoebe. Go!
| | 03:10 | And you know so there are adventures
here at home now that I am able to enjoy.
| | 03:15 | I am always up for adventure, definitely.
| | 03:16 | I always, I love learning about cultures,
and places, and wildlife and ecosystems
| | 03:26 | that few people ever learn about,
| | 03:29 | but I'm enjoying where I am right now, a lot.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Teaching the business of photography| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Natalie Fobes: I was astounded and amazed when the
father of the groom jumped up and started
| | 00:14 | clapping after they had
been declared a married couple.
| | 00:18 | There might be some sort of moment;
| | 00:19 | you always have to be ready
for something that happens.
| | 00:23 | I started working at
Seattle Central three years ago.
| | 00:26 | I was invited to come and teach the
business of photography to the students,
| | 00:32 | about what it takes to be a
photographer and make a living as a photographer.
| | 00:36 | They all have personal projects that
they feel are very important for people
| | 00:41 | to understand.
| | 00:42 | That's why I got into photography.
| | 00:44 | And it's great that every week I come
here, and I'm reminded - and sometimes in
| | 00:49 | small way, sometimes in big ways - that
that is why I got into photography, to do
| | 00:56 | good things with my photographs,
to make a difference in this world.
| | 00:59 | My students range in age from right out
of high school to people in their 50s,
| | 01:06 | and in some cases I have
had students in their 60s.
| | 01:10 | The questions are basically the
same. They have the passion
| | 01:14 | for photography.
| | 01:15 | They know that this is what they want
to do, and they want to figure out how
| | 01:20 | they can make a living at it,
| | 01:21 | how they can do what they are passionate about.
| | 01:24 | They are asking, what is
the future of photography?
| | 01:28 | What am I going to be doing in 20 years?
| | 01:31 | What are the skills that I need 20
years from now to be able to survive in this
| | 01:37 | dramatically changing environment?
| | 01:38 | I mean, in the old days there used
to be magic when I came to being
| | 01:42 | a photographer.
| | 01:43 | You'd take the picture.
| | 01:44 | You'd go away.
| | 01:45 | You'd develop the film.
| | 01:46 | You'd come back with an amazing shot.
| | 01:50 | The client had no idea how you did it.
| | 01:53 | Nowadays you take the shot and most
often the client wants to see it right away
| | 01:57 | on the back of your camera.
| | 01:59 | They need to learn the importance of
giving the client more than they expect.
| | 02:04 | They need to learn that how your dress
matters, how your act matters, that you
| | 02:10 | are on time, that if there is a
deadline that you meet that deadline, if you
| | 02:16 | have created an estimate
| | 02:18 | that they come in at the
estimate or under the estimate.
| | 02:21 | I mean, all of these things
relate to being a professional.
| | 02:25 | And now, more then ever, it's
important to be a professional.
| | 02:29 | So for me to be able to help them
develop the skills that will allow them, or
| | 02:35 | enable them, to succeed in the
marketplace is something that I think is
| | 02:39 | really important.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creative philosophy| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:10 | Natalie Fobes: Today I am looking to do
something a little different, which is
| | 00:13 | experimenting with HDR.
| | 00:16 | In the old days, I, as a film shooter,
would have a very difficult time capturing
| | 00:22 | the highlights of the
forest and the deep shadows,
| | 00:26 | but now by using the HDR technique, I
take dark pictures all the way up to
| | 00:32 | bright pictures and, with the software,
combine them into one photograph.
| | 00:37 | You will be able to see the details in
the highlights and the details in the
| | 00:40 | shadow, and if it all works right,
it will be a damn nice picture.
| | 00:47 | I give myself self-assignments all
the time, just to keep the creative
| | 00:51 | juices flowing.
| | 00:53 | One of my current ones is to
photograph in the national parks that are
| | 00:58 | in Washington State.
| | 00:59 | I will be part of an exhibit that's
coming up in the fall, and there will be
| | 01:04 | six other photographers, six other
really good photographers who will be
| | 01:09 | showing their work.
| | 01:10 | Now I have done a lot of
work in the parks before.
| | 01:13 | I've got some photographs that I will
consider for this exhibit, but I want to
| | 01:19 | try this new HDR technique,
| | 01:21 | new for me anyway, the High Dynamic Range.
| | 01:26 | That's real important for me to
always be looking for something that is
| | 01:31 | creative, that can keep me
passionate about what I do.
| | 01:34 | It doesn't have to be about photography.
| | 01:37 | I just got on to a kick where I
started making fragrances and loved it.
| | 01:43 | I mean, I spent -- I can't tell you
how many dollars I spent on buying these
| | 01:48 | little fragrances and combining them
to create a scent that was all my own.
