Hanging with Bikes
I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear. The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normall...
I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear.
The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normally, we would paint the walls the day before the job but the client wanted the flexibility to change the colors once we had decided on what items would be in each shot. In order to achieve this, we hung paper on the wall instead of painting. I was worried that the strong side lighting would show all the wrinkles in the paper. We were really careful and it turned out extremely well. The side lighting gave the sets great depth.
It was great working with the stylist, Janis, and the talented team at Dwell. Now I just have to curb my bike envy!
Look for the magazine on newsstands or check out Dwell for more great info.
iPad at Macworld
I was approached by Rob (the art director at Macworld) about their up coming feature "iPad on the Job." We both thought it would be a good idea to try something new. Rather than shoot small sets in my studio we thought it would be appropriate and ...
I was approached by Rob (the art director at Macworld) about their up coming feature "iPad on the Job." We both thought it would be a good idea to try something new. Rather than shoot small sets in my studio we thought it would be appropriate and more interesting to take the photos at the Macworld offices. We wanted to keep it real. Instead of trying to build and style the "perfect" set, we would let an honest and actual desk be the setting.
The one thing I didn't keep real was the lighting. Each set required relighting to give it the feel and mood I wanted.
The image selected for the opening spread was photographed in Jason's (the Editorial Director) office. Good thing he was on vacation—my lighting and grip really made a mess of his office! It was a refreshing and stimulating challenge to introduce new parameters to our typical process. Looking forward to more such experiences in the future.
The Brokenmusicbox Full Album
The cover for the single, "We Will" was a teaser for the full album???which I'm excited to say is out in it's full glory. The music, design and photography have all come together in harmony to form an exciting album. How was it all done?? We met wit...
The cover for the single, "We Will" was a teaser for the full album—which I'm excited to say is out in it's full glory. The music, design and photography have all come together in harmony to form an exciting album.
How was it all done??
We met with Tony and Kim from The Brokenmusicbox in September of last year. In the meeting we talked about what the album meant to them and what they were trying to convey with it. During the meeting we came up with some basic ideas and then narrowed it down to one. After the meeting I gave them a final sketch of my idea which they approved before I started photographing.
The technical part:
The dirt was pilled up in front of a turquoise background. Once I was happy with the shape of the top dirt I placed the flower. I test photographed about 6 flowers but only one was used for the final image. The dirt was lit from above with a long strip box. This gave the dirt a nice edge light. The lighting also left the front of the dirt dark, making it easier to blend with the "underground" dirt photo. I had one light with a 7" reflector coming from the back to give the photo lens flare. The flower that I picked didn't have any leaves so I had to photograph them from a different flower. Once I was happy with the dirt and the flower I used a water spray bottle to add the rain.
The "underground" portion of the photo was taken separately and upside down. This way I had gravity working in my favor rather then against me. The root for the actual flower in the final image wasn't very photographic so I picked a different plant that had a nice root. I then used scissors to trim the root so it didn't look too busy. Once the bottom image was photographed I just rotated it 180 degrees and blended it with the top photo.
It was great working with The Brokenmusicbox and Amy Gregg from A1 Design.
Listen to the full Album here
http://thebrokenmusicbox.bandcamp.com
I love all the songs but my favorite is "California Year." Listen to the album and post which song is your favorite.
Editors' Choice
The latest issue of Macworld Magazine gave me the chance to use my new 100-400mm lens. San Francisco is the perfect city for it! Every neighborhood has a view. It is crazy how many tourists come and go to famous landmarks. They take their photo an...
The latest issue of Macworld Magazine gave me the chance to use my new 100-400mm lens. San Francisco is the perfect city for it! Every neighborhood has a view.
It is crazy how many tourists come and go to famous landmarks. They take their photo and then on to the next spot. I guess I do the same thing when visiting other places. As we waited for the sun to go down, we were asked by at least 7 tourists to take their pictures.
Here are some photos I took from the same spot at full zoom.
The Brokenmusicbox Single
The Brokenmusicbox has a new single out, "We Will" from their upcoming album. You may remember their first album from when I used the song, "Time," for my video, "Macworld Cover Creation."I was very excited they asked me to collaborate on the albu...
