Markus Bacher

Portrait of Austrian painter Markus Bacher in Santa Barbara, CA.

Fine Art Family Portrait

Fine Art Family Portrait in my outdoor studio photographed on medium format film with the good old Hasselblad

Here is a fine art family portrait I was recently commissioned to photograph. A young family dear to my heart, shot on my Hasselblad on medium format film in the outdoor studio.

Martha Soffer for Naturally Danny Seo - Editorial Publication

My recent publication in Naturally Danny Seo featuring Martha Soffer of Surya Spa in Los Angeles

Martha Soffer by Jonas Jungblut

My recent editorial piece on one of the most renowned Ayurvedic doctors and experts in the country, Martha Soffer, can be viewed in print in the current issue of Naturally Danny Seo Magazine. Martha operates Surya Spa in Los Angeles where I photographed this story. You'll also find two gems from trips to northern Thailand and Telluride, CO in this issue.

Surya Spa by Jonas Jungblut

Surya Spa by Jonas Jungblut

Surya Spa by Jonas Jungblut

Telluride by Jonas Jungblut

The image on the right was photographed at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort in northern Thailand on a trip a few years ago. My favorite memory from that place is a teenage elephant wanting to play with me… by running into me…

Anantara Golden Triangle by Jonas Jungblut

Carey Hart for EasyRiders

Editorial shoot featuring Carey Hart for Easyriders Magazine

Carey Hart mid air

Before the shut down resulting from the Covid epidemic I photographed an editorial for EasyRiders Magazine featuring Carey Hart. Maybe you’ve seen the short film we shot at the same time in a previous post but here are some still portraits and action shots.

portrait of Carey Hart

portrait of Carey Hart

This was a small crew shoot but we managed to shoot stills and motion of three different scenarios that day. Portraits and lifestyle stuff around Carey’s hangar, some motocross action and some streetbike stuff on his Indian.

portrait of Carey Hart

Carey Hart being the motocross rider he is, the dirt bike part was just crazy to watch. He has his own track on his property and we followed him out to it, him of course getting there before us. When we came up to it he was just flying over the massive table at the center of it. He then proceeded to jump over a fence for fun. Watch the film for some impressions, its good!

portrait of Carey Hart

Right before our shoot Carey had finished an asphalt pump track behind his hangar. It actually was so new the edges were still soft, but it was rideable. So my assistant (the great Tate Larrick) and I took a BMX and a skateboard out there and had a fun little session in the late evening light to finish up the day. Amazing!

Many Thanks to the crew at Easyriders and Carey Hart and his team who were incredible nice, supportive and accommodating!

Cover and Editorial Publications

New Cover photo and Editorial Publications in Naturally Danny Seo Fall 2020

I photographed another cover for Naturally Danny Seo Magazine this summer and it is out now! The cover was photographed in Serenbe, GA. I had to fly out from Santa Barbara, or LAX, to shoot this cover and one of the stories in the magazine. This was right when cases of Covid started to rise in Georgia. Not so comfortable but the travel experience was actually insanely easy. No lines, no waiting. Lots of space on the plane.

Cover photograph for Naturally Danny Seo Magazine by Jonas Jungblut

The portrait of Amy Feezer was photographed virtually via FaceTime. A technique I used to shoot a story for the Washington Post earlier this year which also landed me a cover. You can see more examples of Virtual Portraits in my series APART/TOGETHER.
The story on Anna Getty took me to Ojai, just about an hour’s drive from Santa Barbara. We spent the day at Anna’s house and had a good time. That was a really enjoyable shoot!
To photograph Elizabeth Stein of purely elizabeth I actually drove from Santa Barbara to Boulder, CO, a quick 20 hour drive… I stopped in Salt Lake City and made a road trip out of it which was super fun.
The Modern Farmhouse story was shot in Serenbe during the same trip we photographed the cover of the magazine. Serenbe is a small community outside of Atlanta. I have visited this charming, little gem a few times before but this time it felt like it is really growing together. There are still a lot of houses being built, a lot of them modeled after European villages (I was told the founder of Serenbe literally recreated roof lines from photographs he took of villages in Europe) and it is coming together nicely.
Finally there is a one page story about Ireland. These photos are from my first trip for the magazine when we spent a week in Ireland, stayed at castles, harvested seaweed and got sick from Oysters…

Virtual Portrait of Amy Feezor by Jonas Jungblut

Carey Hart for EasyRiders Magazine

A short film featuring Carey Hart for EasyRiders Magazine

Earlier this year, before Covid-19 had arrived, I did a production for EasyRiders Magazine featuring Carey Hart. This project was a stills and video combo. Stills aren’t released yet but I am happy the video is, so check it out below!

Many Thanks to the team at EasyRiders, Tate Larrick and of course Carey Hart and his team!

