Photography

Photon’s app for pro photographers lets you shoot and save to an external drive

Photon’s app for pro photographers lets you shoot and save to an external drive

Photon, an iOS app for pro photographers, is introducing a new feature that will allow iPhone 15 Pro users to save their photos directly to an external drive, freeing up valuable disk space on their device. The app, which hails from LateNightSoft, the makers of the popular consumer app Camera+, was launched this July to cater to a more professional audience with tools for adjusting focus, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, format and resolution, among other things.

To be clear, the new feature isn’t an export option, which can be time-consuming, but actually a way to directly save photos to external storage.

To get started, users have to toggle on the option in the app’s Settings (the button in the bottom-right corner of the screen). From there, you’ll tap “Capture” and enable the option “Use External Storage.” You can then plug in your external drive and start taking photos.

The app supports a variety of photo formats, including JPEG, HEIF, RAW and ProRAW. The latter, introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro, is Apple’s own take on a RAW image — combining a traditional RAW image with Apple’s computational photography advances.

A number of photo apps have capitalized on this addition to the Pro lineup by adding support for ProRAW, including apps like Obscura, Halide, Lightroom and others. But because ProRAW photos are up to 10 to 12 times larger than HEIF or JPEG files, or even larger if you choose 48 MP as the resolution, they can take up a lot of storage space on your device — and then in your iCloud Photos cloud storage, as well.

Photon lets you bypass this issue by connecting an external drive. When you’re finished shooting, you can then plug in the drive to your Mac or PC where you have your editing software installed to access your files, the company says.

Since its debut, the app has topped 10,000 monthly active users in just a few months, the company tells TechCrunch. Photon generates revenue through its subscription offering, which costs $3.99 per month or $19.99 per year. There’s also an option to purchase the Pro version for a one-time price of $39.99. Support for using an external drive is not an extra charge.

Camera action | Photography Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Camera action | Photography Centre, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Ever since photography was invented in the first half of the 19th century, there have been ongoing debates about the nature of the medium and its value and appeal.

Even today, books about photography usually feel the need to define and discuss what photography is, while exhibitions often feature practitioners whose work is described as blurring the lines between photography and other artforms, whether that is painting, video or even sculpture.

What everyone can agree on is that photography is an accessible, diverse and ubiquitous medium; it is everywhere and nearly everyone is a photographer, with most of us having images on our smartphones and engaging with numerous images every day through websites and other digital media.

Photographs also continue to inhabit the non-digital world in magazines, books, posters and in many other products that we consume.

For museums and galleries that display photography, this creates a problem, but also an opportunity – with photography being so ubiquitous, how do you decide what to show? What makes photography special and worthy of being shown in a gallery?

The gallery spaces in the V&A’s Photography Centre, including the Royal Photographic Society’s library and new digital commission by Jake Elwes(c) Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Gibson Thornley Architects, Thomas Adank

Questions such as this were surely addressed by curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as they planned the displays for the Photography Centre, which was completed in May and now has seven galleries.

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The V&A began acquiring photographs in 1852, and its collection is now one of the largest in the world, with about 800,000 images dating from 1839 to the present day. How did the museum whittle this down to the 600 images that are on display?

One of photography’s great powers is the way it can tell stories, whether that is about people, places or ideas, and the best of the centre’s galleries reflect this.

The centre kicks off with Inside the Camera, a great introductory gallery that tells the story of photography from its very early days. As well as a small number of objects, the displays are supported by short and funky cartoon films that explain in a simple but engaging way how camera technology has evolved over the years.

These films show how everything links back to the principles of the camera obscura, which, at is most basic, is a darkened room with a small hole on one side through which an images is projected on to a wall. The curators have not tried to do too much in this gallery, which makes it an effective and satisfying introduction.

The Photography Centre ends with displays on the theme of power. Energy: Sparks from the Collection features about 200 works from the 1840s through to the present day.

It’s a clever concept that has allowed the curators to show a bit of everything. A case focusing on nuclear power and atomic weapons could form the basis of an exhibition by itself.

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Other subjects covered under the energy theme include coal production, travel, dance, nature and lots more. Inevitably, some of the works have stronger links to the theme than others.

The displays in Energy: Sparks from the Collection feature a wide range of photography techniques, including more obscure ones such as stereographs.

