Web sitemde de belirttiğim gibi, babam ilk kameramı aldığında 10 yaşındaydım. Gerisi  hikaye.  Bence Albert Einstein’in da dediği gibi hayalgücü bilgiden daha önemlidir. Ve ilk kameramla birlikte hayalalemi yaşamıma girdi. Bu dünyayı yeni ve farklı bir gözle görmekti. Ancak benim fotoğrafa aşık olmama neden olan karanlık oda deneyimidir. Gün ışığı odaya dolana kadar karanlık odada çalışmak büyüleyiciydi.

Ekipman olarak, 80'lerden bu yana EOS sisteminin tanıtımından sonra Canon  kullanıyorum. Canon 1Ds Mark 2 ve Canon 5 D kullandım. Mercek olarak tamamen Canon kullandım; 70-200 mm f2.8 IS, 16-35 mm f2.8, 24-105 mm f4 IS,  14mm 2.8, 15mm f2.8, 50mm macro, 300mm f4 ve her zaman 1.4 extender kullandım. Üçayaklarım Gitzo  karbon elyaf. Işığı arkaya alan reflektörlerle seyahat ediyorum çünkü flaşın görüntüye yaptığından hoşlanmıyorum. Seyahat sırasında ışıkları taşımak çok sıkıntılı,; ancak  stüdyoda ya da eve yakın mekanlarda Kino Flos kullanıyorum, bunlar gün ışığına yakın floresan ışıkları ve bunlar olmadan yaşayamam. Birçok stüdyoda çalıştım ve öğrencilerimi stüdyo ışıklarının karmaşasından korumaya çalıştım.

Dijital fotoğrafçılığı öğretmeye başladığımdan bu yana filmin ölmeye başladığını ve dijitalin sahnede olduğunu savunuyorum. Dijitalin filme karşı üstünlükleri tartışılmaz. Bir arkadaşımla yaptığım hesapta filmden dolayı 8.000 dolar tasarrufu olmuş. Bu dijitalin 50 avantajından sadece biri. 2001 yılından bu yana film kullanmadım ve hiç özlemedim. Film ve Karanlık odalarla büyüdüğüm için çok mutluyum, çünkü bu şekilde fotoğrafı gerçekten anlayabildim ve keşfettim. Ancak şimdi  hafıza kartları kullanarak, kameranın arkasında LCD ve Photoshop gibi bir yazılım kullanmak, fotoğrafı sonsuza kadar değiştirdi.

Ve ben değişimi seviyorum….

www.asa100.com

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As I wrote on my website, my father gave me my first camera when I was around 10 years old.  And the rest is history.  I tell people that Albert Einstein said that imagination was more important than knowledge…..and  my first camera let my imagination come to life.  It was a whole new way of seeing the world.  But what really made me fall in love with photography was my darkroom.  Working on your images with the safelights on till the sun came up outside was mesmerizing.  I could never spend too much time in the darkroom.

I grew up in and around the movie business because my father was the head of many movie studios including 20th Century Fox.  I was always on the movie sets watching movies and television shows being filmed and realized that I didn’t like motion pictures as much as still photography.  I  studied photography in high school and afterwards, assisted some of the best photographers in the world and have  wanted to be a photographer ever since that first camera.  Although I shoot so many people around the world, along with nature and wildlife too, what I really have wanted to do was be a stock photographer. 


I have tried hard to become one and am now with a few different agencies, including Corbis and Getty Images, the two largest stock agencies in the world.  Shooting stock photography is a tremendous amount of work because you are constantly setting up shoots around town and all around the world and are hoping that your agency will want to use the photos.  You never know for sure whether they will like what you have spent so much time working on. 

But what I love to shoot the most are people around the world.  Seeing the amazing faces in some of these far away countries takes your breath away at times.  Especially some of the children.  I absolutely love photographing kids from all over the planet.  The innocence that they project is addictive.  And they love the camera.  And now with digital, they can’t wait to see what they look like on the LCD screen.  But one of the things that is so disturbing when traveling and shooting is seeing the absolute horrible conditions that some people live in.  No money, no home, no medicine, no nothing… It is very tough for me to take at times.  Especially in SE Asia, which is pretty much my home away from home and favorite place on Earth to shoot.

I have always wanted to teach photography and now I teach three courses on digital photography and Photoshop at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles.  I also teach on the web at BetterPhoto.com, which is a great photography website.  I love sharing knowledge with others and that has been a highpoint in my career.

Teaching digital photography is very insightful to people , especially the ones that want to know the advantages of digital over film.  But the challenge of keeping up with all the latest knowledge and gear is sometimes overwhelming.  You spend a small fortune to get the camera you are dying for and then 2 weeks later the next model comes out.  That’s life now in the digital world.  It is similar with computers, which are also needed to work on your photos.  And keeping up with all the new things in Photoshop is a necessity.  If you really want your photos to be the best they can be, you need to really have an understanding of Photoshop, which is the premier software out there for photographers.

For equipment, I am a Canon shooter since the late 80’s when they introduced the EOS system. I use a Canon 1Ds Mark 2 and a Canon 5D. For lenses, they are all Canon and I use the 70-200mm f2.8 IS, the 16-35mm f2.8, the 24-105mm f4 IS, the 14mm 2.8, 15mm f2.8, 50mm macro, 300mm f4 and I also use a 1.4 extender.  My tripods are all Gitzo carbon fiber.  I always travel with reflectors for bouncing the light back where I need it because I don’t always like what a flash does to the scene.  Bringing lights while traveling is a big headache but in the studio or on location near home I use Pro Foto strobes which are my favorite and I also use Kino Flos, which are daylight balanced fluorescent  lights that I can’t live without.  I use different studios all over and take my students there to teach them the intricacies of studio lighting.

Since I teach digital photography, I am a huge believer that film is dying and digital is here to stay.  The advantages of digital over film are enormous.  I calculated out for my friend that the cost in film savings for him in a year would be over $8,000 US.  That is just one of over 50 advantages of shooting digitally.  I haven’t shot a roll of film since early 2001 and do not miss it at all.  I am happy that I grew up with film and a darkroom because I think it gave me a real understanding of what photography was and you had a great foundation to build on.  But now with using memory cards, having an LCD on the back of your camera and using software like Photoshop,  photography has changed forever.

And I love the change… 

Scott STULBERG 

www.asa100.com