B&h Photography Podcast

This week we recognize the 10th anniversary of the “Miracle on the Hudson.” On January 15, 2009, with both engines crippled, US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the icy waters of the Hudson River, with 155 people onboard. All passengers and crew survived. On this week’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we welcome photographer Stephen Mallon, who documented the recovery of the airplane from the river, and Denise Lockie, who was a passenger on Flight 1549. Stephen Mallon is that rare photographer who successfully blends editorial, documentary, commercial, and fine art photography, often in the same image. He is recognized for documenting large-scale industrial and marine projects, including the “The Reefing of USS Radford,” “Next Stop Atlantic,” and, of course, “Brace for Impact: The Salvage of Flight 1549.” His clients include the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Publicis, Sudler & Hennessey, and MAYTAG; and his series, “American Reclamation” is current

On this week’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we welcome two artists whose work blurs the lines between street photography, documentary, installation and digital art, while cultivating a contemporary interpretation of the art and craft of collage. Both artists utilize photography-based processes and take urban architecture and street scenes as their subject, but from there, the work goes in very different directions. Jennifer Williams creates large, often site-specific collages that inspect but distort the architectural scenes she documents. As she has stated, “The rectilinear shape that is the traditional photograph never fulfilled my desire to show everything in a space,” and that will be immediately clear upon seeing her work. Layering images of buildings upon one another, she creates angular and abstract collages while still providing a path for the viewer to connect the image she creates with the neighborhood or street that she photographed. Williams speaks about her process, including the

As a companion to last week’s end-of-year review episode, and as a way of kicking off the new year, we will discuss our own photographic new year’s resolutions and gear wish lists on today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast.  As our most ardent listeners know, Allan, Jason, and I have wildly different photographic styles and our gear bags reflect those styles. We will start by talking about the photo-related goals that we each have for the coming year. Perhaps inspired by some of the guests we have had on the show this year or our “What is Photography?” project, I have a couple of long-delayed projects I want to get back to, Jason is looking to continue his long-exposure work with urban cityscapes, and Allan is going to dig back into his film archive to digitize long-hidden gems. We will talk a bit about our current work and the techniques we want to improve this year and, after a short break, we will talk a bit about gear. Going around the table, we will discuss what we are currently shooting wit

It has been a fabulous year for the B&H Photography Podcast, with an incredibly diverse set of topics we discussed and guests we welcomed. The podcast team is very thankful to those who gave their time to talk about our shared passion, and to the listeners who join us every week, and those who chime in with comments and suggestions. Although today’s episode is looking back at our favorite moments from 2018, we also look forward to 2019 and improving the podcast: experimenting with our audio stylings, expanding engagement with listeners, offering more sweepstakes and, of course, continuing to bring wonderful guests to explore the worlds of photography. For today’s “clip show,” Jason, Allan, and I offer our own lists of best moments from the year’s episodes and then try to come up with a personal favorite. It’s not easy, but Allan settled on our recent episode with Jay Maisel and Stephen Wilkes. We include clips from this episode and few others, including my surprise favorite, “The Story Demands More,” w

On today’s show, we discuss a portrait and interview project that was created for B&H Explora, our online magazine and home base of the B&H Photography Podcast. The project is titled “What is Photography?” and, as the name suggests, we asked prominent members of the New York photo community—editors, artists, curators, technicians, and many photographers—for their definition of the medium. The responses are as varied as the individuals who participated, but it is the accompanying portraits, by photographer Cory Rice, that make this series so interesting.  Using a simple combination of elements—an Oliphant backdrop, a Hasselblad medium format digital camera, and the north light of the Highlight Studios, at Penumbra Foundation—Rice created a stylistically uniform body of work that depicts his subjects with an honesty that reflects the community-building nature of the series and also hints at their unique relationship with photography. The subjects include Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographers, editors