And the theme has also allowed the curators to show works by some of the giants of the medium such as William Henry Fox Talbot, Richard Avedon, Brassaï, Henri Cartier Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Man Ray and others. But there also images created by some of the many unknown photographers who feature in the V&A’s collection.

In between the introductory gallery and Energy: Sparks from the Collection, there are spaces showing recent acquisitions that are being exhibited at the museum for the first time. There is a room dedicated to a new digital commission, and a room focusing on photography and the book.

The section on photography and the book houses the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Library. A small number of the books on the floor-to-ceiling shelves are available to browse while the others can be accessed by joining the RPS.

This area also features a small display called How Not to Photograph a Bulldog, which looks at one of the many topics covered by the manuals in the library, in this case revealing how dogs have been used to teach photography, and how dog photography has developed as a discipline in its own right.

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The digital commission is by British media artist Jake Elwes, who has explored the use of deepfake technology and artificial intelligence with drag cabaret performance.

The new acquisitions explore a broad range of subjects, including identity, race, sexuality, and climate change, together with a wide range of technical approaches and practices.

I particularly liked the otherworldly scenes created by Antony Cairns using a fusion of traditional and digital photographic and printing processes.

I was also impressed by Peruvian-born Tarrah Krajnak’s imaginative self-portraits and German photographer Vera Lutter’s giant works created using a camera obscura.

Vera Lutter, Radio Telescope, Effelsberg XV September 12, 2013 – © Vera Lutter

It will be interesting to see how the V&A’s Photography centre will develop. With such a vast archive, choosing what to show is going to continue to be a challenging but exciting opportunity.

Photography is fast-moving medium, particularly in today’s digital world. Keeping pace with these changes while maintaining coherent displays and showcasing the museum’s fantastic collection won’t be easy for the V&A.

One opportunity might be to broaden the spaces devoted to new acquisitions. It would be interesting to see a stronger thematic focus in the future or larger displays devoted to the work of single photographers.

Whatever decisions are taken, with the completion of the V&A’s Photography Centre, London now has a fantastic range of spaces dedicated to the medium.

The Centre for British Photography, a private initiative, was unveiled at the start of the year and these new venues have joined the long-established Photographers’ Gallery. There are also a range of other museums and galleries in London, that regularly host temporary photography shows.

Outside the capital the picture is more patchy, not helped by Side Gallery in Newcastle losing its Arts Council England National Portfolio Status last year.

Further back, in 2017, Bradford lost the RPS’s collection when it moved from the National Media Museum (now the National Science and Media Museum) to the V&A, which considerably expanded an already vast collection.

In a kind of levelling-up in reverse, some of these works can now be seen at the Photography Centre in South Kensington.

Project data

Elton John and David Furnish; Kusuma Trust; Bern Schwartz Family Foundation; Ruth Monicka Parasol; Parasol Foundation Trust; Meta Media; Shao Zhong Art Foundation

Base-build architect

Fit-out architect

Gibson Thornley

Duncan Forbes; Marta Weiss; Hana Kaluznick; Fiona Rogers; Catherine Troiano; Martin Barnes; Lydia Caston, Phoebe Evans

Native photographers tell their own stories in major Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibition

Native photographers tell their own stories in major Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibition

Jaida Grey Eagle grew up around photojournalists. They showed up regularly to report on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where she lived until she was 5 and where she returned each summer for ceremony and community.

They looked at her. But they never looked like her.

When she expressed interest in becoming a photographer, older people talked her out of it. “They were like, ‘You can’t do photography,'” said Grey Eagle, 35, who is Oglala Lakota. “‘That’s a job for white dudes.'”

But she did it anyway, becoming a documentary and editorial photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times.

Now, Grey Eagle is co-curating a major photography exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that uses more than 150 images, taken with cameras ranging from snapshot to state-of-the-art, to spotlight how generations of Indigenous photographers and photojournalists have not only participated in the medium but pushed it forward.

Within “In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now,” which opens Oct. 21, Native American, First Nations, Métis and Inuit photographers capture distinct geographies and histories and legacies. Mothers and potters and protesters.

“It feels like a new thing that editors and institutions are starting to give more faith back to the community,” Grey Eagle said, “acknowledging that they are very capable of telling their own stories.”

