Thursday, April 30, 2009

Welcome to my neighborhood Christine


I've seen Christine for the past 3 years. She usually walks around downtown with a shopping cart and a baseball bat. I've asked people about her and they warned my to stay away. She's given up her shopping cart and has set up camp in some bushes at Moore square a block away. I had a cancellation the other day and walked up to the park, I took my Neighborhood Portfolio with me and told her about my project. She was into it and a joy to photograph. I use my hard light technique, maybe not the best idea, Christine had alot of shine going on. I;m still going through all the files.

Editorial


Up at Duke the other day shooting some images for The Scientist Magazine. The images had a funny crop size and need alot of room for reversed out type and a copy box. I tried some colored gel shots but the microscope room was very small. The stuff theses guy's are working on is so over my head I won't even try to explain it.

Dropping off files


I always like dropping off files when my client is downtown. I can grab my camera and do a leisurely stroll around the city.

Monday, April 27, 2009

More Cancer Survivors


More work with Cancer Survivors and other shots. It's always great to be around people with such an upbeat and positive attitude.

Will it fit ?


Doing some test to see if a set will fit in the studio. Felt like I was on Myth Busters (one of the best shows on tv) with my small scale model test. I think the set will fit.

TV data crunch


Another TV project and 177 GB of information. I make the mistake of working off my start up drive and when I came in the next morning my computer crashed with only 30 megs left ......... Oops ........ I day to shoot and 2 days to process.

Survivors and stuff


Working on some images of cancer survivors and web banners. The set changed from shot to shot.

Friday, April 17, 2009

NC fashion week


Some promo shots for NC fashion week ....Good VS Evil "Fighting Breast Cancer". Thanks to the people at Everlast and Meschantes also to Ross for helping out. It turned out to be more of a production than I thought. Some set-up shots and un-edited images. Yes that is the ring-flash on the floor, under lit for that spooky feel.

Headshots


Shooting some work for a talent agency and trying new headshot set-ups ..........

Raleigh Tea Party


The Federal Building is 2 blocks from the studio. I was in a rush to get home the other night and the Raleigh Tea Party was just getting started. How can one pass up a photo op like that ? A few of my favorite signs, I heard once they move to the capital build there were 1,500-2,000 people. I try to stay political neutral on the blog but I've heard alot of bad press on the Tea Party, I thought it was a good mix of people and not just white rednecks.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Welcome to my neighborhood Shante's Quality Hair


2 1/2 blocks from my studio is Shante's Quality Hair. She's been in the same spot for the past 13 years, a small white cinder block building. I really wanted to capture the juxtaposition of her building with all the new fancy high rise building behind it, but there was a car in the way. Guess I'll have to go back.

Creating an image library


Spent the day out in RTP creating an image library for a company. The important shots was to match the existing photo on the companies home page with new people. Lucky for us there was a big meeting in the conference room. We moved people around every 15 minutes to give it some variety. I have to say I'm blown away by the low noise of the D3 at high ISO's. It was a 50/50 split between strobes and available light.

Panorama-rama


I've never been a big fan of panorama images, I had a Technorama 6x17 years ago, I just don't like the format. But the format works well for fancy flash websites. I'd never used the Photomerge function in CS before., so I varied my over laps in frame and each image ended up with 4/5 shots. I must say I'm impressed. Maybe I'll give so more thought to the panorama format.

Random snap shots


Just some random snap shots from around town.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Clowning Around


What do you do with a clown ? I did some shots for a clown the other day and we had some extra time, these were afew of my ideas. When I got home from work that night my girls asked me what I did at work, I said "I shot a clown" they were very sad.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Working mans hands


Did some shots of hands the other day. Looking for that real world "working man hands look". Going for that dark and moody. 2 grids and a small softbox for fill light. A tough shoot for the model standing behind the background on some apple boxes, holding his hands over and not getting in the light.

Studio is a Disaster zone ............


How can this happen ? This place is a total disaster ...... Think I'll do some cleaning today.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

How about those Tar Heels


Go figure, the day after UNC wins the NCAA Championship I have a shoot on the campus. Me and @ 1500 people are all looking for parking spots.

Secret Cell Phones


Of course I can't show the real cell phone......... This was my set up, 23 phones shot and clipped out, my hand hurts .........

Friday, April 3, 2009

AM Series


Part of my AM series

Bail out and small spaces


I did some executive portraits of a company that got a large bail out. Not sure if I should of gotten paid up front or if I should invoice the for $100K. You never know what your going to get when you show up. The room was 15X10 feet, I could touch the ceiling on my tip toes. I ended up opening the doors and shooting through. This worked great for the individual portraits. The group shot not to well ........... It looked like it was shot with a ring flash, but some fancy photoshop work made it look great.
Corporate Guide lines
Below are the guidelines:
4”x5”Color Portrait, head or torso shot, approximately four feet from camera. Individual should be centered in the photo with some background showing on either side and above the head.•Team photos: 5”x4”Color Portrait, head or torso shot, approximately four –six feet from camera. Members must be close together. Team should be centered in the photo with some background showing on either side and above the heads.•Please DO NOT stand in front of the XXXXXXX logo if you are photographing in your office.

view of my studio


View of my studio from the Cardinal Club.

General Hugh Shelton


This was my 4th year covering this corporate event. They always have great key-note speakers. This year was General Hugh Shelton, a great speaker and actually kinda funny. The set up was different from past years, I'd decided to bounce a couple lights from the ceiling. Kinda a nice rim type light.