“A Day With Jay Maisel” Online Class Now Live!

Jay

I am just thrilled to announce that our online training class called “A Day With Jay Maisel” is now live at Kelby Training Online (link).

This class chronicles my “Day with Jay” as this living legend of photography walks the streets of New York City, shooting as he goes, and sharing some of the most amazing, insightful, thought provoking, and just plain brilliant ideas for taking your photography to the next level, that you’ll find anywhere. It truly is absolutely fascinating.

Jay3

In this video, I’m the student, and Jay does all the training. You’re there as we start out at Jay’s studio, then head out to the streets of Manhattan, shooting everywhere from the Subway to Times Square to a quaint Italian restaurant in Jay’s neighborhood. It’s an experience like no other, and the feedback we’ve been getting from Jay’s class is literally just out of this world. Photographers are blogging about it, raving about it, and learning from it around the world (There is only one Jay Maisel!).

Jay2

The class went live last Friday, and one of my readers, Sebastien Dalahaye posted this on my blog about the class:

“…Don’t know if that’s something related to what you learn from Jay Maisel in NYC, but I just watch the class on Kelby Training and whoah, amazing stuff. Class itself is worth the annual subscription.”

The class is produced kind of like a documentary, kind of like a reality show (because it’s pretty live and uncut, complete with Jay’s own “colorful” New York language), and kind of like a roving class, where whatever Jay sees, he shoots, and then he teaches. Seriously an amazing experience, and I hope you get to catch it. Here’s the link.

Jay4

Total
0
Shares
100 comments
  1. I watched Jay’s class this morning.
    It really is amazing.
    As I mentioned on twitter earlier, any class with sections on “How not to get killed” is really worth it’s weight in gold.
    Watching Jay “see” is great. The concept of telephoto vs. wide angle sight was really illuminating. And then watching him talk people into letting him photograph them is amazing.
    I am sure that if I was in the same situations, I would have ended up a statistic in a crime report somewhere. He truly is amazing

    Great class!!

    1. Hi Saquan:
      I wa a little freaked out. That’s a place the NYC transit Police don’t want you shooting, let alone angry New Yorkers. :)

      -Scott

      1. LOL. Scott. I wouldn’t worry about the angry New yorker, But the Station the Police are concern about would Be Yankee Stadium “161St. Station On 4, D&B Lines, Penn Station “34St.” “42nd St.”, “14 St. Union Square” “The Old Shea Stadium Station on the 7 Line” and a West 4th street Station A, B, C, D. Lines among a few other.

        Thanks for shooting in NYC once again.

  2. Hey Scott,
    I’ve been waiting for this video for quite a while and will watch it tomorrow for sure. One question though, as I lay here in bed with my iPad, are the videos on Kelby training ever going to be available in H.264 for my iPad/iPhone viewing pleasure? I’ve done some web development, so I know how much work it would be to make that happen, just wishful thinking. Keep up the awesome content.

    1. Hey Damien,
      I’m with you on that one. I have ask before and never got a response back. But, it would be awesome to have those classes on my iPhone while traveling and being stuck in airport or waiting for my Tim Horton Coffee!!

      Cheers,
      GT

    2. Another vote here for iPad support. I hope it’s feasible for KelbyTraining to work on them. When I go to lunch today, I could be watching Scott & Jay. Instead, I think I’ll be watching Blazing Saddles.

    3. On April 5th, Scott blogged:

      “That’s right—we’ve been developing an iPad App since the iPad was announced by Apple, and soon Kelby Training Online subscribers will be able to watch Kelby Training Classes right on their iPads.

      “We’re still putting some finishing touches on it, but it won’t be long now, and now that I’ve seen for myself what can be done on an iPad, I’m really excited about how we’ll be able to deliver our training (and of course this app is just the beginning).

      “Keep an eye out here on the blog and I’ll let you know when it’s released (and of course, I’ll have lots more details then).”

      It’s hard to imagine a more exciting time to be learning photography, or a better place to learn it than Kelby Training. iPad access will be the icing on an already tasty cake. Hang in there, guys. Life is good, and it just keeps getting better.

      1. Thanks Jack for the info. Seeing the original posted date got me thinking how did I miss that notice. I know you mention the iPad but will it work on the iPhone 3GS too?