The show is organized by theme rather than chronology, with historic black-and-white photographs beside crisp contemporary images.

“It’s not laid out in this clinical museum timeline,” she said. “It’s a lot dreamier than that.”

The show builds off the encyclopedic museum’s “Hearts of Our People,” a 2019 exhibition that gathered and contextualized a thousand years of art made by Native American women. To create that show — praised as “bold,” “groundbreaking” and “once-in-a-generation” — the Minneapolis Institute of Art tried something new, working with an all-female, mostly Native advisory panel of 21 artists and experts on themes, texts and more.

“In Our Hands” takes that collective process a step further.

A curatorial council of 14 advisers, including Native artists and academics based in Canada and the United States, selected the show’s photographic images and objects, drawing on their diverse specialties and connections.

They first met during the pandemic via Zoom.

Quickly, it became clear that “we were not the first,” said Casey Riley, the show’s co-curator and the museum’s curator of photography and new media. “While the work that we were collectively doing at Mia was valuable, it was building on the work of many Indigenous scholars and artists. …

“There was this thriving, parallel ecosystem of photographic history that none of our educations had adequately addressed.”

That history includes B.A. Haldane, a proud Tsimshian, whose sepia self-portrait, taken around 1920, anchors the hefty exhibition catalog. Haldane sits in the image’s center surrounded by photo equipment, including a Kodak Brownie camera. Suited and stern, he looks into the lens as he leans on a model totem pole carved with his wolf clan crest.

“There has been a history of extraction on the part of non-Native photographers in relating to Native people,” Riley said. “But Native people aren’t passive actors outside of time, outside of technology.

“What the show makes clear … is that Indigenous people have been working with the medium since its inception.”

As part of the curatorial council, Rosalie Favell, a Métis artist of Cree and English ancestry, discovered historical work she hadn’t seen before, including some by Métis photojournalists. Growing up in Winnipeg, Favell first encountered photography via family snapshots, albums and slideshows. That “set the stage for my love of looking,” Favell writes in an essay included in the exhibition catalog.

With her work, she’s mined those family photos “for clues to who I was,” she said by phone, situating herself in the Métis people’s complex history.

She toyed with photographs of her grandmother, situating one atop a postcard of Winnipeg’s Main Street. She toyed with snapshots of herself, including one from her first day of kindergarten, scrawling across it in red ink: “my first day of assimulation.”

After her work was included in “Hearts of Our People,” Favell became “somewhat of a groupie,” seeing the exhibition in other venues, including the Frist Art Museum in Nashville. That show’s co-curator, Jill Ahlberg Yohe, the institute’s associate curator of Native American art, asked Favell to be a part of “In Our Hands.”

Favell, 65, had never before encountered a major museum exhibition organized so collectively, so transparently, so accountably.

“So often, in larger institutions, curators are made to be invisible,” she said.

Having a council gives the show a broader knowledge base and awareness of artists, Favell said, which leads to a better show.

“We’re all so different,” she said. “We’re not just one Indigenous people. We’re many, many.”

A graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts, Grey Eagle was new to her role as the museum’s Shakopee Mdewakanton Fellow when she and the women who would become her co-curators began discussing a photo project.

But she had seen “Hearts of Our People” — again and again.

“I ended up coming three or four times,” Grey Eagle said during an interview inside Mia’s photo study room. She and a friend pitched in to buy a catalog, and she learned how the show was “created in community.”

When she learned that Mia hoped to root this show in a similar process, she thought, “OK, that feels so good to me.”

Imagining young Native artists, people like her younger self, encountering “In Our Hands,” Grey Eagle began to cry. “I don’t want to get emotional,” she said. But her eyes filled with tears. Her hands trembled.

For those Native kids who love photography to “know they have a rich and deep history within it” is important, she added later, “because when I was a kid in school here in Minnesota, I so often felt erased from most histories.

“I just hope this helps not only Native kids but people in general to appreciate the dedication and contributions of Native photographers to the medium.”

From Rookie to MVP: The story behind Olson Photography

From Rookie to MVP: The story behind Olson Photography
image

Jim Olson was at a crossroads. It was 1987, and he and wife Susan’s first son was due in June.  The future Nokesville residents had been transferred to Dulles from Memphis.