The Brokenmusicbox has a new single out, "We Will" from their upcoming album. You may remember their first album from when I used the song, "Time," for my video, "
"
I was very excited they asked me to collaborate on the album art with them. The photography on the single is a teaser of what the photo will be on the full album. I was also lucky enough to work with Amy from A1 Design on the album design.
Checkout the song on
or
.
You can also listen to the full song here.
Macworld January Cover
The iPhone 4s has been unleashed all over Macworld Magazine, inside and out. The cover may look nice and clean but the set to light it was a mess. If you're traveling for the holidays, load your iPad up with the Zinio version or look for the analo...
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
About a year ago (November 2010) Dwell magazine hired me to photograph a bunch of cool chairs. Of course one of the chairs was a requisite Eames chair. Dwell had asked if a film crew could come by my studio as well since the editor of the magazine...
About a year ago (November 2010) Dwell magazine hired me to photograph a bunch of cool chairs. Of course one of the chairs was a requisite Eames chair. Dwell had asked if a film crew could come by my studio as well since the editor of the magazine (Sam) was being interviewed in a film about Charles and Ray Eames. They thought they might get some footage during the day. See photos from that day
Fast forward to now, and the movie, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, is now out in theaters. I went to see it since I thought it would be interesting and I wanted to see how the film turned out. I wasn't expecting to see any footage from my studio but was super-excited to see that towards the end of the movie my studio (and I) were shown. I even had a big line—I don't want to spoil it—but it was something like, "I think we should move the chair."
I encourage you to see
my film debut
this really fascinating portrait of an incredibly innovative, influential and talented couple.
Red, Red, Red
San Francisco Magazine approached us with a fun idea for "The Trend" section of the December 2011 issue. They wanted to incorporate the color red in an over-the-top fashion. They provided a selection of red products to pick from to form the groups...
San Francisco Magazine approached us with a fun idea for "The Trend" section of the December 2011 issue. They wanted to incorporate the color red in an over-the-top fashion. They provided a selection of red products to pick from to form the groups. Rather than washing the photos with a red overlay in Photoshop, we went old school and used red gels. Each grouping was giving it's own surface and gel treatment. This allowed the photos to have their own identity while relating to each other as a series.
Read it for free at
http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php
or download their free app for your iPad and iPhone at
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
city lights
It's always fun when we collaborate with clients and come up with bright ideas. This time we captured the luminance of lamps against a city background for the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Dwell Magazine. It took a few extension cords to get all the lamps...
It's always fun when we collaborate with clients and come up with bright ideas. This time we captured the luminance of lamps against a city background for the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Dwell Magazine. It took a few extension cords to get all the lamps lit. We also got to roam the streets of downtown San Francisco pretending we were tourists and photographed various city backgrounds.
You can find it on newsstands or zinio.com
Aperture Smart Albums
People often ask about our Aperture workflow so I've decided to once in a while share little ways in which we work. You can see all my past Aperture posts by clicking on the Aperture category on the right side of the website. For this post, I want...
People often ask about our Aperture workflow so I've decided to once in a while share little ways in which we work. You can see all my past Aperture posts by clicking on the Aperture category on the right side of the website.
For this post, I wanted talk about smart albums. We use smart albums to pull together images that are spread across different projects. For example, if I wanted to find all the Macworld covers I photographed during 2010 and 2011, I can create a smart album that searches only the years 2010 and 2011 for photos with the keywords "macworld" and "tearsheet-cover" since these assets where originally keyworded during import. We always tag each photo that is imported into the library. This makes it easy to search and separate certain assets.
Clutch Bags With SF Magazine
Now that the we finally got the blog up and running with Posterous, we are playing catch up with a few new blog posts of recent work. The September 2011 issue of San Francisco Magazine includes three of my photographs in it's "The Trend" section. ...