        Cheers,
        GT

      2. It is truly amazing how Mac fanboys’ minds work:
        The fact that the iPad doesn’t support a full featured web experience isn’t wrong, it is the whole www world that is wrong, so it must adapt to suit the iPad.
        lol…

  3. Watched the class over two nights, and this is one of the best I’ve seen. Jay makes it seem so easy, to photograp people. I wish I had the courage to do so :-) But it was a great reminder for me, to go out and just try it out. Now I just need to pick a day , he he
    Jesper

  4. Just enrolled to KelbyTraining less than week ago and this is best lesson found so far, I hope you have more this kind of stuff on the way!

  5. What’s the difference between a guy from NYC and a guy from Florida both taking photographs on the streets of NY city? The guy from NYC protects his camera by using the shoulder strap and carrying it out in front so he can get it to the ready position quickly. The guy from Florida holds the camera in one hand dragging the strap. The guy from Florida is lucky never to have been mugged or dropped a camera and needs to take lessons from his wife on carrying valuables using a shoulder strap.

    By the way some of us amateur photographers think a $500+ lens is NOT inexpensive. Still it was a very informative lesson from street wise master photographer. Will try to apply some of it during the photowalk. Thanks for the words of wisdom.

    1. Hah! So funny. I was nervous the whole time watching Scott carrying his camera with the strap trailing near the ground. Not for fear of him getting rolled, but that it drops or gets caught on something. And then you have Maisel’s 70-300 hanging off to the side and almost getting smoked by passers by. Classic.

    2. Just because a lens may seem like a lot to YOU, does not make it expensive… comparatively speaking, $500 for a 70-300 w/ VR IS indeed inexpensive.

      1. As an old grumpy, who used to buy a film 70-210 lens for $300 when he was a working stiff, and now as a retiree with a wife who doesn’t understand the love of just pushing the shutter, a $500+ lens is not inexpensive.

    3. I too noticed the strap issue with Scott. When I was is high school (70’s) we were encouraged to take the straps off: That way the camera would be in your hands ready to shoot and not just hanging off you neck or shoulder.

  6. Anyone who does not have a subscription to kelbytraining.com knows not what they are missing!! I extended my subscription for 2 years at the Atlanta Seminar to recieve the freebies and I didn’t think twice about it. I can’t wait to watch Jay’s tutorial!!

  7. Also watched the video on Friday. Without a question this is one of my favorites. Jay is fearless. I hope some of his fearlessness will rub off on me.

    -Bob

  8. Watched it a couple days ago, and it’s brilliant. Totally brilliant. And inspiring. I had Maisel’s words going through my head all day yesterday. I’ll be watching that one many times. Thank you!!

  9. Excellent Scott. I’ve been waiting for a very long time for this course to go live (IIRC you first mentioned it as coming soon about 9 months ago). I guess this course could be seen as my raison d’etre for taking out a subscription with Kelby training, as street photography is a style I love having learnt about the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson at school.

    I say ‘could be seen as my raison d’etre’ as I actually succumbed to taking out a subscription a month or so ago because I figured that, despite the long passage of time since its announcement on your blog, you were a trustworthy soul and if you said it was coming soon it was bound to come online soon, so it would be worth taking out the subscription early anyway ;-)

    Now all I need to do is fine the time to get watching all the course available to me ;-)

    Best wishes,

    David

    1. Hi David:
      This was an incredibly hard class to produce, for a host of reasons, but now that we’ve done one, and know what the challenges will be, doing another one would take a fraction of the time.

      So sorry it took so long, but when you get a chance to watch it, Jay makes it worth the wait.

      S.

      1. Thanks for response Scott. I’m just sitting here now watching the course and really enjoying it.
        And yeah, it’s worth the wait and as a customer of the end product, I’m really pleased with my purchase :-)

        Looking forward to a second day with Jay;-)

        Thanks,
        David

  10. Now this I have to see so will be logging into Kelby Training later this afternoon.

    Having been intrigued by Jay’s way with words since Joe McNally blogged about his time spent in his company, seeing him in action sounds like it’ll be a treat for sure.

    Cheers,
    Glyn

  11. Saw the course and now I know why it was difficult for me to find pictures. I wasn’t looking. Not the way Jay does. After that course I took your no-LCD challenge, and headed towards town to make my 24 exposures. I never got there–finding 24 shots on the way.