“I had the airline job I always wanted, but it had been seven tough years working the ticket counter and gates,” Jim, a Minnesota native, said. “I wanted to be around for my kids, and I knew the airline hours would make that hard.”

He considered starting different businesses, anything that would replace his airline salary and afford them flexibility.

“I saw a magazine ad offering youth sports photography in another city, and that seemed interesting.” Jim liked photography but had no experience outside one semester of photography class in school.

Nonetheless, he founded Olson Photography in March 1987, months before the couple’s first son was born.

“The driving force was not missing our kids growing up – it could have been a car wash or really any type of business!” he laughed.

Jim stayed with his airline position until July of that year while Susan kept her job.

“Here we were, having our first baby, and I announced to my father-in-law, a successful football coach and businessman, that I was quitting my job to start a business. Initially, it didn’t go over so well!” Jim said. “The pressure of a new baby and a new business was a lot to take on. But sometimes when your back is against the wall, that is when you do your best,” he said.

“When you start a business, you wonder – will the phone ever ring?” Jim said. “The first call I got was from a travel soccer team in Sterling with 15 players. I was so excited, I put a suit on to hand deliver the order envelopes. I took those team pictures, and that is how it all began!”

Launching a business comes with challenges, and Jim recalls one that still makes him smile.

“Early on, I head out to Chantilly Youth Association (CYA) softball, where there are 15-20 teams,” Jim recalls. “At this point, I have one set of equipment. Everything is going well, until part way through the shoot when my camera stopped working. I told them I needed to get my other camera – but I didn’t have another camera!

“I drove to Fair Oaks Mall to buy a new camera that I couldn’t afford. Thankfully, they were able to adjust my battery and my camera worked! I still do CYA’s pictures today, so they cut me some slack.”

For the first five years, Olson Photography used an outside photo processing lab in Pennsylvania to fulfill orders.

“Honesty and integrity are very important to me,” Jim said. “I promised a three-week delivery to my leagues. Sometimes our order wouldn’t be ready, and that wasn’t good enough for me.”

The lab was over three hours away, and Jim would drive to pick up the pictures on Friday so he could deliver by Saturday’s deadline. So, in 1992, he took a chance and invested $100,000 to open his own lab.

“It turned out to be the best thing – but at the time it was a scary step,” he said. “I didn’t have a background in photo finishing or running a lab. I was renting office space and had one full-time employee, and we had to learn how to work the machine and manage a fair amount of volume during the season.” 

Jim states the biggest challenge is replenishing the photography staff due to the part-time, seasonal nature of the jobs.

“Employees are definitely the most important part of any business; we could not have grown without the many exceptional people working with us over the years,” Jim said. “They are the backbone and we have been blessed to work with many quality individuals.” 

Reflecting, Jim adds, “I see us providing memories and products for families to cherish for a lifetime. It’s very humbling and rewarding. They will have our photos for the rest of their lives – what an honor to be part of that. We are grateful for the continued support from so many youth sports organizations in our community and from the parents that make our success possible.”

Thirty-nine years, three adult children and two grandkids, three full-time employees (one of which is their eldest son, John), and a lifetime of family and photographic memories later, and Jim is humbled and thankful.

“I love every minute of it – I never missed a practice or game with my own kids, and during our season I now write over sixty paychecks! It’s amazing what has happened since 1987.” 

And his father-in-law?

“He was not good at handing out compliments, but he eventually came around, and said I was the most successful person he knew!”

This feature appeared in the October 2023 issue of Haymarket-Gainesville Lifestyle Magazine. You can read the entire issue here and pick up copies at these locations.

 

 

How a photographer shot Teahupoo with a hint of light snow

How a photographer shot Teahupoo with a hint of light snow

My name is Gaëtan Charlin. I’m originally from Lyon, France, and grew up far from the sea.

To be honest, I only discovered surfing at the age of 12 when I had my first introduction, but it wasn’t until I turned 18 that I truly fell in love with the ocean.

This sport became a real passion that shaped the rest of my life, and nurturing it led me to the world of photography.

My obsession with surfing and the sea eventually made city life unbearable, and I felt the need to move.

Six months later, I left school in the middle of the year and headed to Hawaii.

In November 2018, at the age of 20, I landed on the island of Hawaii armed with my first camera.

I spent three months there, surfing and photographing every day.

