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Siemens MRI
Sometimes life is just too strange with the coincidences… Three weeks ago, we were shooting MRI machines (kind of scary because of the giant magnet that will suck your gear inside the doughnut.) What I didn’t know was that a couple of weeks later I would be laying in one myself. But not as a photographer, as a patient. I got up today and couldn’t even put my arm in a jacket nor close the door to the truck.
I think the cases are getting just too heavy. (Partial tear in my left rotator cuff.)
Ugh…
Shot some more video interviews the other day. I think interviewing is one of my favorite parts of working with video. Its such an amazing chance to sit with brilliant people and get the chance to learn!
A good interview makes or breaks a film. It is the basis for a solid story, and is the narritive that drives the film along.
Stay tuned for another of our finished films. You can also check out some of our video work on YouTube.
Behold! Rabbit reads!
We were sitting patiently yesterday whilst waiting for subjects to miander into the room for their portraits when the peace and quite was broken….
“Did you know.. That the sea otter has the densest hair of any mammal known; 130,000 hairs per square centimeter of skin by one count….”
Fascinating!
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
Finished up the volunteer job today for Open Doors Yoga Studio. I have been talking a lot about the importance of doing pro-bono work, and still feel just as strongly about it!
The images for Open Doors have been portraits to replace the old hodge podge teacher head shots.
The set up was very easy… Profoto Pro 600B battery strobes with the Elinchrom 7′ Octabank on a gray seamless. Since the Octabank gives such soft even light, there is no need for any other light.
Remember: Keep it simple stupid! Dont try to make your portraits more complicated than they have to be. As you can see, you can get amazingly lit portraits with minimal gear.
Good luck!
Sometimes as a commercial photographer we are asked to tell a story when there seemingly is no story. This is a common theme, and is one that you will be confronted with time and time again.
During this last days work, we were asked to illustrate a scientific paper.
The solution was actually very simple and easy… Out came the 60mm macro and the softbox, and we went to town. Keep the light down low opposite the camera, maybe put some folds or rolls in the papers, and you are off to the races!
Here are some of the rushes that go along with the post Movie Tools.
The footage was all shot using the Eazy-Jib.
Enjoy!
We are shooting in a very cool world these days…. Because the newest generation of digital SLR’s have such keen images at high ISO’s, we can often time shoot with a hot light like a Lowel Tota.
1000w Lowel Tota in a small Chimera
The question is: Why would we do this over strobes?
Switching between stills and video is easy with the Tota Light
This isnt a solution for every job. If you want really high quality and need the resolution, you will still want to blast the shot with a strobe, but if the stills are being used on the web, or are not being blown up out of sight, then you can start to think about hot lights.
Phil holding the preview monitor as I operate the crane
This has been the month of movie tools! First we were using the Steadicam, and over the weekend, we wrapped up with two days of shooting with the Eazyjib crane.
Rabbit and Phil the Intern dial in the counter weights
Fridays shoot day was focused on shooting “B” roll for our on going film series Called Investigator Profiles for our client The Research Lab of Electronics.
Investigator Profile Series for RLE
We were using the Eazyjib, which is a simple counter weighted light duty film crane. The crane is split into three basic parts. The head, the arm, and the tripod. This system is fairly easy to break down and move around from scene to scene with two or three people.
Chris and Greg demonstrating Warrior One
We were back at Work N’ Gear last week shooting more lay downs.
As I have said in the past, shoot over at WNG is blast and we always have fun. The photography isn’t that complicated, but working with Chris, Tony, and Gary makes them some of the more memorable days. (to get limbered up, we started the day with a little yoga…)
We use basically the same set up every time we are over there. We use one pack, and two lights. The clothing is laid down on the seamless, with the large 7′ Elinchrome Octabank one side, and the 3′ Octabank on the other for fill. Nothing specially fancy, but it work great.
CB can't seem to stay away...
Chris then strips out the shirts from the white background, and lays them into the comp.
If we have lots of shirts to shoot, then we usually mount the camera on a rig and suspend it over the set, but when we have 5-10 set shots to do, we just use a ladder.
Mass eMail from Graphis
I just got an eMail from Graphis for their Annual Report 2010 call for entries. I was excited to see that they chose my portrait of Designer/Photographer Michael Weymouth, owner of Weymouth Design.
The photo was shot for a feature story on Mike that I believe is in the latest issue of Graphis.
To read the behind the scenes article on the shoot day last fall, click here:
You can also watch a short film on the photo shoot as well.
I have to say that Monday was just one of those days. It was one of those days where I couldn’t believe that I actually have the job that I do….
Monday was spent back over at MIT shooting B roll for our on going movie series featuring professors from the Research Lab of Electronics.
Most of the day we were shooting with Steadicam Pilot. For those unfamiliar with the Steadicam system, it is basically a platform that uses gimbals and springs to mitigate camera shake from a traditionally hand held camera position…. See Wikipedia for a better explanation.
The technique is pretty stylized, and shouldn’t be used all the time, but for certain shots, it is unparalleled and very cool.
Read the rest of this entry »
Last Wed was spent over at MIT at Franz Kaertner’s lab. The professor had requested a simple video tour so he could show prospective new students what his lab looked like. We cut the film over the weekend, and will be posted on his groups web site.
We shot the tour down and dirty using available light, and a wireless mic. This new footage will be inter cut with more graphic photos and video captured the last time we shot in his lab.
You can watch the Investigator Profile film we produced previously here:
I will post the film when we finish final revisions.
