Do you have a photography project or series that you are passionate about? Curious about what your peers and others think of it?
Join APA San Diego and the photo community for an in-person conversation to share your own work and/or to comment on the work of others. Five photographers will be selected to present and discuss their personal work or project in an in-person critique session.
Send us a link to your project for consideration. Submissions should be ready to share and present to an audience.
Meet San Diego-based commercial photographer and APA member, Marshall Williams. Marshall specializes in beautiful lifestyle, food, spa, and destination photography along with digital video as well.
What inspires you? Wow, where to begin? I do get inspired by reading biographical stories. I just finished Robert Irwin’s Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. Pretty influential.
What 3 words describe your photography style? For my commercial work, I would say Slice Of Life.
Do you have a favorite podcast? I do not — but I do enjoy listening to Hidden Brain on NPR.
What are you most proud of in your career up to this point? I think it would be that I’m still in business after 30 years, it’s a crazy ride.
What do you listen to when you’re shooting? Good question. We always have music playing on set. It is essential to creating a collaborative environment and the conduit that connects everyone together. Plus when things go sideways — which they sometimes do, it fills in the awkward moments. I have several playlists. My personal go to though is Dave Matthews.
What’s your favorite thing about being a photographer? The places I’ve experienced and the people that I’ve met. I’m pretty sure most photographers would say the same. The camera is a front-row ticket to the world.
When you aren’t making photographs, what other pastimes do you have? My wife and I thought it would be fun to raise our children in a big old house… so I’ve become pretty good at painting molding and restoring 100-year-old wood windows, among other things. We pretty much love anything involving food and wine… probably the happiest when grilling on the BBQ in the backyard with friends and family.
What photographers have inspired you or your work? Why? There are so many. Gregory Heisler, Matthew Rolston, Herb Ritts, Annie Leibovitz, Peggy Sirota, Mark Seliger — these were the powerhouse editorial shooters of the 1990s when I was beginning my career. Their images have a strong narrative component, masterfully composed and lit, and perhaps the most important element — gesture. Other photographers whose work has been influential are Hiroshi Sugimoto, Richard Misrach, Max Yavno, Julius Schulman, and a bunch more.
What was the best piece of advice you were given starting out? I apprenticed in Dean Collins’ studio out of Brooks. He generously allowed the interns and assistants to shoot in his space. He would walk up behind you while you were shooting, slap you on the back, and say “Talk to her!”. By that, he meant to keep a continuous chatter so your subject stays engaged. I don’t know if it was the best advice ever, but I use it today.
What are the current challenges that you face as a photographer? The fourteen-hour shoot days feel like they’re getting longer… or I’m getting older.
What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your career so far? By far the highlight for me would be the studio that Tim Mantoani and I built and worked out of together for 25 years and the community and friendships it fostered. Of course, his passing in 2016 was devastating.
What were you doing before you became a Photographer? It has always been the center of my life. I did work at a Safeway through high school and college.
If you weren’t a Photographer, what would you be doing? If I weren’t a photographer I’m sure I would be doing something that involves creativity. I really thrive off of visualizing an end result and working through the creative process to get there.
What do you do when you get stuck? When shooting, if I’m feeling like things aren’t working, I’ll often remove the camera from the tripod and take a 360-degree walk around the area I’m working in. Another good trick is to turn off all of the lights and start from black or with only the ambient environment and begin building it back up again, one light at a time. That was advice courtesy of Gregory Heisler.
What is your best advice for your peers? Be generous and be professional. Word of mouth is your best friend.
What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back 10 years? 20 years? It’s hard to understand when you’re young in your career, everything builds on everything else, it’s a long slow simmer. Keep working hard and keep moving in a forward direction. (That was actually advice from the dad, which probably IS the best advice I ever received…)
How has your work evolved over time? Why? It has evolved so much with the technology available now and the demands of the marketplace. Back in the film days we were making judgment calls on lighting and image construction based on a two and one quarter inch or 4×5 inch polaroid. That seems crazy, particularly now that we have 27-inch monitors on set. DSLRs have allowed me to shoot more loosely but more precisely, it has definitely driven the style of my work.
