Kingofthehill
Hi guys! I'd like to offer my apologies for the delayed response; I had answered these some time ago, but left town for the weekend, only to forget the send them in upon returning.
Anyways,
Here's the questions:
What are you shooting with and what would you like to shoot with?
I shoot with a Canon 40D, and 2 lenses: the 17-40mm f/4L, and 85mm f/1.8, with both being Canon. Generally speaking, I'm quite happy with the results from this set-up, though I'd definitely like to get my hands on a 5D Mk.II; shoots wider, offers better depth of field, and nighttime performance, is far more robust. And of course, I’d eventually like to swap my 85mm for a 135mm f/2.0L. That said, I'm not complaining…not yet, anyways. I'm just now learning to fully master this several-trick pony.
Talk about your inspirations and influences.
While I don’t have many influences or inspirations in the form of “real-life” photographers (i.e, well-known and celebrated ones), I do find plenty of inspiration from my photographer friends on Flickr and my hometown and city of Los Angeles, of which serves as a canvass of sort for my meanderings. I do a lot of reading, so I think that gives me a mental context and image of what I want and don’t want to shoot.
Where have you not been that you want to photograph?
Everywhere! With the exception of dangerous places such as Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and places hostile to photographers, like Eritrea, I’d like to try and see as many places as possible. Unsurprisingly, there are some that I want to see more than others and among those are: My European “3” of Berlin, London, and Paris (of which will try and visit this summer); Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Colombia, blah blah, etc. This might be a bad question, since I could probably go on forever about the places I’d like to visit, haha. On the domestic front, I’d like to make it out to Philly and Montréal sometime in the near future.
Talk about your most popular (in your opinion) photothreads.
Aww, man. There’s been a couple. The “Keeping it real in LA” series has been a huge success, as it being on its 10th installment will vouch. Additionally, the threads comprised of my photos from my most recent vacations (Buenos Aires, Chicago, NYC, and Peru) all have been fairly popular. Based on my observations, people seem to be most intrigued by my people shots. Don’t know why that’s the case, but it certainly shows through in comments in my threads. Personally, I try to keep my photographs "fair and balanced" (ha!), by incorporating not only architecture, people, and the streets, but including elements of my personal life, such as food and friends.
Talk about your photothreads that didn't get the response you wanted.
Really, aside from maybe some old threads (i.e a few years ago), I’m quite happy with the overall reception and response I’ve gotten on my numerous photo threads. The majority of my recent threads seem to have in excess of 3 pages and average several thousand views. Although my most recent threads have been rather disappointing in terms of responses, but I think that’s site-wide; there must been a downturn of sorts going on. However, I did think my Lima thread would get more responses, if only because of its relative obscurity and splendid architecture. Sadly, there does still seem to be a bias held towards non-American city threads.
Any tips or personal wisdom you'd like to pass on to others?
I’d just like for people to concentrate on what they do best, instead of trying to please everybody by doing little bit of everything. By doing that, you ultimately end up not being particularly strong in any one area. Also, don’t let people discourage or tell you not to keep doing what it is that pleases you. Lastly, I wish people would stop being so damn hard on themselves. It’s not at cool, and you’ll be sure to have plenty of people who will dislike your work (out of jealous/contempt) regardless.
Who should we ask these questions of next?
Sabotai. He definitely has the “eye,” and is one of the few people I know who can simultaneously pull off people AND architecture shots. I know from in-person that to some extent, my work was initially influential, but now he really seems to have hit the ground running with his unique style.