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Celebrity Sloth Scribe Tyler Durden Makes Fun of Death of Photographer at Lady Gaga Event

Tyler Durden, the Perez Hilton wannabe, slings some outrageous fortune at the expense of celebrity snapper A.J. Solkaner, who passed away after he photographed an event with Lady Gaga in New York City.

In the post, titled "gaga is so ugly its now literally killed someone," Durden goes on a rant, saying "she’s so ugly in real life it’s now proven to be fatal." He manages to get the details of the incident completely wrong, saying that the photographer fell to his death after Gaga arrived.

In reality, the photographer, who worked with AcePix, was packing up his gear after the event when he collapsed. He was attended to by paramedics on the scene, and was pronounced dead at the hospital that night from an apparent heart attack.

Durden then states, "I’d rather have my friends and family find me naked in a noose with gay porn on the TV and a chair leg shoved up my ass than to have ‘poker face’ playing in their head whenever they think of me."

Is Durden so desperate to have his name spread around that he has to make fun of a well-liked, honest, and affable photographer trying to make an honest living? A person died here Tyler. A.J. was a friend to many people. I know that is hard for you to comprehend. Remember what happened to Perez when he made despicable comments after MJ passed away? Tell me Tyler, can you summon the brain cells that you have left to spell B-A-C-K-L-A-S-H?

RIP Tyler Durden.

Photographer A.J. Sokalner dies

Photographer A.J. Sokalner dies
Shot celebrity photos for ACE Pictures
By Daryl Lang, Photo District News
Nov 3, 2009, 02:44 PM ET

Celebrity shooter A.J. Sokalner, admired by his colleagues for his quiet, passionate commitment to photography, collapsed Monday night outside an event in New York and died a short time later, according to his agency.

Sokalner was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, said Philip Vaughan, owner of ACE Pictures. Vaughan said an emergency worker told him Sokalner had suffered a heart attack.

Sokalner collapsed minutes after entertainer Lady Gaga arrived at the ACE Awards, an event hosted by the Accessories Council at Cipriani on 42nd Street. He was part of a group of about 25 photographers working a rope line outside the venue, according to friend and fellow photographer Dennis Van Tine.

Gaga was the big star of the night, and photographers waited inside and outside the venue for her arrival at about 9 p.m. Van Tine was inside when he heard from another photographer that Sokalner had fallen outside. Van Tine says he went out and saw paramedics attempt to revive Sokalner for several minutes, then load him into an ambulance. Another photographer notified Sokalner's girlfriend. She and several photographers gathered at the hospital, where they learned Sokalner had died.

Sokalner was in his late 50s and lived in Manhattan. Vaughan says Sokalner was a hard worker who shot for ACE Pictures on a daily basis. "He was very well liked, he was very well respected," Vaughan says. "He was a real photographer and he did it because he loved it."

Van Tine says Sokalner studied the works of great photographers and tried to inject "pizazz" into his images, and was "one of those silent guys who goes out and shoots every day."

"He was a cynic in the great New York tradition," Van Tine says. "He knew what was right, he knew what was wrong, he knew who the crooks were."

From Brian Ach: "A.J. was a good guy, always nice to a fault, but didn't let anyone get away with anything. Although he might have appeared a little rough around the edges, he was a gentle guy. He was always trying to get better treatment for the photographers at events, and was often the first to arrive. Courteous to a fault, he was a quiet guy who always greeted me with a firm handshake and a "Hello, Mr. Brian." He tried to shoot something better than the boring, frontal, full-length shots the magazines clamored for. We would talk about gear and technique. When I asked him to be a part of The Photographer Project, at first he demurred, saying, "Why would you want me in it?" I insisted, and he showed up and was game to collaborate on a great shot. His quiet energy and constant presence will be missed by me and many of his colleagues, as he was definitely "One of the good guys."

New Book Published- The Automobile As Art

The much-anticipated book from Brian Ach and Michelle Enfield is finally here. The Automobile As Art.

A Picasso will never hit 140 miles per hour. You probably wouldn't want to take a buffer to a Rodin. And last but not least, your garage is definitely not the best place for a Monet.

This is the singular uniqueness of Automobiles as Art. Not only can you admire them from afar-the beauty of their lines, the workmanship, the exquisite engineering-but you can also crank up that glorious v12, feel the heat from the manifold, smell the old leather and oil, and take the old boy for a spin, all the while feeling the wind on your face and the rumble of the engine in the seat of your pants. Try that while looking at that Cezanne you just stuck on your wall.

Collector cars have recently started to come into their own as objects of art, with price tags into the 7-figures becoming commonplace. Of course, your "vintage" Pinto won't have quite the same cachet as a 250 GT Spyder California SWB, but hey, all in the eye of the beholder, right?

From events such as the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance to the vintage races at Lime Rock Park, you'll enjoy the beautiful pictures and striking design of this book for years to come. Makes a unique and great Holiday gift!

See a preview of the book or and purchase it at Blurb.com

Portfolio Do's and Dont's!

Portfolios, books, web portfolios aaagh! It can all be very confusing.  Where to start? Well, read on, I have some advice for you.

If you are putting a portfolio together, there are things you have to have for it to make sense.

