-B&W Magazine:

-Lexar pro photographer corner online article:

-Photoworkshops.com

-Kodak pro pass magazine

-Techincal article:

-Travel Writing by Lorne:




-B&W Magazine:


From his first book of photographs,  “Live in Concert: 10 years of Rock and Roll”, published in 1987, to his latest work-in-progress, Cuba Dreaming, scheduled for publication in 2006, Lorne Resnick has always strived to create images that probe beyond the everyday facade to capture the essential meaning and character of his subjects.

"The authenticity of the moment is what I'm after, and I'm obsessed with what makes one moment more special than another," says the Los Angeles-based commercial and fine art photographer. "There's great joy in capturing a particular unique moment in time that represents an impactful emotion. It's a fascinating process.

Well-established as a stock photographer represented by Getty Images and several European photo agencies, the 44-year-old Resnick's interest in photography grew out of his love for music and travel. "I went to a lot of concerts in my hometown of Toronto, and I started shooting because of a real urge I had to capture that 'decisive moment," recalls Resnick, whose rock book featured more than 60 bands. "When my book came out, it became my introduction to photography, and through music I transitioned into doing a lot of traveling."

His first big trip was an overland journey to Africa, a continent that remains one of his favorite photographic destinations. I was away for a year, and drove from Amsterdam to Capetown, and returned with 200 rolls of black and white film," he says. "I then spent the next six months in the darkroom." It was many such intensive experiences in the darkroom, and the extraordinary quality o current digital capture, that led Resnick to largely switch to shooting digitally.

"I like to spend a considerable period of time observing and searching for moments and behaviors that I would be less aware of if I weren't trying to capture that one special shot," says Resnick, much of whose early Africa work was photographed with infrared film to capture a new look and feel beyond ordinary wildlife images. “It takes time to get to that deeper level. It’s the same with people, it takes time to get to know an individual well enough to represent his or her true character in an image."

Resnick currently divides his time between ongoing assignment work and fine art photography. “Half of my work is commercial and half is fine art, the distinction depends on whether an assignment is client driven or driven by myself and my ideas,” he says "I try to bring my own aesthetic into how I shoot in both areas."

Resnick is currently busy completing what could be described as his magnum opus, a comprehensive book on Cuba, its people and culture. He first visited the island in 1995, and during subsequent visits has taken an estimated 20,000 images. "I fell in love with the country," he says. "I spent two months there during my first visit and have been back since then at least a dozen times.”

When completed, Cuba Dreaming: Life in the Moment, will feature upwards of 250 black and white and color images along with numerous interviews with Cuban people. "It will be a powerful, colorful book with the dynamic feel of Cuba,” says Resnick, "I try to use the camera as a bridge of connection to people, and I hope the book itself will help bridge the gap in understanding between Cuba and the rest of the world."

With recent exhibitions at The Perfect Exposure Gallery in 2001 and twice in 2003, and a show of his Cuba work at the Center Galley in Thousand Oaks, California, also in 2003, Resnick is hoping to more actively pursue personal projects. "If I had a choice I would just concentrate on fine art photography and book publishing," he says. "Sometimes it's nice to collaborate, but I prefer being out on my own and following my own vision, which is why I'm pushing the area of fine art photography more and more."


From Lexar pro photographer corner:

Original aticle can be found here:

Award winning photographer Lorne Resnick was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. His passion for travel and photography keeps him moving around the globe exploring different cultures and countries, capturing unique moments with his camera.

He began his career photographing rock concerts in his home town of Toronto, capturing peak moments in the all-consuming fire and flash that is live rock and roll, featuring performers from Bruce Springsteen to Madonna. These images were published in his first book: "Live in Concert - 10 years of Rock and Roll".

His pursuit of unique and compelling images has led him to Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Greenland, Cuba, China, across Europe and 22 countries in Africa.

He has lived in Amsterdam for six years working on commercial projects and spent more than a year in each of Cuba and Africa working on long-term book projects.

Resnick's striking commercial and fine art images have been exhibited in galleries across Europe and America, and have been used commercially for annual reports, billboards, television, web sites and for worldwide advertising campaigns.

From his first book of photographs, "Live in Concert: 10 years of Rock and Roll", published in 1987, to his latest work-in-progress, Cuba Dreaming, scheduled for publication in 2006, Lorne Resnick has always strived to create images that probe beyond the everyday facade to capture the essential meaning and character of his subjects.

"The authenticity of the moment is what I'm after, and I'm obsessed with what makes one moment more special than another," says the Los Angeles-based commercial and fine art photographer. "There's great joy in capturing a particular unique moment in time that represents an impactful emotion. It's a fascinating process.