  12. This was one of the most inspiring photography videos I’ve ever seen. I live in the same neighborhood as Jay and this changed my approach to street photography. Scott, thanks a ton for sharing this great video.

    I’d love to see more videos like this on kelbytraining.com.

    Bravo!

  13. Loved it. There is nothing I enjoy more than walking around a couple of blocks in a city and seeing what I can find to shoot. What an inspiration. But I do have a technical question. Why does Jay bracket if he shoots in RAW? Couldn’t he make those same adjustments later in software? Does he have someone else handle the Photoshop type work or does he just prefer minimal software work on his images period? I would never be able to afford one of his workshops – thank you so much for giving me a taste of what it would be like.

      1. Yup, Jay is not someone who likes computers very much. When you send him an email, his assistant prints them out so Jay can read them (like mail!). He’s a hoot. I had the time of my life hanging out with Jay for nearly two weeks when we both went down to do a class on the Amazon River. After a few days, he did get burned out of seeing only the color green. I learned more about photography in those two weeks from Jay than much of the three years of photography school at ACCD (where we had some awesome instructors, but nothing like Jay). He is simply amazing as both an artist and a human.

      2. I was just curious if Jay does all of his own editing or has an assistant do it.

    1. His assistant does the computer work :) I asked how much editing he does to the pictures while we were there, and he only does very very minimal stuff. What I would think is just the beginning of an edit for myself is the finished version for him!

  14. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see this video class up last Friday or so; like others I’ve been waiting for months for this – also the main reason I was keeping my subscription to Kelby up. I watched it all the way through that night. And again the next day. :) Jay is awesome. Absolutely love the fact that he shoots street with a D3 and 70-300 lens. Kiss his a$$, Chris Weeks. :P Just kidding. Sort of. But Jay did inspire me to take my 70-300 out – and without the hood! Anyway, thank you again for getting this video up. It did not disappoint at all!

    Now: GET THAT NEW MOOSE VIDEO OUT! :) (his blog said he just filmed one, now that y’all are done with all the little CS5 videos, you have time right? :)) Next to Jay, Moose’s videos are by far my favorite. Sorry, McNally.

    1. So let me clarify something. I shouldn’t have said the bit about the Maisel video being my main reason for keeping my Kelby Training subscription up [to date]. That’s sort of a lie. :) I said it as sort of hyperbole to emphasize how much I was looking forward to the video – and it delivered.

      I really appreciate all of the work that goes into the video on Kelby Training. It is truly a goldmine, and a steal at $20/month. (well, that’s when I got it; it’s still a steal at $25) My wife and I are doing budget talks (again), and we came to Kelby training and I looked her dead in the face and said, “We’re keeping Kelby.” It was a ‘go-to-bat over’ thing. My comment about the “little” CS5 videos was tongue-in-cheek.

      Just so you know; the videos at Kelby Training are amazing and absolutely worth it!

  15. Scott:

    Thank you soo much for doing this video. I have always wanted to know how to pronounce Jay’s last name. Now I know.

    Oh yeah, the training was incredibly insightful too!

  16. Hey Scott

    Chiming in with kudos on this series. As soon as I saw it under the new titles I stopped what I was doing to watch. Made me want to at once grab my camera and throw it away. A couple things stood out for me. One was Jay’s comment to wait for the scene to come to you (the ‘red wall’), and the other was your own admission of self-doubt and frustration. Always good to know I’m not alone!

    By the way, I’m surprised you missed what would have been a Classic Kelby shot in Times Square. In front of “the new building” that Jay hadn’t shot before was a row of waist-high metal pillars screaming for a perspective study.

    Something I would LOVE to see here would be a sampling of some of the images you and Jay captured that day. That and more of these types of classes. As was mentioned above the Kelby Training subscription continues to be worth its weight in gold.

  17. I watched this last week and went back to it over the weekend. I went out the next day and walked around the civic center near work just to make it more real. It gives you something to work on immediately. Well worth the monthly, if not yearly subscription, all by itself.

    Just watch it.

  18. Enjoyed the insights of waiting for things to come to you.
    Am I the only one who thinks Jay looks and talks like Brando himself, especially when he is sitting and chatting in the restaurant?