What is a photographer’s role now that technology has made it so much more accessible to the masses? I believe a photographer’s role transcends technology. It is still and has always been to cultivate a unique and passionate perspective of life. If you find inspiration in music, art, literature, food, culture, sports, nature, urban decay, whatever it is, use those influences to form your rich and unique perspective of the world. Find the beauty that lies in the most unassuming of people, places and objects. It’s that unique perspective that will become evident in the pictures you make and the value that a client receives when they hire you.
What do you see yourself doing in five years? I don’t know but I hope it involves a great meal in a hole-in-the-wall cafe somewhere. I would love to do some more traveling and personal photography projects.
Join APA | SD for Happy Hour on Wednesday, March 15th, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at Panama 66 in Balboa Park. This happy hour is 21+ and open to the larger photo and creative community. We’ll be outside in the covered patio area enjoying some drinks and food. Registration isn’t needed, but we would love to know if you could join us.
APA | SD members are encouraged to attend! Live music begins at 7PM with GILBERT CASTELLANOS YOUNG LIONS.
Today we feature, Donald Miralle, best known for his sports, adventure, and documentary stills and motion work for our ‘Meet’ a member interview.
Do you have a favorite podcast? Embarrassed to say but I don’t really listen to podcasts. Just read books, newspapers and listen to NPR in the car. I’m a little old school 🙂
Who are your top 5 favorites that you’re following on Instagram? NatGeo, NatGeoAdventure, NASA for science, NYTimes & LA Times for current events.
What 3 words describe your photography style? Clean, graphic, and composed.
What do you listen to when you’re shooting? Don’t listen to music when shooting as I am usually outdoors focused on what’s in front of me. But I love listening to all types of music when I’m relaxing or working out including classic rock, jazz, reggae, alternative, classical music. When I’m in a studio shooting indoors, I usually ask the model or athlete I’m shooting what playlist they would like to listen to!
What inspires you? The form and function in nature, human emotion and connection, and when both are reflected in art.
What’s your favorite thing about being a photographer? Photography has been my ticket around the world to visit new places and meet new people. No two days are the same, I get to be outside alot of the time and you only have to sit at a desk when editing or doing expenses. Photography is an international language that any person from any country speaking any language can understand and relate to. Being able to use one of the most powerful and universal forms of communication as your job is empowering and important!
When you aren’t making photographs, what other pastimes do you have? Being in the water every day: swimming, surfing, paddling. The water is my happy place!
Describe your daily or weekly work habits. (Pre-Covid and currently): Get myself and kids out of bed, brew pot of coffee, make breakfast and pack their lunches. Lauren and I split school dropoffs, and I have a surf check on the way back; if there are waves I surf, if it’s flat I do a paddle workout. Then I finish my coffee over emails and look over my shooting schedule. Expenses are done and turned into clients before my noon swim, then I pick up kids and drop off to afternoon sports. While they’re at sports I finish off any edits, then after picking them up I get one more workout in or a sunset surf if conditions are good.
Who were your biggest influences? My first Editor at Allsport / Getty Darrell Ingham, who guided me early on, saw that I had a little talent and drive and fostered it. If I didn’t have a mentor like Darrell, I don’t think I would have made it, and I can say the same about most young photographers. Although he lives in Windsor, England now, we still keep in touch and talk on holidays. Another Englishman who has influenced me in a different way is legendary sports photographer Tony Duffy, one of the founders of Allsport Photography, the first company I worked for. Although he left the company shortly after I joined, he always was supportive of my work and then became a good friend once I moved to Encinitas a couple miles away from him. One of the biggest influences on my career is my friendship with Al Bello. Al started at Allsport several years before me, and was very supportive of my photography, especially when I showed up on the scene specializing in underwater photography, which was a rare skill set in the 90’s. We shot side by side at many Olympic Games, Super Bowls, and other major events, and I love the creative process of bouncing ideas off of each other. He has always been one of my biggest supporters and best friends on my journey.
What was the best piece of advice you were given starting out? Less is more. Focus on your strengths and your unique vision and figure out a way to get it to an audience or client that fits you.