Well-established as a commercial and fine art photographer, the 44-year-old Resnick's interest in photography grew out of his love for music and travel. "I went to a lot of concerts in my hometown of Toronto, and I started shooting because of a real urge I had to capture that 'decisive moment," recalls Resnick, whose rock book featured more than 60 bands. "When my book came out, it became my introduction to photography, and through music I transitioned into doing a lot of traveling."

His first big trip was an overland journey to Africa, a continent that remains one of his favorite photographic destinations. I was away for a year, and drove from Amsterdam to Capetown, and returned with 200 rolls of black and white film," he says. "I then spent the next six months in the darkroom." It was many such intensive experiences in the darkroom, and the extraordinary quality o current digital capture, that led Resnick to largely switch to shooting digitally.

"I like to spend a considerable period of time observing and searching for moments and behaviors that I would be less aware of if I weren't trying to capture that one special shot," says Resnick, much of whose early Africa work was photographed with infrared film to capture a new look and feel beyond ordinary wildlife images. "It takes time to get to that deeper level. It's the same with people, it takes time to get to know an individual well enough to represent his or her true character in an image."

Resnick currently divides his time between ongoing assignment work and fine art photography. "Half of my work is commercial and half is fine art, the distinction depends on whether an assignment is client driven or driven by myself and my ideas," he says "I try to bring my own aesthetic into how I shoot in both areas."

Resnick is currently busy completing what could be described as his magnum opus, a comprehensive book on Cuba, its people and culture. He first visited the island in 1995, and during subsequent visits has taken an estimated 20,000 images. "I fell in love with the country," he says. "I spent two months there during my first visit and have been back since then at least a dozen times."

When completed, Cuba Dreaming: Life in the Moment, will feature upwards of 250 black and white and color images along with numerous interviews with Cuban people. "It will be a powerful, colorful book with the dynamic feel of Cuba," says Resnick, "I try to use the camera as a bridge of connection to people, and I hope the book itself will help bridge the gap in understanding between Cuba and the rest of the world."

Resnick recently won the 2005 Travel Photographer of the Year award and now lives and works in Los Angeles as a commercial and fine art photographer - when not being nibbled on by small baby tigers, elephants and his newborn son.


-From Photoworkshops.com

Original aticle can be found here:

Sep 1, 2006

Award-winning photographer Lorne Resnick was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. His passion for travel and photography keeps him moving around the globe exploring different cultures and countries, capturing unique moments with his camera.

Self-taught for the most part, he began his career photographing rock concerts in his home town of Toronto, capturing peak moments in the all-consuming fire and flash that is live rock and roll, featuring performers from Bruce Springsteen to Madonna. These images were published in his first book, Live in Concert: 10 years of Rock and Roll.

His pursuit of unique and compelling images has led him to Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Greenland, Cuba, China, across Europe and 22 countries in Africa.

He has lived in Amsterdam for six years working on commercial projects. He's also spent over a year in Cuba and Africa working on long-term book projects, which you can explore further on his commercial website at lorneresnick.com.

Resnick’s striking commercial and fine-art images have been exhibited in galleries across Europe and America, and have been used commercially for annual reports, billboards, television, web sites and for worldwide advertising campaigns.

From his first book of photographs, Live in Concert: 10 years of Rock and Roll, published in 1987, to his latest work-in-progress, Cuba Dreaming, scheduled for publication in 2006, Lorne Resnick has always strived to create images that probe beyond the everyday facade to capture the essential meaning and character of his subjects.

"The authenticity of the moment is what I'm after, and I'm obsessed with what makes one moment more special than another," says the Los Angeles-based commercial and fine art photographer. "There's great joy in capturing a particular unique moment in time that represents an impacting emotion. It's a fascinating process."

Well-established as a commercial and fine art photographer, the 44-year-old Resnick's interest in photography grew out of his love for music and travel. "I went to a lot of concerts in my hometown of Toronto, and I started shooting because of a real urge I had to capture that 'decisive moment," recalls Resnick, whose rock book featured more than 60 bands. "When my book came out, it became my introduction to photography, and through music I transitioned into doing a lot of traveling."

His first big trip was an overland journey to Africa, a continent that remains one of his favorite photographic destinations. I was away for a year, and drove from Amsterdam to Capetown, and returned with 200 rolls of black and white film," he says. "I then spent the next six months in the darkroom." It was many such intensive experiences in the darkroom, and the extraordinary quality of current digital capture, that led Resnick to largely switch to shooting digitally.

