Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Wired Magazine


I was looking at the current issue of Wired Magazine and BAM , there was an ad I had shot for RBRC in it. The hard part was getting the leaves to stay in place without any damage to the laptop not to mention the monkey....

Monday, February 26, 2007

BUSH


So this is the coolest thing I've done lately. I've shot boxing ringside at Caesars Palace back when Tyson ruled the ring, spent the day with the Stanley Cup, but this ranks up there as far as phot shoot go. I got to be part of the White House press pool when Bush visited Novozymes in Franklin County. I've worked with Novozymes in the past and they got me the gig. I was 1 of 6 local press people allowed to tag along. I had to be there 4 hours early and the security was incredible. They ran a background check on me the week before. The people in the Secret Service and Marines were really nice to deal with. It was alot of stand here, go over there, don't step over that line, don't point your camera in that direction, now move over here. I'm a Nikon shooter, but all the press pool photographers were shooting with Canon. If I did this type of photography everyday, I think I'd make the switch.
The press pool arrived in a helicopter that landed about 50 feet away , corn cobs and stalks were flying in the air. There was alot of running and jockeying for postion as Bush moved to different locations of the plant. At times I was about 5 feet from Bush. I will say Bush looked tired and old. My favorite shot of the day is the one with the black background. I shot this from the side, there was a support beam wrapped in black fabric that blocked the people in the panel to his left, and a Secret Service agent to my right, this was my best angle to shoot.

Doctors at Duke


Some out-takes of a shoot while waiting for doctors and nurses to show-up..........

Night Life


Been working on a project on nightlife in the "big city" , featuring the local hip hotspots to be seen at. Had a great time shooting it, but I'm not use to being out that late. Most were shot available light, but I used a ring-flash and small soft-box for some.

Knobs


Another editorial project for a feature on a store that sells knobs for drawers. I really liked the glass knobs and just used a reflector on a Profoto head to get the shadows and highlights.

Martha Steward


I worked on an editorial project for the new Martha Steward KB Homes in Cary. They were looking for interiors,exteriors and details of some model homes. It usually take me about aday per home to do a project like this, but they were under a tight deadline. So I shot 5 homes in 5 hours........ I focused on the living/kitchen/dineing rooms of the model homes, all done with 3 Profoto heads and a Sun Pack 522. It was a fast paced day and I'm happy with the results. I really like some of the detail shots.

CatchUP


Going to try and catch up from last week and do some post today.......
Did some product shots for a pharmaceutical company. Your basic shoot it on white and drop it out. We went back and forth about getting a hand model for the one shot and it wasn't in the budget, so they used someone from the office......

Friday, February 16, 2007

coffee


Had a client cancel on me yesterday. We were suppose to shoot a coffee -cup. I already had the props so I shot some stock images. Also working on an article about Raleigh at night. Doing some night shooting after the kids go to bed. I'm usually in bed by 10PM so this night shooting is killing me. The coffee shots were done with the available light in the studio, nasty fluorescent over heads and a maglight with blue gel, shooting at f 2.8 @ 1/4 sec. to get a nice soft out of focus background.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Magazines and edits


Did some standard headshots this AM and location scouting for a big shoot coming up. The client is having problems with the budget for model fee's........Picked up 7 jobs over the next 2 weeks and sold some stock. I recently did some photos for a magazine of The Triangle Brass Band. I'm not a big fan of shooting at the BTI center with available light, it looks like your shooting in a black hole. I took one head an umbrella and 4x6 reflector and did some portraits before the performance. I always edit my photo's before sending them off and create a folder called "favorites" with my picks. I thought the portraits were the stronest images from the shoot, but didn't make the magazine. Oh well life goes on........

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Who needs a permit to shoot


I was aked to photgraph Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue for a magazine. The concept was to have her in front of the capital in downtown Raleigh. The magazine editor didn't think about getting a permit. The day of the shoot I called the Capital Police and spoke to the chief (he gave me his name). He told me to call Facility Management, and the not very nice woman told me YES I needed a permit. I downloaded the form filled it out and was running up the street to drop it off, when I noticed it took 3 days to clear all the proper channels. I called the editor and she called beverly's PR person and we decide to wing it... I had scouted the location the day before and 5PM looked good, with the warm sunshine. I arrived at 4:30 and set-up. The editor arrived and so did the PR person. We called to have Beverly dropped off. As soon as her car pulled up a police officer came out and asked if we had a permit. I said no but I'd spoken to chief ________ and he said it was cool. I was already tested and Beverly stepped into place and was there for about 10min. We'd got the shot. I'm not sure what political party Beverly Perdue is in but she is really down to earth and a great person, so I'll vote for her.

The shoot- I used my Alien Bee Vagabon system ( I make fun of these lights all the time, they are plastic and cheap, the power ratio has alot of slop and the built in slave don't really work, but they have saved my ass a number of times)
Main light was @ 600WS with 1/2 CT warm from top left
Back/side light was @ 400WS from right
Both lights had reflectors Shot at f/11 @ 60sec. to bring in the ambient light.

Monday, February 12, 2007

old school Hot Wheels


Over Christmas I was shopping and came across some old school Hot Wheels items. I had to pick them up for myself to re-live some childhood memories. I really want to shoot a real car and drop it into the shot ,but who has time....maybe one day. I had a XS Chimera box above the set, and a 1000 watt mole with dark blue on the background. 18mm wide lense @ f/32 6 sec. exposure. I did 3 seperate exposures for the track and car with fill cards moved in and out and merged them with layer mask in Photoshop.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Hip Hop Shoot


I shot Hip Hop artist John Ajilore this week http://www.johnajilore.com/ . He is a very quite,intellligent, and creative artist. His lyrics are very raw and hardcore, such a contrast between the man and the music. I've thought my people images have looked flat and over lit , so I've put away the soft- boxes,octa dome and umbrellas and am using hard light on people. Ive been happy with the results so far.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

catalog


Cranking through catalog work. Most are drop outs shot on white background, but afew fun ones.......

My first post



Last week an agency came to me with a project for Kendall-Jackson / Nomacork for a trade pub. ad. A very loose concept, show the lable and show the cork. The final image was done in Photoshop with 3 images.
1-Bottle/cork image was shot with a chimera XXS softbox, Arri 300 w/ 1/4 CT warm gel. and 3 sec. lightpainting with a maglite
2-Water color paper was shot with a 1000w mole, side light to bring out the texture, and square paper built in Photoshop.
3-Grapes for background shot with Profoto 30x40 softbox and blurred in Photoshop.