Photographer Inteviews, Portrait, Commercial, Editorial Photogrpahy and Photographic Art - Colours Magazine

Egypt / Lebanon Montage by Khalid Mohtaseb

Zeeshan Kazmi — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:03:32 +0000

Egypt / Lebanon Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

This is a montage of footage a few friends and shot for a Documentary during the summer/fall of 2009.

The documentary was shot entirely on the canon 5D MKll in and around Cairo and Beirut. Big ups to Magic Lanterns Firmware update, as well as the Kessler Pocket Dolly for being a huge help in making this happen.

Music: Nikos – Secret Love

Editing/ Color Grading- Khalid Mohtaseb

If you have any questions/ comments get in touch with Khalit at khalid@nextlevelpictures.com

Haiti Earthquake Aftermath Montage by Khalid Mohtaseb

Zeeshan Kazmi — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:36:57 +0000

Haiti Earthquake Aftermath Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

A week after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, I was hired to shoot ENG footage for two international networks. This is a montage of personal footage I shot of the aftermath during my spare time, in and around Port au Prince. We were in Haiti for a total of 6 days in which 2 of those days were spent traveling to and from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Due to the situation on the ground, all the footage was shot in 2 days, under direct sunlight and a great deal of pressure. As demanding as it was, it taught me how to pick shots on the fly, and in “not so perfect” lighting or shooting conditions.

In regards to equipment, we traveled very lightly as security and logistics were our main concerns at that time. Once again the Kessler Pocket Dolly proved to be an essential tool in capturing my images.

Lenses used:
Canon 16-35 f2.8 L-series
Canon 70-200 f2.8 L-series
Canon 24-70 f2.8 L-series

Locations: Port au Prince, Leogane, Carrefour
Producer: Susan Modaress
Music: Eric Wollo wollo.com
Editing/ Color grading: Khalid Mohtaseb

If you have any questions/ comments feel free to post them or email me at khalid@nextlevelpictures.com

15 photographs, celebrating the emotions of life

Zeeshan Kazmi — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:03:11 +0000

We are nearing the end of February. A month marked by Valentine’s day, a day marked by show of emotions of love and caring by people all over the world. To mark the end of month we present a collection of photographs, that in their own way try to depict human emotions and feelings in their different forms, from love to anger, from sorrow to hatred, all a mark of human expression.

The photos are as link back to the artist’s galleries and if you particularly like someone’s work you can directly visit their website to have a look at more of their wrok. Also if you like the article why not leave a comment and let us know, perhaps you would like to share your work with the readers of Colours Magazine. Thanks and have a nice week.

Sponsorship Experiment Part -2

Zeeshan Kazmi — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:05:29 +0000

For those who have not read the original post here is the link to it, I recommend that you read it before going any further:
The Sponsorship Experiment

As I mentioned before that this year I am going to try and actively get some sponsorship for Colours Magazine. So the original post above was intended as a show of intention that I am going to start working towards this goal and also to inform the readers of Colours Magazine that they would be seeing some advertisements along with the content which uptill now was advertisement free.

Honestly speaking I didn’t get a great response to the original post, I wasn’t expecting much but I would have been lying if I said that I wasn’t secretly hoping if some great opportunities for getting sponsorships for the website came out of it. But then things don’t go so easily and smooth in the real world. Since I am pretty new to this advertising thing I am going to try and experiment with several different means to try and get advertisement/sponsorship for the blog. Some will work and some will obviously not.

So here is a shout out to all the readers, let me know what your experiences are on this front? What worked for you and what would you recommend for Colours Magazine or me to pursue. In this day and age when being a photographer who likes to actively display his/her work regularly is quite close to having a blog, blogs being the tool of choice to dispay such work, getting sponsorship for such websites could be very relavant topic for the readers of Colours Magazine, or would it? I personally think that this would make for an interesting topic to pursue for photographers as having a good commerical and financial knowledge in today’s world is essential and especially when everything is happening online it becomes quite relevant. But that is my opinion.

So why don’t you guys let me know what you think of how should I be with pursuing with the sponsorship efforts, what are your thoughts and opinions on this? Also let me know would you like to regularly read about the progress on this blog?

Hoping to hear from you…

Big Smoke People

Zeeshan Kazmi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:12:16 +0000

The following project was submitted by Billy MacRae, a reader of Colours Magazine.

