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Tomas Ovalle’s approach to photography is a mixture of fine art and photojournalism. Tomas has been a photojournalist for over twenty-five years working mostly for newspapers and makes story-telling images which are elegant, graphic, and thoughtful “ I am able to capture beauty as it is manifested in a smile, a touch, or a gesture.” Tomas brings a creative presence and energy with him on every assignment. Born in Oakland, California, Tomas resides in Central California which allows him to cover both Northern and Southern California.
Engineering World Health is a non-profit that sends engineering student volunteers to Nicaragua, Honduras, and around the world to repair hospital equipment that can be used to save lives. These images are from a recent shoot in Nicaragua. I photographed students at their respective hospitals and ventured out into different areas of Nicaragua to give perspective to living conditions in various areas.
I had the pleasure of photographing Tina Doshi and Akshay Verma in San Francisco last weekend. I love it when my subjects have as much fun as I do during the photographic process. The creative energy is infectious and suddenly we are having a blast making pictures! If you would like to have your photograph made, then give me a call.
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Kneebody
“Kneebody mixes up contemporary influences from hip hop, funk and rock with an advanced knowledge of jazz acquired while four of the five (Ben Wendel, saxophone, flute, bassoon; Shane Endsley, trumpet, pedals; Adam Benjamin, keyboards and Kaveh Rastegar, electric / acoustic bass, pedals) were students at the Eastman School in Rochester, NY (Nate Wood, drums, is an alumni of the California Institute of the Arts). Their material, composed by the group, begins as structured pieces that are learned as written, but then rapidly deviate from script: during performance, any member of the group can call from a series of cues that will instigate a change of key, orchestration, tempo, or other aspects—even starting a wholly different song! These cues, which the band terms “secret handshakes,” are embedded in the music, and are at the disposal of each player at any time, which is also intrinsic to the philosophy of the band, says Kneebody member Ben Wendel: “…anyone in the band can be the leader, we’re 100% democratic,” contrasting with some traditional jazz ensembles where the leader is essentially in charge of what happens onstage. Audiences may not realize that what appears to be an almost extra sensory ability of the band to change direction on a dime is in fact the implementation of a cue called by one of the band members, buried imperceptibly within the music itself.” From Stanford Jazz Workshop http://www.kneebody.com/
According to Wikipedia: The One O’Clock Lab Band is the highest level of nine big bands of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas College of Music, a comprehensive music school with the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music, and the oldest (and first) in the world offering a degree in jazz studies. This fine band led by Steve Wiest played at Fresno CIty College and tore down the house. The band was recently nominated for two Grammy’s. The Grammy’s ceremony initiated their trip to California. I purchased one of their cd’s and have to tell you, it is an incredible listening experience. Check them out @ http://www.jazz.unt.edu/
I had the opportunity to photograph tenor sax player, Tim Shaghoian, in Fresno during a break from his jazz studies at the University of Reno. Tim played under Paul Lucckesi in the jazz band “A” while at Buchanan High School. Tim is a fantastic musician and dedicated to his craft. If you are a musician and would like to arrange a photo session, please give me a call.
June 2, 2010 - 12:32 pm - Hey Tomas! This PhotOracle site it pretty awesome and great publicity for Tim & the Richey (can't tell which one it is). Keep up the great work. Let me know if there's anything you want included in the newsletter out to all performing arts families at BHS and I'll include it in the next newsletter. See you at graduation!
STOP THE PRESSES!
Here comes the eReader Revolution and it will stop the presses! At the Consumer Electronic’s show in Las Vegas there is a group, a gaggle, a grip of eReaders with shiny, slick, sumptuous surfaces. Websites are bursting with PDF’s touting the connectivity, the storage, and the software that make the eReader “like paper, only better.” Try a Google search on eReader and you will find more pictures and introductions than on eHarmony. An eReader is the new 11” x 8.5” x 0.3” surfboard that let’s you read newspapers, books and magazines, play games, listen and download music, and perhaps do something associated with work. In an article by Reuters, “Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Doug Reid estimated the overall tablet hardware market in 2010 at $3.5 billion to $5.3 billion, rising to $30 billion by 2014.”
Dear Mr. Newspaper Executive, I highly advise you to sell your content NOW! to an eReader hardware manufacturer. Choose wisely! You are about to betroth your product to a technology that is evolving in real time. You will now refer to yourself as a “Content Partner.” Get used to it and grab the market share. If you don’t, it will be like every other boat you watched sail away from the pier of profitability. Don’t bother with the black and white little PDA look-a-likes, just maximize your screen size, resolution, and color capabilities. Think of it as your little dirty advertising secret. You’re going to sell ads on this thing and you need to wear the right dress to the party.
