Crank'n Out Legit Interiors for a Website

Since I'm a contracted staff member for my people over at Epic Web Studios, they call me up when their clients are in need of super, awesome, amazing looking photos at a moments notice.

I love it when they hit me up, cause the work they find me is real legit, challenging, and extremely important to their client's needs.

(I'm not trying to come off pretentious about it either...  I really do care about that stuff haha.)

And its the best feeling delivering photos that take an already amazing looking website to the next level with pictures that are so clean, consistent, and vibrantly jumping off the screen in color and dimension.

And here's one of the photos of the front entrance from the shoot:

Villa Maria Academy, Erie PA

You could argue up and down with lens correction on this image.
I messed with it's perspective for a bit earlier, but it just made the image look cheap and undynamic with its awesome scale it has to offer.

I went backwards and kept it the way it was shot for the economy of the piece.

My preference and years of aesthetic technique win this argument.
Considering it's my piece of work and that's clearly the way I'm leaning with it haha.

Here's what the two finished photos of mine I took that afternoon look like on their website:

My history with this type of assignment:
I love metering for back lit scenes while illuminating interiors.  One of my first magazine industry staff jobs was to photograph stain glass windows at a Soldiers and Sailors home, but also have the interior completely lit with strobes up each side.  So ideally you would receive a fully evaluated exposure and be able to view and appreciate everything in the frame.

Below is that example from over 3 years ago:

I corrected the perspective for this photograph, because it was featuring the symbols and markings on the stain glass windows in the article.  That was important to see correctly.

A Man and His Piece in a World Gone Crazy

This dude showed up all in the A.M. Tuesday before he headed back to Pittsburgh, so we had a mini photo sesh.

yeah, yeah.  I know.
It's another piece of work where someone is screaming with a hand held prop.
...Well, that's because I decided I'm going to make a real kick ass photo series out of all this white BG, high key lighting material. 

So long as I keep the set up consistent, quick, and simple every time with this series,
then it will make my life a lot easier to pop out a bunch of these and pick the best of the best for the final draft.

But yeah, I've always felt high key portraits to be a bit stale.
Since it just looks like people are floating off in white space.

But I chose high key, and 20x20 inch format for this, cause I've always wanted a huge box format gallery series of people look'n nuts.

Mainly, because in the real world...  That's all I ever see people behaving like anymore.

We're surely living in a world gone crazy...

Later cuties.

Good Conversation Gone Bad and the Boombox Revolution!

It's my belief that you can set up shop anywhere it works.
Even if there's not enough room and you can't do it  ...You can still do it.

I had a studio for two to three years.
It was huge.
Here's a shot of it:

...I rarely photographed editorial in it.
Always traveled to the story.

 I'd be wedged between loading docks for trucks, in tiny kitchens, living rooms, stairwells, the middle of fields, warehouses, hospital rooms, hallways, and even the second floor of a bar in Cleveland that I had to keep making trips to the car to sneak all the strobes, backdrops, poles, and gear through the crowd of people for a head shot...That location wasn't secured either.  I just shot up there, cause that was the guy's favorite bar.

The point is I'm now shooting in my room, office, sleep situation, whatever you wanna call it while I'm trying to relocate the hell out of this town.
I don't own anything else besides equipment for my career other than a six string guitar.  Rarely had I cared to own more.

So I've got some space to work with here:

Today I just wanted to make a quick little film strip sequence with a man and an old phone.
Basically whoever got a hold of me first this afternoon could be the model.

Today it was Dave.

I just told Dave to have a fake conversation going from happy to angry over the phone.
It really only took one take going through it.
He's good at this stuff.

Then we went just went out back to smoke a cigar with half my equipment and an old boombox.
Just kinda moved some stuff around, set him up standing on a stool, and I used the trees and sky as the backdrop.

 I figured this shot was pretty outrageous, he'd use it for facebook, and it turns out that I actually kind of like it for not putting any effort into it.

Guns, Planes, Explosions, and Chicks... It's all I live for.

I heard about this event through The Market Place Gazette and just had to go to Conneaut, Ohio and check it out.

I wasn't shooting this for any clients.
Not even portfolio.
Just thought I could find a frame or two to print and throw up on the wall.

I love watching this kind of stuff from the living room on the History Channel, but I'll never pass up a front row seat to guns, fighter planes, and explosions in the real world.

I'm assuming this event has taken place for several years and will occur again next year.

I have no idea how I never caught wind of this thing after all these years.

Anywho.
Totally worth checking out.
And the White Turkey Drive-In is on the way if you're coming from Erie, which is a total bonus if you're trying to eat like a king.

Here's the youtube link to the multi-media presentation I threw together for a quick little ad for the hell of it.

http://youtu.be/mI5-Oyiu2ls

And below are a few pics that showed some potential.

I was embracing coarse grain for a rushed development texture.
And camera shake. 