It is that time of year, when we chat about the cameras that have been announced in 2018 and toss in some commentary by our in-house experts. We also make time for our favorite new lenses and a few accessories and miscellaneous pieces of gear. At the end of the show, we’ll go around the room and offer our thoughts on each of our favorite cameras from this year. While we already touched upon the new Canon and Nikon mirrorless full-frame cameras in a previous episode, we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge these big announcements at the top of the show. Other than these long-awaited announcements, 2018 was a comparatively quiet year for other manufacturers. Sony announced the Alpha a7 III Mirrorless full-frame camera at the beginning of the year, and both the RX100 VA and the RX100 VI; Zeiss has everyone curious about its full-frame ZX1 Digital Camera. Leica put out the Leica Q-P Digital Camera along with M10-D.  Fujifilm bookended its year with two big announcements, the Fujifilm X-H1 in Februar

In 1958, Art Kane, already a successful art director looking to jump-start his photography career, pitched the idea of a “class photo” for Vogue magazine’s annual jazz edition. In addition to individual photographs of jazz legends, he proposed a group portrait of musicians gathered on a stoop, in Harlem.  For music and photography aficionados, the photo, now commonly referred to as “A Great Day in Harlem,” is an iconic image, and on today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast we speak with Jonathan Kane—Art Kane’s son and an accomplished musician and photographer in his own right—about the creation and impact of this photograph. We also discuss the new book, Art Kane. Harlem 1958 - 60th Anniversary Edition, which provides context for the image's creation and never-before published outtakes. In the second half of the show, we welcome contemporary jazz photographer Clara Pereira, who is one-half of the team behind the blog Jazztrail.net. Pereira speaks on the nuts and bolts of jazz photography, includin

On this week’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we welcome photographer Rick McGinnis and curator Julie Grahame, to discuss blogging and archiving. While this is certainly a broad subject, we will focus on the work of our two guests while considering how best to keep your collection of photos vibrant and valuable. Rick McGinnis is a veteran portrait, editorial, and travel photographer based in Toronto. Most of his assignments and self-assignments had been for local newspapers and magazines and, when this professional landscape changed and motivation was lacking, he almost got out of the business entirely. With a little encouragement, he began to explore the many images he had shot over the previous twenty years—some he had never even viewed—despite being gorgeous portraits of well-known musicians, actors, and artists. The result of this deep dig was a blog he simply called someoldpicturesitook. The blog proved to be an avenue not only into his past, but to his future, because images never seen were

Today we welcome two of professional basketball’s best photographers, and that’s not just me talking.  Nat Butler is Senior Photographer for NBA Entertainment and has worked the last thirty-three NBA Finals. He is also the official photographer for the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. Andrew Bernstein is the longest-tenured official NBA photographer, the photographer for the L.A. Lakers and L.A. Clippers, a recent inductee to the NBA Hall of Fame, and the photographer of the new book, The Mamba Mentality, by Kobe Bryant. So, enough of the bona fides, these two photographers are also great friends, and they bring their easy-going banter and the ultimate insider’s perspective to the B&H Photography Podcast. Our conversation covers a wide range of topics, from the gear they use (and what they don’t), the lighting systems they’ve developed, the intimacy of basketball photography compared to other sports, and how fashion and social media has affected their day-to-day work. We also dig into the shooting stra

We tried something new for this episode of the B&H Photography Podcast—we ventured into the B&H SuperStore to interview camera shoppers, fans of the podcast, and attendees of the Panasonic Lumix Day Event. We coordinated with our marketing team and organized a sweepstakes to give away a Lumix DMC-GX85 Mirrorless camera with a 12-32mm lens and a 45-150mm lens. We became acquainted with our audience a bit better by asking people two simple questions and chatting with them about photography. The first question was: “Which is the favorite photo you have ever taken?” and the second question was, “How would winning a GX85 change your photography?” The answers were as varied and entertaining as one would expect, and we include several of these short conversations in this episode. When we finished our recordings, we randomly picked a winner of the sweepstakes, and the winner will also be announced toward the end of the show. Because we were recording as part of the Lumix Day event, several interesting photo

