My goal is to create distinctive and memorable images, images that elicit an emotional response and interpretation from the viewer. I enjoy collaborating with the people before my lens to create images that reflect themselves (although many also say the images reflect the photographer as well). I also have a long list of concepts for which I am always looking for people to participate.
If you are interested in working with me, please call or email. My phone number is 310-345-3764. My email is rlsfoto@yahoo.com. I am located in San Pedro, CA but do travel extensively on assignments.
Thank you.
Reidar
Advanced photography courses (Instructed by Mark Comon).
2000 – Landscapes,
2001 – Portraits,
2002 – The Creative Eye.
University of Southern California, 1990 – MBA
California Maritime Academy, 1981 – BS – Nautical Industrial Technology
Reidar
I love photography. So much so that I feel naked if one of my cameras are not within reach. I know I love photography beyond the point to where my family is never 100% excited about traveling with me as they know they will be competing for my attention as I am analyzing scenes to find “the shot”. I have even been known to say when an excited family member has come to me to point out something they have seen and I reply “I already shot that”! Now, if any of you meet my wife Gigi and she goes into one of her stories about me and photography, you now know the punch line.
I learned photography from assisting my mom, a professional photographer. Probably starting around 8 years old, I would carry the battery pack for her strobe which was tethered to her Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 camera. Better then a leash. Of course, we are talking about the late 1960’s when battery technology is not what it is today. I swear that battery pack weighed 15 bounds. I could not wait for her to stop to shoot so I could take the strap off my shoulder and set the battery onto the ground. I think I was probably 15 when I first used that camera to shoot my first wedding where I had graduated to “First Assistant”. By that time, my mom was shooting with her newest toy, the Hasselblad 500C/M.
It was not until college at the California Maritime Academy that I started shooting for myself. For my first “cruise” we were sailing to Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, and Samoa. My mom and dad gave me a Canon AE1 to take with me. What a blast I had with that camera. I was not worried about making sure the “important cultural events” were captured and everyone was smiling and looking their best. Sure I was shooting sunsets and gorgeous islands, but I was also shooting food fights in the mess hall, drunken friends passed out at toilets or the beach, and began to experiment with story-telling. It is soon after that J. Johnson and Noli Molino, upperclassmen who took me under their wings and brought me into the Photo-Media Club and Yearbook staff. They taught me how to develop my negatives and make my own prints. Between those 2, the world of photography expanded into a complete and compelling art. By the time I graduated, I had an extensive collection of 35mm lenses, my mom’s 4x5 Speed Graphic, as well as an old Graflex that shot 120mm film, three yearbooks under my belt, plus my images placed in Sunset Magazine and the book “American Merchant Seaman’s Manual”.
After graduating CMA, I went to work as a third mate for Getty Fleet Corp which was the shipping arm for Getty Oil Company. I always equated working on a ship as being in a pasture with a mean blind bull, you always needed to be aware of your surroundings but 99% of the time you are bored. 1% of the time, the bull gets a bead on you. On a ship in the middle of the ocean there is nothing to do, just make sure you don’t hit anything. So, to pass the time, I would have my camera with me. I would shoot the people on the ship, the seas rolling across the bow, the ports, even giving chase to 2 waterspouts so I could get closer and therefore better shots until the captain came up and asked why I changed course. He did not appreciate that I was chasing waterspouts with “his” ship. It was during this time that I made 7 trips through the Panama Canal. As we were an old oil tanker, we always went at night except for one time. But, it was during one of the first times through that I decided to try doing several minute time exposures. I set up the tripod at the engine house as we tied up at the Miraflores Locks. The resulting images hold the ship in focus as we rise in the locks while the passing “mules” (the locomotives that tow the ships) as well as ships passing in the opposite direction are nothing more than streaks of light.
From the Panama Canal experience with time exposures and motion, to this day, I shot time exposures while driving, twisting and panning the camera and passing bright lights to capture compelling streaks, curves, and random abstracts of color.
RLSFoto® - Reidar Schopp Fine Art Photography, Los Angeles, California - Phone: 310-345-3764, Email: reidar@rlsfoto.com
© 1977-2011 all images are the property of Reidar Schopp