  19. Yes! He really reminded me of Brando. I liked his observation early on that the larger your lens, the more likely you’re going get it stuffed up your … well, you get the picture.

  20. While watching this on Memorial Day I observed @5:43 of the Times Square 2 episode, Jay said something like “we can’t have it all”. At the same time the scrolling banner behind him displaye “we can handle it all”. How did you guys do that?

  21. Great job! Where else can you get this kind of information? Nowhere! I really love the part with Jay taking the picture of the tourists… Little did they know! I saw him do that at Disney when I used to teach photography there… quick story…

    It was a special event at the Disney Institute and we were walking around the Magic Kingdom on a rainy day. Jay sees a little girl with blue eyes licking a blue lollipop wearing a yellow rain poncho. He asks the parents if he can take her picture and they agree. She just was expression-less with that blue lollipop. Then Jay says to the parents… “I think I got some great shots. Can you write down your address and I’ll send you one?” (This was in the days of slide film). At first the parents politely say, “no thanks, that’s okay”. I quickly took out a notepad and a pen and quietly said to them, “you really want to do this. He is one of the world’s best photographers.” So, they write down their information and I give the piece of paper to Jay. He holds it in his hands and takes a picture of it and says… “you see Scotty, now I don’t have to remember where I put that address.” Then he walks on down Main Street looking for another subject.

    I’ve always wondered how that shot came out and if the parents did get it… I’ll have to see if Jay remembers that one the next time I see him. What a wealth of knowledge and a great guy…

  22. Thank You, Thank You, Scott & Jay. I loved it. I felt as if I was right there with you both. It was a great time!!! I just posted a write up about it on my blog. What a bargin~I did even have to fly to New York! This would be hard to top but I hope you can do more ‘events’ like this in the future.

  23. Scott,

    Fantastic. Watched the whole thing from beginning to end without getting up from the chair. What a great student you are. Not once did you say “I would have shot it this way or that way, or any other kind of interruptions. There were so many times I would have asked something that probably no one else would have wanted to hear. He was the master and you were the pupil.

    It was a great way to spend the afternoon watching and learning from Jay, and also Kelby the Great.

    Andrew

  24. Scott

    Best thing I’ve seen yet on the site

    It was great to see you walking around with that look on your face – you know – the one that we all had on our faces walking around with YOU in savannah

    keep up the great work

    chuck

  25. A few years back Jay did a series for Epson taking pictures of buildings from the mentioned helicopter and taking it to the printer. Well worth the search if you can find it anymore. It does not have as many insights as this video series has.

  26. I signed up with KelbyTraining.com on a one month plan just to try it out. I was dying to see the lesson on Printing with my Epson R2880. Well worth the price for that class alone.

    I have also learned enough about my Nikon SB-900 & SB-800 flashes from Joe McNally in the last two days to justify the yearly subscription. I’m sure I’ll be upgrading to the yearly plan as soon as my first month runs out (glad to know I can use the SB-900 with the CLS system through stolen hotel bed sheets to make a big softbox. LOL)

    The Jay Maisel class is just the icing on the cake. Thanks Scott for sharing that “day in the life” with the rest of us. I like the part about telephoto and wide-angle eyes too. I think I have Lensbaby eyes myself. :)

    Since I can’t watch the videos on my work laptop (browser is too old and I don’t have Admin privlidges) or on my iPhone, I’m also hoping for iPad functionality in the near future. I though I was going to wait for the 2nd generation of iPad incase they add iChat, but I’ll be running to the Apple Store if this ever happens. How great would it be to be able to take KelbyTraining on the road with the iPad display and battery (plus backup storage for my CF Cards). Come on Scott, push me over the edge and make me buy an iPad.

  27. Scott..did they edit out all the times you said “Wow?” I payed attention to what you were soaking in….great video work too. It’s all the simple things that Jay and you teach us that become second nature (hopefully) and make us better photographers. God Bless You Guys and Thanks!

    Dave Kallaway

  28. Ovation TV-HD (cable channel) was recently doing an expose on a bunch of world-class photogs (Bridgette Lacombe, Steve McCurry, and Jay Maisel to name a few), with a focus on the different genres of portraiture. There was something Jay said that really resonated with me:

    ” Photography is an act of love. I think we photograph things because we love them. The product is the by-product. The act of ‘seeing’ is THE moment of fun. That’s it, man!”

