editorial portrait
Photographed on Location in Key West, FL, Palm Springs, CA and Adelaide, Australia. Thank you to all involved!!!
This is the third cover I secured in the last week. When it rains it pours, I guess…
This one features lifestyle guru Danny Seo and former model, actress and founder of Weelicious Catherine McCord. We shot this in Los Angeles in Catherine’s kitchen after strolling the Hollywood farmers market for a few hours one morning.
It got a little weird when I received this one just days after seeing the cover of STERN with my younger son and town of heritage in Austria on it. This is my older son on the cover of the main newspaper of Berlin, the city I was born and raised in. Both kids, both places of personal, historical significance for me. Kinda weird.
It allowed me to make a joke about the kids competing for European magazine covers 😂
This photo was shot for stock here in Santa Barbara.
In the first week of January of this year I photographed Kara Thoms here in Santa Barbara. Kara is based here and operates her boutique from a dreamy A-frame house in the mountains overlooking Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. I happened to know Kara from a shoot (she used to model) from may years ago for the Walking Company so it was fun to reconnect.
In mid December of 2020 I drove through the Santa Ynez Valley and crossed the ranges into the Cuyama Valley and ultimately into the town of Cuyama to photograph the revived Cuyama Buckhorn. A historic roadside motel the Buckhorn is under new ownership and has been receiving an amazing refresh. Close proximity to the Carrizo Plains, a National Monument containing the largest single native grassland remaining in California, makes the Buckhorn a great escape from Los Angeles, Ojai or Santa Barbara. The drive along Highway 33 between Cuyama and Ojai is one of the prettiest drives and supposedly one of the best areas to view fall colors in California.
And finally I drove down to Chino and visited Eastern Leaf Nursery to photograph their Bonsai operation. The depth of history regarding Bonsai is remarkable and I even received a little gift in form an olive tree Bonsai (I love Olive trees).
You can view all of these stories in the current (Spring 2021) issue of Naturally Danny Seo.
JUNGBLUT2020 - a journal-style selection of my favorite work from 2020 now available.
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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!
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
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…
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…
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…
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.
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!
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
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
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
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.
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!
Carissa Moore by Jonas Jungblut
I have been working with Red Bull for many years and recently I had the great pleasure to go out to the Kelly Slater Surfranch in Lemoore, CA for a shoot. I surf, have for many years, so going to the Surfranch was a bucket list item to begin with, especially since I was told to bring a board since “you never know”! Red Bull hired me to photograph a few of their surfers in order to update imagery for the upcoming Freshwater Pro at the Surfranch. Stoked!
When I found out that I would be photographing Carissa Moore the stoke went to yet another level. Carissa is amazing! Given the opportunity to capture a portrait of her was a big honor. Me = happy! I also photographed a couple other of the Red Bull surfers that day, I will post some of those portraits soon.
Carissa Moore by Jonas Jungblut
We photographed a few different set ups all within only a few minutes. I was hired to photograph portraits but during some downtime I also went and shot some action shots of Carissa surfing. Watching that wave is a trip. It is perfect over and over and over and over again… It definitely is lacking the soul I cherish about surfing but this isn’t a critique of the Surfranch, go read opinions about it elsewhere. Bottom line, when it comes to a wave, it doesn’t get better than this.
Throughout the day Carissa and the other surfers kept going at it. At one point in the afternoon I just stared in disbelief at the pool wondering how these guys were still ripping. I would have pooped out many hours ago… I did get my answer when Carissa stepped in front of my camera a little later: She could easily put me on the floor…
Carissa Moore by Jonas Jungblut
A big fat THANK YOU to Red Bull for getting me out there and in front of, not only Carissa Moore but a few other amazing surfers who I will share soon. Also amazing: I was asked to shoot medium format black and white film for part of this! I don’t get that request too many times these days but it’s always a big treat to pull out the Hasselblad and shoot film!
Carissa Moore by Jonas Jungblut
In May of this year I traveled to Japan for Naturally Danny Seo to photograph an editorial around travel and food. I photographed portraits, landscapes, food and some industrial/ingredient images, a true travel story. Our journey started in Osaka and via Tokushima we traveled to Tokyo from where we departed (check out a vlog HERE ). We documented Wakame (seaweed) harvests, Mochi production, visited a Umeboshi (plum) farm/factory, a Miso producer and finally a Shoyu (Japanese style soy sauce) facility. This last stop left us with the most exotic experience.
The Shoyu was cured in large wooden barrels measuring a diameter of about eight feet with a depth of at least ten feet. We could walk between the open barrels but they were placed tightly together so that the space between them got very narrow in the middle, less than a foot wide. At first I just thought it was fun balancing in between the barrels but then I realized that the Shoyu was too thick to swim in. If I fell in I would just sink to the bottom. And they were wide enough to where it was pretty unlikely to get a hold on the rim if you actually fell. It became clear that if you fell in, you’d never come out. It would take too long for someone to notice, know which one you fell in and then find some sort of device to pull you out. I stepped a lot more carefully…
Once I was done shooting I asked our guide about it and had my theory confirmed…
I had one amazing short little trail run in Tokushima prefacture (vlog HERE) and of course seeing Mt. Fuji from the Shinkansen at dusk was amazing (and so was seeing it from the hotel in Tokyo). The alleys in Ginza (Tokyo) at night were fantastic and the fact that they shut down the road in Ginza and converted it into a promenade on the weekend was nice to see.
Many thanks to the team and the people of Japan for making this a fantastic journey!
Constantin von Jascheroff by Jonas Jungblut
I was in Berlin recently and met up with Constantin von Jascheroff for a quick portrait shoot. We have been working on these portraits for over a decade now. Everytime I am in Berlin we meet and take some portraits. I’ll post some more over the next weeks, but this one stood out. We had shot for a while and ended up in this location (his front door with a long dark hallway behind him). He shaved his face except for his mustache for this last set up. and when he told me that he had just finished dubbing Tarantino’s latest release “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (starring Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie) I couldn’t help but tell him he reminded me of Pitt.