When we finished recording this episode, Jay Maisel asked us which podcast episode was our favorite. It didn’t take Allan a second to answer, “This one!” While we have almost one-hundred and fifty to choose from, there is no doubt that this week’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast is very memorable.  Once we turned the mics on, nobody wanted this conversation to end and, indeed, it runs longer than 80 minutes, but it is worth every minute. When listening to Jay Maisel and Stephen Wilkes talk, time doesn’t fly—it soars. The reason we have two such remarkable photographers and long-time associates on together is because this weekend, at the DOC NYC Film Festival, Wilkes is premiering his documentary about Maisel, called Jay Myself. We sat with Maisel and Wilkes to discuss the making of the film and their personal and professional relationship that has lasted for almost 40 years. At the heart of the film is Maisel’s former residence and studio, the six-story, 30,000 square-foot Germania Bank building t

When you think of an image from your favorite movie, what comes to mind? Is it a well-edited sequence, a dramatic crescendo, or perhaps simply a static photo, maybe even the poster art itself? If it is a static image, chances are it’s a photo taken by an on-set “still” photographer. On today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we discuss this craft with two photographers who make their living as still photographers, working on location and in-studio on television and film productions alongside the camera assistants, boom operators, grips, DPs and myriad crew members, who make the movie magic. Joining us are JoJo Whilden, a fine art and still photographer who has worked on numerous films, including Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter and television series such as Orange Is the New Black, and Homeland. Her clients include HBO, Netflix, CBS, Sony, and Killer Films. She is the 2018 recipient of The Society of Camera Operators Lifetime Achievement Award in Still Photography. Also joining us in the s

Can you imagine a better perspective? On today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we welcome two shooting buddies who, perhaps not so coincidentally, happen to be talented and inspirational landscape photographers. Ryan Dyar and Miles Morgan are both well recognized for their gorgeous “land-based” landscape photography and post-production skills, but over the past few years, both have incorporated drone photography into their workflow. Our show today is a discussion of their aesthetic approach, and of the techniques and gear Dyar and Morgan use to make their stylized landscape images with the DJI Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro 2, and Phantom 4 Pro drones.   The topics we discuss are the differences between aerial photography and drone photography (Morgan is also a pilot) and, of course, composing from a tripod as opposed to a monitor image relayed from a few hundred feet in the air. We also talk about camera settings, long-exposure photography, drone choices, flying techniques, how to handle inclement we

On this week's B&H Photography Podcast we dig deep into the vault for one of our most successful early episodes.  In less than an hour, this podcast will teach you everything you need to know about night photography. Seriously. While our show is not a tutorial, the conversation is so broad and so deep; it touches upon every aspect of the craft. Guests Gabriel Biderman and Todd Vorenkamp blanket this subject with an engaging and humorous tone—from the psychological predisposition common to night shooters and the science of rods and cones to cameras, gear, apps and a recipe for creating images of star trails. This is truly an episode for all levels of shutterbugs seeking to explore or master image making at night. Well done guys! Click here for more info on all the gear you need for night photography.   Guests: Gabriel Biderman and Todd Vorenkamp **We are presenting  this episode as a response to listener requests...and it also allows us the time to prepare our next few episodes, which look to be incredib

On this week’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we get the old band back together for one more gig. Joining us are Explora writers and podcast veterans Todd Vorenkamp and Shawn Steiner. They are not on the show just because we like them so much, but also because they are experts on camera gear and have written up most of the camera news from photokina 2018. In addition, we welcome Dana Glidden, the B&H social media manager, to join us. Glidden attended this year’s camera trade fair, which was held from September 26-29, 2018, in Cologne, Germany. We start the episode with Glidden, who provides an overview of the biggest, and perhaps most important camera expo on the planet, and then we go to Steiner and Vorenkamp to fill us in on the most impressive of the cameras, lenses, and other gear announced at this year’s show. Although announced before photokina, the Canon EOS R and the Nikon Z6 and Z7 mirrorless full-frame cameras were still the biggest draw at the convention. The Zeiss ZX1 Digita

