Renee Rosensteel Photo, Video in Pittsburgh PA

Clif Page said it, “It’s the least we can do…” to give a little time to photograph soldiers participating in the 31st wheelchair games. It was both inspiring and humbling. I was inspired by the group’s gestalt: Still soldiers. No whining. I was humbled by their willingness to participate, to get in the game, despite missing limbs, age, and lots of issues that weren’t so apparent. They got in. They played. The thing that was happily missing from these games was the voracious need to conquer. People were trying darn hard, but it seemed to be a more internal contest rather than proving something against another person. It was a complicated and affirming dance.

Wheelchair Veterans Games – Images by Renee Rosensteel

I had the opportunity to video the work of Michael Pestel and Taketeru Kudo as they did workshops and performed at the Aviary and Mattress Factory as part of the Charm Bracelet grant project ( via the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.) I knew that I would have much more footage than I needed for the final project (plus many more still photos!) so I decided to push technique on it. The audio was especially challenging because EVERY set had background noise from fans, streams, flamingos (not kidding.) The subjects were unpredictable, because part of their process was the spontaneous interaction between the performers. Visually, I allowed myself to fight for the tight focus and low depth of field that I love so much in still work.

I ended up shooting the whole project with my 5DMarkII because I really loved the look. I put a little Rhodes stereo mic on top of the camera and used a Seinheisser shotgun to a Marantz PMD 660 as my back up.

I put these two works together quickly (in fact, the Mattress Factory used them to help promote the rest of the performances by the artists). I had learned that there was a great value in the immediacy of the message. I wanted to take advantage of it.

Here are two preliminary works:
Butoh in the National Aviary

Interview with Kudo

I got some reeeeeeeealllyyyy cool 60″ umbrellas in. For those non-photogs out there, it is like trying to set up a beach umbrella in your living room. Why would I do this? Because the light that they make is like butter-soft, rich and beautiful.

So I called up my friends at Zafira Dance Studios and asked Olivia Kissel if she’d be willing to help me test drive these enormous beasties. Besides being a world-travelled bellydance rock star, Olivia has a line of clothing and jewelry called Beyond Konflict.

It would work out for the teachers, students and friends who came out to play on that rainy Wednesday!

Zafira Big Light Test – Images by Renee Rosensteel

I had the privilege of documenting three projects this month that were hosted by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. First, the museum hosted a really cool project lead by Cynthia Blackwell in conjunction with the Carnegie Museums, that taught students about curating a gallery exhibit. They put this info to work by hanging the show for the All City Art Show which was housed in the Museum basement. The next day the Museum hosted a field trip for third graders at Manchester School. The students toured the North Side with historians. It was really neat.
I like the idea of thinking of a museum as a place where people learn, a place that is much bigger than the walls of a building.

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh May 2011 – Images by Renee Rosensteel

I just photographed for the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival. (Photos here.) It was a blast!

I think it is important to reduce my carbon footprint where I can, so I road my bike across town to the festival site in Oakland each of the 5 days. I try hard to raise awareness about those kinds of things. Green is part of my business practice.

This year marked the festival’s 25th season. They really do a nice job. Creative, good energy– I love to shoot for this event. They have a healthy mix of local and international talent. This year my favorite attraction was “Amococo,” an inflated structure that uses natural light to create an ethereal experience.
Check out my slideshow:

Best Of Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival – Images by Renee Rosensteel

I was walking down an alley today on my way to deliver photos. I saw four teenage boys at the end of the alley looking my way. Their body language said that I didn’t have anything to worry about. As I made my turn onto the sidewalk where the boys were one of them lunged at me from behind–”Rarrr!” he yelled and giggled. I jumped and then started laughing too–it was hilarious–this kid all arms and legs flailing at me mock ferocious-like. Then another one of his buddies tried the same thing . I didn’t jump this time. I said, “He got me. You didn’t.” Now we were all laughing. One of the kids made up some silly thing about posting it on the internet, but they didn’t have a camera. But the kid made my day. He said “Pretty lady we are going to put it on the internet.” That really made me feel good.

On Monday night, May 2 at 7:30 pm (don’t be late) join us at Pittsburgh’s West End Overlook to celebrate the courageous life of Chris Hondros. Hondros died in Libya in April. He was as seasoned conflict photographer covering the front lines in Misarat when an RPG ended his life.
I want everyone who reads this to come to the mountain whether you knew Chris or not. Come because you celebrate those who have the courage to shine a light on unspeakable horrors. Come because you believe in the power of free speech as a catalyst for change. Come because you honor those who dare to live passionately, aware of risk, but compelled to create with an unflinching reverence.

Come because you are part of the community of creatives in Pittsburgh. The thing that I am realizing in these days after Chris’ death is how many people, like myself, who knew him a little, but whom he made a big impression on. He was able to move people. He also took one of my favorite photos ever–it was of a young soldier somewhere in Africa. The soldier was running across a bridge, celebrating. Chris caught him in full flight–arms outstretched, the life, the tenacity of youth. A seasoned soldier becoming a teenager for a split second. I asked Chris about that photo. He said he kept in touch with the young soldier. Chris paid for the soldier to get an education.

On Monday I’ll light a candle to celebrate Chris Hondros’ life. Please feel welcome in this community to light your candle, too. Live Large.

It occurred to me as I was having lunch with a PRSA member that we, as media makers, need to prove our relevance to the emerging group of consumers who use cameras as part of their everyday language. Everyone takes pictures to express ideas the way people used to scribble drawings on napkins.

Like writers or illustrators, photo/videographers need to be able to do the things that everyone else does except in a way that is qualitatively better because of advanced tools, more inspiring, and better organized.

Not only is this new group seeking powerful messaging, but they want it to be effortless. Their need is instantaneous is time-to-market. Quality is a simply expected.

Our new mantra as media makers needs to be “I’ll make it easy for you will get great images immediately so that you can seamlessly use them in many ways.”

We must also help our clients explore the options for the media that they buy from us by using it in social media and other web functions.

I think that the trick for a successful social media campaign for small entrepreneurs is not only to be able to learn the benefits of each new app, but also to be able to make one post that disperses to many forums. It is the consistency factor that builds the long tail.

My challenge is to build “pipes.” That is, I am assessing tools like tumblr and Tweetdeck, and Twitterfeed to find ways to post-once-to-many to the content heavy sites like facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

That’s just the start. It gets complicated fast when you start to add in landing pages…and building self-hosted WordPress sites.