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» Wednesday Artist Interview: Jason Anderson

The Wednesday Artist Interviews have been on a slight hold for a while. It’s just a bit hard to find new people for every week. This week we have Jason Anderson stopping by doing an interview and sharing some of his thoughts!

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Jason Anderson and I fairly recently rediscovered photography (about 4 years ago) after a brief stint in my youth.  With a career in Information Technology, part of my evolving set of skills has begun to include web design and administration.  After several years of this, I thought that it might be fun to return to photography and use the shots as graphics on web designs.  After several trial versions with slow digital point-and-shoots, I ultimately ponied up and got into the SLR bracket. The rest, as they say, is history.

» Wednesday Artist Interview: Phil Dawson

This week I have the fortune to be able to post the interview with the talented photographer Phil Dawson. Phil is a photographer with a base in shooting portraits, weddings and events and he does that really good as you see from the photos here It’s a really good interview so do continue to read it!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

As a Photographer, my areas of commisioned work covers sports and anything with people, from Social Events to Weddings, I really have a strong passion for Wedding and Portraiture. My style is starting lean strongly towards contemporary wedding photography.  Though nothing can be quite as relaxing as sitting waiting for the sun set/rise with a camera.

Do you have any formal training/what is your background in art?

I don’t have any formal qualifcations, and I would advise anybody wanting to work as a professional, that they study business and accounting, and study photography in your personal time.  Photography is a skill that you show not through a certificate but through your portfolio.  I started in photography assisting my brother shooting weddings and portraits, like many others, just carrying bags.

» Artist Interview: Erik Ludloff

This week the interview is with a fellow Erik, Erik Ludloff. Erik’s a freelance designer and digital artist based out of California, USA. He’s got a strong portfolio and he’s a really good guy as well!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Erik and I’ve been a freelance designer and digital artist for about 18 years. Music has always been a big artistic influence for me. I started off as a wanna-be graffiti artist, but had a much better feel for pencil and paper than a spray can. I didn’t make the transition to wall art very well. I have always been a computer geek so I bought a scanner and CorelDRAW for my computer. I’d scan in my sketches and print out multiple copies, then hand color them with my Prismacolors.

In college I studied page layout and typography and began designing flyers for my friends’ bands to promote their upcoming shows. Eventually I started charging them to design cassette sleeves, album covers, and other band merchandise including logos, t-shirts, etc. After about a year, word spread around the local music scene and my foot was firmly in the design door. I saved up my design money and bought Photoshop. (Not because I didn’t like Corel, but just because all the print shops I worked with at the time told me I needed to switch.) It was a love/hate relationship at first, but now Photoshop and I are good friends.

Playing in Photoshop is one of my favorite ways to spend my free time. I really enjoy photo collages, combining multiple images into a single piece of art. I’m not much of a photographer so I mainly use stock photos to play with. Occasionally I’ll incorporate one of my own photos and that’s always a big kick for me. I find myself taking photos of things just so I can use part of it in a collage later. Photoshop is such a powerful tool that I’m truly limited only by my imagination.

Do you have any formal training/what is your background in art?

My training has been mostly informal. I took a few college courses on advertising and design. It was great to get a solid foundation of the basics: color theory, typography, page layout, etc. I also read a lot of books, so I consider myself book-taught rather than self-taught. I’ve looked at tons of Photoshop tutorials online. It’s amazing the wealth of information available out there. NAPP has probably been the greatest learning tool for me recently.

» Wednesday Artist Interview with Will King

There was a while ago that I used to be running these artist interviews pretty often but it slowed down a bit a short while ago because it’s been hard finding people that want to be interviewed. Nominated however by a friend of mine, Elizabeth was this time around the great photographer, Will King (who by the way nominated another person you’ll perhaps see next week) who shoots some really great photography. Now, Will is one of these cool photographers that masters a lot of areas. He shoots very nice landscapes and yet he captures some truly great wildlife photos. Anyway, enough with the intro talk and let’s get right to it!

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m a husband and a father of one boy. My daytime job is a Network Security Analyst. I’ve been an avid photographer for about three years and have been using Photoshop for about two years now. I love and respect all genres of photography. My favorite subjects to shoot are landscapes and seascapes with dramatic light.

Do you have any formal training/what is your background in art?

I have no formal training in photography or art. I study the works of others and ask a lot questions. I have read several photography and Photoshop books and of course I’m a NAPP member which has been extremely beneficial.