Under starry skies, we took our recorders and headphones to a collection of shipping containers in Brooklyn, known as Photoville 2018 and Photoville did not disappoint—what a wonderful collection of photo exhibits. The exhibits span the breadth photography, but with an overarching theme rooted firmly in documentary and social justice photography. Many shows were sponsored—by the U.S. Marines, by magazines, universities, or collectives; others were curated by New York Public School children, and another by the New York Municipal Archives. As in years past, it was a wonderful, perspective-expanding experience run by people who love photography. We chatted with organizers and photographers from a handful of the exhibitions. First on today’s B&H Photography Podcast, we speak with Michael Lorenzini, from the Municipal Archives of the NYC Department of Records. Lorenzini, along with co-curator Matthew Minor, organized the exhibit “NYC Work and Working,” a beautiful selection of images from the collection of

The oft-quoted line paraphrased for our headline, and notably used in reference to Oskar Schindler and Chiune Sugihara, can also be applied to industrialist and Leica camera manufacturer Ernst Leitz II, who used his influence to help many Jews and other subjugated people avoid persecution, maintain their jobs, or even escape Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. Like any story drawn from a terrible era of oppression, heroes are painted with shades of gray, and humanitarianism can be found in small gestures, but historian Frank Dabba Smith creates a narrative derived from primary source research. Our second guest, photographer Jill Enfield, recounts her family’s direct relationship with this chapter of Jewish, German, American, and photographic history. Join us for this engaging conversation. Guests: Frank Dabba Smith and Jill Enfield   This is an encore episode, first published in November, 2015.  It was an early episode for us but a subject we always thought was worth revisiting.  For further images, visit the

This year marks the anniversary of the shooting date of two iconic photographs, taken at the same location, forty years apart. In 1958, Art Kane created the image that has come to be known as “A Great Day in Harlem.” The photo presented fifty-seven of the world’s greatest jazz musicians gathered on a stoop on East 126th Street, in Harlem, New York City. Over time, this photo has become legendary: a movie was made about it, and many recreations have been staged around the world, but none as interesting as the photo that was made by the great Gordon Parks, on September 29, 1998, on the same stoop. On that day, organized by the editors of XXL Magazine, almost two-hundred hip-hop artists gathered to be part of a photograph that was called “The Greatest Day in Hip-Hop.”  With the 20th anniversary of the 1998 photo approaching, on today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast we will discuss the making of that image. We speak with two of the people responsible for producing the photo: the editor-in-chief of X

On today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, we speak with the winners of our two 2018 sweepstakes. During the first part of our show, we meet the winners of our Fujifilm X-H1 Sweepstakes, get to know a little about their photography, and hear their early opinions of the Fujifilm X-H1 and Fujifilm X-E3 cameras. After a short break, we will catch up with the winners of our Canon 5D Mark IV Sweepstakes, which took place in January, 2018. We join New York resident Nalane Singh, who won the Fujifilm X-E3 and Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 lens, to speak about her early impressions of the camera and her plans to use it to advance her street photography. We also speak with the grand-prize winner, Californian  Brian Duckart, who received the Fujifilm X-H1 mirrorless camera with the FUJINON XF 35mm f/2 lens. He, too, lets us know the work he expects to do with his new camera and how it has been performing since he’s had it. In the second half of our show, we catch up with the photographers who won cameras in our

We had planned a different podcast for this week, but when news broke that Nikon and Canon had announced new full-frame mirrorless camera systems, we reserved studio time and recorded an episode to provide just the basics on what we know about these new sets of cameras and lenses. Rumors on when (or if) these two companies were going to bring full-frame mirrorless cameras to market have been on-going for years, and the day has finally arrived. While we don’t have much more information on these cameras than the general public has, we were able to have some hands-on experience with pre-production models for just a few minutes and that, combined with a thorough look at the specs, will enable us to offer a conversation that we hope our listeners will appreciate. The Canon EOS R Mirrorless camera was announced with four RF lenses and three unique adapters for EF lenses—and there is a lot to unwrap when talking about this new system. We ramble through a loose conversation on the camera system, but I encourage you