My first interaction with this rockstar was back in college. He wasn’t a rockstar yet, but I knew he was meant to be. I don’t even remember the details of how I came across his simple webpage with links to a few songs he recorded. Even his raw tracks were sounding good and he had the foundation to become great.

I fired off an email to him about the music and asking what his big plans for the future were. With his typical modesty he humbly thanked me and so began my 9 year musical journey with Mr. Drew Parker.

Fast Forward

Jumping ahead a few years, I met the amazing Malury Imbernon of Ingenious Records. Now here is a woman who is an artist to the core, but also a fantastic business mind. She could draw in the morning, do some graphic design in the afternoon, and play some drums in the evening meanwhile cooking the books and running a business. Her husband, Adrian, is a brilliant music producer & engineer and I think he might be able to play just about every instrument there is. The stars must have aligned because I couldn’t have asked for a better team for Mr. Parker.

So the team got together, Drew went into the studio, and some time later an album was out! I can’t speak for Drew, but I have to say it was quite amazing and exciting to see the product of so many years come into being and also receive such great feedback. The album even went on to be short-listed for a Grammy.

Further down the road I connected with Drew and Malury to do a photo shoot in NYC. It was a fun run and gun kind of day. The shot above is Drew nearby Grand Central. Ironically I hadn’t been there before and had no idea what the building in the back was until we came across the front door. You never know where your travels will lead you when you roam the streets of the big city!

Doing the DC Dance

More time passed ( you can see how specific with dates I am. I have a fantastic memory.) and Drew & co. were up for another photo shoot. This adventure took us to our nation’s capital and south to Alexandria, VA. We officially kicked off the day at Adams Morgan near dawn, but the lead photo you see at the top I grabbed outside his hotel. As I was driving over to meet him the clouds were looking amazing with the morning sun, so we started firing away!

Drew as Secret Agent B-Sharp Major

Vibes at the Pier

We got tons of great stuff that day and as always it is a pleasure working with such a great guy. Definitely need to give credit to our creative director Brian Wimbles for pulling together the wardrobe and spotting some great locations.

Check Drew out at Facebook, iTunes, or his website, and wherever quality music is sold.

Big thanks to Malury Imbernon, Adrian Morales, Christine Parker & fam.

I had the great fortune of doing a photo shoot with this up and coming star & we had lots of fun shooting in Brooklyn. The shoot started at sunrise — which meant starting the day at 2am!

You know someone is easygoing when they not only get up pre-dawn to catch the 15 minutes of the sunrise, but have lots of fun and laughs while they’re at it. Some of the shots I’m posting here are kind of outtakes from the shoot, but I felt they captured the vibe of the day.

Ok, not the sharpest picture ever, but it’s fun!

We wrapped the shoot around 11am after shooting at several locations both in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Productivity abounds when you get started so early! A quick image review with a side of Chipotle and we were done and back on the road.

SO, if you haven’t checked out Belle’s music yet, you should! She just released her first single “What is Love”, which you can pickup on iTunes right here. It rocks. Her full album release isn’t too far down the road either!

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Rock on Belle! It was a blast shooting with you and the team!

Self-portrait jamming on the cello. Sheet music is the Bach Prelude from the video above! Coincidence? I think NOT!

Today I came across something remarkable on YouTube — the above video of 7 cellos reprising J.S. Bach’s Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1: Prelude. The catch was that the 7 cellists were played by the same person and stitched together in the same moving video.

If you follow my blog, you know I’m a big fan of compositing photos. However, compositing video with a moving camera is something else entirely. “The Piano Guys” as they are known are piano dealers out in Utah, but also fantastic filmmakers! This video also illustrates the impact the HDDSLRs have had on the industry. If you are in Utah and want a piano, some lessons (in piano or filmmaking!), definitely check them out!

In addition to the technical stuff, I am completely in love with the cello. I played for a time and took some lessons, but life’s priorities took over and I had to return my beloved cello for the time being. Interestingly, a lot of what I learned playing the guitar and bass translated to the cello.

Early on in my practice with product photography and off-camera lighting, I setup this shot (bottom left) with my amazing carbon fiber bow and cello. I know I know, some will say wood bows are better, but this thing was AMAZING! Inspired by its amazingness I put together this faux ad for kicks.

Around that time my friend also picked up the cello and consented to having her photo taken as she was deep in concentration, performing a masterful concerto no doubt (bottom right). I also have no doubt she’s a much better cellist than me at this point.

The piece the video above was based on was one of my favorites and a constant inspiration. The flowing legato and craftsmanship of the melodies were entrancing and kept me going even if (when) I screeched or went out of key.

