Shooting out on the water…

Any time we get a chance to do some shooting out on the water, were gone!  Don’t have to ask us twice!

One of the current video projects we are involved in is a promo for a summer program called TOPS, and we took advantage of the only nice day we had this past weekend and headed out on the water to shoot some “B” roll.

Another cool treat was having my little brother Chris work as my assistant.  Chris used to work as my full time assistant a number of years back, and it was good to have him back on the job.  He has the summer off from biz school, so you might see him on jobs from time to time.

My little brother Chris

The coolest part of the day had to be going through the locks from Boston Harbor to the Charles River.

Heading toward the Cambridge locks from the river toward the harbor

Stay tuned for the finished TOPS film in Aug.

Couldn’t let these go with out sharing…

Rabbit loves when we share these photos with the world….

For those of you who are interested in the on-going saga of young Richards facial inventions… I give you some of the outtakes from the other days photo shoot.

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Always needing more space…

Ever since we started shooting video we have been in a constant battle for storage space.  It seems like every time I turn around I am ordering more drives.  First 500’s, then 750’s, 1TB’s, and now 2TB’s.  In the studio we have two editing suites set up for HD video editing, and one workstation for still photography.  Between the three, there is something crazy like 25TB of storage, most of which is RAID 5.  Most of the RAIDS are set up with 1TB drives, and I cant even begin to try to count just how many there are kicking around to in order to create the total storage volume.

The good news is that there are some really big video projects in the works right now, but the bad news is that we are pretty much maxed out and need to find another storage solution.

Richard sent me the info on the new DroboPro from Data Robotics, and we are going to take a chance and give it a try.  We have three of the first generation Drobos in the studio that we use for back ups and such, and they have been pretty much bomb-proof.  Their big downside has always been that they are VERY slow!  Even with the Firewire 800, they are dogs.    Forget editing video with them.

Portaits dont always have to be serious…

We shot some portraits in Cambridge this week.  It’s important to remember that portraits dont always have to be serious.  Sometimes you can just have fun!

We’ve done stuff like this in the past, and its always great fun.  These shots were for an undergraduate program that brings in aspiring physic teachers from all over the country in order to give them experience teaching middle and high school students in a summer program

Shooting them this way embodies all the emotions experienced over their six weeks in the program.  (we also shot them in a nice smiling pose as well.)

Interesting iPhone

Shot this at a conference in Upstate NY the other day…  Thought it very peculiar and worth sharing….

The web design/branding biz…

scfrazier.com, Yoga and Fitness Trainer

Over the past eight months or so, we have had several requests to expand our photo/video business and make a move into the web design biz.  Like a lot of our endeavors… how could we say no?!?

In a nutshell, I have moved into a Chief Creative roll, shooting the photos/video, art directing, and managing the jobs over all.  I’m an OK designer, but in order to raise the bar, we brought in our friend Gary Hedrick to run the design department, and our friend Eric Benoit to run the programming end.  So far, the sites we have done have been simple yet really cool.  They are not terribly complicated, but are all totally customizable by the client, and have integrated blogs using WordPress.

Hacienda Brisas Del Mar

Not only have we been doing the web design, but we have been doing all the branding and associated print in conjunction.  Overall, it is very exciting for us.

The best part of having designers working in house, is we can us a “photography first” method of design.  This is a principal that was ingrained in me by Mike Weymouth of Weymouth Design, and is a mainstay of their business model.

Typically, a design firm is hired, comps are created using stock photos, and then a photographer is hired to fill the holes.  Conversely, we shoot photos and video first, then let the designer go to town with the clients own images.  The net net is a much better design, and a smoother design process.

Perigrine Tactical

To date, we have completed, or are in various stages of completion on seven sites, all of which feature my photography, and have an integrated blog.  Im not quite sure where this new dimension will lead us, but it certainly has been very rewarding creatively.

In order to be competitive, we are trying to keep the process reasonable for the client, so if you are looking for a web solution, shoot me an eMail and we can have a conversation about our process.

Locke DMD

CB Kearney Fine Woodworking

Newest IP film for MIT… Yoel Fink

We’ve finished another Investigator Profile film for the Research Lab of Electronics at MIT.  This one features Yoel Fink, and was a ton of fun to produce!

Blog slacker…Mea culpa

Yes yes… I have been a total slacker!  Its been about 6 weeks since I have posted here…  And thanks to all that have been pestering me and wondering what the hell has been going on.  I took some much needed vacation in May/June to shoot some personal work, do some surfing, build a deck on my house, get the garden going, and reorganize the studio.

Long board at Nantasket

Spring planting around the shop

I have to admit, the time away from the posting was nice!  Richard and I also took some time and found him a really cool 1976 Honda CB550.  We have been diligantly restoring it down in the shop.  If we can pull it together and set aside the time, we plan on shipping that, along with my bike out west for a cross country ride back to Boston.

Rabbits new CB550

Building a deck...

I also was able to get up to Maine with my friend and fellow photographer Mike Weymouth of Weymouth Design. We did some great trout fishing and had some nice quite time up in the woods.

Best trout in ME...

Probably the best day so far was spent with Robert Krevicich (a print designer over at Weymouth Design.)  We headed up to Joppa Flats at the mouth of the Merrimack River in Salisbury MA for the first Striper fishing of the year.  Ill let the photo do the  talking…

44 inch Striper

The second half of June has been pretty much chalked full of video work.  Rabbit has been putting in 70hr weeks again trying to keep up with the editing work.  We have also done some interesting portrait work, along with some other cool projects.  I will start posting on the where and the when.