What are the current challenges that you face as a photographer? So much has changed in the last 3 decades I’ve been a photographer. When I started there was a very small group that was able to do the craft well: you needed to be able to shoot manual focus as AF didn’t even exist, shoot E-6 chrome film for magazines exposing properly (within 1/3 stop using a light meter), shoot C-41 negative film and develop on-site for newspapers on deadline, and be proficient in all aspects of photography including studio lighting, darkroom, editing, and delivery to clients. You needed a solid portfolio book of commercial work to even get considered for big jobs. Now digital cameras are so good the market has been flooded with hobbyist or part-time photographers taking jobs or lowering the standard rates and the bar that was set years ago. Most of the jobs are not for print but web/social only, and the majority of the photographs are not taken in camera but created in post-production. In general, the world changed once iPhones and smartphones put everything in the palm of your hand including a camera. And although I’m not resistant to chance, I do like the way the old craft of photography was executed and enjoy using the new technology to take that same approach.
What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your career so far? Highlights include 10 Olympic Games, 6 World Press Awards, an Emmy Nomination for video work, and seeing my images published for the first time in Sports Illustrated 24 years ago and National Geographic 12 years ago fulfilled a dream of mine. The biggest challenges were walking away from my Senior Staff job at the world’s largest photo agency that I helped grow for 10 years to become a freelancer to do my own thing and expand into other genres of photography. Balancing work/travel with being home with the family is always a challenge. Also, getting in a ski accident where I couldn’t walk or work for four months was a challenge physically and mentally as well. But to be truthfully getting over those challenges were as satisfying as the highlights!
What were you doing before you became a Photographer? I was always a student / athlete growing up, and competed mostly as a swimmer through high school and into college at UCLA. When I quit swimming because UCLA dropped its program because of Title IX, I had ALOT of extra time on my plate. I worked in local restaurants to make money and assisted photographers on the weekends. This is when my reality of what I wanted to major in and what direction I wanted to take for a career started to change…
If you weren’t a Photographer, what would you be doing? Working at McDonalds? When I was in high school I thought I wanted to be a doctor or surgeon as I loved biology and had a very steady hand from drawing. After a couple years at UCLA as a Biology major, what I thought I wanted to do drastically changed and I switched to fine art and design. I was mostly interested in painting and sculpture at the time and photography was in the background. But when I graduated I had a couple of job opportunities, one with Disney Studios as a background artist, one with a large sunglass company as a designer, and the other with a sports photography agency. I often wonder where I would be if I took the other two options…
What do you do when you get stuck? Go outside and workout
What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back 10 years? 20 years? Don’t be afraid to take more risks. Do more personal projects and stories.
What do you see yourself doing in five years? Hopefully doing what I’m doing now! I haven’t worked a day in my life because I love what I do and I don’t want to “retire” anytime soon because I’m already doing what I want to do!
Do you have a photography project or series that you are passionate about? Curious about what your peers and others think of it?
Join APA San Diego and the photo community for an in-person conversation to share your own work and/or to comment on the work of others. Five photographers will be selected to present and discuss their personal work or project in an in-person critique session.
Send us a link to your project for consideration. Submissions should be ready to share and present to an audience.
When: Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 6:00 PM PST
Where: 5343 Banks Street San Diego, CA 92110
Free and Open to All
Email director@apasd.org to reserve a spot or to submit your project. Deadline to submit is February 3rd, 2023
Meet Austin-based photographer, humanitarian and APA member, Jelisa Peterson
Photography and Human Communication: For more than two decades, Jelisa has focused on uniting her viewers with her photographic subjects by creating images that resonate the perfect example of love and inspiration.
Do you have a favorite podcast? Recently, the podcast I have most enjoyed is Serial by Adnan Syed.
Who are your top 5 favorites that you’re following on Instagram? @annabella_1008 @coblephotography @stig1964_ @sistersky55 @bulanbannari
What 3 words describe your photography style? Documentary, environmental portraiture, black and white
What do you listen to when you’re shooting? Children’s laughter
What inspires you? People who triumph over poverty and scarcity
What’s your favorite thing about being a photographer? The ability to travel, meet new people and experience different ways of living
When you aren’t making photographs, what other pastimes do you have? I read widely (fiction and nonfiction) and watch a lot of films.
Who were your biggest influences? Sebastião Salgado, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Sally Mann
What are the current challenges that you face as a photographer? My photography is physically and financially demanding, with travel to remote places. It is not getting easier with age.
