old catalog shot

I was going through my archives looking for an image and came across an old shot from a catalog. The bar that the wine rack is on came out 12 feet from the background and camera was under the C-stand knuckle.

Voith Paper

Went through a million versions for Voith Paper. We tried to project a background with a LCD projector, but it got to busy. Went from gray to blue on the background. You think it would be easy to find a 4 inch globe, but it's not. Some brute force a hacksaw and hot glue, got rid of the Equator ring.

tear sheets

Some printed shots from recent post ..........

She could of crapped her pants Communication

I had a shoot for a magazine cover this week. The magazine handles the booking and locations and I just show up. The story was about an architect, and he want to shoot at a space he designed. I showed up and ran into the magazine people (3 of them) in the parking lot, they didn't know where they were going, so I knew this was a disaster in the making. We found the space and made contact with the office manager. We asked if we could look around to find a space to shoot, she said "No-way You have to wait for the architect", who was running late. I know she thought, we were going to show up with a camera and do a snap shot, boy did she have a surprise coming. The the architect arrived and we found a spot, I had my small location kit with me a pelician 1650 (produt plug) which hold 2 Profot Packs (produt plug) and 5 heads. This poor women couldn't believe what was happening,we moved all the furniture out of the lobby and were in the middle of the hallway with a conferene going on to camera left. This poor women could of crapped her pants, the look on her face was priceless. I had to shoot up at the architect because of the large flat screen on the wall behind him. If you look close there is a pack and cord on the bottom left of the image, this will be retouched out, just didn't have time to shoot it right. Leason of the day is Communication.

Neat places and people

I'm a sucker for big machines, I Could watch Really Big Things, Build it Bigger, Moderen Marvels, How it's made etc. all those shows 24-7. I got to shoot at EEC and it was really cool, they recondition old machines and motors. Met some great people, Roger is a screen writer and just went to LA for an open screen play event, he got 4 call backs. Don't think he'll be working on motors much longer. I used a combination of @ 7 heads for most of the shots.

Me at EEC and sets

MRI Machine

I've shot alot of MRI Machines in the past for hospitals and other radiology places. I spoke with them on the phone and set-up the shoot. My thoughts on lighting were. 3 geled lights for background , 2 backlights for machine, 3 lights for the front of the machine and another backlight if there are people. That's like 9 lights......... So I pack everthing up (you have to have back-up) , so I end up with about 15 lights,5 power packs,2 mono lights and 4 small flashes. I arrive and unload everything into the waiting room in back. My contact is running late and when she arrive she informs me, I can't take a camera or lights into the MRI room, It was turned on the day before and if it's turned off, it cost like $30K to have the gas pumped back in. The room was tungsten and floursent. I ened up using the modeling light on a Speedotron head with a 40 grid over the camera. I shot at ISO 400 yikes...The shots turned out nice.

art direct from afar

I do alot of work for the guy's at merge and they are slammed. The layout was emailed and they wanted to try color paper instead of white. The color paper looked to much like memo's so back to white. After making @ 50 RX perscriptions I thought I'd nailed it. Just afew changes and some retouching and the file was out the door. Hazy light and some mirriors.

FWV Business Leader

Some shots for the cover of Business Leader Magazine, a story on marketing featuring French West Vaughan a marketing firm. FVW is only 5 blocks from my studio and parking in downtown is always a problem. I decided to walk. I loaded up my Multi-Cart (Product-plug) and set out. It was all up hill and the cobble stones and brick sidewalks are pretty to look at but not fun to pull a cart on. Shot were 3 profoto heads, 2 softboxes 1-2 on front and a reflector for back light.

back at EEC

I was back at EEC the other day to shoot a "stanton" ( A big electrical thing that's getting an over-haul ). The stanton was about 10 feet from the roll up door,and it hasn't rained in @ 4 weeks, So today it decided to rain. I was outside on a ladder when the storm came and scrambled to get in and move the packs and lights.

inspire pharmaceutical

Some shots for Womens Edge Magazine on inspire pharmaceutical. Pretty straight portrait with blue gels on background and a shot looking down the hall.

DNA Group 2

A finger pushing a button. This was shot to look like it was on metal. It was a piece of vinyl with a hole cut out for the button (Bike reflector) on a piece of milk plexiglass.

DNA Group 2

Shot of a pocket knife for the DNA Group. Check out that rigg ? It was the only thing we could find to hold the pocket knife. We covered it with whit paper for the final shot.

Nationwide Bike fest

Covered the Ray Price Bike Fest for Nationwide in downtown Raleigh. The Nationwide people were really great and alot of fun to work with.

nightmare group

For this shot I had to drop a guy in. I would normally shoot the group shot and than the person to drop in so the lighting would match. Because of time I had to shoot him first. I told them no patterens and he showed up with the worst suit ever. I had to cut and paste his entire suit together to get rid of the morie. I showed up to do the group shot of 13 people and they had a very small space, I was standing on a desk and zoomed out as far as possible, I had alot of color fringing on my edges, yet more retouching, Oh by the way drop out sign in while your at it.

law offices

Seems like that time of year when every law firm wants to update their website.

Sparkcon

Some images from The Sparkcon Creative conference.

headshots with pop

Even if shooting on location you can still get some pop to your image or headshots. I always travel with some big black cards and place them close to my subject, this helps prevent spill from the white background. Background should be +1/2-3/4 brighter than the foreground and backlight @ the same ( different with each subject depends on their hair color and what they are wearing ).

headshots

Seems like 2-3 times aweek I'm doing headshots. On white on gray etc......

john deere

I'm not a big event/grip and grin photographer, but I had the chance to cover an event for John Deere in Clayton. Lots of images of people playing golf, in classes and hanging out at the party. These are some of my out-takes.

john deere 2

out-take from john deere event.

polished

So my neighbor across the street and her friend have started a personal shooping service http://www.polishedraleigh.com/.
I did some shots for the website, some out-takes......

cup cakes

Some shots for NC Signature Magazine on Cup Cake Envy.

State Audit

So it's been awhile since I've posted, lots of work to show. I was audited by the great state of NC for sales and use tax. This consumed alot of my time and I've learned alot. Not as bad as it could of been ........... I had itemized my invoice labor/creative fee and than the tangible (film/media) on a seperate line with a total. I was only paying sales tax on the tangible goods. WRONG. It is gross-sale. I was doing it this way because the people at th NCDOR told me. WRONG. So I spoke with NCDOR by phone on some questions and this was my anwser-

I have spoken with a Sales & Use Tax Agent at the NCDOR to clarify this
issue. He was actually unwilling to commit to a definitive answer with the
information I gave him. He suggested that we write to NC DOR and request a
written ruling.

So I'm now waiting for some anwsers in writting.

1-If a job is $1000, and is billed photography/creative fee $999 and media is billed at $1, than you pay tax on $1000.
2-If a job is $1000, and is billed photography/creative fee $999 and a seperate invoice is $1 for media,you pay tax on $1.
3-If the client provides media CD/DVD no tax is paid.
4-If a file is emailed , no tax is paid.

When I get my letters from the NCDOR I'll post that information.