3 day location catalog

I am silly tired .... 3 days of shooting a catalog on location, up at 5AM and home @ 7:30 PM. We shot in a warehouse in Hillsborough NC about 50 miles from the studio. All the merchandise was there and if any defects we could pull new stock.
Anything you can out a UNC logo on. This year we tried something different with or mannequin Avery, so not all the clothing shots were lay downs. It gave some of the garment a real nice shape. Hope the Canes and Penns don't go to overtime tonight, don't think I'd make it.

It's not Hopeless

Needless to say after all the scale model testing the Hopeless set would not fit in my studio. A big thanks to Roland at Valentine Design Group for building the set and letting us shoot in his space. The budget was so tight on this I played many roles photographer,photo assistant,chauffeur,wardrobe shopper and stylist and chauffeur again. We flew some talent in from Nashville for the day, big thanks to Ed and Mary at Locke Management for stepping up and working with us.

Raleigh fashion week Strut 09

Some behind the scenes shots from Raleigh fashion week Strut 09. I was suppose to have a seat on the runway to shoot, but somehow that didn't happen ........ I opted for the drag the shutter blurry images during the show, I was just to far away with a 200 mm to get anything good.

In Print GOP

Pretty cool shoot something one day and have it printed the next. They even used my copy "Balance and Comfort", maybe I should put the camera down and become a copywriter. Better yet I'll max out my credit cards on some ultra contemporary furniture and start my own one man agency look out JWT,BBDO,Fallon,Deutsch and all you other big NYC agencies .......

Balance and Comfort

Some sandal shots for GOP. "I got some sandals and need some shots for an add going out tomorrow can I drop them off in the morning?". I love when a job comes in and goes out in less than a day. The concept was comfort, I had the rocks hanging out at the studio and threw in the balance part, got to love hot glue. They picked the top left image and it should be in the N&O today.

Scan

CAT Scan, PET Scan they are all running together. A great room with lots of glass and limited shooting are through the door, fill light on the floor.

looking for a location

Been running around looking for a location, a restaurant or ballroom where we can build a set.

Outer Banks Random shots

I was in the Outer Banks of NC for 4 days working on a story. I can't show any of those images yet but I took a ton of personal shots.

Outer Banks Random shots

Random shots from the Outer Banks.

Outer Banks Ferry

Snapshots from the ferry I took back and forth to Oakracoke 4 times.

Outer Banks Motel

My motel, no phone but you've got to love the electrical outlet.

Outer Banks Waterfall Park

An old water and go cart park on the side of the road

One light lighthouse

I was shooting a travel assignment for a magazine in the NC Outer Banks. I was determined to shoot the Hatteras lighthouse even though it wasn't on my shot list. I arrived late, I was shooting an assignment horse back riding on the beach at sunset, someone fell off a hors and was unconscious. I'll save that post for a new day. I get to the lighthouse at 8:30 PM and it's dark, very dark there is nothing on the Outer Banks so there is no ambient "city" light. After my 1st shot I thought the light house looked to dark, Oh .... I got some lights in the car. I grabbed an AB 800 and the Vagabon and ran toward the lighthouse and just took a wild guess. I new I didn't have time to card off the light so I just figured I'd retouch it out, I was running out of light. Final shot was f/2.8 @ 45sec. and 10 pops of the AB at full power with PW's.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .........

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.

April Fools .... Beware the sock monkey

Flip book for TV test

Had a pow-wow with a creative agency the other day and the concept was a flip book style documentary video for a TV commercial. I'm a sucker for a challenge. I've done stop motion in the past 16 mm and Super 8, but nothing in the digital world. I'm sure there is a mathmatical formula for something like this, frame rate divided by speed x distance + time - the square root of Pi ........ I went with the SWAG theory Scientific Wild Ass Guess. Thought I'd shoot a test before we went on location. Stop sign in front of the studio 30 frames 360° spin 00:03. Can't get the video to upload but here's a link Flip Book Test

Flip Book data

2,043 Rawfiles processed to Tiff. files = 163.11 GB's of info.
I've never really worried about space before but I've got this on 3 machines and 2 drives ............

PDN PHOTO OF THE DAY

PDN PHOTO OF THE DAY check it out www.pdnphotooftheday.com

Outch !! Snap shots and a Tetanus shot .....

I'll get to the tetanus shot at the end. Can't say much about the shoot except it's a very cool conceptual piece and for a good cause. Not everyday I have 16 people at the studio. Big thanks to Angie for make-up and DirectionsUSA for some of the talent. I was lucky that the location ( a new / moved house ) was only 1 1/2 blocks from the studio. The sun was best in late afternoon so we spent the morning doing some landscaping around the home. After everyone left I went back to help pack up. We'd removed an erosion control fence earlier, putting it back I stepped on the spike to get it in the ground and it went through my shoe. I took my shoe off and my sock was covered in blood, I haven't had a tetanus shot in about 10 years, so off I went. I don't want to sound like a baby, but it's been 2 days and I can barely move my left arm above my shoulder, and I'm walking around like Kevin Spacey as Keyser Söze in the Usual Suspects.

Welcome to my neighborhood

Part of my Welcome to my neighborhood series. This is Frankie who lives at the opposite corner of my studio. There are about 10 people that live in the house, I'm not sure what the story is ....... Frankie always has this plastic comb that hangs out from his mini-afro. He's very soft spoken compared to the other people in the neighborhood, he's always showing my photo's he's snapped with his phone.

fusetalent

Shot some new talent Garrett for FUSE. I've been seeing the promo image for the new Star Trek movie and tried that in the studio. Really need to drive to the coast and get Garrett with a surfboard ........

Ring Ring Ring

I'm never a big fan of group shot, but this one really turned out nice. This was for the Raleigh Ringers. 17 people, I was able to get the lights and myself up high enough that there were no shadows on any faces. We ended up pulling down a white curtain for the group to stand on and used the other curtain as the background. Took out some wrinkles alittle pen tool action and selective color on the white and it made a nice white background.

looking casual

Looking for some casual shots of people leaning, on something ............ What to do ? We found an old shelf unit and rigged it with a C-stand so the talent could have something to lean on. Lot's of left overs from lunch ..........

AM Series

Since the time change, it's still dark when I come into work. I've stopped a few times and snapped some photo's.

Good Morning .... WHAT THE F*CK ......

A picture's worth a thousand words, what else can I say .......... I laughed than I threw up .........

Drive by shooting

Not sure where I'm going with this. The past few days when I've been driving around I've taken my camera with me. I crank up the ISO to 400 and put on an 85mm. I set the aperture for the sunny side and know to open up 5 clicks for the shady side. I'm just pointing the camera out the window at interesting things. I'm not looking through the view finder just some creative cropping. I know I've missed a ton of great shots (stuff not in the frame or to blurry) but it's kinda fun to get back to the studio and see what I've got.

five diamond

Nice to see how the other have of the world lives at a five diamond hotel. I'm use to motel 6 or the Days Inn. What a great place and the art work was to die for. Working on some shots for Women's Edge Magazine. Traveling lean and light with the Profoto kit 2 packs and 6 heads.

Party at the studio

Cleaned up in front of the studio this morning, think some people in the neighborhood had a good time. Suspended above black velvet 16X22 softbox.