What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your career so far? On a professional level, validation of my work as something of value in the photography community has been both a challenge and an incredible highlight as many pieces have been shown in a wide variety of venues. Next year will mark 30 years of this adventure, and I am finally getting broader exposure for this work that means so much to me. On a personal level, I love returning to the sites of my shoots and handing out personal photos to the individuals and families of the people I have photographed.
What were you doing before you became a Photographer? I was a university student majoring in Anthropology and Women’s Studies.
If you weren’t a Photographer, what would you be doing? If I hadn’t chosen photography I might have pursued a career in family law or related public service.
What do you do when you get stuck? I take a break. Clarity usually emerges over time, especially when doing film photography.
What is your best advice for your peers? I get a lot of messages from aspiring photographers looking for advice about how to proceed to build a career. I advise them to remain determined and to use their photography to share their vision and passion with the world.
What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back 10 years? 20 years? 1. Use sunscreen. 2. Don’t expect to be able to carry more than half your weight in your backpack and camera pack. 3. Don’t bathe in Lake Victoria
What is a photographer’s role now that technology has made it so much more accessible to the masses? To produce meaningful images of lasting value.
What do you see yourself doing in five years? I hope to publish the best of my work in book form that will inspire and contribute to the positive portrayal of the African communities I have been privileged to work with.
Time and Space: An Evening with photographer Dan Winters
The San Diego chapter of American Photographic Artists is proud to welcome back acclaimed photographer, Dan Winters, on January 12th, 2023 at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park.
Join us for a special one-night event including a photographic talk and presentation highlighting his work and stories from years spent behind the camera. The event will feature some of Dan’s aerospace photography and discuss his longtime fascination for this technically challenging work.
Doors open at 6 PM and the event will begin at 6:30 PM PDT
About Dan Winters
Dan Winters is widely recognized for his celebrity portraiture, scientific and aerospace photography, photojournalism, and illustrations. He has won over one hundred national and International awards from American Photography, Siena International Photo Awards, International Photography Awards, Communication Arts, the Society of Publication Designers, PDN, the Art Directors Club of New York, Life magazine and World Press Photo, among others. He was also awarded the prestigious Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography. He was honored by Kodak as a photo “Icon” in their biographical “Legends” series. Winters’ clients include National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, New York Magazine, TIME, Esquire, GQ, WIRED and Rolling Stone among others, as well as a host of advertising, music and entertainment clients. He has 5 published books and has had multiple solo exhibitions of his work in NYC, Los Angeles, Savannah, Siena, Italy and Madrid, Spain.
APA Members: $15 Students (with valid ID): $15 Non-Members: $25
Reserve your spot today click here! Tickets must be purchased in advance.
Not a Member? Our annual memberships start at $50! Join Now!
Clockwise from left: Rebecca Grant, Art Streiber, Dana Hursey
Thank you to everyone who entered Untitled 2022! Please join us to celebrate the artists at the one-night-only exhibition on Saturday, November 12th, 2022 at Bread & Salt Gallery in the Brick Room. The top three (3) images will be announced and awarded prizes. See all competition entries shown in a rotating slideshow, sip craft beer, and support the photo community. Our APA chapter will donate 20% of the contest entry proceeds to The Gordon Parks Foundation in support of their Arts & Social Justice Fund.
Thank You to our jurors: Katherine Ware, curator of photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art; Photography consultant and curator, Julie Grahame; and Photo editor, researcher and founder of the non-profit, Free Juice, Allison Retina Stewart.
When: Saturday, November 12th, 2022 6 – 9 PM
Where: Bread & Salt Gallery 1955 Julian Ave. San Diego, CA 92113
Deadline extended to Friday, October 14th, noon PDT!
Untitled is an annual competition and exhibition designed to showcase the best work of APA members and beyond – Images that show your unique vision, creative passion, and individualistic style, titled or untitled. This contest is open to all photographers at any level and there are no specific categories so submit the work that best represents you as a photographer. All entries will be curated by our jurors and the top 20 images will be selected to display for exhibition on November 12th, 2022 at Bread & Salt Gallery. The top three (3) photos will be awarded prizes.
We welcome this year’s jurors: Katherine Ware is a curator of photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art; Photography consultant and curator, Julie Grahame; and Photo editor, researcher and founder of the non-profit, Free Juice, Allison Retina Stewart.
We’re happy to support The Gordon Parks Foundation by donating 20% of the entry fees to their Arts & Social Justice Fund.
