Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
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Coming Soon! Every year we'll be publishing at least two magazines of our work. Look for our first issue soon.
Late last month I taught at the Maine Media Workshops. I had heard great things about the workshops but had never been myself so I didn’t know what to expect.
It was like summer camp for photographers.
The class I taught was titled Video for Photographers. Both my students and I were in awe of what they were all able to accomplish in less than a week. They learned the importance of audio, translating your still photography to video and structuring a story. In five days, they each shot and edited a video.
If you have the time and resources, I would definitely recommend the school.
Jenn and I were fortunate to be two of the 90 emerging photographers nominated to attend LOOKbetween a few weekends ago. We were inspired by some of the best and brightest young photographers that are working in the field today. See a full list of the photographers and links to their website on the LOOKbetween site.
I can say without hesitation it was the best photo festival I have ever attended. This had everything a good festival needs, an amazing venue (Thanks Jessica!) delicious food, gifted photographers, great management, generous sponsors, industry leaders who are passionate about our field and most importantly just all around good people.
The days were laid out nicely with each evening ending with 3-minute multimedia pieces of everyone’s work. Saturday morning was filled with small discussion groups on various topics and a larger afternoon group discussion based on those smaller discussion groups. The discussion that occurred around multimedia were interesting to me with some people strongly opposed to it and others willingly embracing it. If you know Jenn and I you know we’re all about embracing it. PDNPulse had two nice recaps of the multimedia happenings and discussions that took place At LOOKbetween, A Discussion of Video and Multimedia Storytelling and LookBetween Festival Highlights Emerging Photographers’ Multimedia
Andrew, Jenna, Miki and the rest of the gang at LOOK3 thanks for all your hard work in putting together what was an unforgettable weekend. Hopefully it can happen again sometime soon for another batch of up and coming photographers. Our profession needs it.
Til next time Deep Rock!
Thanks to David Walker and the crew at PDN, there is a great write up about us and our work for the Miss Universe Organization. Click here to read the full article.
“They were self-starters, who would come with their own ideas,” says Shugart, who didn’t want to do any hand-holding. “They would be able to take us to the next level.”
They also had a mix of shooting and production skills, which is increasingly important as media converges, Shugart says. “No longer can anyone be just a photographer.”- Paula Shugart, President of the Miss Universe Organization
It’s a land of 11,842 lakes, home to food on a stick, SPAM in a can, the Jucy Lucy, one mega mall, and Wally the Beerman. Now it’s also home to Jenn and I.
We are beyond ecstatic to be calling Minneapolis home and the past few weeks have been filled with unpacking boxes and getting settled in. The books are on the bookcase and prints are hanging on the wall. Being settled has never felt so good.
If you find yourself in Minneapolis or the Midwest don’t be a stranger and say hi! Jenn loves to host and I love to grill. So you’ll leave merry and full.
A few diptychs shot from our moving truck.
We also shot a short-film on our move. Watch it below.
On a mobile device? Watch a friendly version of Hello Minnesota!
We are excited to be back in Vegas for the second year documenting behind-the-scenes at Miss USA for the month of May. As the official documentary team, we will be shooting both video and stills and producing short films on the women as they prepare for the 16-day quest for the crown.
Anytime we travel we make sure we bring the Polaroid. Here are some recent Polaroids from our travels.
See more from the project in the American Tourist gallery on our website.
We recently had one of the most memorable weekends we can recall hosting The Review Workshop.
It’s rare as freelancers that we have the chance to be so immersed with other creatives and have the in-depth discussions that are so thoughtful, look at new work, and just flat out be inspired. The weekend was just that for everyone we took part.
Trying to write this post to recap the weekend is hard. There was so much that we enjoyed and took away from the weekend.
We opened the night with a short-film festival and the discussions that were provoked by the work was plain awesome. You forget how much you miss an environment that good photography programs provide and the luxury of having creative discussions with ease because you’re surrounded by creatives on a daily basis.
The opening short-film festival night reminded us how much we missed our film nights from grad school. We watched and discussed everything from Moby’s new music video, the different production value of documentaries, the current trend of using the 5dMKII and so much more.
On the workshop website you will also find all the short films that were shared during the short-film festival portion of our workshop minus the great discussions that went with every piece viewed.
Saturday was filled with with even more great dialogues about our industry. Everyone shared 1 thing that has inspired them this past year. Some even shared non photo related things, which was great. We had a nice afternoon stroll on the beach and closed the evening with people sharing their own work.
What inspired the whole weekend workshop were the mini-workshops we’ve been holding for the two of us. A few of those workshops were filled with worksheets and exercises, which you can find under the resources section on The Review workshop website.
Dedicate a good day to filling them out. Take your time and be honest with yourself and if you’re anything like Jenn and I it should bring a lot more clarity to your creative driven life.
Fill out the worksheets and file them away and get to working towards your goals with a fresh outlook on things. The act of writing something down is a powerful thing. Unlike our thoughts, which fade in and out the written word doesn’t forget what you promised or the goals you set. In a few months pull out the worksheets and read over your answers – that for us has been the best part of filling out these worksheets. They serve as a wonderful way of holding yourself accountable.
Matt Eich had a nice post with some images and a few words about the workshop on the Luceo blog. Check it out here.
A huge thanks to everyone who made the trip and making the weekend what it was! Hopefully we can do it again sometime soon.
A few images from the weekend workshop:
A stroll on the beach during the workshop.
A book shared during the 1 Thing portion of the workshop.
Harlow Running on the Beach.
Morning Coffee on the Beach.
We had a great time talking at UNC and were surprised the great turnout and pleased with all the questions everyone had for us. It seems more and more students are becoming in tune with the possibility of being freelance straight out of school.
It was great to back on a college campus again and reminded us how incredibly inspiring it can be to surrounded by so many like-minded people working towards the same thing.
Thanks to everyone who made it out – we had a blast!
Tracy over at Innovative Interactivity was kind enough to write a recap of our talk on her blog. Read her post Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber advise photographers to learn the business behind the photo
A few of the 10 pieces of advice Tracy pulled from our talk. Find the rest on her blog.
- “Be open to exploring other art forms and other photography that you might not necessarily like, but find the good in that and let it inspire you and drive you.” – Tim
- “Check your ego at the door because you are learning and telling other people’s stories.” – Jenn
- “Our industry is ultimately about relationships so shake those hands so people can meet the face behind the photo.” – Tim
- “In the beginning it was fun to struggle, but after awhile it sucks,” Jenn warned. “If you are constantly thinking about money you cannot be creative.”
We are honored and excited to be speaking at the Carolina Photojournalism PhotoNight at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
If you are in the area we would love to see you there! It’s tomorrow night(March 23) at 7:30 in Carroll Hall Room 33.
More details on the Carolina Photojournalism site, which is beautiful site.
Come see us speak at UNC's PhotoNight
Jenn and I are excited to be hosting our first creative workshop this weekend called The Review.
You may already know we have been holding regular workshops for the two of us as a way to track our growth, keep us inspired and push ourselves forward. This workshop for us is a natural extension of what started as a simple thing between the two of us and now we’re excited to share it with our friends and peers.
Hopefully the workshop can inspire everyone involved. I know if we as group can’t inspire one another, the ocean surely will. As Jenn and I have found those waters sitting just beyond the front yard are magical.
Along with sharing work, we have designed the workshop to encourage creative dialogue and discussions about living and working as a photographer.
We’re opening the weekend tonight by having a mini short film festival and throughout the weekend we are going to encourage everyone to dream big!
We’ll try to post the films and any other resources from the weekend on the workshop website.
The Review Workshop