GodFather

I happen to catch Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography the other night and there was an interview with Gordon Willis the cinematographer for the Godfather series. He talked about his use of overhead lighting on the movie. He kept shadows in Marlon Brandos eyes to add mystery and drama to the scenes. I photographed a standard headshot for a corporate business and Mark also need a separate headshot for his book jacket as a horror mystery writer. I thought I'd try the overhead lighting and some other stuff. 30 degree grid on C-stand pointing down and a 20 degree grid on a thunder gray seamless background.

Water Plant

Had a free day last week and set out for the water plant with Jen to do some photo's. It was pretty chilly that day and Jen was a good sport. Most shots were AB800 3/4 and a AB400 for backlight.

Hanna Andersson,Vincent Shoes, studio lock down ...

It was one of those long grinding days in the studio 7AM till 6PM, never set foot outside, people tell me it was a beautiful day.
Some shots for Vincent Shoes for a Hanna Andersson catalog and insert. Not sure who Hanna Anderson is but the wife went crazy, so it must be cool stuff. Lots of hot glue and armature wire for rigging, trying to give the shoes a playful look. The studio is a disaster zone and I don't have the energy to clean today.

Insight Sun Tech

Some product shots for Insight, a product development firm. 2 softboxes and a white sweep and I'm good to go ....

Duke ACR

So after my 4 AM wake up call and hiking through the woods, I had a shoot at Duke for the ACR. I had taken a change of shoes but not pants and after hiking through the wetlands ( who knew we had wetlands in the middle of NC ) my pants looked like some sorta army camouflage. WOW a pencil sketch for a layout, you don't see that much these days. The room was really tiny not much space to move or light. Soft-box and 20 degree grid camera left, small profoto umbrella camera right and a light on back wall.

Briar Chapel

Up at 4 AM to head out to a new planned community Briar Chapel in Chatham County. This will be almost 3000 homes,condo's and shops. They are taking great steps in the preservation of the land, it's greater than the County or state calls for with the buffers. These shots are documenting some landmarks and trying to capture the feel of the surroundings.

Wake Rad

Some outtake from wake radiology, the images will be drop out and a backgroud added.

last day with Maria Dubin

My last day documenting Maria Dubin www.mariadubin.com at Novozymes. This is what it's all about the finished paintings. They looked really great hanging on the walls with all the empty space around them. It was tough to get a good image of the finished work. I couldn't get straight on on one painting and the other noway to get the light at a 45 degree angle. Thank you Photoshop. Maria's next Novozymes painting will be in Brazil, maybe they'll send me down to cover her again from start to finish.
Copy Work and Stuff- I'm going to show my age here. I worked in Vegas for 5 years, 3 of those years I worked with Bob Pace, a Master of Dye transfer,retouching and copy work. We shot alot of copy work in the studio 4x5 and 8x10 chrome, we did alot of work for Leroy Neiman. The best way was to polarize your light source and camera lense and have your lights at a 45 degree angle. Stop the camera down to @ f/32 go dark in the studio and pop the strobes @ 10 time. As I said Bob was a Master of retouching, this was in the days before Photoshop and SciTec was new. This was all done with 8x10 pin registration and litho's form highlight and contast masking. I work with a Tom Kelly original chrome of Marilyn Monroe (the nude on red), I might have afew dupes of my own lying around the house.

Novozymes 2

Back out at Novozymes on Friday, to photograph Maria Dubin www.mariadubin.com/ with the president and her progress on the painting.

No vending today

Found out late Friday, my quote for the vending machine shoot was to high, and I even came down in price. A blessing in disguise. The rental/delivery/food stylist/assistant/fruit props were close to 2K and I couldn't go any lower on my price and would of spent all weekend looking for fruit. Oh well .............

old vending machine

So I find myself scrambling once again. I might have a shoot where I need a vending machine. The agency called at 5PM Thur and wants to shoot Mon. AM. I use to have a vending machine from a previous shoot but sold it, took up to much space. Just trying to get some numbers together vending machine/lots of fruit/food stylist/assistant etc. and I have to be on location today Friday at 2PM...no stress here........ The image below in my old vending machine I had to email the client, so they would know I am the King of Vending Machine Photography.

Maria Dubin

I'm currently documenting artist Maria Dubin http://www.mariadubin.com/ for Novozymes at the USA plant. She's an artist from Copenhagen and has been commissioned by Novozymes to do large scale painting at plants for them around the world. I get to go back 2 more times and am looking forward to seeing the finished work. An overall lighting Profoto 2 umbrellas and a softbox around the work area, changed the f/stop as she moved.

sculpture

Shot a sculpture installation the other night. The sculpture takes up about half a block in a lobby. The lights behind it were not working so I tried some stuff with strobes and blue gels.

flat lighting AGAIN

Here we go again ...... For the past 5 years I've covered the 2007 Women Extraordinaire, a cover shot and 10 portraits. It is truly hard to achieve an ultimate flat lighting ratio (Ha). Lets say the 2007 Women Extraordinaire are alittle on the older side and worried about wrinkles and double chins. I try to light them as flattering as possible. 2 soft-boxe split 800WS a touch of backlight and a background Split 400WS and tweak the ratio's. What do you do when your waiting for them, run around the giant conference room and take goofy sel-timer shots of yourself.

She's a killer

I was working with a model the other day and still have this cheesy wood wall up in the studio. This is what we came up with. It was the day before Halloween give me a break. I'm really into the 4X5 edges these days. I still try to shoot my personal images on film, but after my audit, think I'll be shooting digital and faking it. Don't remember the lighting but think there were 3 grids and 2 soft-boxes ...

Graphic Design USA

Just found out an annual report I worked on made it into the Graphic Design USA contest. I know it's not Archive or Communication Arts, but you got to start some where. Some of the images are from old post .............

money to burn

I was cleaning out the prop room and came across some old props from a shoot for Siemens, an illustrator was hired to produce a $100 bill with a scream. Set it on fire and try not to burn the studio down, I think it makes a good stock shot. Speeotron split 200ws 20 degree grid on money and reflector with blue gel on background. f/7 @ 1/4.