I started capturing landscape and surfer images, as well as waves and lineups, inspired by what I saw in magazines.

With the ocean and photography as my main passions, it felt natural to combine them and pursue my dream.

Since then, I’ve spent the past year traveling the world in search of waves and moments to capture.

Gaëtan Charlin: a surf photographer from Lyon, France | Photo: Gaëtan Charlin

The Tahiti Click

It wasn’t until six years later that I decided to go to Tahiti, this time with proper photography gear, a new Canon camera, and a telephoto lens.

Tahiti became the place where everything began.

My lifelong dream had always been to live near the ocean, so I stayed here for two years, mainly for its legendary Teahupoo wave.

It’s a perfect, long, hollow tube that every surfer dreams of riding.

It’s really a cylinder that you can surf, not one where you have to be towed in unless it’s huge.

Teahupoo is the pinnacle.

It’s also set against a unique backdrop with the mountains and the valley of the village of Teahupoo.

What makes it even more special is that this very substantial wave breaks over a coral reef, and just beside it, it’s deep, allowing boats to get very close.

You can document and film the wave from the side, with a direct view into the tube, which is quite rare.

It’s unlike at Pipeline or many other surf spots where you’re on the beach, seeing the wave from afar.

At Teahupoo, anyone, even with a smartphone, can capture an incredible image from a boat.

This is how I met many surfers and got noticed by magazines and brands.

It opened doors for me. From that moment on, I decided to become a photographer and make it my real profession.

Teahupoo, Code Red: when it's big, it's always busy | Photo: Gaëtan Charlin

The Power of Photography

Photography is such an incredible medium; it has the power to tell stories and remember specific moments.

When I look at each of my images, I have so many flashbacks – the journey that led to that moment, random memories about the subject of the photo, and fun moments that happened during the trip.

Everything that comes to mind.

In 20 years, I want to look back on my life and remember all these amazing memories.

I love documenting my life through images and sharing it on various platforms.

I want to show people how many beautiful places there are in the world.

My best memories are from traveling. On the road, you meet so many new people and experience different things in life.

I want people to step out of their comfort zones and try new things. You only live once.

Teahupoo, Tahiti: one of the heaviest barreling waves on the planet | Photo: Gaëtan Charlin

The Teahupoo Shot

Let’s talk about the photo I was selected for in the Red Bull Illume 2023 photography contest in the Best of Instagram category.

It’s the first one you see in this article, up above.

It was taken during the April/May 2023 Code Red event in Tahiti, at the Teahupoo spot, where everything started professionally for me.

When I first arrived at Teahupoo, I fell in love with what I saw, and since then, I haven’t stopped photographing this wave.

It’s a fascinating world!

So, I stay there all year, watching the weather conditions and waiting for everything to align.

It’s one of the challenges of surf photography – all conditions must come together.

Sometimes, just a few days in the year make up my entire photographic year. So, you must be present, ready, and not miss them.

The day before the Code Red, we were all excited about the upcoming day. Surfers from around the world had traveled for this day.

We had a lot of trouble with the police, who put an end to all boat trips, but finally, by the end of the day, I managed to find a boat that took me to the wave.

The moment had come, getting up very early in the morning to be ready to be the first one at the spot.

I took the boat and realized that after all this time dreaming of surfing here, I was finally part of this world.

I was with the Hawaiian team and many great photographers and videographers.

It’s both very intimidating, and at the same time, you feel so proud to be there.

Just after a few waves, I saw Kai Lenny get towed in by Lucas Chumbo on the first bomb of the day.

The elements were aligned, and I had always had this image in mind for this particular surf spot.

I wanted to show that an avalanche could happen in the water as well as in the mountains.

In the process of editing the image, I love how you can dive into a picture and see what’s there and what’s not.

You become an integral part of the image.

I aimed to highlight and merge the energy of the outer and inner waves through contrast and a hint of light snow.

The photo is now one of the 250 semifinalists of the Red Bull Illume 2023.

You can check out my Instagram account @gaetancharlin to explore more of my work. Soon, I’ll create my website and offer photo prints.

