08/05/10
Counting Down to Virb Phoot Camp!
Phoot Camp. A little over a year ago I was scribbling the words on to a piece of paper over lunch with Photojojo friends Amit Gupta and Jen Giese (fun friends to have in the neighborhood if you have a lot of hair brained photo ideas).
A month after that I managed to press send on a crazy email to 80 photographers, most of whom I’d never met in person, hoping that some of them would choose to fly to California and head out into the woods with me and a bunch of strangers. And then hitting refresh on the spreadsheet wondering if anyone would possibly say yes.
After what seemed like an eternity (less than an hour), Dan Busta sent the first response. Rather than “yes” or “no” he wrote “NEED”. Phew. One by one the spreadsheet filled in. When Kevin “lomokev” Meredith and Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek bought flights from Europe, I knew this would have the momentum it needed to come together. In the end, 20 people committed to attend.
October 9, the morning before the first Phoot Camp started, I threw the last of my supplies into the car and set off for China Camp State Park in Marin. And yelled, at the top of my lungs, with the windows down (oops) to blow off some of the anxiety of what I was getting myself into. Would one of these people murder us all in the woods? Would the park ranger kick us out? Would we all be homeless for the weekend?
In the end, everything went perfectly.
But I still wouldn’t have believed that this year I would have an awesome sponsor (yay Virb!), real digs (an amazing estate in LA complete with tennis court and pool), 10 new photo friends (picked from a talented pool of enthusiastic applicants), and nearly all the gang returning from last year.
Virb Phoot Camp 2010 is tomorrow. Deep breaths. Holy crap. Let’s do this.
08/12/10
Phoot Camp Afterglow
When planning the first Phoot Camp last year, I had a sense in my head of the magic. The energy in the air that would happen if I combined all those talented people, all those Internet friends who’d never met, all those like-minded strangers.
We had a great time, and got awfully close to what I’d imagined — and in some ways exceeded it. But this year, something took it to the next level.
Maybe it’s the fact that many of us are close friends still because of last year. Maybe it’s because we had about 10 more people. Maybe it was the pool, warm weather, and sunshine. Or maybe just a better understanding of what we were there to do.
In any case, I want to thank everyone involved (our sponsor Virb.com, my 27 campers, our location agent Nancy Rigoli who found us the gorgeous estate, the models and guests who dropped by for the open house, etc.) for making last weekend truly memorable and impactful.
Follow @phootcamp on Twitter or bookmark phootcamp.com for the photos and stories from the weekend! They should be up within a week or two.
“I know I’ve said it a million times before, but I feel like the luckiest person alive. I’m so glad to have met all of you. #phootcamp” -@danielslee
08/17/10
Check out Hey, Hot Shot! before the deadline!
Hey Pictory readers! I’ve missed you! (I skipped a showcase to run Phoot Camp.) I hope you’re looking forward to tomorrow’s Bodies of Water showcase, guest curated by Youngna Park.
For those of you looking for opportunities beyond these waters, Youngna is the lead on the Hey, Hot Shot! photography competition, open for entries through this Sunday, August 22nd at 8:00 p.m (EDT). Five photographers will be selected by their diverse panel (which includes Founder Jen Bekman, photographer Todd Hido, and Aperture Publisher Lesley A. Martin) for a group exhibition at Jen Bekman Gallery, a $500 honorarium, a $1000 book credit at the self-publishing company Blurb and the chance to release an edition on 20x200. Jen Bekman will select one of these five photographers as the Grand Prize winner and award this artist a $5,000 honorarium, solo exhibition and two years of representation from Jen Bekman Gallery. So how do you enter? The guidelines are simple: submit 5 photographs from a single body of work, using their online upload tool, with an entry fee of $80.