Take a look at how successful companies have married content with hardware. Apple has become the shining jewel of vertical integration; Time warner and AOL not so much. Apple is about to launch it’s eReader (what rumors intimate) will be called the iSlate. The ponies are lining up. Que from Plastic Logic boasts the largest screen-size for an eReader and already has newspaper, magazine, and book publishing content partners. Most major computer manufacturers are clanging their circuits in an attempt to launch some prototype to get a foothold in the marketplace and publications should arrange this marriage immediately.
The naysayers argue that the costs of the units are too high. How much did a cell phone cost when they first came out? Oh what’s that you say? You now get one free with your service contract? The socio-economic elite drive the prototypes, as it always does, and we will get the lower cost versions as they are subsidized by the content and advertising providers. I believe the price point will eventually fall between a cell phone and a computer. That niche has a great potential for growth specifically for newspapers, magazines, ebooks, ezines, and photobooks whose paper-produced versions have reached an end of their shelf-life. They are in need of a vehicle to reach consumers because the hardware solution to their distribution problem, has arrived.
Accessibility to a variety of publications and processes is the key. Think about the possibilities of reading the WSJ, Huffington’s, Vanity Fair, your favorite blogs, listening to music of the Claudia Quintet, looking at a photography retrospective of Ray K. Metzker, on a screen the size of a magazine while on your train ride to work. Warning! This experience may be addicting!
January 9, 2010 - 9:46 am - Hey Tomas, You are exactly right on this one. Subscriptions will be delivered via wi-fi and will include advertising along with the content. I also imagine that the old dinosaur thinking of the newspaper industry "executives" will be blinded by their own thought process enough to remain in the silicon dust. The nice thing is, I can take their place as a "Content Partner." Dean Lesher eat your heart out!
As I took the family photos of Gus and Felicia Gomez, I thought their story was nothing short of amazing. Felicia agreed to share the details about how this family came together.
Leslie Greer and his wife, Norma, wanted to have children but were unable to do so. The soft-spoken Canadian discussed adoption with his wife before they went on their Baptist mission to Nigeria. They successfully adopted a boy and girl in Canada and brought them to Northern Nigeria. Felicia was 7 months old at the time of adoption. With her brother, Milton, she began an exciting new life with the missionary school teachers. Leslie and Norma taught Christianity in Nigerian high schools. Felicia was the only white child in her kindergarten class. Most students in her class had never before seen a white person. “They would come up to me and touch my skin,” Felicia recalled. “Growing up as a minority caused me to have compassion for other cultures.”
At 18, Felicia Gomez met her birth mom. The first words out of her mom’s mouth were: “I hope you don’t think I love you, because I don’t.” The experience left Gomez wounded but with the belief that “there has to be healing in the heart.” With the love and support of her adoptive parents, Gomez excelled in the world of academia and earned a PhD. in exercise physiology from the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Felicia also had a passion for running and riding a bike. In 2000 and 2001 Felicia competed in the World Duathlon Championships. In 2002 Gomez joined the staff of Fresno State University and seriously began to race her bike. Before long Felicia’s athletic efforts earned national attention and an invitation to compete in the Women’s Giro d’Italia, one of the world’s greatest and most prestigious cycling tours. In 2005 Felicia married Gus Gomez, an accomplished cyclist. She continued to race her bike on the legendary cobbles of Fleche Wallone in Belgium, the Tour De L’Aude in France, and won medals in the Canadian National Championships. As a cyclist racing around the world, in order to defray costs, Felicia stayed with many different host families. “The last year I raced my bike, I stayed with two families that had adopted kids.”
“As I got older, I realized I always wanted children. Gus and I talked about it and I stopped bike racing to have a family.” The positive impression made by her own adoption, staying with families that had adopted, and her desire for a family led Felicia and Gus to contact Christian World Adoption in North Carolina. “They were amazing and fantastic to work with,” according to Gomez. Felicia showed her husband Gus two siblings, Ereste,6, and Begashaw,3, from Ethiopia. ”I could see us adopting them,” said Gus. Eleven months later, Felicia and Gus flew to Ethiopia to pick up their children.
Today, the new parents are settled into a routine as the children learn English and bonds of trust are formed and nourished. Ereste told Felicia the other day, “Mom, you are white!” In return, Felicia asked Ereste, “What color are you?” Ereste responded, “Black!” Felicia replied, “Yes, Ereste, and you are beautiful!”
As parents, Felicia and Gus face some challenges. Among these is the challenge of effectively dealing with issues in the children’s lives without knowing the causes of those issues. Another is that they want the children to keep their African heritage balanced with the benefits of living in an American society. Good time management is essential, as Felicia has started her own business, Pinnacle Training Systems. Felicia and Gus keep good balance by running regularly, often with the kids in a jogging stroller.