Technical Settings

Camera: Canon EOS R5
Lens: 200mm
ISO: 200D+
F-Stop: 2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/2 550

Words by Gaëtan Charlin | Photographer and Surfer

Microscopic Photography: Winners of Nikon Small World 2023 – Videos from The Weather Channel

Microscopic Photography: Winners of Nikon Small World 2023 – Videos from The Weather Channel

In pictures: Insect close-up wins wildlife photo contest

In pictures: Insect close-up wins wildlife photo contest
White-legged damselflyHarry Berks

A photograph capturing a white-legged damselfly’s face has been crowned overall winner in a wildlife charity’s photography competition.

Harry Berks, 24, from Banbury, took the winning shot at Lamb’s Pool nature reserve in Oxfordshire.

The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust challenged nature lovers of all ages to take pictures at one its 86 reserves or in their community.

Images were selected in 12 categories, including birds, reptiles and fungi.

Common frog at Letcombe Valley

Jessica Crumpton

Round-leaved sundew at Sole Common Pond

Paul Olive

yellow-and-black hoverfly

Fern

Grangelands & The Rifle Range nature reserve

Gill Cornelius

Urban winner - Danny Kidby-Hunter

Danny Kidby-Hunter

Mammals: Andrew Kelsick

Andrew Kelsick

Team Wilder winner - Colin Lamb

Colin Lamb

All photos subject to copyright.

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Omaha customers fed up with consistent cancellations by photographer

Omaha customers fed up with consistent cancellations by photographer

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A friend took pictures on her wedding day because Macy Blake was focused on a cancelation message from Schirmbeck Photography.

“It was three hours before I walked down the aisle and I had no professional photographer to work with,” Blake said. “I had no time to get anybody there.”

Keeping half for engagement photos, the owner of Schirmbeck Photography, Kelsey Livengood, refunded Blake $500 and gave 6 News an explanation for missing the client’s big day.

“I made it 30 minutes into my drive and I had to pull over in a gas station,” Livengood said. “I had a seizure and went straight to the emergency room.”

Andrea Johnson is grateful her aunt took photos after the same wedding photographer didn’t show.

“She messaged me three hours before my wedding that she was not coming because her son broke his arm and she was in the ER with him,” Johnson said.

The photographer says it was actually her daughter with the emergency, but she refunded about $300 of the customer’s $500 in installments of $50 per week.

“If I owe anybody a refund, they’re more than welcome to come talk to me and remind me that I owe them a refund,” Livengood said.

But refunds aside, Christie Blankenship of CB Wedding Services says half a dozen brides have called over the past two years asking her to step in when Schirmbeck Photography has canceled.

“[They call me] anywhere from the day of [the wedding] to eight days before and their hearts are broken because they’re out of budget at that point,” Blankenship said.

Livengood says that’s not true.

“That doesn’t sound right to me,” Livengood said. “In my 12 years of doing photography, I’ve maybe had to cancel four weddings. Maybe.”

And it’s not just weddings, but family portraits, too. Lindsey Lundeen scheduled a family photo session last Halloween with Livengood.

“She canceled when we were already ready to go and was trying to reschedule again, but the schedules weren’t going to work out for us,” Lundeen said.

Livengood refunded Angela Bosak $80 after a similar incident.

“We showed up at our location 15 minutes before it was to start and she messaged me back on her business page saying that she had to cancel due to her husband taking the car,” Bosak said.

The Better Business Bureau gives Schirmbeck Photography an “F” rating.

“A lot of the complaints we forwarded to the company, which they haven’t responded to,” said Jim Hegarty with BBB. “We did notify them that we were investigating a pattern of complaints.”

But Livengood says she books 150 photo sessions for the holidays and 30 weddings per year.

“If I’m canceling a lot, I wouldn’t have the full business I have right now,” Livengood said. “I do have good reviews, people just aren’t posting them.”

And if forced to cancel, Livengood says she’ll develop a plan to make refunds, adding she’s paid back several clients already.

“They just need to come to me and let me know and I’ll make it right, bottom line,” Livengood said.

Some clients tell 6 News that they’re still owed money by Livengood, but special memories that deserve a trained eye are priceless and can’t be recaptured.

“Those are pictures I’ll never get back,” Blake said. “I’ll never be able to redo them.”

The BBB says it will work with Livengood to resolve the complaints if she asks for help. Livengood told 6 News that she plans to contact the bureau.

The Nebraska Attorney General has already provided mediation that led to the monthly repayment for one client.

