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Michael Stern first picked up a camera at age 12 and has yet to put it down. Turning the family bathroom into a homemade darkroom, Michael learned traditional B&W wetlab processes for film and print. Continuing with his photography education in jr. and sr. high schools and at Cal State Northridge as a sports shooter, he finally enrolled at Art Center College of Design in September of 1977. After three years of intensive training at this world-class institution, he left Art Center with a BFA in hand and a promising first studio in the heart of Hollywood.
During the course of his career, Michael has also operated studios in Burbank, North Hollywood and back to again to Burbank where he stayed put until 2006. Working first with advertising agencies shooting movie posters and promotions, then on to companies specializing in custom van conversions, windows, building design and construction. Eventually he became involved with multimedia, delivering highly-targeted marketing presentations to industry leaders.
Michael began working with The Walt Disney Company in 1982 and has been working with them ever since. Along the way he also worked with Warner Brothers, Universal Studios, Paramount Studios and Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures where he photographed executives, celebrities, products, architecture and created special visual effects. His reputation is one of quality, creativity and making the deadline.
In 1995 he added digital imaging services to his repertoire. And in 2000, after a year of intensive Photoshop training he scanned, restored and printed over 140 aviation-themed historical photographs for Disney's California Adventure theme park. As a sought after digital restoration expert Michael continues to work on a variety of other projects for educational institutions, companies and private parties.
He has developed a series of workshops to help people understand photographic theory, Photoshop, business practices and salesmanship. The release of his first book has steadily gained in popularity. "Build A Better Photograph, A Disciplined Approach To Creativity", is an informative look at his career approach and processes for maintaining a professional photography presence beyond f/stops and shutter speeds.

Click to go to BABP Photo Galleries

Rick has been hired to photograph 12 Olympic games, both summer and winter. Impressive. We met while teaching at Brooks Institute in Ventura, CA in 2004. Somehow we've remiained friends...if you know both of us you'll understand my commet. (:())

See ya!

^{Master Photographer, MEI, Cr., API, F-ASP, Canon Explorer of Light, onOne Master, Team NIK and X-Rite Coloratti. I've never seen so many titles in my life.}

^{Jim Divitale and I met years ago at a NAPP convention in LA. I've listened to several webinars Jim has given for some of the companies listed above. His product work is clean and detailed and his personal work is varied and emotional.}

Should be a good show.

Keith Cooper runs Northlight images from the U.K. He is a commercial photographer, a product reviewer, a blogger, a teacher and a product reviewer. He possess an amazing ability to do all of these well enough to make a living whixh allows him to do what he wants. Keith had a plan and he put trhe plan into action and it worked. No surprise when you're as smart as Keith.

This show will be useful for all of us who care to listen.

My cousin and award-winning advertising creative director and rainmaker for Rosen & Brichta in Chicago makes time to spill his guts about all things related to photographers hoping to work in the advertising arena.

Check out their work here.

Check out Lee's work here.

And I''m over here.

During last weeks episode (29) of Build A Better Photograph I mentioned that one of my photos had been abused by an online publication without my knowledge or permission. The image was cropped, the color was altered and the photo credit was removed. Nice! Oh joy, another knucklehead to deal regarding artists rights because not giving a wit about another persons art work has to be addressed. One can do this nicely but confrontation nonetheless is mandatory. As soon as I found out about this transgression I immediately sent an email to the publisher asking him to explain why he was using one of my photos without permission and from where did the photo come from? To his credit, he responded within minutes, apologized and took down the photo and related article. Score one for me.

I wanted to make this right for the publisher, clearly he was sorry but assumed the photo was OK to use  (a big mistake, making assumptions). I wrote back and offered to provide an approved photo he could use and re-post the story. He was agreeable. I sent an approved photo but for some reason the story has not yet reappeared. (happy ending?)

Following are the steps I took in approaching this issue, making an assessment and my conclusions about the resolution:

1)    Being made aware of the issue. In this case the photo was of my wife and she was the source for finding out about this transgression. I use Google Alerts for other types of notifications and just joined the PLUS Registry for future image rip offs. I've also used Digimarc in the past.

2)    Assess the gravity of the transgression. Is the issue worth pursuing? In this case it was for three reasons: 1) My wife was in the photo and upset. 2)  I have a local reputation with my client base and need to be vigilant in case this comes up in conversation. 3) Ripping off work is NEVER OK.

3)    Make a plan of action. Phone call? Email? In person? All three? In this case an email was the best choice. It's written and there is a record of it...in case....

4)    Implementing the action plan. Don't just think about what to do, do it and do it ASAP!

5)    Evaluation of the transgressors response. In this case the publisher got high marks for removing the photo but it would have been super if he had re-posted with the approved image. Oh well. What can you do? I did my best, received some action so I have to be satisfied with that. On to the next idiot!

6)    Follow up. I've since reached out to the publisher via email and phone but to no avail. Guess he had enough or it just wasn't that important to him anymore..old news is no news, eh?

The steps above are right in line with my "a successful photograph is a series of small steps made correctly" mantra posted at the top of my home page. Everything we do as SECP's is geared towards pushing out our bubbles of influence and it's not just creating work and running the businesses. We also take into account protecting our work and reputations.  This is just my opinion of course, I could be right.

See ya!

Michael