"I like to spend a considerable period of time observing and searching for moments and behaviors that I would be less aware of if I weren't trying to capture that one special shot," says Resnick, much of whose early Africa work was photographed with infrared film to capture a new look and feel beyond ordinary wildlife images. “It takes time to get to that deeper level. It’s the same with people, it takes time to get to know an individual well enough to represent his or her true character in an image."

Resnick currently divides his time between ongoing assignment work and fine art photography. “Half of my work is commercial and half is fine art, the distinction depends on whether an assignment is client driven or driven by myself and my ideas,” he says. "I try to bring my own aesthetic into how I shoot in both areas."

Resnick is currently busy completing what could be described as his magnum opus, a comprehensive book on Cuba, its people and culture. He first visited the island in 1995, and during subsequent visits has taken an estimated 20,000 images. "I fell in love with the country," he says. "I spent two months there during my first visit and have been back since then at least a dozen times.”

When completed, Cuba Dreaming: Life in the Moment, will feature upwards of 250 black and white and color images, a CD with music, along with numerous DVD interviews with Cuban people. "It will be a powerful, colorful book with the dynamic feel of Cuba,” says Resnick, "I try to use the camera as a bridge of connection to people, and I hope the book itself will help bridge the gap in understanding between Cuba and the rest of the world."

-From Kodak pro pass magazine


Original aticle can be found here:


Lorne Resnick Talks about Connecting and Engaging

Direct marketing can serve as a powerful tool for professional photographers. Both as a way to stay connected with valued clients, and as a way to engage new ones. But knowing when to send what and how can often be a challenge.

Read on as award-winning commercial and fine art photographer Lorne Resnick shares his strategies for promoting his work to art directors, art buyers, gallery owners and collectors, and creating relationships that last.

Right Place, Right Time

“Marketing is always that 64-million-dollar question,” Resnick says, describing the process of figuring out when, what, and how as equal parts art, science, and frustration.

“The frustrating part is that you know that there’s probably someone, somewhere at least every day on the planet that if you were to connect with them, they would buy a piece of your art or commission you to take some photography. So it’s a right place, right time sort of situation.”

Then there’s the financial component.

“At one point I was sending out five different promo card mailings to art directors and buyers, 1,000 at a time,” he recalls, emphasizing that they were wildly expensive. “I concluded that you had to have a really big bankroll behind you to mail that many printed promo cards, and you have to do it every other month or every third month. And you have to send 6,000 to 10,000 because 1,000 doesn’t make a dent in terms of finding that right-place, right-time person.”

On top of that, he talked to art directors and art buyers again and again who told him they received 70 pieces of mail a day. “So you’re sending out this really expensive piece of mail and they might not even see it. It might go into the trash right away.

What Resnick finds to work well is e-mail marketing.

“It’s the easiest way to continually send new work,” he explains. “If I shoot something this week and I want to send it out in a printed piece, I’ve got to get it designed. I’ve got to take it to the printer, proof it. It’s maybe a month or two or three before I’m able to get that piece out. But if I shoot something now I could send it out this week in an e-mail promo.”

Make It Personal

Though Resnick could have his e-mail promotions outsourced, he chooses to build them himself. “I want them to be very personal. So I design them myself, I build them myself, and every month I put it together. I choose the images and I put the text in and test it out, then send it out.”

He also strives to make his e-mails as recipient-friendly as possible, which means he never sends attachments. “People have sent me attachments and it makes me angry because it clogs up my e-mail,” he says. “These are HTML e-mails which means nothing has to be downloaded.” Resnick regularly adds the names of clients, peers, people who visit his website, and others who ask to be put on the list.

Make It Relevant

“Even if you're e-mailing to a list of opted-in people, you can’t just send a couple of pictures and say ‘Hey, I want your business.’ If all I say is hire me for a commercial job or ‘buy one of my pieces of artwork,’ then it’s all about me,” Resnick cautions. “You really have to provide the people you’re sending it to with some kind of content in terms of what’s good for them, or what’s interesting for their site or their business.”

Because Resnick is a voracious reader, especially of books on the creative process, he likes to provide a little bit of what he learns in his e-mails. He calls these e-mail promos Museletters.

These Museletters celebrate creativity in all its forms, and include excerpts, stories, quotations, and various musings. More importantly, they allow him to share his thoughts, give a little bit of content, and separate himself from the herd, and from what everyone else is doing.