You can find full details and submission guidelines at untitledshow.org.
Deadline to enter extended to noon PDT on October 14th, 2022.
Meet Southern California-based photographer and member, Scott Lorenzen. “I hold onto the stream-wading, tadpole-collecting curiosity of my boyhood, and am driven by a desire to connect with and convey big feelings and big ideas.”
Do you have a favorite podcast? No, but I do listen to a lot of audiobooks.
Who are your top 5 favorites that you’re following on Instagram? @initiumphoto @lakeflato @andyandersonphoto @motzburger
What 3 words describe your photography style? Graphic, Emotive, Structured
What do you listen to when you’re shooting? Quiet
What’s your favorite thing about being a photographer? I love having control of my schedule, being able to work with the rhythm of my own creative cycles and being able to swing from brief domestic stints to big extended road trips, camping all over the country while driving to and from jobs with my dog. I love seeing the west and being out in it. I also like being independent; being self-employed feels more natural. Going from feast to famine, living close to the bone when necessary, and looking at my financial life like that of a farmer who know’s that any year may bring drought or locusts. It’s not easy being independent but the benefits of having that bit of liberty outweigh its costs, especially as a creative person.
Describe your daily or weekly work habits. (Pre-Covid and currently) When I am not on the road for work, I move between work-related marketing and admin tasks and going outside to build, fix, BBQ or just re-focus.
Who were your biggest influences? Growing up within sight of the Sierra Nevadas and a couple hours from Yosemite my original photographic influences came from landscape photographers like Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell; later on, architectural photographers, landscape painters and writers.
What was the best piece of advice you were given starting out? I don’t know that I have ever been ‘given’ any big advice. But one thing that motivated me to make the decision to do this for a living was realizing that professional photographers weren’t these super photographers, and that you didn’t need to attain ‘super photographer’ status in order to become one. Having the belief that the growth and development really happens after one becomes a photographer is what gave me a pathway into the field.
What are the current challenges that you face as a photographer? I think I am facing the same challenges as any photographer or artist- the ongoing challenge of connecting to the market while also trying to focus on creating.
What have been some of the highlights and challenges of your career so far? I would say that for me, the highlights have also been the challenges- the art of photography involves trade-offs and the practice of photography has also had its trade-offs. When it’s raining and I’m busy it’s great, but I tend to focus my all energy on one thing at a time and that means that the busier I get the less energy I am putting into the business of actually getting more work.
What were you doing before you became a Photographer? What wasn’t I doing!? When I look back on everything I did before finally going into this full-time it’s almost like I was coming up with anything I could to not be a photographer- even though that’s all I ever wanted to be. I have been a wildland firefighter, a restaurant worker, a laborer, a pre-law student, a graphic designer, a commodities trader, a real estate developer, a 7/11 cashier, a restoration project manager even an environmental analyst. All a waste of my time in one sense, and yet everything I else I have done has added a depth of perspective and value to my photography career.
If you weren’t a Photographer, what would you be doing? If I weren’t a photographer I would need to be involving myself in creating a living off the land or I’d just sit around sulking. I could never go back to something that wasn’t creative or something that was under someone else’s control.
What do you do when you get stuck? I don’t worry about it. It happens. If something isn’t turning me on I try not to sit on it, I just move to another interest and follow what’s giving me energy. The inspiration follows.
What is your best advice for your peers? I don’t know if I’m old and wise enough to answer that, but I guess I would say to just pursue whatever is motivating you and don’t get too attached to anything.
What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back 10 years? 20 years? I would tell myself to go for it, stop beating around the bush doing things you know that you don’t want to do.
What is a photographer’s role now that technology has made it so much more accessible to the masses? Technology and accessibility haven’t changed the photographers true role of visual story teller any more than cheap paint has changed the painter’s role or online publishing has changed that of the writer’s. Expression through visual communication is both innate and learned, there are always people who are doing it well and people who aren’t. If anything, technology and accessibility have just added a longer list of tasks to the job that take away from the creative experience side of being a professional photographer.
What do you see yourself doing in five years? In five years time I hope to be doing more or less what I am doing now, but for more clients with whom I have been nurturing mutually beneficial relationships that help us both grow creatively and financially.
APA | San Diego 