 

Kayaking the lagoons

I loaded the car, arrived at some lagoons, and kayaked for the first time in my life the other day.

It was life changing, for sure.

I seriously have no idea how people of Erie even live in Erie without one?
It's honestly all I want to do with my free time on sunny days.
Hell.  It's raining today and I'm still looking for a tiny break to go out on the water and get it!

But yeah, like anything I do in my life I can't help but find ways to turn it into another project.

These are some scouting photos of the scenic Presque Isle lagoons I took with my cell phone so I could go back with my gear and get the real deal:

 Flower patch on water

 Lilly pads

 Tree reflection

 Turtles on log

 Lagoon to tree line

 Tree reflection two

Map of lagoons, bay, and lake

 Me.  Exploring.

I Love Clients Who Challenge My Skill

The Belaire Hotel:

I was contracted to photograph the front entrance of the Belaire Hotel last week.  They've used other photographs for several years now of the front, but wanted an angle that was more pulled back and captured the entire building.

They could never use the exact angle though.  As you can see in the original photograph there are several power lines, poles, shadows projected onto the building from the lines, and enough traffic and people to get in the way of one shot alone!  Ended up shooting around 2pm, cause the 2pm -5pm light was the best time for shadows with their location.  Also, its very important to retrieve shadow detail within a buildings valet area.  No one wants to see a black hole leading to nothing in the middle of their establishment.  It would be very unflattering, so you have to make exposure your exposures count.  So I could tell this was going to turn into a little bit of a project.

The coolest part about photo manipulation, to me, is that it provides challenges, forces you to get more acquainted with tools you don't use for every job, and allows you to sit back and appreciate the before / after results.

And to be completely honest, its just such a great feeling to see my clients get excited when I give them a photograph that no one else had ever offered them the chance to receive.

Now customers can go to their website and see their company's business in the very best of light.

 Original View:  From the camera.

 After:  Post production finish / Commercial Color Pop

 After:  Post production finish / Standard Color Finish

And yes.  The high resolution photos look a million times better!

I completely cleaned them up.

Hope you enjoyed the before and afters!
If you know of any business that needs work done like this:
SEND THEM MY WAY!  I can make insanely great things happen for them too!

Thanks!

Ever Eat Breakfast Like This Guy?

Video:  Thought it would be nice to share clips of the day.

Everyday I'd wake up.
Peek out the window shades.
And I'd just want to cry, cause it looked like a living hell outside for the past ten years here in Erie, PA.
These winters are getting old, ha.

BUT THEN!!!

This past Thursday reminded me why people don't throw themselves down large flights of stairs before they get up to go to work all day.

The sun, ALAS!

So what did I do???
I threw a bunch of junk in the back of my car, grabbed a model, and hit up the country roads to arrive at my destination. 

In this shoot I wanted to "Re-Shoot" (with Mike Herget) an old concept I did with my relocated model, Michael O'brien, that I tried back in May 2006.  I absolutely refined everything about it.  Photographed it in color, and created a magazine cover story out of it for my edgier magazine portfolio.

 Cover:  I cropped him from the knees up leaving a portion of brick above his head for the header name banner.  I also made room for featured articles from his left to right side.  But the very most important thing to capture for a cover of a magazine featuring a man or a woman is their sexual presence.  It's not about his shirt being unbuttoned, its how he wears his shirt unbuttoned.  It's not about him standing their, its how I help him carry himself through the shoot.  I also shot him against brick to make it an easier deselection for post production (had it been needed).

 Inside Lead:  Based off the concept I once read on a coffee cup, "Don't talk to me before I've finished my first cup of coffee."  Can you feel the rage?!?!  But its not even about that at all either hahah.  Its about having fun and taking things out of context.  Look at any given parallel in day to day life.  If it makes your brain think, comes off weird or funny, it'll make a great concept if you keep at it.

Cover Story Outro:  This is all just a simple formula I've noticed over the years.  Cover = sex appeal / 1st feature spread = Humor / 2nd feature pic = sex appeal in most all cases.  ...So here we are with this beat up, rustic, broken glass window image.  Dude's always look cooler leaning up against broken crap.  Proven fact.  But, yeah in most instances sex appeal will be the outro, usually due to running out of page space throughout the magazine and are unable to fit an image in like below.

Extra Page Content:  This little guy, and like several others that day I took of him, are a great example of "Useful filler."  Maybe the article's word count was reduced, so we take this guy and throw him in on a text page but an 1/8th of the pages actual size.  Or even better!  Toss him in somewhere in the table of contents to surprise and remind you.  That always works too.

Here's some extra ones I took and set a side.

I'm personally a huge fan of feature photos that are wild and funny.  

It's like pouring my personality out onto a page.

woah.  ...That felt artistic.  

eeewww.  I hope I don't start wearing scarfs and creating sick beats that aren't so sick. hahah.

Well hey, I'm going to be pushing out tons of photographs like this with several different models all summer, so stay tuned cuties.