| | 01:53 | I've got a lot of creative energy out of that.
| | 01:59 | I took a pottery class with my daughter's class.
| | 02:04 | I was the only adult in the class.
| | 02:06 | We made turtles, but you know what?
| | 02:08 | We made turtles, and I came home and
bought some clay and started making bowls
| | 02:13 | with my daughters, and just really
enjoying the creative process of making
| | 02:17 | something, had nothing to do with
photography, but I'll tell you the next time I
| | 02:21 | picked up my camera I was energized.
| | 02:25 | That's kind of fun, kind of fun
to find different ways to create.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Interview with Lynda Weinman| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:07 | Lynda Weinman: Hello! I'm Lynda Weinman of lynda.com,
and we're very lucky to be in Washington State
| | 00:13 | with the wonderful photographer Natalie Fobes.
| | 00:16 | It's so great to be with you.
| | 00:17 | Natalie Fobes: Thank you.
| | 00:18 | Lynda: Thank you. You've let us into your
home studio, which is breathtaking and inspiring.
| | 00:22 | Natalie: Thank you.
| | 00:23 | Lynda: So, it seems that you have had an
entrepreneurial spirit ever since you
| | 00:28 | started photography.
| | 00:30 | Can you talk about what that's
been like to create your own career?
| | 00:32 | Natalie: Well, it's a challenge certainly, and
sometimes harder than other times, like
| | 00:38 | right now is one of those challenging
years, but the joy of being your own boss
| | 00:44 | is that you wake up in the morning and
just think, "What am I going to do today?"
| | 00:48 | And you are the one who
determines what you're going to do today.
| | 00:52 | I'm sure you know that, you know how
that works, and so the horizon
| | 00:56 | is huge.
| | 00:57 | I mean, the opportunities are huge
for you to go out and explore with your
| | 01:03 | creativity, to expand your knowledge,
to do the things that you want to do.
| | 01:09 | So, I actually don't think I could
ever go back to working a 40 hour day.
| | 01:15 | I'm sorry - 40 hour day is what I work now,
but a 40 hour week. It's just amazing.
| | 01:22 | It's great!
| | 01:23 | Lynda: And I mean, to me, from the
outside looking in, it seems like digital
| | 01:28 | photography has opened
photography up to more people.
| | 01:31 | Would you agree with that, or do you think?
| | 01:34 | Natalie: Yes, definitely.
| | 01:35 | In the old days, and I'm talking the
old days like eight years ago, when we were
| | 01:40 | Natalie: a lot younger,
Lynda: Right.
| | 01:42 | Natalie: photography still had
this magical feeling to it.
| | 01:47 | You'd go in with your transparency film,
and you'd set up your lights, and you had
| | 01:52 | all sorts of scrims and everything to
take a simple portrait. And then you'd take
| | 01:57 | it back, the lab would process it, you
would edit it, show your client, and they'd
| | 02:01 | be just amazed at the magic.
| | 02:03 | You're a magician.
| | 02:05 | Nowadays, the cameras are so good and
so instantaneous that you immediately -
| | 02:13 | people can look on the back of the
camera and see that they've made an
| | 02:16 | amazing shot, or they look at the back
of the camera and say, "Oo, better
| | 02:19 | try it again."
| | 02:21 | And so, in some ways the digital
revolution has really broadened the landscape
| | 02:29 | for photographers and photography.
| | 02:32 | On the other hand, it has kind of taken
away some of the mystery and the magic
| | 02:37 | of what photographers used to do.
| | 02:40 | It's as important as ever
to be a great storyteller.
| | 02:44 | It's as important as ever to realize
that if you're taking a portrait, that the
| | 02:49 | goal of the portrait is to
make the person look good.
| | 02:54 | No matter what you're working with,
whether it's a film camera or a digital
| | 02:59 | camera, whether you're doing
multimedia work, it's all about telling the
| | 03:03 | person's story, and it's all about
being true to that person, and not going out
| | 03:12 | of your way to tell a story
that's not right, or inaccurate.
| | 03:15 | Lynda: That makes sense.
| | 03:18 | And I know you've had to reinvent
yourself numerous times given what's changed.
| | 03:23 | Natalie: Every other week.