About the project

The seed of inspiration for this project comes from a fascination with urban space. For a long time I thought I wanted to be an architect… then eventually I realised that for me the interesting thing is not the creation of an urban space, but the act of documenting it, and the way people interact within it.

‘Big Smoke People’ is the product of three years prowling the British capital’s streets, in an almost obsessive attempt to do justice to the beautiful, absurd nature of modern British life.

Technical Information

The whole project was shot on Canon + Nikon digital cameras. I used mostly wide angle lenses, no tripods, and lots of luck.

More about the artist

You can see more of Billy’s work on:
Billy’s Website
email Billy: Billy.macrae.online@gmail.com

The Sponsorship Experiment

Zeeshan Kazmi — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:59:02 +0000

So we are well into the new year and if you are like me then you would be struggling to get out of the January blues as well, more so if like me you are already seeing your New Year’s resolutions disappear like the melting polar caps. One of the resolutions that I am going to try and keep up with is Colours Magazine and part of that is to bring on more guest writers and have someone people sponsoring this website.

So this is the official start of the sponsorship experiment. I really don’t want to go down the route of Google Adsense if I can help it, there is something with the way the ads are displayed, it just doesn’t sit well with me. So I am going to open up the sponsorship of the website to my readers and see if anyone out there is interested.

So to give some stats. According to Feedburner, Colours Magazine has more than 1740 Rss subscribers, it has a Google Page Rank of 4. Most of it’s visitors come from UK and USA, though several other European countries also send in a fair amount of visitors, currently France is sitting on top of the traffic chart, last month it was Spain, I am not sure exactly how Spain lost it’s place and France came up, but hey these are the mysteries of life. My focus with Colours Magazine has always been to provide interesting and inspirational stuff for upcoming photographers, this year I am going to work more on that and will try to get more targeted content for that demographic.

Here are the current options for displaying ads:
1. I am going to displaying graphical ads on the sidebar, take a look at the crrent side bar, the advertisements will have a look similar to the images currently in the sidebar. I could also display two images together if you are interested in displaying smaller images.

2. Second option is to have a single advertisement within the post, something similar to what Smashing Magazine does.

3. Third option is to have a banner at the top of the website.

4. Something in your mind that I have not mentioned here? Let’s discss.

What info I need from you

To be honest I really don’t care if your business or blog or company is small or big. As long as you have got something useful to offer to the readers of Colours Magazine then I would be interested in hearing from you. I am pretty new to this so tell me what your requirements are and let’s talk.

If you are interested then please email me editor(at)coloursmag.com with the following information:
1. Give me some information about your product/business/comany/blog. A paragraph worth of information would be enough and tell me what is exciting about what you do and how would it be good for Colours Magazine’s readers.

2. URL

3. Why you are interested

4. What would be in your ad.

Ideally I would like to get a banner for the ad, we can talk more about that later on. I would be entertaining all interested as long as you are not spamming.

Looking forward to hearing from you……….

Zeeshan Kazmi

Step One – Networking

Nicholas — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:55:38 +0000

“It isn’t just what you know and it isn’t just who you know. It’s actually who you know, who knows you and what you do for a living. ”

This past weekend I went to Photo LA (a local trade show), where many photographers hold booths in the hopes of selling prints to local photo enthusiasts. The biggest benefit of an exhibition like this however, is self promotion. My purpose was no different, although I did not have a booth of my own. I went with a pocket full of business cards and the intent of pushing my name; which actually comes as a bit of a challenge to me. My whole life, I have never been very good at socializing. I prefer to hide behind my camera or my computer because I am infinitely more comfortable with a machine than a real person who can judge me. I have to say that I did a decent job at networking, despite my handicap. I rid myself of a good hundred business cards over the course of a three day weekend, and took home some cards of photographers interested in hiring assistants.

Before this becomes too much about me though, lets step back and discuss why networking is so important to a working photographer. Not to be offensive, but there are some talentless people out there making a killing. And some people who are exceedingly talented that make no income. Don’t take my word for it, check some of the art communities popping up around the web. There are many factors at play here but the biggest ones are networking and marketing. It is all about making sure that the right people know about you and you know about the right people. With todays online professional and social networking sites, this is becoming easier for everyone; but you still have to put effort into it.