Scooter in the Skatepark

Scooter in the early morning hours in the Santa Barbara Skatepark

This image and light was the inspiration to that earlier post with the black and white image of the skateboarder in the Santa Barbara skatepark. This is at around 6am and that soft light coming from the left was natural sunlight filtered through some light clouds. Just so pretty…

Glacier Point and Half Dome

Glacier point, Half Dome and a contemplative mystery woman

Actually, this isn’t a mystery woman in the sense that I don’t know who it is, I am well aware of who this is. But Half Dome in the background is (or should be) a feature that does not need to be explained, and I liked the juxtaposition of that.
This was taken during a recent road trip. Trying to stay socially distant while traveling…

Portrait in the Pacific Ocean

A moody portrait of a swimmer in the ocean in Santa Barbara

I kayaked along an early morning swim of friends of mine the other day and took this image at the beginning. It wasn’t particularly warm and it was definitely moody. Low hanging marine layer but a little wind as well.
The swim left Hendry’s Beach and went to Shoreline Beach in Santa Barbara, about 3.8 miles. In the kayak it was a comfortable cruise but swimming looked a little painful. Especially when they had to swim through thick kelp beds. More images coming soon…

Portrait of Skateboarder in Santa Barbara

Black and White portraits of a teenage skateboarder doing tricks with some attitude in the Santa Barbara skatepark.

I’ve been spending some time at the Santa Barbara skatepark recently… at six in the morning… My son likes to go early so he has the place to himself. Lucky for him I have been in skateboarding for the past 30 years so I am willing. I noticed how beautiful the light is in the skatepark at that time so I asked another friend of ours if he’d join to take some action shots and portraits.
For any of you who are familiar with my work, this is the kid from the Flying Baby photograph that was published in Friendship, Family, Love & Laughter in 2009.

Editorial Publications

Editorial publications in the current issue of Naturally Danny Seo Magazine

I have three stories in the current issue of Naturally Danny Seo Magazine and this one is a odd one. This was the first editorial job I photographed after the shelter in place order in March and nobody could travel or put together photo productions. So Danny came up with the idea of printing out photos of products that needed to be photographed for this story and then placing them around my property here in Santa Barbara. A creative solution to a complicated challenge. Shooting a commercial production like this is a little more nerve-wracking and logistically complicated but for this editorial I was left to play around and just over-shoot it a little.

The below story was shot in Minneapolis and an image from it ended up on the cover of the magazine. Always nice! We shot this right before the Covid-19 shut down and I got back to Santa Barbara before air travel got restricted.

And finally a Yoga story I shot earlier in the year at Rancho Valencia resort in San Diego. We shot this early in the morning and I was wearing a Patagonia Puff Jacket… Erika Gibson (yogi) rocked it in the cold morning air!

National Magazine Covers

Two National Magazine Covers at a time - I am happy!

Here are two recent covers of national magazines with my images on them. Pretty stoked, I have to say! The Washington Post Magazine cover was shot remotely, via FaceTime and other video chat applications during lock down. When I started my FaceTime portrait project I sure didn’t anticipate ending up on the cover of the Washington Post mag. Another great example of jumping off a cliff, figuring out how to fly on the way down and landing in paradise… I guess. It just shows that sticking your neck out usually leads to something. All the images for this article and my project Apart/Together, which features subjects from around the globe, were photographed while I was at home in Santa Barbara. Times are changing and technology is speeding up that change in a scary way.
The Naturally cover was photographed in Minneapolis. No idea did I have that just a few months later the city would become the epicenter of a powerful resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
On that note: I was always fascinated by the change that occured in the United States in the 60’s. People standing up for their rights and changing things. It was part of what made me want to immigrate here. Our current situation reminds of that time and seeing people fight for their rights in the streets as well as in the media again is inspiring!

FaceTime Portraits for the Washington Post

I recently shot portraits for an editorial for the Washington Post Magazine via FaceTime

FaceTime Portraits for the Washington Post

A few weeks ago I was assigned by the Washington Post Magazine to photograph 19 subjects across the United Stated. The assignment was for a piece they were putting together highlighting positive stories during the Covid-19 pandemic. I photographed it all via FaceTime.

The subjects ranged from writer Margaret Atwood to Park Ranger Jessica Korgie. From comedian Russel Peters to shop owner Ifat Pridan. An amazing range of personalities and I got to meet them all in their spaces. One on one! Surreal!!! I just dropped in on them in their homes!

Given a somewhat tight deadline the biggest challenge was scheduling all the subjects. I had done over 60 FaceTime portraits prior to this assignment so I felt comfortable once the call was on but getting it all sorted was another story.

A big Thank You to Dudley Brooks at the Post for having the vision to put this together!!!