I am thankful to the Gomez family for sharing their story with me, and delighted to pass along their story to you. I hope you enjoy viewing my first photo shoot with them.
Ereste,6, and Begashaw,3.
July 25, 2010 - 10:35 am - Great to see Felicia have so much joy! I worked with her in Ohio and always wanted to see her succeed. All the best to Felicia, Gus, Ereste, and Begashaw!
January 12, 2010 - 6:12 pm - We had the privilege of traveling to Ethiopia the same time as Felicia and Gus! What a beautiful family they are! What an amazing and inspiring story!
January 8, 2010 - 8:48 am - the love this family has for others and how they opened not only their home but their Hearts as well is truly of love. Knowing a little of the girl (whom now is a mother) growing up she always had a huge heart! Love you:)
January 7, 2010 - 1:35 pm - Beautiful photos! Beautiful family! Beautiful story! Thanks for sharing!
January 7, 2010 - 10:33 am - Thank you for the wonderful "PhotOracle" on the Gomez family. I knew Felicia while she lived in Fredericton, NB Canada for a while many years ago and basically lost touch until she found me recently through "facebook". What a blessing to read this story and see what an amazing person she has grown into. I am so happy for her and know God will continue to work in her and Gus's lives to make a difference not only in the lives of those two adorable kids but everyone they touch. God bless you all!
I remember when I first fell in love with photography. I was researching the Zone system for my beginning black and white photography class. In the photography section of the library there was a plethora of photobooks. The first book I grabbed off the shelf was Robert Frank’s, “The Americans.” I was stunned by the power of the images and years later when I read James Joyce’s “The Dubliners,” I realized I had found “The Americans” to be its literary equivalent. The biting visual commentary with which Frank photographed manifested an empty and racist society. Frank held a mirror up to American culture and–like HD on a pock-marked face–it wasn’t a pretty picture. Or was it? Jack Kerouac who wrote the forward in the book said: “Robert Frank…he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world.” The book had 83 images and each were interesting and powerful in their own right. When viewed from cover to cover, the visual discussion and running commentary spoken by the imagery drove the tragic point home that all was not right in the land of opportunity. Photobooks became my introduction to photography and I realized I too wanted to shout out in a visual voice my photographic manifesto. I spent many hours in the library looking at photobooks by Diane Arbus, Duane Michaels, Arnold Newman, W. Eugene Smith, Helmut Newton, Harry Callahan, Richard Avedon, etc. I tried to quench my thirst for imagery with each book I opened, but after some time I realized that through this powerful medium, my appetite was insatiable.
Shortly after looking at a Henri Cartier Bresson photobook I attended an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. I really enjoy viewing photographic prints. I like to get as close as I can to see the photographic grain. Then I move farther away, and just bask in the logos, ethos, and pathos of an image. At the exhibit, I thought the viewing experience would be so much better if all those people weren’t in the way. The photobook is a trade-off between viewing an original piece of art among a crowd and viewing a portable, smaller reproduction in a controlled, convenient, and intimate environment.
The photobook of the present is a hardcover printed book that is limited by it’s physical nature for distribution. One can go to a library and check it out or purchase it online or at a bookstore. Viewing a photobook is an individual experience. The cost of production and shipping limits its dissemination to a mass audience.
Technology has enabled convenient use of the computer (including cell phones and PDAs) as a portal to interact with data in the form of news, entertainment, music, film, ebooks etc. We are interconnected with data like never before through the internet. How will this affect the future of the photobook?
As Paul Graham writes in “Why TV Lost,” twenty years ago people noticed computers and TV were on a collision course and started to speculate what they’d produce when converged. We now know the answer: computers will prevail. It’s clear now that even by using the word “convergence” we were giving TV too much credit. This won’t be convergence so much as replacement; “TV shows” will even be viewed on computers. The TV will become less of a purveyor of content through networks or cable sources and will be used mainly as a really large monitor.
Graham goes on to describe how the next generation has brought the computer into their social and entertainment dynamic. I have come home to find my teenage kids watching Hulu or some other provider of TV shows or movies on the internet. They don’t adjust their schedules to watch TV shows; rather they go to the net for on-demand viewing. These teens will soon be adults who will incorporate these viewing habits with most of their multimedia entertainment.
In ten years the photobook will be online as most new books will be. I think there will be one caveat. I believe that the photobook will have a narration by the photographer describing the work, the personal vision, the environment and subject the matter. It will be like a museum tour where you have your own personal guide. You will feel like you have met the photographer and have the unique privilege of sitting down to listen to them discuss their work. Take, for example, the following piece in which Anthony Suau talks about photographing the fall of the Berlin Wall as a prototype for the new photobook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkTO8ZDcOeg
The great thing about the marriage of photos and narrative is the richness of the narrated stories which enhance the viewing experience. If you have ever heard James Nachtway speak about his photos, you will note that the stories he tells magnify the beauty and tragedy of the work. Photographers tell interesting stories not just with their photos. The narrative accompanying photos in the electronic photobook will appeal to more viewers. They will receive an education and understanding of the unique perspective of the photographer.