My first goal is to assist some and begin shooting on my own to earn an income. I figure that the benefit of assisting is twofold: firstly you get to learn how they run a business and secondly they have a well established network of clients and art buyers that are currently looking for talent. That is not to say that you should steal their list or try to underbid them; but, that they may know of work that is under budget for them or just not what they are looking to shoot and they will pass it along. I know that at first it seems unlikely that a photographer in this day and age would pass by any job, but I have seen it regularly enough while in school to trust in the photographer / assistant relationship. My desire to shoot commercially makes assisting at first almost a necessity to break into the market.

There are other types of photographers and other ways of forming your personal network. A photographer that is going to shoot events and headshots for example has no real need to assist and is not looking to make contact with art buyers. These people would be better suited with a good online social-networking system and an incentive for their clients to advertise for them through word-of-mouth. A photographer who wants to sell fine art may or may not want to assist, but is more interested in making contact with curators and gallery owners. The trick is to know who is interested in hiring you or buying your work, and making friends with them.

This week I am contacting all my new friends and trying to get my foot in the door to commercial shooting. Which means that my next entry should be full of success, failure, and intrigue. We shall see, but before I leave you I would like to share some of my favorite networking sites.

LinkedIn – networking between professionals (I use it to get in touch with editors and art buyers)

Facebook and Myspace – social networking between friends and a good way of passing information around

Twitter – a micro blog that allows for people you know to keep up to date with you.

Deviantart and Flickr – both art blogs for getting people familiar with your work

This is nowhere near an exhaustive list. There are many sites for specialties, and also many local guilds that are out there to help you get in touch with the people you need to get in touch with.

The party is over

Zeeshan Kazmi — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:19:07 +0000

The Party is Over by Jacqueline Roberts. Copyright Jacqueline Roberts.
Visit her website: Jacqueline Roberts

Hum’ant

Zeeshan Kazmi — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:15:44 +0000

One of the benefits of Colours Magazine is that I regularly get to see great pieces of work of art that I would have other wise totally missed out on. I opened my email a little while ago going through the submissions from different photographers trying to decide on what to publish for the Monday’s post and I came across the following excellent feature done by Colours Magazine’s reader Julien Coquentin. I am time and again amazed by the excellent quality of work produced by these artists and I am honourd to be part of a project that is helping to regularly show this work to other people who would normally have not seen it.

So if you have got a project that you would like featured on Colours Magazine then don’t delay and get in touch with me right away [submissions(as)coloursmag.com], I would love to hear from you.

Artisit’s Statement

Hum’ant about our relationship to the world and the city. This series of photo has been thought and realized as an oppressive urban poetry filled but I hope a certain beauty. I speak of the cities, I play their lines and shadows and I include humans as a natural element of urbanity, as an extension, which over time has finally include them altogether

Find out more about the artist

You can see more of his work on his website.

Gaza War Stories

Zeeshan Kazmi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:52:19 +0000

Colours Magazine reader Stefania Mizara has submitted a vivid photographic account of his visit to the war torn region of the world. He captures the lives of the devastated people tries to show a picture of life from behind the barbed wires, something you may not see on Network TV every day. If you like the article why not leave a comment and let us know. You can find out more about the artist by visiting his website and seeing more of his work. Links are at the end of the article.

I entered Gaza the 12th of January 2009 late in the evening with a group of doctors. It was my first time entering an active war zone and I was feeling kind of nervous.
The feeling of anxiety worsened as a sound of bomb dropping near the bus made us all in the “Gaza city” bus that is transferring people from Egyptian to Palestinian border fall under our seats.

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The distance from the border of Rafa to the center of town is very small. By the time we arrived in the hospital, ambulances with the wounded people from the bomb that had dropped in the main market started arriving. The Greek and French doctors went directly to work. The feeling of human loss is unbearable. When the rush is over, your mind starts thinking of what the eyes have seen. Images of children, women, old people, young boys in blood, missing parts of their body, with crazy eyes come back but are rejected by the filter of logic. I think the human mind has the capacity of forgetting horror images such as these as it can’t bear them.
And then comes fear as sound of dropping bombs wake you up at night. After a while you get used to it, people were saying. You actually do but only superficially. You just learn to get back to sleep even thought anything can happen anywhere and there is no safe place to hide.