    I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for the wisdom, Jay. You’re one of a kind. Looking forward to watching this new class on KT.

  29. I was so inspired by this class I turned it off half way through, picked up my camera and went out shooting. I did come back and finish it though. It was the best!!!

  30. Hey Scott,

    Just watched the whole class, best class on KT! I wanted to watch it in one sitting, but knew I couldn’t, until everyone had left the studio.

    At PSW I like to listen and learn from Jay in class and then just hang around afterward, to pick up droplets of wisdom. This was great, the fact that ya’ll kept rolling and that you could hear him interact with people, and there was a follow shot of him, by himself, as he was taking off to shoot something… the expressions and the body language as he sweeps the environment is awesome! (Watch him with the bldg mgr)

    Scott your facial expressions were awesome as well, especially getting busted outside of the lobby and in the subway! However, you were making me SO nervous carrying your camera around by the grip! The class reminded me of the movie “Rising Sun” with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.

    This will be one of those classes that you can watch over and over and always learn something new…thanks Scott. Thanks Jay.

    P.S. I was starting to feel a little sorry for the Scriv and the steadycam guy!

  31. I love this class…I certainly hope we see more of these type classes. I love all the photoshop classes as well…but would LOVE to see more about photography itself and the live strolls and chats with great photographers like yourself and others…Jay is surely amazing. I also wanted to tell you I enjoyed your seminar in Atlanta last Friday, it was awesome and you keep the class so interesting and funny with your great sense of humor…..YOU ROCK SCOTT!!!!!!

  32. I love this guy! What an inspiration! As a new photographer the one thing Jay said that stood out the most for me was about the body builder. For me that means take my camera with me everywhere and shoot every day.
    This is a wonderful class! Thank you Scott & Jay!

    Lisa

    1. As long as the shots are used for “himself” (selling or displaying prints) or editorially (in a newspaper or magazine story) a model release is not necessary. For the most part, releases are only required when a photo is to be used in a commercial advertisement or catalog.

  33. Simply WOW!!

    Great video and very inspirational. He makes it looks so simple. I really like his approach of street shooting and model release! I really like his approach to photography something along the line of, I do not want to create something I want to observe it or discover it. I will have to look at it again because, I’m sure that I have miss a lot.

    But, I have a technical question about his ISO setting. Maybe my French, but I believe he says that he uses and ISO of 1600!! with bracketing the heck out of it. So while looking at the video and seeing the pictures popping in the videos, it never look overexpose!! Was it because you guys or the assistant work on them before showing them? I didn’t hear him talk about which mode he uses? I know already Jays’ view on technical stuff but I’m wondering and learn by many Gurus, like Scott, change your ISO as the last resort and so true. So, I’m wondering how can you shoot at that ISO setting and not get grain look???

    Please, someone relieve me of my dilemma!

    Cheers,
    GT

    1. I thought he mentioned using the high iso and a really fast shutter speed to make sure the images were sharp. The bracketing would then be on the aperture and then you could pick the best exposure.

    2. GT,

      Jay’s assistant here. The idea is that (especially with the new D3s and its ridiculous lack of noise), if you shoot with a high ISO, you can speed up your shutter speed and close down your aperture. The high shutter speed freezes the action when that perfect gesture suddenly presents itself, and the small aperture gives you more depth of field, to make sure it’s in focus.

      Hope that helps.
      -John

  34. Thank you Scott — great video….

    This brings up an interesting discussion (that I am sure just goes round and round)….Jay was shooting with a less expensive 70-300mm lens…as his walk around lens. If it’s fine for him, then how much quality do we really gain from spending twice that on Pro line lenses?

    I have been looking at a all-around lens…the Tamron 18-270 gets some negative press, so I am hesitant….but I really wonder (for my Canon) if I am missing out on shots….I seem to always want to change lenses.

    What have others found to be a great choice for a walk around lens? And do you suffer from it not being a Pro line lens….?????

    I love Jay’s comment about getting the photo (even at 1600ISO) and not worrying about the pixels….getting the shot is important — and man does he GET the shots!

  35. The course was amazing. Jay is so smooth in talking to people on the street. He was very good at charming people when we shot. Even when a building manager came out and questioned him, he made a friend there too, that was amazing. Besides the technical stuff and throwing out traditional rules of photography I was taken by the attitude that Jay maintained while shooting. You’re attitude can determine the quality of your work.

