Images Ramblings

Close to perfection

This scene evolved outside our back door. From nest, to eggs, to chicks, to flapping wings, these baby hummingbirds showed me what a perfect world looks like. This was inspiring and funny to watch. With hours of video, here are some moments cut together for you.

Announcements Images The Horses Mouth

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Happily, it turns out that the Black and White Spider Awards nominated me for (3) of my images, not (2) as I first thought, from a field of over 8,500 international entries. Thanks Black and White Spider Awards! This release says it all. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER WM. STETZ FROM THE UNITED STATES LOS ANGELES (Oct 24, 2014) – Professional photographer Wm. Stetz of the United States was presented with the 9th Annual Black and White Spider Awards Nominee in the category of ‘Fine Art – Professional’ at a prestigious Nomination & Winners PhotoShow webcast Saturday, October 18, 2014. The live online gala was attended by photography fans around the globe who logged on to see the climax of the industry’s most important event for black and white photography. The awards international Jury included captains of the industry from The Royal Photographic Society, FoMu Fotomuseum, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Torch Gallery, Stockholm City Museum to Fratelli Alinari in Florence who honored Spider Fellows with 298 coveted title awards and 957 nominees in 14 categories. “It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 8,508 entries from 73 countries that we received this year,” said Basil O’Brien, the awards Creative Director. Wm. Stetz’s “Real Friends,” “Citybound 3” and “Lone Flute,” exceptional images entered in the ‘Fine Art – Professional’ category, represents black and white photography at its finest, and we’re pleased to present him with the title of Nominee.” You can view the 9th Annual Winners Gallery and Nominees (Fine Art – Professional) at www.thespiderawards.com/gallery/9th Search down the page in alphabetical order of first name ‘Wm. Stetz.’ BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in black and white photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in black and white photography. Contact: Bill Stetz

Images Reprint

Pictures on the Radio – William Stetz

  Pictures on the Radio An exhibition of pictures becomes a show of words on the airwaves.  All the views are of singular souls.  These are some of my portraits. Celebrities; non-celebrities;  nudes; a reclusive, reluctant neighbor; the long-gone endearing grandmother fretting over her grandson’s future; an atypical displaced street person; Clint, Spielberg; Frankenheimer; the ‘Knight Rider’ are all here gathered as if in a meeting of the United Nations or a secret club where no one gets expelled and all are brought together by the central character, the founder, or in this case the photographer, and for no other reason. December marks the beginning of my latest exhibition. Clint Eastwood is there with his characteristic squint, not under a blazing sun but under a skypan-filled soundstage of light.  His rich brown suit and red paisley tie are pressed and trim and he gazes uncharacteristically and comfortably toward my lens.  On assignment, and with so short a time I had with him, I never even finished a roll of 12.  But he is there, and it’s him and he is unmistakably Clint.  He was overly cordial and warm and curious about me rather than transfixed about himself.  We chatted less than one, or at most two minutes about photography as he warmed “me “ up and while conveying a story about Kenny Rogers’ passion for shooting and a “one-exposure” portrait he took of Clint.  And then I shot Mr. Eastwood and it was over.  He was on to another take on the set.  I walked the sides for a while with crewmembers sometimes noticing me and mostly not, and left for the parking lot and the traffic out in the streets. The shepherds are the most stately and formal of the show.  The shepherd in Mavrohi, backdropped by field and flock, peers cyclopean from under a wool cap.  His soft black cape is littered with small tufts of wool floated though the air onto him from his charge and a half-smoked cigarette dangles from his hand.  His staff is propped alongside.  Like a posing Napolean in the battlefield, he looks upon me as one of the troops. He pauses for me to do my deed.  I shoot once.  He doesn’t dodge the shot. The sun is setting behind and to the left and the overcast sky makes the perfect diffuser. Captured, unafraid, he moves back to his flock still dangling the ‘smoke’ at his waist. Shepherds are difficult to approach.  They see you coming. I want to catch them unaware, in a natural state of repose before they know that they are photographed.  In an open field, from a hundred yards away, with my picture-taker slung from my shoulder, I am an easy target. The shepherds choose to look, choose to act unperturbed,  or pretend not to notice, but all the same they know you are there and I know that they know I am there.  And seventy-five or so sheep know that I am there.  Consequently, I approach slowly, deliberately and with no sudden moves and get close enough to ask if I may take a shot.  Either by sign language or words not in my native language, I ask if I may take a photograph.  The Shephard near Polikarpi agrees by standing stout upright, his staff in his hand, at his side. And since I have not had time to approach for an intimate shot, the sight of him standing in a open field, in front of a lake, at attention for no one but me–and the sheep, compels the shot to be taken then.  It is the most formal, the most direct, straight-on and a most perpendicular shot of this show. I somehow get the impression that this man enjoys having his picture taken. Louise is an angel.  She is a lovely woman with innocence and a passion for life.  She is a positive charge in a negative-ion world.  She is impetuous, changeable and effusive. She is nurturing, comforting and loving. We spent the afternoon making love and lounging.  This makes me want to lounge now.  I want to lounge more than work or drive or pay bills.  So what’s new?  I don’t lounge enough. We bathed in the 100º-plus heat of desert-dry Palm Springs.  We’d soaked in the pool and would then bathe in the sun again.  The sun moved down on the mountains and the night and it was still close to 100º degrees Fahrenheit.  I shot Louise behind the Bougainvillea against the sunset and the orange trees and she looked as comfortable in that naked, high-heeled light as if she strolled that way everywhere everyday. I did my Bunny Yeager tribute shots of Lou at the palms behind the pool.  They were great!  Okay, admittedly she is my girlfiend, but in my professional opinion, I still think the shots are great. Bunny Yeager, for those that don’t know, was a lady photographer of pinups in the 1950s.  She was a pinup model herself and made her name as a photographer rather than a model.  She was a babe.  Anyway, as I shot Lou leaning against a palm, the creative juices started to flow.  I was intoxicated.  Louise did her glancing look, her naughty looks, her sunglass-summer on the Riviera looks, her direct into the lens ‘what are you going to do about it?’ looks and looks that come up from the soul of women who know how to look looks.  Entranced, impassioned, continuing to shoot, backing up to get a touch-wider view, my bare leg snagged into a cactus of ripe old age that lined the grounds.  I fell back, face skyward into the reality-stimulating barbs of painful life.  My camera as if propelled, flew from my hand in an arc of gentle projectory though the dry warm air. As if in slow motion, alongside the pool, it came to rest with a crunch and a tinkle lens-down onto the pebble rock concrete deck that forms the wraparound walk up to the pool

