'Tis the season to have an epic tree.

Such an amazing tree.


Most Expensive Christmas Tree Ever from The Seventh Movement on Vimeo.


This is by far one of the best equipment rental companies out there for photography gear.


Happy Holidays to all.

-Cheers

Every Photographer Should Have One Of These!

Because every photographer just needs to have one of these in their gear bag.




http://www.ips-studio.com/



Hilarious...


-Cheers


Brian

It's all about communication

Sometimes it just seems like there's just not enough communication between the client and the photographer.  It's really easy to degrade into a ridiculous conversation, like in this video.  I know I've been guilty of having essentially this conversation before.  Honestly, I think every photographer has be caught in this trap at least once at one point or another.  I think both sides need to take a moment and try to see things from the other side.  Both sides want to feel important.  The client wants to feel special and get the best value for their money.  The photographer wants to feel important and validated that their skill set is valuable and appreciated.  Once both sides can see that the rest should be just minor details.  Good photographers deserve good clients and vice versa. 


Enjoy




-Cheers

Brian

Composite Photos

For about a year I've been really working on honing my skills with composite photography.  During this time I've learned that I really enjoy it.  I enjoy for one simple reason.  Anything is possible. If you can't get it straight out of the camera, which is ideal in my opinion, you can do a little planning before hand and set it up so that you can get the shot that might not otherwise be possible, or likely, to achieve.



THE SCENARIO:

I  was asked to photography a bunch of promotional photos for a Girl Scout Camp.  One of the activities I was asked to photograph was rock climbing on their climbing wall. Ideally, I wanted to rig my SLR to the top of the climbing wall with a wide angle lens to get some really cool top-down angle shots of the girls climbing to the top and ringing the bell when they reached the top.  However,  my flexi-pod wasn't strong enough to support my big SLR camera.  This meant I had to use my point and shoot camera which didn't nearly have as wide of an angle lens and I would have liked. To complicate things, I was going to have to find a way to climb the camera to the top of the wall and secure it in such a way that it wouldn't suddenly decide to practice swan diving without water.  It should be noted that I am no poster child for any rock climbing magazine by any means.  I couldn't climb above the top anchor, which is where my camera needed to go, because of how the wall was set up.  I also, couldn't just clip in at the top, hang out, and take the photos myself.  This meant that I had to leave the camera up at the top, guess on how to frame the camera without being able to get a good view of LCD screen or viewfinder, let it take photos on an interval setting for about an hour, and hope that I got at least a few photos that were decent.

Hit & Miss:

After leaving the camera up at the top of the wall, and getting plenty of other shots from down bellow with my SLR,  I reviewed the nearly 120 photos that were captured.  As to be expected, the images were really hit & miss.  Unfortunately, there was a lot more misses than I would have liked.  I was beginning to get worried that the shot I had imagined in my head would not be realized due to circumstances beyond my control.  That is, until I saw these two photos.....

Plan B

I really liked about half of each of these photos.  Neither one was exactly what I was looking for, however, they were definitely in the ball park.  I really like the pose and facial expression of the girl on the right in the first photo, and I really liked the way the climber on the left filled the frame of the image while also framing the other climber.    Since, I didn't get my ultimate photo in camera, there was only one thing to do.... Plan B.

I had been banking on the fact that I might have to result to this contingency plan when setting up the shot.  From experience I've learned that with enough time and enough fore thought put into your planning phase you can eventually get the parts you need to make a composite version of the image you want.  If you do it correctly, and you don't show off what you've done, no one will suspect a thing.  They'll be blown away by your ability to capture such amazing "snap shots".

While composite work can get much more complicated than this simple composite, understanding what is possible, even from a simple snap shot, is really freeing to a photographer's creativity.  While I still prefer to get most of my photos done in camera, composition work is still a whole lot of fun.



The Final Image

Until next time,

-Cheers

Brian 

Orchids

So, I tend to get a lot of random projects.  Along with being a photographer I really like building random stuff.  I was asked by a friend to make something amazing.  This was inspired from a photo shoot I had done with Jack Husting.  In which we were doing an advertising photo where we needed a flower, made out of clothing, to be growing out of a pile of laundry.  This is the new a new and improved version of that first orchid.  Also, I've been playing around with some new toys to do 360 degree virtual tour stuff.  I still haven't worked out all the kinks yet but this is just a simple example of what is possible with those toys.