“I know there are a ton of other photographers that are sending e-mail promos out,” he explains. “Obviously, you have to have the work, and the work has to be good, but I like to add a little bit more so that people will stick on my e-mail for an extra three or four seconds or keep it in their inbox.”

A Disdain for Spam

Resnick is very much against spam and it drives him crazy when he gets it. “The bottom line regarding spamming is this question,” he says. “Is the e-mail relevant to who I am or what I do?” So he adheres to the following actions to ensure his e-mails are not classified as spam. First, he only sends them to an opted-in list of people. He works with ADBASE, a mailing list source that caters to photographers, illustrators, reps, and stock agencies to get the bulk of his list. Second, he addresses the recipient’s area of work or interest. Third, he includes his own physical contact details. And finally, he makes it as easy as possible to opt-out. “If people no longer want to receive my e-mails, they simply hit the reply button at the bottom once, and I remove them,” he says.

Measuring Results

Because Resnick sends his own e-mails from his own computer, he is not able to take advantage of sophisticated systems that measure open rates, read rates, click-thru rates or general response rates, but he is able to measure the effectiveness of his e-mails through the number of calls that come in immediately after each e-mail goes out, the artwork he sells, and the assignment he gets.

And he uses Google Analytics to measure how many people visit his site every day. He says, “It’s amazing when I send out an e-mail promo, which I’m doing now once a month, and I see a spike in viewers. It’s a pretty clear indication that people are looking at the promo.”

It’s important to note that while Resnick utilizes e-mail for the commercial side of his business, he does not use it promote his fine art.

“Gallery and museum directors and private collectors don’t look at e-mail in the same way as art buyers or art directors. It’s not expected, so they may not look as kindly to receiving it,” he says. “Plus the list is much smaller – maybe 700 to 800. So I’ll go back to printed matter. Only this time, it won’t be as elaborate or costly. I’ll send out a monthly 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 card. One card with one photo on it and some details on the back.”

He will also use post cards to highlight recent news and achievements, such as when he won the 2005 Travel Photographer of the Year Award, or to promote new projects, such as his new book, Cuba Dreaming.

Resnick views his camera as a bridge to connect people, and he hopes his book will help bridge the gap in understanding between Cuba and the rest of the world.

When it’s finished, the comprehensive book about the people and culture of Cuba will feature about 40 interviews with Cubans and over 250 black-and-white and color images.

A Lasting Relationship

Though Resnick has embraced digital capture, he still has a strong relationship with film. The images of Cuba Dreaming were shot largely on film – a combination of slide and negative film. “I shot a lot of the KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA Film, ” he says. “Especially on my last trip. I thought it was a really great film. Especially since I do my own scanning. It gave me a lot of latitude to work with. And Cuba is a place that has a lot of very contrasting light conditions where the light is sort of slanting into these alleyways or these houses, so it’s very dark inside the house and yet this bright sunlight is coming in. The PORTRA Film held everything together beautifully.”

Resnick also shoots KODAK PROFESSIONAL High-Speed Infrared Film to create images that transcend the ordinary. “I’ve been experimenting with that for so long,” he says. “The KODAK Infrared Film is just so special. I still haven’t been able to replicate that digitally. It’s got a wonderful feel to it and I’ve gotten spectacular results. I’ve still got hundreds of images that need to be scanned and brought up as fine art prints from my trips to Africa with that film.

When Resnick first went to Africa, he took about 150 rolls of KODAK Infrared Film. “It was kind of tricky because I was going through maybe 25 different countries in Africa over a period of a year, and I actually took every single roll of KODAK Infrared Film and took the film out and in a darkroom bag put it into an unmarked canister because it said infrared on the film and we were going through some very tricky countries military-wise and if I was stopped with 150 rolls of film that said Infrared on it, who knows what would have happened.”

He remembers driving down south of Amsterdam through France and Italy and South of Spain with a changing bag on his lap, switching out all the film. “I had that film through deserts and for weeks on end and then I would mail it back for a friend to store in a freezer but I never had any problem with that film,” he says. “I was amazed. I had that film in Africa in 100° heat for weeks on end. And I never had a problem.”


-Some technical details...

Over the years I've had the pleasure of visiting and photographing many different countries throughout the world. To me traveling means making connections. Not just meeting and talking with the people I encounter, but actually bonding with them and their environment. My camera assists me in this effort by acting as a conduit - a catalyst. Through it I view a world filled with intimate details and limitless possibilities. An otherwise dull scene is suddenly transformed into thousand exciting images when viewed through the lens, all of which help paint a picture of the whole.