Videos like this are why I love YouTube and this connected creative community. I’d never have heard of these amazing artists out in the desert if it hadn’t been for this! Thanks for the inspiration!

J

Below are some of the interesting shots of the day.

Don't these look like little paper umbrellas?

Super closeup of moss!

OK, I know this isn't a macro shot, but I thought it was shnazzy.

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. When life hands you a matchbox car, you light it and take photos like crazy.

Today’s faux advertisement is brought to you by Rowdi, luxury sports (toy) car manufacturer.

As an added bonus, I’m going to open up the hood and take you behind the scenes in how this little ad came to be. If you aren’t into the techy part, I hope you had a laugh at least!

The Setup

The arrangement was pretty basic: plexiglass on black surface for reflection, velvetine black background to absorb any spill, one light, and a bit of photoshop action.

I used a 580EX to trigger a hand held 430EX, but the 580 did not contribute to the lighting. The camera was locked down on a tripod so I could align the layers later in Photoshop.

Here are several of the photos I shot:

Library preview of the car shoot.

You can also see in the top left one of the first rounds when I was using a white background and 60″ umbrella. I was getting a lot of blowback from the background and was losing the edge of the car, so I decided to give a black background a try.

Notice how the light is coming from different angles and distances from the car.

Compositing

Once I had the photos selected that I wanted to include in the final product, I brought them into Photoshop, aligned the layers, set them to Lighten blending mode, then masked out the unwanted parts (which is pretty much everything except the highlights). After I got them all in and masked, I went back to tweak them individually by adjusting the opacity or turning some off. Some of the highlights made the car too busy and “glittery.”

The last final touches included Curves, Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers, some text, and the logo. For the hue & saturation I used “Colorize” as the image was nearly monochrome already. I pushed the overall image toward black to give the reflections the main responsibility of providing details of the car’s structure. The combination of dark & reflectiveness gives a bit of a luxurious feel (and also hides imperfections, dust, scratches, etc.).

These are the images used and corresponding masks. Forgive me for not being a label fanatic here.

I could have pushed it further by using the clone stamp or patch tool to get ride of some of the nicks and scratches on the body, but let joy be found in simplicity — especially after 8 layers of highlights!

That’s about it! The copywriting came out of thin air per usual, and the logo was a series of triangles mashed together with a stroke emboss. Pretty straightforward.

I hope you enjoyed the behind-the-scenes (BTS) look and stay tuned for more tutorials coming up!

If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments below.

We are undoubtedly an image-driven society, not only in terms of visual engagement related to advertisement, user interfaces, and Dr. Seuss books, but also in terms of personal image and how it is projected to the world.

To illustrate my point, I present to you: iTea

It is my assumption that if you make something look real cool, then someone will pay attention. If that converts into anything else (sales, laughs, rage, etc.), that is really determined by the content or the story at hand and the perceived value to the consumer.

Here is a completely awesome tea cup with ceramic steeping net thingy, full of dragons, bamboo, calligraphy, and other sheer awesomeness.

So, what does it have to do with the noble Information Technology sector? Nothing. What does a clown have to do with cheeseburgers? What’s a little red herring, but a few million in the bank?

Apple has managed to produce an extremely clean, simple marketing campaign that it can reuse time and time again to proclaim new objects of our desire and subconsciously say, “Yeah, we’re cool. You know you want to be cool like us, so buy this cool thing.” It’s a formula that works.

Social media is indeed connecting society, but it is also intensifying the battle of self image among people. In this age of millisecond attention spans there are approximately one bajillion visual competitors clamoring for a piece of the spotlight. On Facebook, people routinely update their profile images, their statuses, and tweet the latest happenings in their lives (stories). Why? To get people involved in the conversation – their conversation. Their stories.

Books are indeed being judged by their covers, but it is still the story inside that makes them memorable. What does this mean for marketers, writers, and even standard social media participants? Quite simply, an impactful first impression is the minimum requirement to even get close to the door. Only if one can grab the attention and engage is there even a possibility of getting the door open.

The degree of market saturation will also play into the game in terms of visual quality necessary, but the best foot forward is the foot in the door and the key to the customer taking interest in your story, converting to a sale, or (hopefully) having a laugh at a goofy knock off ad.

Have a happy Monday and a great week!

Fall is upon us and the bitter winter is right on its heels. Before heralding the return of the Last Snowbender, we take a moment to observe the delights of autumn and riding bicycles through heavily wooded areas.

Photographer and friend, Henry Lam, was in the area to play around with some off camera lighting. While I had hoped to provide him with a Tony Hawk-like model who could bunny hop a bike over a 6 foot wall, sadly, he was stuck with me.