It seems like it, yeah.
| | 03:26 | Lynda: What's that been like?
| | 03:29 | Natalie: Well, it's fun.
| | 03:31 | I'm looking on the positive side.
| | 03:32 | The positive side is
really fun to learn a new skill.
| | 03:38 | When I first switched from film to
digital, there was an explosion of
| | 03:44 | creativity with my work.
| | 03:47 | I just could not put my camera down.
| | 03:50 | It was, I was doing things that I -
experimenting with things that I
| | 03:54 | Natalie: hadn't done in years, like water droplets on the glass,
Lynda: Right.
| | 03:58 | Natalie: stuff like that. And so I think that
with each time you have to learn a new
| | 04:03 | skill, it must kickstart a piece of
your creative brain to really rev up and
| | 04:11 | kind of come up to the challenge.
| | 04:12 | And I think that the next big thing,
and the thing that I'm working on now, is
| | 04:16 | Natalie: the multimedia, and I call them moving pictures.
Lynda: Mhm.
| | 04:20 | It's affordable to do cinematography
right now, and so that's the next
| | 04:25 | place that I'm going is to
really become skilled in that area.
| | 04:30 | Lynda: That's an interesting evolution,
because I would think that you had that
| | 04:35 | opportunity earlier on, too, to go
towards moving images versus still images and
| | 04:40 | what was it that drew you to still
images, and what is it that draws you to
| | 04:44 | moving images? What's the distinction there?
| | 04:46 | Natalie: Well, I think that something that
the still images will always have over the
| | 04:52 | moving images is the
freezing of that moment in time.
| | 04:57 | That is so powerful.
| | 04:59 | You thing it back to the Vietnam War,
and you don't think of the photographs
| | 05:03 | that were moving photographs back then.
| | 05:06 | You think of those still images, the
iconographic images that were haunting.
| | 05:11 | You think, even with the Exxon Valdez oil
spill, think of the images that you saw
| | 05:17 | from that, and I bet that you
think of mostly still images.
| | 05:21 | So there's something about our brains,
maybe the way it's wired, that we grab
| | 05:26 | on to the single photograph, that moment
of time that's frozen, and really that is
| | 05:32 | etched in our minds.
| | 05:33 | The great thing about moving
photographs is that you can add sound, like
| | 05:40 | Natalie: our interview.
Lynda: Right.
| | 05:42 | Natalie: I mean, it's still a
photograph of us sitting here
| | 05:44 | having an interview would not
necessarily be something people would want
| | 05:47 | Natalie: to check out.
Lynda: Right.
| | 05:49 | Natalie: But it's the words that will be
the powerful aspect of the interview.
| | 05:54 | Lynda: Yeah, great points.
| | 05:56 | And what advice would you offer to
young aspiring photographers today?
| | 06:02 | Natalie: The first thing I'd suggest to
them is to always be true to the subject,
| | 06:09 | whether it's an individual,
or a story that they're doing.
| | 06:12 | Look at it from all areas. Don't just
go into a situation and think that you
| | 06:17 | know what the story is going to be.
| | 06:19 | Some of the best stories I've
photographed, some of the best individual
| | 06:22 | photographs that I've photographed,
happened because I happened to be there, and
| | 06:27 | the person did something that was
totally unexpected, but amazing. And I came
| | 06:32 | back for the photographs.
| | 06:34 | So that's the first thing.
| | 06:35 | I think there is too much
preconception going on now, especially young
| | 06:39 | photographers trying to do photo stories.
| | 06:43 | The second thing is that, just keep
your mind open and realize that this is a
| | 06:47 | lifelong learning situation that we're in.
| | 06:50 | I mean, if I had stayed with film,
if I'd - I started in black-and-white.
| | 06:55 | So black-and-white TRI-X 400,
| | 06:59 | Natalie: that was my film. You remember.
Lynda: Yes, I do.
| | 07:01 | Natalie: Yeah, it's -- I still love
that film, but I've moved on now.
| | 07:07 | You've got to always be learning, always
be reinventing yourself, as you say, and
| | 07:12 | then the third thing, too, is to
realize that the greatest photographers in
| | 07:17 | the world all have business sense.
| | 07:21 | They all know how to stay in business.
| | 07:23 | They're paid for their
photography, and that doesn't come easily.
| | 07:27 | They have to learn that skill, just as
they learn a 2:1 ratio in lighting,
| | 07:34 | or how to pose someone.
| | 07:36 | They have to concentrate on
learning how to be a business person.
| | 07:40 | Lynda: That's a great point.
| | 07:41 | Lynda: Well, thank you so much for this interview.
Natalie: Oh, you're welcome.
| | 07:44 | Lynda: And I appreciate you sharing your
work with us, and opening your heart,
| | 07:50 | and your work up to us.
| | 07:51 | Natalie: Oh, thank you.
| | 07:52 | I appreciate it.
| | 07:53 | Why don't you come back,
and we'll sit out on the deck?
| | 07:55 | Lynda: Love it.
| | 07:56 | Natalie: Okay, sounds great.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