Anyway… we are still alive and kicking!   Thanks to all of those who sent me the “are you dead” eMails.  You guys rock!

Greg-

Begining another film…

Rabbit sets up for the interview

Started on another film on our RLE Investigator Profile series last Friday.

The workflow process for these films are as follows:  Two camera video interview on either black or white seamless.  B-roll of the subject teaching, in their lab, as well as their students.  Possibly some more B-roll around campus, then into the editing room.

These films roughly take 110-150hrs of post production before they are finished, which takes roughly 8-12 days to finish.  I’ll post it when we finish.

To see some other RLE films, you can find them on YouTube.

Photos in use…

It’s always a great feeling when you start to see the images you shot for a campaign become integrated in a design project.

This past Feb, Rabbit and I spent a week down in the Dominican shooting, and the photos are finally matriculating themselves into the project.

You can read about the trip and see some of the photos from day one, two,  three,  four, and five.

Red Eye Revenge

Wiped out from the road...

I must say that we finally have gotten our asses kicked!

Took the red eye flight back from Denver on Sunday night.  We arrived in Boston at 05:30, and had to head straight to a shoot.

I have to admit… we are officially smoked.  I even skipped a day on the blog yesterday, and was contemplating doing it again today…  Maybe something more interesting tomorrow.

Weekend Tip For Location Photography: #10 The Detail Shot

When shooting photos for clients, especially when they are going to be used for the web, it is always a great idea to shoot lots of detail shots.

These detail shots will not only be good for illustrating concepts, but they are great for backgrounds and web banners.  Plus… designers love to have this stuff to play with.

We always say: “give em what they want, then give em more…”

Losing ones mind…

two phone calls at once...

Slowly loosing our minds here in Boston…  Just too much going on.  Sorry not to have anything meaningful to say today, however I though I’d share the bit of chaos that we call life.

Shot this photo just before we ran out the door to the airport.  Rabbit and I are off to Colorado for some more fire training at the Colorado Fire Camp owned by our friend Kent Maxwell.

We were out there last year to get spooled up for a photo project we were working on, but now have caught the bug.

Not sure if you can appreciate the photo… but i was stuck on two calls putting out fires so we could blast out of town.

More to come.

Where is the light?

Often times when we begin to study photography, we get really stumped as to where the hell to place the light.

As artists, we have all sorts of choices, and these choices determine the style and feeling of the photograph.  A light in front will give a flat, uninteresting picture.  A light below will make a subject look goolish, where as a light 90 degrees to a subject will create intense drama.

A good trick to start understanding where to place your light is to start to train your eye to figure out where others are placing theirs.

In the photo above, we hung a soft box directly above and slightly behind the subject.  This caused the face of the person to become a bit darker while still illuminating his hands (where I wanted the attention to be drawn.)  This photo is less about the engineer, and more about the process hence the darker face.  Also, having the darkness around all four edges of the photo pulls your eye into the center of the frame without allowing it to stray outside.  You can also see a bit of a Dutch angle (as I talked about in a previous post.)

In order to dicern where the light is placed in photos, start looking for the shadows.  You can see a shadow under the green thingy at the bottom left of the frame.  From this, we can tell that the light is above and a bit to the right.

Getting primed for a crazy summer…

I was going through some of my images from last summer and came accross one of my more favorite shoot days.  The body of work got me really excited for this summer!

The shoot was out at my friend Doug Smith’s operation called Chicagoland Skydiving Center.  I spend the day shooting, jumping, and flying in their Twin Otter.  I will be out there again to do a photo workshop this summer.  I will keep you posted on the dates, as well as try to get a post up from that day last August!

Office views…

It seems that more times than not, this is the view from my office window.  I have been doing a lot of thinking as of late… and I believe it is this view that I am most grateful for.

As photographers, we have the chance at traveling the globe and meeting all sorts of people doing all sorts of jobs.  Often times these folks have views, but more times than not, they don’t.   Having the opportunity to visit these different offices and experience these diverse jobs has really made me become more aware of the view out my own window.

So let me just take today and say thanks to everyone involved with keeping my window open.  (You know who you are…)

Thanks!

Dirty, but fun…

Nothing like getting down and dirty with portraits.  The other day we had to shoot a bunch of quick, but fun portraits.  Because we had so much to do that day, and the portraits had to portray a “fun” atmosphere, we choose to push the subjects right up against a white wall and snap em quick.

With the subject’s back against the wall, we placed the small 3′ Profoto Octa just off to their right side, and went to town.

The photos are simple, have a raw feel, and fun and easy.  I have spoken a bit about this here on the blog, but you dont need fancy set ups to get fun results.  All you need is one light, and you are off to the races!

Weekend Tip For Location Photography: #9 Go Dutch

Extreme Dutch angle

From Wikipedia:  “A Dutch angle is achieved by tilting the camera off to the side so that the shot is composed with the horizon at an angle to the bottom of the frame.”  (Its really a good article, and worth giving a read…)

One of my favorite techniques to use is the Dutch angle.  If you look through my body of work, you will see this style come up time and time again.  In a nutshell, it tends to build tension and draw the viewer into the frame.

Stuck in Salt Lake…

When we left the studio this afternoon, the destination was Phoenix… But alas, the stars have worked their magic, and we are now stuck in Salt Lake City at a skeevy Radisson.

Who ever said that having two floors in a hotel room was cool?  If you ask me… it freaks me the F#@K out!

Well, at least Delta put us up and gave us a $400.00 voucher.   And I guess it aint all that bad….. because even here in Utah, they have good Boston beer.  (Harpoon)

Good Boston beer.... Even in Utah!