Now that the we finally got the blog up and running with Posterous, we are playing catch up with a few new blog posts of recent work. The September 2011 issue of San Francisco Magazine includes three of my photographs in it's "The Trend" section. This time, we got to work with fancy, designer clutch bags and incorporate fruits and vegetables. Shannon Amos (stylist) came through in the clutch to provide good quality and photogenic produce.
Read it for free at
http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php
or download their free app for your iPad and iPhone at
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
Blog Now Powered by @posterous
I made the leap and migrated the blog to Posterous (a more robust blog platform). I know what you're thinking, "it looks the same!" Thanks to Good Dog Design, the Posterous blog looks good and integrates well with my site. My blog needed updating ...
I made the leap and migrated the blog to Posterous (a more robust blog platform). I know what you're thinking, "it looks the same!" Thanks to Good Dog Design, the Posterous blog looks good and integrates well with my site.
My blog needed updating as it was starting to fall behind in this crazy world of social networking. Now I have a much tighter integration with Facebook and Twitter. My old blog was custom designed, which made it really hard to move my posts over to another blogging service. However, I was able to move over my posts with some tricks to get the photos added. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to transfer any of the comments.
I hope you enjoy the new blog and take advantage of the new features like subscribe and having posts emailed directly to your inbox. You can also follow the site and get notified of new posts.
Dwell: Desks
For the September issue of Dwell magazine we photographed desks. We worked with a set builder to make custom pedestals, which looked great but moving things around was no easy task! When asked if we could move a pedestal "a little to the left" we ...
For the September issue of Dwell magazine we photographed desks. We worked with a set builder to make custom pedestals, which looked great but moving things around was no easy task! When asked if we could move a pedestal "a little to the left" we had to really question if it was needed. When we did move things, it took considerable effort not to scratch the floor or anything. Even with all the heavy lifting it was a really fun job. After we assembled all the desks Jamie, the editor, tried them all out for her story.
For the September issue of Dwell magazine we photographed desks. We worked with a set builder to make custom pedestals, which looked great but moving things around was no easy task! When asked if we could move a pedestal "a little to the left" we had to really question if it was needed. When we did move things, it took considerable effort not to scratch the floor or anything.
Even with all the heavy lifting it was a really fun job. After we assembled all the desks Jamie, the editor, tried them all out for her story
DIY: Overhead Camera Stand
Studio stands are great but when shooting from above, the legs of the stand will get in the way of the shot. Hence, we created one ourselves. We got two 20ft. aluminum squared pipes, three pieces of plywood, two Avenger plates and two tall boys to...
Studio stands are great but when shooting from above, the legs of the stand will get in the way of the shot. Hence, we created one ourselves. We got two 20ft. aluminum squared pipes, three pieces of plywood, two Avenger plates and two tall boys to create a rolling, adjustable studio stand. We still need to tethered the camera to a computer but unfortunately, the firewire cord is not long enough to reach our tower on the ground. Instead, we tethered to a MacBook Pro up high next to the camera and controlled it using Screen Share with our MacPro from below. It worked great. To top it off, Capture One now has an app for the iPad. It's amazing and works well from shooting to viewing to changing camera settings and more.
DIY Macworld
Rob and Kate from Macworld were on set for the "Do It Yourself" feature of the magazine. Kate doubled as the hand model in two of the photos. In the spirit of "Do It Yourself" I ended up making a rig to support the iPad Kate was holding to help ke...
Rob and Kate from Macworld were on set for the "Do It Yourself" feature of the magazine. Kate doubled as the hand model in two of the photos. In the spirit of "Do It Yourself" I ended up making a rig to support the iPad Kate was holding to help keep it in the same spot. It made lighting and focus a lot easier. In the photo of the audio system I created the wall with a sheet of foam core, which made it easy to cut a hole for the outlet which the Airport Express plugged into.
Dwell House Party
Who doesn't love a House Party? It's always great working with Dwell, this time it was especially cool because we got to work with their kids. We spent the morning organizing various playhouses and lighting. I decided to use a more spotted lighting arrangement to add some depth to the photo. In doing this I had to predict the areas where I thought the kids might play. Once the kids arrived we let them play as I snapped the photos. After that we had them each play in predetermined areas so that all the kids were evenly dispersed among the playhouses. Of course once we got a successful photo, all the adults jumped in to join the fun! You can find the issue on newsstands now.