The next day Cuewa, an Irish girl from the Free Gaza movement arranged us to go to Gaza city with a convoy of 18 ambulances. “It is safer than any other vehicle” she said, “but still Israelis have already shot on ambulances and medics”. We left at 9 o’clock at night, the ambulance loaded with one dead body of a young man to be carried to the Gaza morgue and the desolated brother of the dead man that didn’t speak though the whole trip. Actually I didn’t speak either as I was wondering if this decision is my last one. The details of arriving in a ghost city, passing some dead zones with tanks looking and targeting us was just the beginning of a week of fear.

The next day I spend it trying to understand how someone can move under these circumstances, where is what in this bombed city, how are things done. Even the easiest thing: buying bread was getting complicated: no exchange, no shops, no bread. The next days I moved around with local press people from Ramattan television center and ambulances. The heroes of this war were really these people: local journalists, medics and activists. The only humans moving around the city, specially after nightfall. The nurses in the ambulances and the doctors were working 20 hours a day, sleeping in shifts in the hospitals.

The cameramen and reporters hadn’t seen their families for weeks. The activists went with the ambulances wherever there was danger to be used as a human shield so the medics could pick up wounded or dead people from isolated areas. I focused more on these people’s work as I preferred to see the hope and human force against horror than only death and despair. I discovered things about me as well. I found out that in this question that is always asked to photographers and cameramen: do you take the picture or do you help the person that is suffering in front of you? I thought I was in the first category but I am in the second one.

Greek doctor and deputy of the Greek opposition Ilia Karanikas wtreats a young boy with wounded hand at Al Najjar hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on Monday, January 12, 2009. Today around 35 people arrived to the hospital after a bomb fell near the market. A group of eight foreign doctors from France and Greece that crossed the Rafah border today went directly to work helping their Palestinian colleagues. The Al Najjar hospital in Rafah has a capacity of 60 beds and 60 doctors. The emergency room has 20 beds. To date, approximately 350 wounded people have been treated here since the conflict began, and 32 have died.

Relatives ask through the window as the small hospital accepts only the wounded people during the rush hours after a bombing in Al Najjar hospital in Rafah on Monday, 12th of Jan. 2009. Today around 35 people arrived after a bomb fell near the market at 8 o’clock at night. A group of eight foreign doctors from France and Greece that passed the Rafah border today went directly to work helping their Palestinian colleagues.

Five minutes after the sound of a bomb falling, the ambulances are on the road to check for injured people, in Gaza, on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Hospitals have struggled to keep up with the demands of the injured during the conflict between Gaza and Israel, and several medics have been killed or injured, in addition to the Gazans.

Al Tuam, Gaza Strip, Jan 21 2009.Inhabitants slowly come back to heavily damaged or totally destroyed homes, as fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas took place in this elevated area just north of Gaza city.

The city of Gaza during the bombing was a ghost town. No one wanders in the streets,all the doors are sealed, the windows wide open, only distant blasts and explosions rip the darkness, on Saturday, 17th of January 2009

Father of Al Kanya family picks up his second son’s picture, laying on the floor of his house destroyed by the Israeli soldiers in Atatra, Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The heaviest machine gun fire and most casualties in the three weeks of Gaza/Israel conflict were in western Beit Lahiya Atatra district, as Israeli forces sought to secure control of the northwest corner of Gaza Strip. This area includes the ruins of three former Jewish settlements abandoned in August 2008, and the Atatra district of Beit Lahiya. Atatra was isolated from the rest of the Gaza, and became a occupied by the Israeli army. During the beginning of the war, Israelis gathered all the men of the settlement and interrogated them about the location of Hamas’s center of operations. Women and children were sent to Jabaliya to find shelter. When the men and women returned to their homes after the declared cease-fire, they found their homes vandalized and destroyed.

Desperate relatives wait outside Al Najjar hospital in Rafah, on Tuesday, January 13, 2009. Hospitals have struggled to keep up with the demands of the injured during the conflict between Gaza and Israel, and several medics have been killed or injured, in addition to the Gazans.

Journalist reports at the roof of Ramadan television tower on Wednsday, 14th of January 2009.
The heroes of this three weeks war were normal, every day people: local journalists, doctors medics, and activists.

Alian Al Madalany, 19 (on the right) returns to the school where he was detained for two days by the Israeli army in Atatra on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The heaviest machine gun fire and most casualties in the three weeks of Gaza/Israel conflict were in western Beit Lahiya Atatra district, as Israeli forces sought to secure control of the northwest corner of Gaza Strip. This area includes the ruins of three former Jewish settlements abandoned in August 2008, and the Atatra district of Beit Lahiya. Atatra was isolated from the rest of the Gaza, and became a occupied by the Israeli army. During the beginning of the war, Israelis gathered all the men of the settlement and interrogated them about the location of Hamas’s center of operations. Women and children were sent to Jabaliya to find shelter. When the men and women returned to their homes after the declared cease-fire, they found their homes vandalized and destroyed.