But as many photographers can attest to, it is darn hard to be in front of the camera when you spend most of your time behind it. It’s especially difficult when your buddy pulls out a Canon 50 bajillion frames per second hyper-optimized quantum processing gigaplex megapixel 1D camera.

Being the good sport he is, Henry not only let me touch this camera of gold, he also posed a bit.

Special thanks to Rob Counts for giving a hand later on in the day.

Stay tuned for more adventures during the Autumn “brake!” But beware the bears.

So in the spirit of unvanity, I’ve taken a crack at laying out my portfolio of work as a full blown magazine, ads and all.  Click on “full screen” to get a better look.  Enjoy!

Ps. The faux copy editor is on vacation, so please forgive any typos that may have slipped by.

Sometimes photographers get caught up in the technical aspect of shooting. We have to think about shutter speeds and sensor sensitivity, f-stops and depth of field. Yet, the more familiar we become, the further back in the mind these things go until they become almost subconscious, natural reactions to circumstances. The process becomes more about the effect we want to achieve rather than what buttons to push. If I were a Renaissance painter, I’d definitely want my focus to be on the composition and telling the story rather than the brush I was using.

In my quest for preparedness, I had the great fortune of running into some of my high school friends including the awesome Christine seen here. Some people, such as Christine, just understand how photo shoots work and naturally find their poses. Me on the other hand, well, let’s just say there’s a reason I try to stay behind the lens.

The funny thing about preparing, is that you can never really be 100% prepared. The CEO shoot moved from October to December to finally March. I had done lots of practice and prep by the time we got down to it, but then of course, it was different than I anticipated. Every single person that steps in front of the camera is different. Even if they are the same height, the light hits them differently, the ambient light changes, and the unique personalities bring variation as well.

From this adventure I learned that the key is to know your gear, but know that the circumstances will forever change. Embrace the change and buckle up for a fantastic ride. Replace anxiety with excitement for things to come, and make the next shoot the best one of your life.

A special thanks to Christine for gracing my lens with her presence and allowing me to post her photo here!

There is something about a bamboo forest that brings out the inner kung fu warrior in us.  What begins as an uneventful stroll through a park, becomes a (fake) magazine cover shoot with fists of flaming fury flying!

No one was (mortally) hurt during the shooting of these images.

I always found myself engrossed in these worlds created by the master artists and writers. The vivid imagination of a youngster can make them as real as anything. ‘Such wizardry!’ I thought. When I attempted to draw like them, it reinforced my conviction that they were indeed wielding some form of magic beyond my reach.

Years later I had the good fortune of meeting one of the very best comic book artists in China – Daxiong Guo. So what is a legendary comic book artist like? Talented, funny, imaginative, and a fantastic cook!

The first day I came by his studio, it was like my childhood dream coming true. Daxiong knew I was pretty eager to him work, so we got down to it. He then proceeded to blow my mind to bits.

Never before had I seen an artist work like this. He drew so incredibly fast it was as if he was merely tracing what he could already see.  The things he draws aren’t just simple character sketches, we’re talking elaborate scenes and crazy perspectives it would be hard for even my camera to capture! Yet somehow all of this amazing art just poured onto the paper from his mechanical pencil tip.

In China, Daxiong headed up Qicartoon Studios, but after relocating to the US in 2008, he cofounded Flag Studios, LLC with Mike Chen in New York City. They were in need of a website, and I (being just a touch inspired) agreed to take on the design.

Perhaps Daxiong’s imagination is infectious because I don’t believe I’ve created a website that fast ever before. FlagStudios.com launched on October 14, 2009.

Since coming to the States, Daxiong has worked on some big productions including Star Wars Adventures: Luke Skywalker and the Treasure of the Dragonsnakes, Justice League of America, Fringe, and many others. He also has quite the following in France from comics such as Muo Wang.

So, back to photography. Daxiong was in need of some photos for publicity at Comic Conventions, communications, etc., so we setup some time to shoot at his studio. Gracious hosts as ever, he and his wife also included a fantastic meal including dumplings and Daxiong’s special recipe pork (accurately called “Daxiong Meat”). It also came to light that he and his wife never had wedding photos taken, so we had to do something about that! That something was to take a formal portrait or two, then immediately get goofy and pose like movie stars.

Thus it was, the Mr. and Mrs. Smith poster remake. After all, for someone with such a dynamic artistic sense, we couldn’t just sneak by with the standard protocol, right?

To conclude this fantastic day, Daxiong threw in a drawing lesson for me. Though my Elmer Fudd may be getting better, it’s probably best if I leave Luke Skywalker and Yoda to the master — unless I could get them to pose for me…