For those of you who are currious what the orchid is actually made of here is a materials list:
3 Pink thongs
2 Pairs of Socks
Steel wire
Pete Moss
Green Plastic Foam
1 Glass Plant Pot
2 Plastic Beads
Green Fake Plant Tape
Fake Plant Staples
Fake Pant Adhesive
Thin Gauge Wire
Thread



Enjoy

-Cheers

Brian

Harvest Time- Part 2

Here it is...in all its glory.
The after photos and video.

Special thanks goes to my stylist.

Sarah Muños

-Cheers

Brian

Publish Post

Harvest Time

For the past 6 years, roughly, I have had only 2 hair cuts.  July 1st will be my 3rd. Why would anyone go so long without getting their hair cut?  Am I really that cheap?  Am I that much of a hippie that I don't want to cut my hair?  Am I too lazy to get my hair cut?  Do I really think I look that good with long hair? Or is there another reason?  The answer being some mix of any and all of the above and I'm sure some other reasons/explanations I'm sure I haven't mention or thought of yet.

I started growing out my hair to my shoulders soon after going to college.  1. Because, I wanted to see if I could and 2. Because I wanted to be able to say that I had.  After meeting this goal, I really had no specific plans to what I wanted to do with my hair.  That is, until I realize that it really irritated my sister that I could grow my hair longer that hers, even though see had been trying longer than I had.  She had made a sarcastic remark to me one morning when she had come home to visit: "What are you going to do now....donate it?" Which I responded in turn without missing a beat, "Yes....Yes I am".

Since then, every 1.5 - 2 years I start interviewing various salons to see who I want to cut my hair.  I am very picky about who gets to cut my hair. I have been growing this "crop" for 2 years and by this point it's become rather hot and annoying at times and I want this to be a fun experience.  The problem with cutting your hair is there is no instant undo button.  Sure it will grow back but it takes time and patience.  So, hair stylists really have a lot of pressure on them to get things right the first time, and many people can be very demanding and harsh if the person "messes up their hair".  I mean who hasn't had a bad hair cut in their life?  I also know that a lot of people will have a rough idea of what they want and either don't know how to ask for it or can't put it into words.  In other words, a person saying they want you to do whatever you want with their hair....often doesn't really mean that.  There are usually hidden strings attached to that statement that the stylist must figure out, sometimes the hard way.

My approach has always been, I'm donating my lock of hair, why not donate the rest of it to the stylist.  I figure I am going to look how I look.  If I look funny, it will pass soon enough and I'm comfortable with that.  I also believe that stylists don't get enough real world opportunites to have a true blank slate.  So I always insist that they should do whatever they want with my hair. They are free to do whatever their creative vision inspires them to do.  The funny part is that I seem to get the same basic hair cut as I did in High School, without ever telling them or showing them what that was.  Which is probably a clue that it's a good look for me. Or, it's a secret conspiracy by hair stylists everywhere to try and make me look like a 16 year old boy.  

My hair goes to the charity Locks of Love. Locks of Love is an organization that accepts hair donations (min 10in) for use in making real hair wigs for financially disadvantaged children who are experiencing long term medically related hair loss, for whatever reason.  Often these children have lost their hair as a side effect from treatments for diseases such as cancer or leukemia.  It takes about 6 donated locks of hair of at least 10in long each to make one wig.  Which means that as of the 1st I will have donated 1/2 of a wig.  Which is a pretty cool thing to be able to say.

This time I've gone all out.  I have purposely grown my hair out, including my beard, so I look like I'm a grizzly hippie mountain man from the 70s. By doing this, I am now the ULTIMATE blank slate.  My stylist this year will be able to do whatever she wants with all of it.  Even if I end up looking like my Photoshoped April Fools photos.  (completely bald)  Which would be rather interesting because I've shaved my head for real once already. I seem to remember I didn't have the right skull shape for that to look good.

So, without further delay, here are the official BEFORE photos: (After photos and video to be posted soon)

Hears to a good harvest.


-Cheers

Brian