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People Who Inspire Us: Mick Orlosky
Words by Jeremiah Garcia
Photos by Mick Orlosky
I don’t remember exactly how I came across Mick Orlosky’s Flickr account, but I spotted his fisheye shot of a crowd jammed into Coachella’s Sahara tent and my jaw dropped. I immediately went to download the largest version I possible could to set as my desktop wallpaper. I was shocked to see that I could download a 4368 x 2912 file. Hoorah! That thing looks wicked on my dual screen desktop. As I stared at it, trying to find the guy flipping the bird to the camera (there’s ALWAYS one), I thought to myself, “we should get to know this guy better.” So that’s just what we did…
JG: What inspired you to get into photography? Do you remember what shooting was like with your first camera?
MO: I got into SLR photography in high school late in the previous century simply because I was one of those “arts” guys. I lost a lot of film and batteries to icy cold weather, and the darkroom was murder on me. I never shook up the developing solution just the right way. By the time I took more classes at college I was fed up with it all and stuck to drawing. Then many years later, they made the mistake of inventing digital. Oh boy! Much to the chagrin of all the old school film guys, I dove back in. I do miss the clicks and whirs of the old analog SLR though. I remember my first camera and the sense that when you clicked the release, things were actually happening!
JG: Do you shoot professionally? If so, who have been some of your clients and what have you shot?
MO: I’ve shot for Yahoo! Music, Grooves Magazine, and some blogs. I have some photos on display at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. Oh yes and don’t forget my photo used by Utah Economic Development Corporation in their book about the booming economy of the Industry state! I’m not yet a professional, though.
JG: What got you into shooting live music?
MO: I don’t know if you’ve ever spent a lot of time in a foreign place where you don’t speak the language, but there is a phenomenon when you don’t hear your native language for a long time, you miss it. At that point, even crop reports on international TV sound delightful to your starving ears. Well, music is like that for me all the time. I’m always missing it and even bad music sounds great in this world gone awry. Live music has a power and energy, when it’s done right, that can’t be matched. Photographing live music feels natural to me, probably because I can’t play an instrument. Plus, having a photo pass is like getting better than front row seats.
JG: You’ve got a unique eye for live music photography. What’s going through your head while you’re shooting?
MO: These are the top three thoughts while I’m behind the viewfinder: 1) I can’t believe I’m this close to Bjork!! Is there anything better in life? 2) Wait, did I leave this thing on 1600 ISO again? 3) For the love of GOD will you look up from your damn guitar for one measly second, you reclusive selfish bastard!
JG: Who has been your favorite band to shoot? Why?
MO: The band !!! (Chk-Chk-Chk) at Coachella in 2007 was probably my favorite, only because the lead guy took my hat off my head while I was clicking away. I caught it in a sequence of photos. I love that band to begin with, and the moment was something you couldn’t ever script.
JG: Where is your favorite venue to shoot? Least favorite? Why?
MO: Well the Coachella festival is the highlight of my year, and where I feel most at home. Don’t really have a least favorite – unless it’s someplace that doesn’t allow cameras. Fascists!
JG: On your Flickr account, you grant access to your exif data as well as high res images. What’s your mindset behind this when most photographers are extremely guarded about their work?
MO: Great question! When photographers on Flickr restrict access, or superimpose a watermark credit, or put in the description things like “Don’t use in any form without my permission,” what are they guarding, really? Is viewing this photo not okay with them? Are they expecting to get rich? Do they think the photo will win the Pulitzer under someone else’s name? All they do is interfere with normal people looking at the photograph. When I see that sort of thing, it feels like the photographer poking me sharply in the shoulder and saying “Hey you! Don’t forget how important I am! I’m much more important than this actual photograph.” I never want to be like that. Why would I poke every single viewer in the shoulder just to prevent some “loss” that would never really affect me anyway? And, if you’re trying to make money from your photography, more power to you – but Flickr isn’t a storefront. There are other places for that. Flickr is a community, and we’re all part of it.
JG: What are your thoughts on Creative Commons licensing?
MO: I admire the effort to create a framework for fairness that understands that civilization and culture depends on something more than one-way temporary consumption of a product. I don’t know how many people actually understand what’s happening to our civilization and the dark ages represented by the concept of total ownership of ideas, but Creative Commons seems to be a step in the right direction.
JG: What are your thoughts on the digital age of photography?
MO: A camera is a box with a hole in it that collects light. There’s nothing fundamentally different between an exposed dot on film and a pixel on a sensor. What matters is what light rays you happen to intercept on their way to oblivion. They all create an impression of a moment in time that tells us no more about reality than if we capture a firefly in a jar at a summer picnic. Photography has nothing to do with reality, and everything to do with subjectivity. The very fact that a camera caught a scene means that a human eye couldn’t have been in that exact spot at that exact time – because the camera was there instead. In that way, a camera guarantees unreality. Accept it and understand it, and move on.
But, I enjoy a profound amusement at the number of photos taken on digital cameras that never even get transferred to computers. We’re a funny civilization right now with some mighty odd priorities, that’s for sure.
JG: What advice would you give to someone who just bought their first DSLR?
MO: Philosophically, I would tell them to never again wonder if they are good enough. Start getting in the way of a lot of light rays and have fun. From a practical perspective (and here I mean gear!) I would say forget about collecting lenses. The evolution of most photographers I know has gone through a similar progression. Get an SLR, then lust after long lenses. Long lenses are the easiest thing to understand. Then they get long lenses, but slowly realize that the really cool dramatic photos they’ve seen are actually wide angle. So, they lust after wide angle lenses, eventually acquiring one. But still, their shots lack that wondrous quality they see in their head. Only at this point do they realize that lighting is the key to it all. But, they’re intimidated by the mathematics of flash and exposure. Thus they resign themselves to taking outdoor shots and telling themselves that using only available light is just what they prefer to do; available light is their “style.” Look, I’ve been there. I went through all the phases. If you just bought a DSLR, go straight to the Strobist blog and start learning. Don’t buy the 70-200mm lens, buy three flashes instead. You’ll skip two or three years of literal darkness, and you’ll get to where you want to be faster.
JG: This question is ridiculous, but I ask it to everyone I possibly can: who was your childhood nemesis?
MO: My childhood nemeses were the school bullies. I’m pretty sure I’m more successful now than they are, though.
JG: Any parting words?
MO: Do you have peanut-butter dipped ice cream?