  36. Watched it a second time…lot’s of info there

    Question, is he shooting in aperture priority? He never changes settings as he walks around and I only heard him mention bracketing each shot and iso 1600. Later he talked about proper dof forward in the frame of farther in the frame and how it really needed to be blurred so not to confuse the eye of the viewer. I never saw him change the f/stop? So he picks one and leaves it? I was hoping you would ask him. I only heard ‘manual’ in the subway shot.
    Thanks Scott, wonderful class!
    Debbi

    1. Debbi,

      Jay’s assistant here. When he’s out walking around, he does often shoot in Aperture Priority mode. When “life is happening,” he doesn’t like to waste any time fiddling with dials, for fear that by the time he gets it right manually, the moment will have passed. Obviously the camera wants to make an average exposure; so by shooting in burst mode with bracketing enabled, he can usually get three nearly identical shots with different exposures, just in case the camera’s guess at the right exposure was wrong. As long as he catches the moment, he’s happy.

      Cheers,
      -John

  37. Scott,

    What a wonderful and insightful video. None like I have seen on Kelby Training and hopefully not the last. I know there is much to a video shoot but it came off totally unscripted and from the heart. Kudo’s to you and your team for a candid look at one of our finest photographers.

    There was so much to glean from the video I will be watching it a few more times. It was one of those times where you take in something and you just have to tell others about it, so if you like my blog post today (http://peekfoto.com/Blog/Entries/2010/6/3_Photo_Passion.html), feel free to pass it on.

    Thanks for your hard work and dedication to the rest of us.

  38. I just spent the most amazing time going through all of the videos with Jay Maisel! WOW Scott that was a terrific series worth the price of membership by itself! I will come back and watch that again and again because it is so chock full of valuable, applicable, knowledgeable information. Thank you and a HUGE thanks to Jay Maisel!

  39. I had to close the door to my office because I could not turn my attention away from the video. It was amazing to watch and listen to Jay Maisel and all his great one liners. A lot of information there. Great series. Another HUGE thanks to you and Jay Maisell.

    1. Hey Stephen,

      Jay’s assistant here. When Jay brackets – and it isn’t necessarily all the time – he varies the amount of bracketing depending on the situation. I think most of the time it’s 2/3 of a stop in either directions, sometimes it’s a full stop or more in each direction. Hope that helps.

      -John

  40. Now “No bad Originals” has totally another flavor to me…

    And after have been watching the video, a great silence remains.
    The one that comes when the masters speaks :)
    What a humility this man has.
    impressed.

    Thanks for this video Mr Kelby.

  41. Just finished Jay and Scott. WOW. I am such a newbie and this helps so much. So, being a newbie, I am confused about the 70-300 — I have a Nikon. I see these lenses for $150 and for $700. Is price the deciding factor? Am I wasting my $150 if I buy the cheap one since I am just a hobbyist?

    1. The cheap one has more lens distortion, is not as physically tough, does not have VR, and focuses slower. The distortion can be corrected in Photoshop and soon even better, automatically in Lightroom 3. The toughness comes in when you bang the lens on a vertical column as you walk by it, and the VR is mostly for lower light and/or high zooms. The VR is also helpful if your camera is not a D3, D3S, D700 or equivalent. If you have a D700 or better, are careful and use PS or LR3 software, you probably could not tell much difference between these lenses when used in daylight shooting. But I would still buy the better one if not too much of a financial stretch.

      The bigger question before you buy is to determine if you really like the 70-300 focal length. Just because Jay Maisel uses it, doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for everyone. Try to use one before buying so you don’t end up with a camera-case-queen that you never use.

      If you do get it, be careful not to fall into the trap of too many zoomed in portrait shots. “Street photography” (in general) usually shows the context of the people depicted in it. Jay appears to also be doing fine art photography on the street, which is different.

      The old saying about using a 50mm when you’re starting out is still a good one, that or a 35mm lens can do just about anything if you use your feet. Cartier-Bresson claimed that the 50mm is all he ever used, and Alfred Eisenstaedt said he used a 35mm for most of his shots. Those are pretty good recommendations, but… they were from a different time.