1. You have to have a "Body of Work." That means that the person looking at your portfolio should know that, for this portfolio, "THIS" is what you do. If you have random pictures of people, food, scenics, and cars, the person may think that you are a decent photographer, but they probably won't know what YOU DO and what they could hire you for.

2. You have to have a Point of View. How do you feel about the work you do? Is it humorous, serious, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek...? It's YOUR art, so when you are shooting things or putting your book together, make sure their is a viewpoint inherent in the body of work that comes across. This is so the viewer can gain some insight into the work you would do for them if they hire you. 

3. You have to learn how to edit and present your BEST work. If you have 50 shots you think are good enough for your book, You should bring a critical eye to them and narrow them down to your best shots that fulfill the above two points. 10 shots which make up a Body of Work, have a Point of View, and are dead-on GREAT are better than 50 shots with 10 good shots mixed in. Learn how to edit. This is the skill many amateurs and advanced amateurs are lacking.  You must learn how to narrow down those shots and pick the best one-- and you must know WHY it is the best. 

I regularly edit 1,000 shots of my own work A DAY, trust me, you get really quick at it.

The book should have a beginning, middle, and end. Start out with your strongest stuff, and end with your second strongest stuff. 

Most importantly--keep shooting!

www.brianach.com

Please vote for "The Photographer Project," my new book, which is entered in Blurb's Photography Book Now Contest. Click on the ribbon below to vote and read about the book!

Thanks

Brian

Photography Rant-Amateurs listen up!

As someone who shoots for Getty and Wireimage, has a studio, a book on the way, and has been around the world, I have to chime in.

The best camera is the one you have and actually use.

People ask me all the time how they can get good fast, they want to be the best immediately. I ask them how much they shoot. They say once or twice a week. I tell them they have to be OBSESSED with shooting, they have to shoot all the time, on the way to work, going home, when traveling, portraits of friends, everything. They instead want to buy the next Nikon D3X or 200-400 lens. They think that is the KEY to becoming better. 

I will tell you a secret. A good photographer with last years consumer beginnner SLR and a single, good 35mm or 50mm lens will be able to outshoot a mediocre photographer with the best new SLR camera with 10 lenses. Why?

They know how to use it. Most amateurs who are serious sort of skip the part where they learn their camera inside and out. Trust me, they do. Can you change your settings in the dark or without looking at your camera? How long does it take you to change your white balance? F-stop? Shutter speed? Spot metering to evaluative? iso? Single-shot to Servo focus? RAW to JPEG? When you have to think about how to do these things while you are shooting something, it takes you out of the moment and you will miss it.

With respect to the talk about acting, I know a bit about that too. And you are right about what you say. I compare it to when an actor is trying to get off-book. Every time he or she pauses for a second and calls, "Line!" they find themselves out of the moment and out of the scene. Photography is the same way. You have to know everything about your camera from the ground up and know how to use it and why to do things if you want to actually have a chance of having a career doing this, just like in acting. You have to think on your feet, no matter what you shoot--food, celebrities, stock, car racing, sports, portraits, or flowers--because somebody else is already doing it, and probably better than you.

So to recap- LEARN YOUR CAMERA. Start simple. Start with a 50mm prime, and use it for 6 months. Know everything about it. Then move on and buy something else. If you need something during this time, rent it! Don't buy an $1800 70-200 F2.8 lens because your friend is going to pay you $50 to shoot his nephews' soccer game. Rent it. Wait to buy the equipment until your job DEMANDS it or your billing can pay for it.

I find it slightly amusing that you "outgrew" your D60 in two months. I have a 30 year old Canon F-1 with a 35mm F2.0 lens, and I haven't outgrown it in all the time I have owned it. 

I find that many amateurs who talk incessantly about "pixel size" and "sharpness" and "megapixels" (I am not implying necessarily you, by any means) spend too much time blabbing about things that don't matter, instead of taking pictures. You can't get better by BUYING equipment. You can only get better by using what you have. 

Nothing you buy will make you a BETTER photographer, you have to do that yourself with practice and buy accumulating knowledge. Buying things might expand your repertoire of shots. It might make you feel cool. It might make you bankrupt. But it will NOT make you a better photographer. So, before you go to buy that new camera or lens because you NEED it to make you better, learn how to use what you have. 

After all, race car drivers don't start out in Formula 1. They race go-karts.

Actors don't start out doing "Hamlet." They do improv, scenes and one-acts.

Photographers don't start out with a D3X and a 400mm F2.8 VR, or a Phase 1 Hassy shooting at Pier 59 with a capture team and 3 assistants and 4 grips on a 3 day shoot for Louis Vuitton. They start with a Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens and some Tri-x (or a digital Rebel and a 18-55 zoom now, sadly I guess.)

But most people simply don't want to put in the time and effort to get good like the old days. They want to be good now. American Idol and reality TV have made us the "Skip To The End" Generation.

Anyway, hope all this crap I wrote helps someone out there. Feel free to share your thoughts. Just remember, this comes from someone who has shot food for national magazines, Sundance, Tribeca, Venice film festivals, stock around the world, travel, and has shots published every day worldwide. So....yes, I do know what I am talking about.

Brian Ach Photography, Inc.

www.brianach.com

www.thebettershot.blogspot.com