Young boy injured on the head entering the Sioufa hospital in Gaza, on Thursday, January 15, 2009. A group of ten foreign doctors from France, Norway and Greece that passed the Rafah border the last week of the war and worked in Rafa and Gaza hospitals during the bombing. Hospitals have struggled to keep up with the demands of the injured during the conflict between Gaza and Israel, and several medics have been killed or injured, in addition to the Gazans.

Man leaving the Shifa hospital having lost his leg, in Gaza, on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Hospitals have struggled to keep up with the demands of the injured during the conflict between Gaza and Israel, and several medics have been killed or injured, in addition to the Gazans.

Norwegian doctor giving an interview for Spanish filmmaker Alfredo Arka in Shifa hospital in Gaza, on January 19, 2009. A group of ten foreign doctors from France, Norway and Greece that passed the Rafah border the last week of the war and worked in Rafa and Gaza hospitals during the bombing. Hospitals have struggled to keep up with the demands of the injured during the conflict between Gaza and Israel, and several medics have been killed or injured, in addition to the Gazans.

People leaving their houses destroyed the previous night during the Al Quds hospital bombing. January the 16th, Gaza.

Child wrapped in a blanket from his destroyed house in Atatra on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The heaviest machine gun fire and most casualties in the three weeks of Gaza/Israel conflict were in western Beit Lahiya Atatra district, as Israeli forces sought to secure control of the northwest corner of Gaza Strip. This area includes the ruins of three former Jewish settlements abandoned in August 2008, and the Atatra district of Beit Lahiya. Atatra was isolated from the rest of the Gaza, and became a occupied by the Israeli army. During the beginning of the war, Israelis gathered all the men of the settlement and interrogated them about the location of Hamas’s center of operations. Women and children were sent to Jabaliya to find shelter. When the men and women returned to their homes after the declared cease-fire, they found their homes vandalized and destroyed.

Omar Al Kanya and his father look around their destroyed house and find a lot of Israeli ammunition in Atatra, Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The heaviest machine gun fire and most casualties in the three weeks of Gaza/Israel conflict were in western Beit Lahiya Atatra district, as Israeli forces sought to secure control of the northwest corner of Gaza Strip. This area includes the ruins of three former Jewish settlements abandoned in August 2008, and the Atatra district of Beit Lahiya. Atatra was isolated from the rest of the Gaza, and became a occupied by the Israeli army. During the beginning of the war, Israelis gathered all the men of the settlement and interrogated them about the location of Hamas’s center of operations. Women and children were sent to Jabaliya to find shelter. When the men and women returned to their homes after the declared cease-fire, they found their homes vandalized and destroyed.

Omar Al Kanya’s house view in Atatra neibourhood, Gaza Strip on Sunday, January 18, 2009. The heaviest machine gun fire and most casualties in the three weeks of Gaza/Israel conflict were in western Beit Lahiya Atatra district, as Israeli forces sought to secure control of the northwest corner of Gaza Strip. This area includes the ruins of three former Jewish settlements abandoned in August 2008, and the Atatra district of Beit Lahiya. Atatra was isolated from the rest of the Gaza, and became a occupied by the Israeli army. During the beginning of the war, Israelis gathered all the men of the settlement and interrogated them about the location of Hamas’s center of operations. Women and children were sent to Jabaliya to find shelter. When the men and women returned to their homes after the declared cease-fire, they found their homes vandalized and destroyed.

Jabalya, Gaza Strip, Jan 18 2009.Stunned inhabitants of Jabalya return to where their homes used to stand, only to find a huge rubble field, levelled by Israeli bombs, explosives and bulldozers. Not a wall is standing over a very large area on the eastern side of the village facing the israeli border.

Al Tuam, Gaza Strip,on Monday, 19th of Jan 19 2009.Inhabitants slowly come back to heavily damaged or totally destroyed homes, as fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas took place in this elevated area just north of Gaza city.

You can also look at the slideshow of the work:

You can find out more about Stefania Mizara

Email stefaniamizara@gmail.com
Personal Stefania Mizara
Gallery M55