Take a look here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/lifestyle/magazine/america-resilient-coronavirus-pandemic/?itid=sf_lifestyle-magazine

FaceTime Portraits

More Virtual Portraits photographed with FaceTime

Since my last post about my Virtual FaceTime Portraits a lot has happened on that front. At this point I have photographed 80 plus people with FaceTime photoshoots and I am still shooting almost every day. The Washington Post has assigned me with a story for which I had to photograph 17 people across the United States and I photographed a musical Quintet in the Netherlands.

FaceTime portrait

What I keep telling people is that as a portrait photographer I normally move intuitively around the subject. I adjust the cameras angle and position relative to the subject subconsciously, small movements can make a big difference. All of that I now have to do with words. When photographing the violin players for the Quintet in the Netherlands I was telling them that it is sort of like them telling someone how to place the fingers on the strings of the violin to play. I would argue that my results are a little bit better than what that situation would produce but you get the idea.

FaceTime Portrait

Another interesting development I have watched for the past weeks is that FaceTime photoshoots are happening all over the place now. To the point where companies like Nike are trying it out. Some photographers are projecting the FaceTime call onto surfaces of all sorts and then photograph the projection, some shoot it in color, some focus on professional models, it’s all over the place.
This brings me back to what I said in an interview with aphotoeditor.com about my project. While the technical quality of these shoots is mostly pretty rough, I believe this technique will be used in the future even past the Covid lockdown. Cameras on phones will get better, 5G will improve call quality and clients will think twice about flying someone around the world when they can just send a high end Iphone to the subject and do the shoot remotely. It will be niche, I am sure but I am also sure that it will be done. Technology just has to catch up a little bit more. Nobody had a PDA in the early 2000’s, then mobile internet allowed the Iphone to do what it did.

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

One think FaceTime does not seem to like at this point is movement. Subjects have to be rather still for the quality to catch up and not look glitchy. But with a great connection and a newer model device I have been able to get FaceTime Portraits that look amazing on a screen. They go through some post processing, sharpening and grain mostly, and then are completely usable for screen applications. I also printed some portraits and made collages and grids which I then photographed with my DSLR and got a high res file of.

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime photoshoots force the photographer to dive deep into the creativity bucket and that’s why they are great! There is almost no control over technical aspects of the camera, no exposure, focus, or any other trickery. The photographer isn’t even holding the camera. I had people stick their device in the washing machine and shoot out of it, hide behind colored plexiglass and involve their spouses to act as moving tripods. It becomes a creative exercise for both, the photographer and the subject and especially during times of Covid lockdown offer a fun escape from being stuck at home.

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

FaceTime Portrait

Virtual Portraits

Virtual Portraits - photographed via FaceTime

It’s crazy times! But crazy times always bring with them new ideas, new angles of how to approach things, new ways to operate. Creativity is fueled by unease. Nothing like some rapids to get the boat moving.

All of that of course does not mask the fact that freelancers like myself are currently looking into the abyss. I have not had anything officially canceled as of now but I also had only a few things on hold… and I am doubtful those few things will happen. Seems like everyone froze. Well, what do you do?

Going back to creativity being fueled by unease, I came up with the idea to take portraits of people via FaceTime. I had never done this before, barely use my Iphone to take serious photos at all. But while in the rapids I’ll take any boat!

I did some research trying to figure out if the subject’s Iphone camera could be triggered remotely from my phone but found nothing. Given privacy concerns that made sense and I quickly put my desire for better quality aside and focused on simply taking portraits, no matter the quality. Pretty freeing. While the photography industry is arguably being disrupted by Iphone photography and amateur photographers who have challenged old wisdoms and hierarchies, this seemed a fun project to do. Show up to a stick fight with a stick.

It is really odd to not have control over the camera’s movements. Nor knowing the space the subject is in. I found directing the subject in posing as well as composing the frame to be quite challenging. Especially since the video quality of the call plummets dramatically once the phone is moving. Recognizing suitable backgrounds is not easy. I also quickly learned that I underestimated my attention to detail and skill for composure. I take all that for granted. I have been behind a lens for over 20 years. Now I needed to initiate and correct every move of the camera with words and not intuitively with my hands. Lots of trial and error. Overall the subjects have been doing well so far but it is definitely a completely new challenge.

One big take away is that this is super fun. Everyone has been excited to partake and there have been lots of laughs during the sessions which take about 10 min on average. There is a bunch of chatting about the current situation and how we cope, then there is some photography and then we wish each other well. It’s fantastic!

Here is a little video of bts of one of the shoots:

You can view more images from this project on a page I created for it. Follow the link HERE.

JUNGBLUT2019 now available

my annual journal style book JUNGBLUT2019 is now available

JUNGBLUT2019

It is here!!! JUNGBLUT2019!!! My annual journal style magazine featuring my favorite photographs of the year.