  42. Scott, I want to thank you for the wonderful “Day with Jay Maisel” video, which I just viewed from start to finish in a single sitting. More than any specific piece of advice given by Jay (and there are lots of great ones), what makes this video so special is that by allowing Jay to speak at length with only occasional prompting by you, you have given us a window to his mind and to his creativity that would not be possible in any other format, short of taking one of his classes. I’ve been “playing” at photography (to use the term with which Jay ended the session) for almost as long as he has, and yet I can truly say that I learned several important new ideas from Jay, and I cannot wait to put them into practice. So, thanks for having the imagination to realize what a great training video would result from a day-long interview of Jay, and for having the skill to carry it off so well. Mike

  43. As everyone else here, I just want to thank you Scott and Jay for this wonderful video “Day with Jay Maisel”. I was riveted to my Mac and for once PS wasn’t even running. It was magical, funny and full of priceless advice and knowledge. It was amazing and worth every penny of my membership. As a newbie to the Pro Photog world these videos are what we need to see for drive and inspiration.

    Many thanks to everyone involved, and Scott……. don’t forget those visual push ups every day, that’s something we all should do.

    Cheers, Jonathan

  44. I thought I heard Jay say that if Nikon put out an 18-200mm for FX, that he would use it. That says to me that he doesn’t need the 300mm focal length for much of what he does, otherwise why would he give it up, except for the built in wide angle. Nikon doesn’t make it anymore, but there is the 28-200mm f3.5/5.6G that works on FX right now. I have one, they’re available on ebay. It has some pincushion distortion and has to be treated gently do to it’s plastic mount, but otherwise it is a really great lens. Personally I’m trying to move away from zooms to a constant 35 or 50mm, but I keep grabbing this lens when I fall off the wagon. I have a 70-200 f2.8G VR and 17-35 f2.8D that never leave the camera case anymore, they are way to big and heavy. The 28-200 is 2.8 to 5 inches long and only weighs 13 ounces.

    This is a great video, I’ve watched it twice now and intend to see it several more times. But as I mentioned in a reply a few messages above, everyone probably shouldn’t jump onto the Jay Maisel style as some kind of magic bullet. I foresee a bunch of people buying that 70-300 lens, then a few months from now a whole slew of them showing up for sale on ebay. Jay makes it seem easy, but that’s when used his style. I think there’s more in the eye than in the lens, in fact I know there is.

  45. Thank you Scott & Co!
    This was really awesome and i loved the dynamic of your tandem.
    Not only i enjoyed seeing how 2 pros do it, but it was also very interesting to listen to the dialogue.
    Hope this is the first one of a long serie of “A day with…”.
    Bravo!
    fab

  46. Yes, please do more of these. How about one with a real photojournalist. I thought I saw somewhere that conflict photographer Christopher Morris of VII is living in or near Tampa. He’s rather political, but he’s been through the wars (real wars), and would be a very sharp contrast to anything you’ve done before. That might be too extreme, but there are many other choices, maybe one of the other VII photographers, they all do workshops. I took a masterclass with Ron Haviv, he would be great. These guys are very serious about what they do, as they have to be. Documentary photojournalism would probably be the subject. How different is that?

    Thanks.

  47. Scott,
    This was one of the most enjoyable lessons I’ve watched on Kelby Training. Jay insights about the “moment” was so powerful that I will apply that wisdom not only to my shooting but my everyday life as well.
    Thanks,
    Jonathan

  48. This was the best video on Kelby Training by far and definitley worth the price of admission. Scott, please make more of these “A Day with…” series.

  49. I just finished watching “A day with Jay Maisel” on Kelby Training. Wow! what an inspirational photographer/character that Jay is. I have taken away so much with me from his understanding, knowledge, and ideas on street photography. I absolutely loved all his quotes from other photographers/artists and himself that really opened my eyes into new and different ways of thinking. “You do not take pictures, you are taken by pictures”; “I find the stage, and the players will come”; “You can take great pictures from the satellite, from a jet, from a car; but not until you start walking and walking slowly, you can start seeing relationships between people, you can start seeing things that are going to happen before they happen.” Those are just few of the things that I will take and keep with me forever. I sincerely thank you for giving me this opportunity!!

    – Jeffrey H.

Leave a Reply
Previous Post

Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Larry Becker

Next Post

I’ve Finally Made The Big Time!!!!