FREELANCE: Launa May & Mark Rutherford Wedding...

Ahh, lack of updates. Lots of stuff going on, a bit of freelance work has come my way, mainly wedding stuff, nothing too interesting but it's work. Here's one to look over while I edit the rest...

More to come...

The Month in Review

Here are my personal favorites from May 2010...

Shot this a week ago or so after going to the local hang out spot here in Brookfield, Down The Hatch. It's located right on Candlewood Lake, in fact, people can dock their boats and come up and grab a bite. It's pretty convenient. 

Last weekend I shot some photos while at the new Pier 62 Skatepark located at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. Thanks to the enormous amount of available light, I was able to shoot with my slowest lens (70-300 f/4-5.6), enabling me to grab what you see above.

These two photos are pretty similar. I have always fancied dramatic lighting, so when I was able to apprehend certain devices to have at my disposal for my photographics mean, well, I jumped on the opportunity. Josh Earley once told me that he thought I'd do good with the use of colored lighting, so I figured I'd tried it out. Turns out he was right...

Early in the month, when I purchased a new set of strobes, I experimented with a type of over-exposed/blown out style lighting. It's okay, but only in moderation, which should also be said about the use of color lighting and fog. I need to keep an eye on how often that technique is used. 

A final ode to those that love me and mah f0t0 d00dz oh so much. The basis behind this photo is quite obvious, so there is really no need to explain that much further....

Again, fog. This was shot on the first day of May in my attempt to step up my photography. Well, I'd like to think that I did. Keep checking in for more articles and what not....

What's going on?

Gosh golly, I haven't updated this site in a while. I have been super busy with school and just doing the usual daily routine that I have neglected this site way too much. I am considering switching over to tumblr or word press, its just this blogger site isn't doing it for me and I've said it so many times that I would get a legitimate website, it is just I have so much going on that unfortunately the website is the least of my worries. But I figure I'd post up some of this month's work, ones that I felt stood out from the rest. So here they are...

 This was shot in Pell Hall. About 75% of my classes are located here, so when I saw this composition possibility, I was eager to capture it. I originally intended for this to be apart of my back up for my OLL #2 series (since my original idea fell through), but the light scenario for this is extremely complex and would require more lights than I have available to me, so I just used the natural light. I wish it were completely symmetrical, but this will just have to do. By the way, this is the sequel to "Who Really Cares About Composition Anyway?"

I've been interested in using color lights lately, thanks to my friend Josh Earley. So I shot this in the studio using some basic gels. The concept has some deeper meaning if you can find it. Melissa stood in as the subject for me, as I originally planned it to be me wearing the glasses, but I just had Melissa be the subject instead since I am getting sick of doing self portraits and I feel like doing too much of them can be conceited. Josh told me that my strongest stuff right now is my studio work, so I am going to try and work more within a studio environment, building sets and props and focusing on basic lighting so that I can master it and then move on to more complex scenarios.

 This was one of the three images used for my OLL #2 final. One light mixed with darkroom safe lights. Originally, my OLL #2 final series was going to be a narrative sequence, but while shooting it, the equipment kept failing and the time that we had available just kept decreasing. I plan on following through with the ideas I had for the series this summer, so be on the look out for more cinematic, staged work from me, ala the likes of Ryan Schude and Gregory Crewdson.

This shot was originally intended to be used for my original final series for OLL #2. In addition to the fact that I wrote a narrative and was doing a sequential story piece, I decided to shoot on a different camera system to demonstrate that I can shoot regardless of the brand (this being particularly in response to a comment made by a fellow ignorant student who said they couldn't shoot Nikon because they only shot Canon). I used the schools 1Ds, which is over 5 years old. I didn't realize it at the time, but the ISO quality is horrendous. ISO quality in DSLRs has only recently improved and become tolerable. I shot at ISO 400 with the 1Ds and I could see a shit load of noise, which I wasn't happy with at all and was a contributing factor to me scraping the first proposed series all together for the final submission. However, the 1Ds and pretty much all Canon DSLRs (at least the full frame ones) have amazing color spaces. The color is way more natural than Nikon and isn't as saturated either. I might just switch to Canon after all...

Personal favorites from this past month...

