Milo Hess

I just spent the last five days with my cousin Milo Hess, a well-respected and published photographer, who taught me something new about picture-taking. Many of our digital cameras have a “filter” feature that allows us to alter the look of the photos we are taking. Milo takes photos that look they they were hand-painted. They are stunning and look like art pieces (check out the photos below). Milo, who is titled as an “Olympus Visionary” for the camera company’s social media department, explained how the  process works. He uses the “Olympus Dramatic Tone Filter,” one of the art filters built in to certain Olympus cameras. I am sure you can find a similar feature on your own digital camera. Check the instruction book.

Milo said at the turn of a dial or a press of a button, the “Olympus Dramatic Tone filter” lifts the contrast, color, and saturation to create a unique, almost HDR (high dynamic range) look. He said that the setting is not for every photo situation, but when used for certain images it’s, well, very dramatic.  That is why Instagram, the iPhone and Android application that Facebook bought for a billion dollars earlier this year, is so popular. It helps change the entire complexion of the photograph.

For more info go to olympusamerica.com

A Little About Milo

A graduate of Pratt Institute and the High School of Art and Design in NYC, Milo has been a multi-faceted member of the NYC design community for over 30 years.The winner of over 35 design awards — including 5 NY Area Emmy Awards for his work in broadcast design — Milo has been an art director/designer for WCBS TV, Fox 5 and WPIX TV News over the years. He designed the original on-air look  of  NY1 News for Time Warner Cable for which he received an Emmy. 

Most recently he has been the art director for a PR/Business Communications agency, Magnet Communications (HAVAS Advertising) where he designed graphics for meetings/events, promotion and written copy for Fortune 100 companies.

He is also an accomplished photographer, having his 9/11 photographs in the permanent collection of the NY Public Library as well as other images in Popular Photography magazine. Currently, he is shooting freelance journalism for The Downtown Express, Chelsea NOW and The Villager NYC weekly newspapers. He was awarded 2009 First Place Award for Spot News from The NY State Press Association. Recently, he was named an Olympus Visionary pro photographer by Olympus America and is a social media photography critic.

As a freelance designer… his recent projects include corporate  meeting/ graphics/marketing design for Fortune 100 corporations including Johnson & Johnson, Ortho McNeil, Pfizer, Novartis, Canon, Aventis, IBM, Citigroup, Dish Network, Sony among others. Milo has licensed his graphic art  to Villeroy & Boch, the European lifestyle conglomerate for a line of ceramic pet products as well as a line of stationery for teNeues Publishing and bookmarks for Antioch Publishing. The father of two grown children, native New Yorker Milo resides in Tribeca with Elle and their tuxedo cat Oreo