Ramblings The Horses Mouth Think about it

What a dRAg !!

Copyright?… RIGHT. Copyright infringement is about educating the dull-minded and the opportunist about the value of the work of others. As a shooter I have studied copyright law, heard it discussed and lectured, been on the ‘hurt side’ of organizations and individuals using my work uncredited and unpaid, been wrongly sued for copyright — and then reprieved. And now after launching this site, through my analytics of the page hits, now discover that my pictures may be enjoyed, but are also being downloaded indiscriminately from places all over the country and all over the world. And I know that because I installed a plugin called ‘Clicky’ to take a peak at how much traffic I was getting, to know if anyone was out there looking at this stuff, and then discovered that certain images were being downloaded and more than once from different locations. Not just viewed, but downloaded. This burns my ass. First, I was getting a little buzz from the way this site was coming together and now I am feeling that I have to be protective of my work by labeling and watermarking everything. Making it a little ugly, too, in the process. It occurs to me that some of my shots, which are labeled with known names may be picked off with ‘internet bots’ — automatic programs that “look” for stuff online — combing the net for materials that would be valuable to organizations or individuals, maybe there’s some high school students out there looking for last minute images to make their school report due in 5 hours time more complete and then there’s those more unscrupulous looking for images to pass off on a client as rented/licensed images, or worse, their own work. In any case, although the work is labeled now, it can be easily cropped and unlabeled again. People are going to steal if they really want to steal. But it’s so, so smarmy. My words to the wise. DON’T DO IT! Don’t take my work. Don’t take anyone else’s work. Do it yourself. OR ASK! ASK TO USE THE WORK. Or better yet, pay for it. OR OFFER TO PAY FOR IT. You out there? Say something. Others have said it before and more eloquently than me. Here’s one more note on the same theme… Stop stealing my sh*t!

Images Ramblings Recall

Soul Exposures

The Risk Press Gallery exhibited ‘Soul Exposures.’ This 2005 show was my first Melrose Avenue exhibition, produced sales and popularized the Athens portrait, “Stavros.” One of the ‘Stavros’ silver prints was sold strictly through the promotion of the exhibit before the doors ever opened. Comprised of personal and commissioned portraits of known and otherwise unknown persons, it was a glimpse into the persons and the relationship between the subject and the photographer.

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Images

Portraits

New gallery addition —Portraits. Follow this link to Gallery Portraits. I had a limited amount of time with him. I was assigned to take pictures of Clint Eastwood on Stage 21 of Sony Studios during the shooting of “In the Line of Fire.” Mr. Eastwood’s cool is evident. Upon meeting, in his friendly way, I had the sense as though he was interviewing me. While I hurriedly set up my Hasselblad, we chatted and he recounted a story about Kenny Rogers asking to take Clint’s portrait on his front porch, setting up his 4×5 camera, loading the film holder into the camera back and snapping ‘one shot.’ “Thanks, Clint,” and Kenny was gone. I found Clint Eastwood exceedingly pleasant and gracious. I was more liberal than Kenny Rogers in taking my shots, though. Given enough time, I would normally take 20 to 40 shots for a shoot like this. Of a roll of 12 exposures in my film magazine, I had time for ten. Therein is fixed the ‘Clint squint.’ Photo by © Wm. Stetz, December 17, 1992, Culver City, CA

Images Ramblings Think about it

Chicago (77 shootings)

I visited Chicago over the July 4th weekend. I experienced the best weather, friends and friendly people, good food, music and family in a reunion setting. The view from our room took in Navy Pier, the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Nothing could be sweeter. After I returned home, I heard this report: “There were 77 shootings in Chicago over the holiday weekend. 12 people have died.”

Images

Visitor

This little guy stopped by the studio yesterday to have a look. I looked back.

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Announcements Images

Books

In early June I completed publication of my book, “CHICAGO – IN FEW WORDS.” This hardcover, 12″x12″ lay-flat book is a limited edition of black & white photographs in and about Chicago, taken in the period from 1970 to 1990. Printed in very high quality on 80-pound cover paper stock, the 80-page book portrays the city of Chicago and its people as seen from the streets and through the eyes of a younger man. ‘Chicago – In Few Words’ is part whimsy, part documentary. This view of Chicago is of a recent past, before the internet, before autofocus digital cameras and Smartphones. The city is shown here caught off guard, in no hurry, waiting and moving to it own beat. — WS Take a look at some of the images included here.

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