» The deal about Copyright, Model Releases and Public Shooting

There are a lot of discussions going on always about what you can do and can’t do when it comes to legal issues and photography. As Ed says in the interview, photographers have a trend to ask other photographers to get a simple solution to the problems. Well, most of them aren’t true and most times don’t apply to the situations as you think. Scott Kelby however took a little different approach and asked Intellectual Property Attorney, Ed Greenberg to come on as a call-in guest on Photoshop User TV which is airing next week. Scott posted the clips of the interview yesterday on his blog however. In the interview, Ed clears up the major things about Copyright, Model Releases and Public Shooting.

• Listen to the Interview

» Monday Interview: Dave Seeram/PhotographyBB

  

It’s a new Monday again with a full week of work ahead of us. Now that is always a good time to ponder into the minds of a fellow artist a bit. This week we have Dave Seeram, photographer and graphic artist who is running the free online magazine, PhotographyBB!

» Interview with Elizabeth Gast

 Here comes another weeks interview with a really cool person. Today I have the privilege to interview the amazing Photoshop artist, Elizabeth Gast. She’s a really talented artist who’s background lies in digital art and also a member of NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, where she herself says that she’s learned more than ever. Read the full interview after the jump!

» Artist Interview: James Quantz Jr.

It is monday which basically means following up the artist interviews we started last week! Just week we have an interview with extremely talented artist, James Quantz Jr. who is a master in his own creative field producing pretty unique photos.

Tell us a litte bit about yourself?

I’m a commercial photographer living in Columbia, SC USA.  I started more in the Fine Art area using a 4×5 to produce black and white prints for clients.  In the past year or so I have gravitated severely (you might say) to the digital end of the spectrum and creating more of a photo illustrative style imagery.

Do you have any formal training/what is your background in art?

As far as formal training is concerned, I did attend Portfolio Center in Atlanta for a few years.  Major aspects of that stint were learning studio lighting and styling.  From there I studied in the western US with two of Ansel Adams’ former assistants, John Sexton and Alan Ross.  With them I was introduced the the magical, interpretive lighting of the landscape using the zone system. Also image manipulation done the old fashioned way by dodging and burning in the darkroom.  Since then, I have basically self taught myself with the help of books, dvds, and a few seminars here and there.

What equipment do you use?

Currently I use all Nikon equipment(as my 4×5’s are busy collecting dust).  More specifically a D300 which I prefer because of the size and ease of use.  The image files from this camera are really amazing!  I do like to stress that as long as you have something functional it is not the equipment that makes the photographer or the photograph.  Some people really waste a lot of time on the "which brand is better" debate when they could be bettering themselves by just creating imagery.  I capture in RAW for the most part and use Apple computers.

Who is your biggest influence? Why?

I really couldn’t single out one big influence except my own imagination.  It is influenced, however, by everything!  Books, movies, tv shows, theater, art, photography, etc. can be used as an influence for imagery.  That is what I find so magical about using a tool like Photoshop.  As long as you open your creativity to the world around you there are really no boundaries to what can be created.  

Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?

Any advice would be directly related to what I stated before about creating imagery.  In order to be proficient doing so, you need to have control of the tools.  Be it the camera, lighting, or processing you need to do your best to learn as much as you can so you can execute your vision.  A musician needs to know how to play his instrument before he can create music and the same applies to photography.  The more you learn and practice the better you will become.

Do you have anything else you want to say?

Nothing else to say - I’ve got some images to create!

• Visit James Quantz Jr. Portfolio

» Interview with Lisa Sage

This is a new series featuring a couple of interviews with some really cool artists to get to know the person behind and perhaps pick up a few tips and tricks. First out in the series is the very very talented digital painter, Lisa Sage. She does some of the most beautiful drawing work I’ve ever seen and I’m proud to have her here with the interview.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, I grew up in Ohio. In a very industrial, blue collar area on the East side of Cleveland. I think that’s why I so completely love color!! I’ve had more than enough dingy, grit.

Do you have any formal training/what’s your background in art?

I pretty lucky in that respect. With all the industry in our town we had a very well funded school system. The art department was no exception.

What equipment do you use?

I have a 2.5 GHz Dual core power pc G5 with 6 GB of RAM, an Apple 30" cinema display, a Wacom Graphire and a Logitech NuLOOQ to make up for chintzing out on the Wacom:) I didn’t know if I’d like the tablet so I bought the older model at a super good price. Not the smartest decision in the long run though.

Who is your biggest influence? Why?

I’ve always been a huge Escher fan but artistically I think the bucolic feel of Currier and Ives’ probably had more of an impact.

Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?

Spend more time really looking at the world around you. Pay close attention to light, reflections and shadows.

• Visit Sage Family Studios