Obituary: Richard ‘Scoop’ Koehler, Daily Pilot, L.A. Times photographer kept eye trained on local news

Obituary: Richard ‘Scoop’ Koehler, Daily Pilot, L.A. Times photographer kept eye trained on local news

Richard Koehler, a former Daily Pilot photographer known for being the first to arrive at a breaking news scene — which earned him the nickname “Scoop” — died Thursday at his Costa Mesa home after a battle with cancer. He was 82.

Friends, family members and colleagues fondly recall a man who carried a camera wherever he went, snapping images of people, places and scenes, both for placement in area publications or for the sheer pleasure of watching life unfold before a viewfinder.

Richard “Scoop” Koehler in his office at the Daily Pilot in the 1970s. The lifelong photographer died Thursday at age 82.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

“My dad was a really quiet person, but he liked being involved — I think that was one of his ways to be involved in the community,” daughter Kerrie Conti recalled of her father’s photography Tuesday. “He felt more comfortable with his camera.”

Born on April 2, 1941, Koehler graduated from Newport Harbor High School, where he served on the school newspaper before graduating in 1959 and moving on to Orange Coast College.

As a young reporter for the Newport Beach News Press, purchased by the Daily Pilot in the 1960s, Koehler had already garnered the nickname “Scoop” by those familiar with his penchant for listening to police radio scanners, retired Pilot sports editor Roger Carlson recalled in a 2004 column.

Richard Koehler with sons Todd and Tobin and daughter Kerrie Conti at Angel Stadium.

Richard Koehler, third from left, with sons Todd and Tobin and daughter Kerrie Conti at Angel Stadium in January.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

“As a lifeguard dispatcher he would hear the police calls and off he’d go on his motor scooter, almost always the first, and often, the only photographer at the scene for the benefit of the News Press,” Carlson wrote.

The photographer worked for the Pilot from 1966 to 1986, faithfully capturing the comings and goings of residents, politicians and civil servants in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in between crime incidents and weather events. When newsroom darkrooms weren’t available, he’d develop photos in a processing lab built onto his home.

“He would take us on calls with him. We’d go to fires or accidents, and we’d sit in the car,” Conti recalled. “When I grew up, I thought it was normal for people to have a [police] scanner in their house.”

Koehler eventually segued from the Daily Pilot to the Los Angeles Times in 1987, where he would win numerous awards from industry associations all the way up until his retirement in 2006, according to Conti.

But the photos didn’t stop there. The retiree lent his talents as a freelancer for the Orange County Register and was still snapping pics in 2022, when he received a first-place prize from the Orange County Press Club for a photo of a fatal vehicle crash in Newport Beach.

Members of the Costa Mesa Police Department remembered Koehler in a Facebook tribute Friday, recognizing the friendships he forged with first responders over his lifetime of service to the community.

“If you have ever read the local papers, you must have seen a photo taken by Scoop. At a crime scene, he was the first photographer on scene, day or night,” the tribute read. “Many of us worked with him for years, and for some of us he eventually became like family. He will be missed — RIP, Scoop.”

Koehler was predeceased by his wife of 52 years, Beryl, who died in November 2022 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, during which Richard was her primary caregiver.

Former Daily Pilot photographer Richard Koehler with his wife, Beryl.

Former Daily Pilot photographer Richard Koehler with his wife, Beryl, in November 2020.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)

Diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2021, he initially underwent treatment with few symptoms. But his health declined after the death of his wife, and Koehler received hospice care in the final days of his life.

Conti said even during her father’s final months, local firefighters and police officers came to visit and pay their respects. When Koehler was in the hospital, his cellphone kept ringing with breaking news alerts and had to be silenced.

He is survived by son Tobin Koehler and daughter-in-law Sherrie, of Fountain Valley; son Todd Koehler and daughter-in-law Sarah, of Rancho Santa Margarita; and daughter Kerrie Conti and her husband, Steve Conti, of Costa Mesa. He also leaves grandchildren Sydney, Braden, Alexa, Katie and Lindsey.

Family members are making arrangements with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach for a memorial service at a date to be determined.

Richard Koehler, right, with his wife and family.

Richard Koehler, right, with wife Beryl, front, and the couple’s children and grandchildren in November 2021.

(Courtesy of Kerrie Conti)