I enjoy the challenge of communicating my thoughts and feelings through the medium of photography. Among the art worlds, photographers are a unique lot in that we are forced to deal with a finite medium-one which records people, places and events as they occur.

Because of this we are compelled to manipulate these images through the few variables at our disposal: shutter speed, aperture, exposure, lens focal length and composition. "B.D." (before digital) one of the most important decisions I made when creating an image is what type of film to shoot - color, B+W, tight grain, high grain, infrared, etc. Today we are fortunate to be blessed with a bewildering variety of digital options that leave much more of the visualization to the post processing.

On my first 12-month trip through Africa I chose to shoot infrared film in one of my camera bodies. This was my first visit and I wanted to record images from a different perspective. When I developed the film I was ecstatic with the results. The deep, rich tones of the shadows, stark glowing whites and large grain structure gave an otherworldly appearance to my photographs. Not only did they describe Africa as I had seen it, but as I actually felt it. Here were pictures that conveyed the raw splendor of wild places. Gazing at them I once again felt the wave of awe and respect that washed over me as I stood on towering sand dunes or in the midst of wind swept savannas.

During my last trip (actually a 3 week honeymoon) I was shooting all high resolution (8-16MP) images. For this trip I was interesting in trying to capture that grand majesty of the plains and animals, but this time in color. In the end I used Photoshop to give a slight otherworldly intense spin on the images. I have little interest in actually capturing things "as they are" but rather I want to capture things as I feel they are in a poetic sense. My general process in photoshop was very simple. I would duplicate the background layer and give it a slight blur (using one of several different blur options). From there I would change the blurred layer into multiply mode and then started working the images with curves, saturation, selective color and levels layers. Often I would paint through one layer to another until I was satisfied with the final results.

The use of digital gives me the option to capture places like Africa not as I (or others) see it, but as my heart and soul see it.

The ability to visualize what I want and achieve it through digital manipulation suddenly breathed life into my images of animals, giving them an air of majesty and dignity.

On the practical side I found one of the most important things when shooting in a place like Africa is the reliability of the media you are shooting to. The last thing I would want is to have a once in a lifetime image disappear through a disk error. Also, for me, it was important to have enough media to cover one full day out in the filed. Nothing kills a good time and nice flow than having to sit down and download images to a laptop or digital diary. And even if I were to try downloading one card while shooting another, it just doesn't make sense as it distracts from shooting (constantly checking the download and making sure it is successful, not bumping the card, watching out for dust and dirt, etc). So, since I was out on Safari by 6AM and returned after sunset, I had seven 4GB 133X speed Lexar cards with me at all time. In the 2weeks I was in Africa, on my last trip, I shot more than 14,000 images - without one pixel lost.



-Some writing on Africa...

Bugs. Bugs in my nose. Bugs in my eyes. Bugs in my ears. Bugs in my mouth...

Manna Pools National Park, Zimbabwe, Africa

I don't necessarily, as a matter of personal policy, hold any malevolence towards insects. However, as I fled down a dusty hot road in Zimbabwe, spitting out bugs with every step, I felt perhaps I should reconsider. Due to their miniscule size and innumerable numbers, the thick swarms of tiny terrors were impossible to escape. All I succeeded in doing as I ran - arms waving crazily, cameras bumping into each other around my neck - was to create a great deal of amusement for the locals and to cause the odd elephant to glance up from his grazing. It didn't take me long to learn, as the locals and the animals already had, that you just have to tolerate them.

Manna Pools National Park, a three-hour, bone-jarring ride on a rutted trail north of Zimbabwe's capitol Harare, is one of the few parks in Africa where visitors are permitted to leave their vehicles and walk

Unaccompanied through the bush. The desire for this unusual freedom was somewhat tempered when I learned that an unfortunate traveler had been trampled to death by a herd of elephants only the week before. Plucking up my nerve, I decided to press on and hoped I could keep out from under foot.

Hacking through the long grass under the blazing sun, I made my way to the river's edge. A large bull elephant, his polished tusks gleaming in the rising light, was feeding on river reeds and water lilies. He dipped his massive trunk deep down into the silt-ridden water and came up with huge bundles of stringy reeds which he flung back and forth above the water in an effort to dislodge soil that clung to the roots.

It was a strange sensation to pass so close to this dangerous animal without some sort of protection or even the slightest hope of escape should it decide to charge. He appeared to regard me with little fear or interest, as if the sight of a man without his car held all the terror of a Kalahari Bushman without his blowgun. As I raised my camera, I thought to myself that the bugs and incessant heat were a small price to pay for such an extraordinary sight.

by Lorne Rensick