I have been making the JUNGBLUT20xx since 2013 and it’s been fun to go through the year and select portraits, travel images and whatever else stood out that year to compile them all in this volume. This is not a portfolio, it is a journal style compilation featuring photographs from personal projects, tests, magazine publications and commercial photo shoots. It features images that may be outtakes from jobs or the hero images. It is a truly personal piece, showcasing the images that stood out to me and which I love.
It also helps to keep track of my progress over the years. At this point I can go back 5 years and see how my style has changed. From taking a portrait or landscape image to editing it and then also formatting it in the magazine. And of course it acts as sort of a catalog of my work. Selecting the best images from a year and printing them in a tangible magazine insures that they stay around.
I bring these on jobs and leave them behind, or send them in the mail but you can also just buy one from Magcloud HERE. And you can find the previous years HERE.

Latest Editorial Publication - Susanne Kaufmann

A travel/portrait editorial I shot of Susanne Kaufmann in Vorarlberg, Austria

Susanne Kaufmann at the hotel Post in Bezau photographed by Jonas Jungblut

I am based in Santa Barbara but travel for around 80% of my work. I do have roots in Berlin, where I grew up, and also in Vorarlberg, Austria, where my family is from. For the past years we have spent the summer in Austria and while a lot of it is exploration (aka shooting stock) I always sneak a little bit of assignment work in.
Last year I pitched a story about Bezau local and international brand name Susanne Kaufmann to Naturally Danny Seo Mag, a magazine I work for a lot. Danny knew about Susanne and her high-end skin care line and so I ended up shooting this story in a dreamy, tiny little town in the Austrian Alps, around the corner from where my family has lived for a very long time.
Susanne and her team couldn’t have been nicer and accommodating but the thing that really was just incredibly satisfying was the fact that I was working in my back yard for a US national publication. Not only helping to spread the word about this brand but also supporting the area in general. Being an editorial and commercial photographer means that you get to meet new people and explore new places all the time, and that is fun. When you can feature something that is close to you it’s like the icing on the cake!

Susanne Kaufmann editorial photographed by Jonas Jungblut

Susanne Kaufmann editorial photographed by Jonas Jungblut

Susanne Kaufmann editorial photographed by Jonas Jungblut

Portrait of Caroline Marks at the Surfranch

Portrait and action shot of pro surfer Caroline Marks for Red Bull at the Surfranch in Lemoore, CA.

When I was at the Surfranch for Red Bull photographing portraits of Carissa Moore (see post HERE) I also shot portraits of ripper Caroline Marks. We did a few different set ups but the one below was my favorite. Dark background and natural light is hard to not make look cool. And Caroline’s blue eyes just look stunning here.

portrait of Caroline Marks at the Surfranch in Lemoore, CA

I also got a sweet little action shot of Caroline ripping it up in the water. It was amazing to watch her surf ALL DAY LONG. The amount of energy and endurance is borderline scary.

Caroline Marks surfing at the Surfranch in Lemoore, CA.

I’ll post the other athlete portraits I took that day of Jordy Smith, Kolohe Andino and Kanoa Igarashi soon. A fun day shooting portraits of some amazing athletes at the Surfranch!

You can find some of the images I shot on Red Bull’s content pool website.

License my images

From Portraits to Travel imagery, license my work on Gallerystock.com

I almost always have a camera on me when doing any sort of activity. This means I end up with a lot of random images that don’t really fit in my portfolio and/or general marketing strategy. I am a portrait photographer. That is my specialty. It does not mean I don’t photograph anything else though.

Just recently I received an email from a fellow photographer who appreciated me showing a “range” of imagery on my site. It was nice to hear but at the same time a little confusing since, in my mind, I focused on showing portraiture pretty heavily over the past years. But it also rang true, I do have range and it stems from always shooting. Especially for editorial assignments I end up photographing all kinds of different topics. From portraits to architecture and travel to food, I have shot it all. I photographed while riding an elephant, dangling on a vertical cliff hundreds of feet of the ground, underwater and comfortably in a studio. But I do consider myself a portrait photographer and that is what I market myself as. So what do I do with the thousands and thousands of images shot on location, vacation and in between? They go into stock.

I have been involved with the stock industry for over a decade and I have watched profit decline, it’s not been pretty. When agencies introduced the Royalty Free model it became a race to the bottom and I have a feeling that agencies are just now trying to repair that damage. Little late guys…

Anyways, you can find a selection of my work on Gallerystock.com. Portraits, documentary, abstract and travel imagery from locations like Japan, Sri Lanka, India, California, Austria and more…

Portraits at the Surfranch

Shooting portraits of surfers for Red Rull at Kelly Slater’s Surfranch in Lemoore, CA

Following up on the last post, here is a vlog documenting the shoot I did for Red Bull at the Surfranch. I took portraits of Carissa Moore, Jordy Smith, Kolohe Andino, Caroline Marks and Kanoa Igarashi throughout the day. Check it out!