Laurin Rinder - the "Godfather of Stock" It was my great pleasure this evening to spend an hour in conversation with Mr. Laurin Rinder. It is not necessary to introduce him, as everybody in our small "stock" world knows of him. Mr. Rinder, has recently begun contributing to FP as an author, and as with the rest of our contributors, we are grateful. We talked about a great range of subjects having to do with his career, and his art. His main mission it seems, is to see photography achieve higher quality, and to be able to teach his students to see the "Light".

These were some of the questions we discussed: FP: "We know that the first person who inspired your interest in photography was your Dad. What continues to inspire you today?" Laurin: "My dad was a rocket scientist, and he and seven other gentlemen started JPL (Jet Propulsion Labs). I have pictures of them in Quonset huts out in Altadena, doing experiments, with Werner Von Braun, who brought me a little Leica from Germany in 1953-54. I was in junior high, and had a 4x5 camera, that the school gave me, an Graflex. And my teacher used to say, 'here's 4 plates, and 8 bulbs, go shoot the football game'. You had 8 pictures, and 8 flashbulbs, that you had to lick before you put them into the flash attachment. That's where I get that philosophy of 'shoot it right', in the camera, and pretend that there is no Photoshop™. That's where I get that philosophy from, and I keep trying to pound it into the heads of my students, but it's hard because they want to shoot it raw, and edit it. So that was my influence, and where it came from. Laurin's Photo Portraits My Dad set me up with a little darkroom in a shed behind our house, which he proceeded to set up as a darkroom, and then showed me how to process film. He didn't know all there was to know about it either, but he set it up and said 'here's the tools, there you go kid, learn it'. That was how it started, and it was magic, and always will be magic. This reminds me of a post I put up a while ago, where I said, 'There isn't a day that goes by, or a minute of that day where I don't have a camera in my hand, and when I hear that shutter release, and I feel something in my groin area. I don't know what that is, and I feel sorry for people that don't have that'". Laurin says that turned him on more than girls, more than anything, and it still does, and when that goes away, he's gone. It happens every day for him, and he has to shoot 500-700 shots a day, 7 days a week!!

Laurin's Architecture Photography

FP: What helps you, or inspires you in the photography field? Laurin: "It is the ability to teach. I love it, I live it, and I get off on it, because I need to do it. I'm tough, probably the toughest (teacher) you've ever talked to. If you ever come to my classes, I teach 3 days a week, for professionals, not newbie's. I teach professionals who are still coming over from film, and there's a Lot of them".

FP: Do you teach at a school, or at your own place? Laurin: "I teach at my own place. I taught for Orange Coast College in the middle 70's, and that was a 9 week refresher courses for professionals. It was an extension class. I now teach one-on-one, tutoring for basic workflow, white balance, and basic Photoshop ™ techniques. I was into PhotoShop™ from the very beginning, version 1, but I don't really enjoy it, and I don't think anybody should rely on it. I teach how to get the image in and out, as fast as possible, with as little manipulation as possible. Additionally, I try to use techniques that we use in traditional darkrooms."

Laurin's Photo Objects

FP: What do you think is the creative act in photography? What is the main difference between artists and snapshooters? Laurin: "Planning. Someone that takes the time, learns to study the light. If there is only one aspect of photography, it is about the light, as Galen Rowell said. Galen was an old friend of mine, a brilliant guy, along with Moose Petersen, and Dave Black, the greatest sports photographer in the world. These people shoot the light, they don't worry about anything else, and that's pretty much all there is. If you don't look at the light, and if you don't see the light, then no camera, no expensive necklace in the world is going to make you a better photographer. If you can't see the light, and shoot the light, you're done, it's over. If you go out in the middle of the day, and shoot a person or shoot anything with shadows so deep, and all that stuff…. I shoot the Hasselblad H2, that's 39 megapixels. Everybody always thinks about, 'oh if I only had this better camera etc.', that's b.s. The camera means nothing, absolutely nothing. The better you get, and the more equipment you can get, the more you are going to understand how to use these tools."

FP: What minimum equipment should a photographer have to accomplish his mission and sell his photography? Laurin: "This gets back to the last question. Basically, what is the minimum list? There is no minimum list. I believe in the "megapixel myth" perpetrated by the manufacturers of the cameras to keep you buying more stuff. Moose Peterson is the most famous nature photographer in the world, he's shot a lot of Yosemite, and he's a major player. Moose has been shooting recently with a 4.1 D2H Nikon, and switched to a D2X. If you saw his work at 4.1 megapixels, his prints at 18 x 24, would scare you. It has nothing to do with all of the equipment, it's what you do with it. Moose shoots the light. Moose is an amazing shooter, he can go out and as is typical of this type of guy, while you're sleeping, or eating dinner, these guys are shooting. That's when the light is. During the day, he's sleeping, or traveling. People don't shoot the light. You can take a cheap camera, a 6 megapixel Nikon D70™, or a Pentax™, or a Canon Rebel™, and if you shoot those things correctly, and you understand the light, you will get no noise, no artifacts, nothing. You will shoot it on manual, you have to learn manual, you cannot set this sucker on program, do NOT let any camera think for you. This is because most cameras today are a thousand times smarter than anybody who uses them".

Laurin's Floral Photography

FP: Where do you see the problem in "Author Rights" in photography? Laurin: "I put a thread up on another site about this, and about Copyright, and about how to control your copyright. I believe that they (stock sites) all made a huge mistake 3 years ago. They said, "send us your pictures on your hard drive, make money with your pictures on your hard drive." That's what killed it. That little sentence, right there, and people are still talking about that sentence, is why they are still sending in crap. They think, 'oh, I shot this or that, so I will send them in, and become a stock photographer.' Which is so far from the truth that it's frightening. I think 90% of those people aren't really interested in the answer to this question, and maybe 10% are, like maybe me. I copyright every single photograph that is sent to anyone at anytime. So I can burn a CD with 3000-4000 images at 300x300 mp range and send them into the copyright office with $30, and I'm covered for 3000 images. That's basically it, I don't know if this question applies to everyone."

FP: There is one photograph in your collection, called "Rainy Day" (#I1035888) evoke a strong emotional response. What ideas did you wish to convey with this work? Laurin: "How come you picked that one, isn't that strange?” To which I replied with tongue-in-cheek, and a smile, "Yes that's strange, she's gorgeous, great face, and the shot brings out a lot of emotional response." "She's a student of mine, I shoot nothing but students, if it's a big job, then the Client pays the modeling fees. It was a shot that probably came from memory of something I had done before. I was in the studio; I have a bed in the studio. I put her on the bed, and said, 'look out the window', and Bam. It's a huge seller, probably several thousand downloads. You just never know. We were at the end of the shoot, and when I do use a model, it's usually about a 2-1/2 to 3 hour session; I'll go through 500-600 shots and maybe come out with 10%, which is o.k. with me, and that was one of them. It turned into a biggy (Rainy Day) ."

FP: We do like your portraits very much. What is your approach to shooting portraits? How much do you direct people? Laurin: "Total, total, total, control. I control every aspect of the shoot."

FP: Lastly, what has been your most enjoyable shoot so far? Laurin: "And what's my favorite color? (we both laughed at this one) I have no idea, the only thing I can say is the classic pat answer, "The Last One". There you go, that's about as close as I can get to that one."

That was the end of this interview, and we closed with a request to Laurin that if he saw any way that we could improve FP, we would welcome his input with open arms.