Snakes with SF Magazine
When SF magazine approach us to photograph snakes and shoes I was very excited. Michael my assistant wasn't, he has an extreme fear of snakes. Luckily the snake handler (what a cool job title) from the Academy of Science took care of all the snake...
When SF magazine approach us to photograph snakes and shoes I was very excited. Michael my assistant wasn't, he has an extreme fear of snakes. Luckily the snake handler (what a cool job title) from the Academy of Science took care of all the snake handling. This helped keep Michael on job.
I knew that the snakes weren't going to be cooperative so I built a set to be modified on the fly. The light was also set up to be pretty forgiving. The one thing I didn't foresee was the snakes twitching every time the strobes when off. Because of how the snakes reacted to the lights, the snake handler limited our time with each snake. We were only able to photograph each snake 10-15 times, which meant I had to really think before taking the photo. The snakes moved fast exploring their new environment. Nothing was off limits. They curled around light and stands, slithered up the plexiglass, knocked down the shoes and two took bathroom breaks on set. One snake even got stuck through an open toe Alexander Wang sandal that we debated on cutting the $900 shoe. Luckily, he freed himself a couple minutes later. If we are to shoot snakes again in the future, we will photograph them using HMI or hot lights instead.
You can get the magazine on newsstandsor read free online at http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.phpor orread free on your iPad at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
Macworld iPad on Location
I love how Macworld Magazine switches things up. It's always something new and exciting. This time, rather than shooting the feature in studio, we ventured off to different parts of San Francisco with two models and two iPads. They wanted more of ...
I love how Macworld Magazine switches things up. It's always something new and exciting. This time, rather than shooting the feature in studio, we ventured off to different parts of San Francisco with two models and two iPads. They wanted more of a loose type of photography with natural light and no strobes. We also ditched the Phase One P65+ and gave the Canon 5D Mark II the opportunity to shine. Our favorite lenses were the 85mm f1.2 and the 70mm-200mm f2.8.
Being out in public means a lot of people to avoid in the shot. One such case was in the public library when a lady had no clue she was in our photo. You would have to be pretty clueless not to see or hear us shooting. Part of the agreement we had with the library was not to ask people to move so we didn't. We just had to wait for her to move. A funny moment was when a man we saw at the library was also at the Embarcadero two hours later going for a run. He noticed us as he ran by and said, "Hey, I just saw you guys at the library!" It was a fun and adventurous two-day shoot.
SF Magazine Hanging Watch
I got the call from San Francisco Magazine to photograph a watch...but not just a typical watch photo. They wanted something monumental and fun. They wanted something in line with my Donut series. After work on my way home I saw the cranes in the ...
I got the call from San Francisco Magazine to photograph a Chanel J12 watch...but not just a typical watch photo. They wanted something monumental and fun. They wanted something in line with my Donut series. After work on my way home I saw the cranes in the ship yard behind my building. I thought, "How cool would that be to have a watch hanging from there?!" The contrast of a pristine, slick watch with the gritty, rustic shipyard would be awesome. I presented the idea and they loved it. Below is a behind-the-scenes photo taken with my iPhone so it must be real!
You can get the magazine on newsstands
or read free online at http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php
or read free on your iPad http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
Macworld Beyond Cable
For this feature, Macworld wanted to showcase each product from the review in their own setting. In order to keep the set budget down, we got furnishings from West Elm and Ikea in exchange for giving them credit in the magazine. For the opening ph...
For this feature, Macworld wanted to showcase each product from the review in their own setting. In order to keep the set budget down, we got furnishings from West Elm and Ikea in exchange for giving them credit in the magazine. For the opening photo, we didn't hang the TV on the wall because we didn't have a wall bracket. As a stand in, we used a foam core cut out. This allowed us to see how the TV would look in the photo as we worked on the crop. We also only had one chair so it was photographed in each position. Unfortunately, the nice floor didn't make the final layout because of the crop.
Check out the magazine on newsstands or at Zinio.com