GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING

Welcome to the first installment of gifts that keep on giving, just in time for the holidays! Wondering what to buy the little Chupacabra in your life? How about a tropical island - disguised as a cell phone!
You heard us correctly, Blackberry has introduced the 8830 World Edition Smartphone for a mere $10.5 million.

A limited-time offer for billionaires, the smartphone comes all inclusive with an island that is an exclusive getaway miles away from any vagrants that could cramp your style! When you break it down, the phone acutally costs $199.99 while the island is a mere $10,499,800.

Of course, we can't all buy islands, I mean there are other ways to completely squander your wealth! So for those of you who are 'less fortunate' we offer Gold Pills! Retailing for a mere $429 U.S. These lovely 24k gold leaf pills can actually be digested to 'INCREASE YOUR SENSE OF SELF WORTH'!
Merry ho ho- except for those of you in Australia....

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

K, remember that movie 'The People Under the Stairs'? With this, whole new worlds of body disposal are possible! If it weren't for the bloody stench... Seriously, we think the design is pretty brillinat and so simple, we wonder why did this take so long to get to market? Congrats to Unicraft Joinery on the invent.

WELL SAID

DEEP THOUGHTS: SHALL I LIGHT YOU OR JUST RETOUCH YOU UP IN POST? PROMISE YOU'LL STILL BE PRETTY...

So here we are surfing the web for interesting finds, when we run across a very talented firm, Retouchme, in the U.K. who display exceptional abilities in the area of post production. As we perused through the examples of their work, we both wondered - do photographers need to have real skills anymore? Obviously, retouching requires a great amount of skill, and we mean no disrespect to the post producers in question, but, remember the days before the digital craze, when a photographer was only as good as his ability to manipulate light in real time and not in post production digital time?

This is a dilemma that puts photographer's in an awkward position. Either you have skills or you have skills. Skills implies the ability to capture the shot with the light and quality a client needs without total reliance on post production and Skills implies that while you have a good handle on how to light an object, your ability to retouch that subject takes your creativity out of the box and into a whole new competitive level. The question is, which skills make you more valuable or more respected on the market? The answer? Still being debated. There are those who would say hands down, knowing your light makes you a master, but there are others who argue, who needs light when you have Photoshop?

All would be well in the world for the Skills set, if they didn't find themselves dealing with clients who say, 'Hey, I have a little digi-cam, if I can shoot my kid's Halloween costume and alter it in five minutes at the press of a filter to make it seem like he's the best Yoda ever, why can't you do that with these car shots in the Dubai desert? And by the way, why are you charging me soooo much for that five minutes?' Hmmmmm, could it be that the answer is that photographers who choose to enhance their skills through retouching have to educate their clients on what kind of work it actually takes to achieve their perfect car shot and clients have to rethink how good their pictures really look after five minutes of playing with the Gaussian Blur?

As for those who believe technical ability is everything in the Skills set, we feel your pain, but don't be distressed, you have time on your side. When the light is right from the start, who needs to spend tons of time and cash on retouching? Your problems lie in whether or not, technical ability in lighting can keep up with technical effects in retouching. I have seen some shots that look damn near out of this world - unreal.

But maybe that's the point.
Perhaps we all should break for a little reality check.

'EVER BEEN TO AN AFGHAN PARTY?'

We weren't sure what to expect when we were asked, but we figured anything with 'party' on the end couldn't be that bad! Well, we weren't disappointed with our first experience on Saturday night when we shot the concert of Afghanistan's top selling star, Farhad Darya, who just happens to be in town with an all German band - what a coincidence! - except for Mitch Hyare out of England who plays a mean Dohl drum (see shot above). The music was amazing and the crowd, even though they got off to a slow start, spent the night dancing to galloping beats and ballads while shouting their love for Mr. Darya. Many thanks to our friend Rene, who played bass and sax, for the heads up and to the rest of the band who kept us laughing all night with their tour stories. Looking forward to the next round - which might be tonight! For those of you looking to see the concert, their next stop is Vancouver and then on to the U.S.

THINGS WE LOVE...DON'T ASK WHY

Welcome to things we love...don't ask us why. A showcase of all the design pieces we are currently drooling over and will some day get or at least sit on in some really swank designer showroom. This segment features pieces that creatively mingle modern hip with classic elegance while paying attention to functionality at the same time. You'll recognize a few old favorites from Eames, van der Rohe and Jacobsen. Behold the brilliance...

LISTEN UP!

Mark Ronson has been on the celeb DJ scene for sometime, but has been releasing his own work one tantalizing track at a time. Here's a sample of his latest collaboration with Amy Winehouse, 'Valerie'.

NEW FRONTIERS

Seed9 Photography and Design is launching our latest promo "Frontiers" showcasing a peak at our most recent shoots. The new studio is at 381 Roncesvalles is open and we've already had our first christening shoot with the second on the way tomorrow. If you would like to receive a copy of our latest promo, just drop us a line to comments with your mailing info and one will be on the way.