Out of all the photos I have shot this year, I am pretty sure I can say that I am proud of this photo. I have been collaborating a lot with Josh Earley and Melissa Butler and they have taught me so much, hopefully I have taught them something in return. The basic two person portrait element stemmed from one of my On Location Lighting 2 assigments and the original idea for this photo was supposed to take place in the basketball courts of the Pratt center here at Post, however, a few factors prevented it from happening. First off, the gym wasn't set up the way I had envisioned it and would require a good amount of planning and cooperation on the behalf of the school, something it isn't easy. I decided to bite the bullet with the conditions I had to work in at the Pratt center and had Josh and Melissa come to the Pratt later that day. When we got there, though, the basketball court was fully occupied. Needless to say, I was pissed. Josh then suggested that we check out the church on Campus, so we repacked our things and headed over to the Newnan Church. When I got there, I tried opening the doors and had thought the church was closed, but Melissa suggested I pull harder on the door as they were hard to open, and viola! the church was open. When we got in there, my mind ran blank; the walls were bare, there were chairs instead of pews; the place wasn't intriguing at all. Then I turned my attention to the angle that you see above, and thanks to a suggestion by Josh, I framed the photograph this way. We set up a total of 7 AC strobe lights. I don't like to share my lighting techniques too much, but I will tell you that there were 3 strobes in front of the subjects and 4 strobes behind them. After the shoot ended, we headed back to my room where Josh introduced me to the god send that is layer masking. A few hours later, I come to the result that is shown above... 

This piece stems from my growing ability to conceptualize. This was shot for my on location lighting 2 class. The objective, which I don't think I fully executed, was to light a large room and photograph it in a fashion that is similar to that of a House and Garden Magazine. Instead, I did this. I think the message is quite clear, but for those of you who are out of the loop, I attend school at C.W. Post as a photography major. During my (hahaha, ONE AND ONLY) photo class (for this semester, albeit), we have critique, however, all people do is tell who ever they are critiquing what they like about their photos, rather than telling them what they can improve upon. This is my response to such behavior. 

This was shot around a week ago or so. I was meeting up with Melissa and Josh and got locked out of the building, so I decided to shoot. I used my backpack as a tripod and this was the result. More and more, when I see a moment that can and should be captured, I take the opportunity, and so far, I haven't regretted it. 

FILMTIPPAGE

So, every so often, I grab a film SLR and I shoot some film. For some reason or another, my film work is exceedingly better than my digital work. What is funny about this is that when I shoot film, most of the time I am just playing around, not really doing anything serious or experimental. The shot above is an example of me just going out with a camera and looking for shit. Josh Earley told me that I should keep with them film stuff, so I think I am going to do that, maybe shoot a shit load of film over the upcoming break. Keep tuned in...

st00pid m0ndays

(unreleased/outtake from #80 of 365)

mondays are always uneventful, boring, useless, reckless, tiresome. blah blah blah. mondays=bad news. too much work going on, but the hectic business that consumes my life is the only way to go right now. getting psyched on that. david burton called and apparently he needs help shooting a wedding the first friday in april. i'm going to see if i can clear myself from working that day so that i can shoot with him, hopefully earn some greenbacks so i can reinvest in the photo tip. i'm continuing my internship @ casualty with joey g, resuming this saturday, looking to grab a good deal of photos during that time.......

SLAP, HIT THE GROUND, RNNING

HOMEWORKED: Photo History/Robert Hirsch

A brief summary, well, actually, scratch that. As much information as I could uncover about Robert Hirsch, a photographer I was assigned to research for Photo History 2. Peep game:

•      Robert Hirsh was born in 1949.
  
•      His outdoor, night time flashes, printed on non-conventional materials, including Kodalith, disturbed conventional print values and expanded the sense of the 35mm frame by adding time and movement during the printing process.

•       Hirsch is an artist, curator, educator, historian and author of many books, including Seizing the Light: A History of Photography.
  
•      He has been a contributing writer for Afterimage, Buffalo Spree,CEPA Journal, Contact Sheet, exposure, History of Photography, and World Book Encyclopedia.

•      His work has been shown at various galleries, including Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, Parsons School of Design, Vermont Center for Photography, George Eastman House, University of the Arts, and the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, among many others.
  
•       Hirsch is the former executive Director and Chief Curator of CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY and has curated numerous solo and group exhibitions.
  
•      He currently serves on National Advisory Boards of CEPA and Freestyle Photographic among others. 
  

James Beary is BEAST

Bakerized Flow - James Beary from Bakerized Skate Shop on Vimeo.

James Beary Summer Profile 2009 from SOUTHERN LEGACY on Vimeo.

Havok Clothing - James Beary Flow Edit from Havok Clothing on Vimeo.

Havok Clothing - James Beary Flow Edit II from Havok Clothing on Vimeo.

This is some beast skating, James Beary is the new hot shit.