We live in a culture that craves the photograph. There is, however, a lack of understanding and knowledge about the photographic aesthetic and the visual dialogue. Technology has raised the photographic standard to the point where everyone can take a correctly exposed and in-focus picture. What differentiates the layman from the photographer is what they have to say with their imagery. One can speak with a multitude of words or photos, and babble. In order to articulate a visual narrative, a cohesive understanding of light, subject matter, environment, design, lens choice, and sense are all necessary to orchestrate a successful image. The photobook is a fantastic form of education that can generate inspiration as well as practical, applicable ideas for the viewer.
The photobook of the future will have the asset of being a multi-user experience. One could purchase it online as an ebook and view it, through a wireless connection, on a big screen TV monitor. Thus, many people will enjoy the experience, fostering an exchange of thoughts, ideas and discussion to reveal a more layered and meaningful photographic approach. Photobooks will be packaged with other photobooks, movies, and ebooks. They will be bundled together by similar subject matter or interests providing hours of rich entertainment, education, and pleasure for the viewing audience.
I look forward to the future of the photobook and to the inevitable evangelistic nature of its evolved form. I hope to see many others discover the wonder, the sublime nature of photography, as I did in that library, pouring over printed photobooks. Photography is the universal language of humanity; optimistically, I anticipate technology’s influence on the photobook.
Check out what others have to say at: http://blog.livebooks.com/2009/12/want-to-be-part-of-our-new-crowd-sourced-blog-post-tell-us-what-you-think-about-the-future-of-photobooks/
February 5, 2010 - 8:46 am - More information on the future of photo books from Senior Product Manager at online publisher Lulu.com Tim Wright: http://bit.ly/87FuEK
December 19, 2009 - 10:05 am - I love photographs. If I'm upset, depressed, anxious, photos of nature make me feel better. Not everyone responds to photos that way. I have friends who are not at all visually oriented, to the extent they would keep the blinds closed on the house all day every day, and not even look out the window. How many people out there are like that-- who don't want to look at the real thing, or photos of it?
December 12, 2009 - 9:09 pm - Your prediction that photobooks will be online in 10 years made me wonder what kind of monitors we'll have then. When I wrote my thoughts on the future, my ideas for online viewing were probably based on today's monitor size. But I wonder if I'd feel different if the photobook was produced for a 40 or 50 inch monitor.
December 11, 2009 - 2:33 pm - Anthony Suau's photo documentary is very powerful because he has a powerful story to tell that cannot be fully expressed in words only, but the photos do bring out the emotion and feeling of the event rather than just the facts. He does make good use of the Ken Burns effect with many of the photos. You are correct that TV has been replaced by computers and the internet. I realized that TV was getting passe in the later 70s since most TV program became formulated and predictable, news became entertainment, and was numbing (a none interactive media). Also, I observed that TV stiffled healthy commucation between people, especially in families because those watching TV would be so engrossed "sucked in" that nearly all communication between them ceased for hours. So, in 1977, I quit watching TV and found that I made much better use of my time taking classes, reading, writing letters, excersizing, socializing, cooking, and many other stimulating activities. I did not miss TV at all. Computers with the internet has become the TV replacement for people of all ages, especially younger people. My teenage daughter never watches TV but constantly communicates with her friends and classmates via IM, Gmail, and Facebook. She does this not only for social purposes, but also for group studying and organization activities. So, it is very interactive and stimulating. My daughter and a couple of her classmates recently made a short documentary video on why a small business is successful by showing the parts of the business, the products, and interviewing the proprietor and their clients. This five minute video showed clearly that this business was so successful because they produced exellent and consistent products and services, the propriator was very personable, and that the clients looked forward to seeing the proprietor and were very satisfied with the products and services. Many of my middle aged friends, colleages, and relatives (inclusing myself) are active on either My Space, Facebook, Geni and/or other internet social network sites, where we share our stories, jokes, problems, music, photos, videos, interests, advise, and values with each other. This is also very interactive and stimulating. YouTube seems to have something for everyone and is very educational. Recently, my boy wanted to know how nuclear reactors work. I found on YouTube several professionally made videos on how a nuclear reactor works, which gave excellent explanation of how a nuclear reactor works. You can find nearly anything you want or need on Amazon.com even if you are not sure what you want or need. What an age we live in!
December 11, 2009 - 12:08 pm - Your eloquence never ceases to impress me, I appreciate the thought you put into this and, like you, also look forward to what the future that technology will bring us.
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