Mark Nagel Photography

Outside of the Norm with The Howls

2011-12-30T15:03:00.000-08:00

The last few months have truly been a whirlwind! I finished school, moved from Santa Barbara back to San Diego (mooching free rent off of some good friends), moved into a new apartment, traveled to Kansas City for two weeks, and completed an internship with an amazing advertising photographer, Tim Tadder. Unfortunately, in the midst of all of that, I've hardly had time to shoot, and I miss it like crazy! Gladly, things are starting to settle down and I will be picking up may camera again soon. Okay, It hasn't been THAT bad... I have managed to stay somewhat productive and I've shot a few things here and there. In fact, I recently was able to shoot for San Diego rock band, The Howls. They just finished a new record and needed some photos for the album artwork. First off, let me say that the record is fantastic! I'm not sure on the release date, but watch those shelves and grab it as soon as you see it... you will be so glad that you did. The job came through my friendship with lead singer, John Cooper and their management duo, Josh Thompson and Jon Uher. They wanted something that had a similar feel to the cover art designed by one of the band members. Other than that, creative freedom was left largely up to me with some direction from Josh (also a photographer). We decided to go with a concept that brought together the look of old black and white film with the vibe of "dirty rock 'n roll". High contrast, some texture and grain, shallow depth of field, and even misplaced focus. The only day that everyone, including me, was able to do the shoot, it ended up raining. I was a bit disappointed since many of my ideas were contingent on the fact that on any given day, the chances of rain in San Diego county are slim to nil. However, we were forced to work with what we had and I couldn't be happier with the results. The texture of the rain, the reflections in the puddles, the overcast sky, and the required wardrobe (hats, hoods, gloves, coats, and umbrellas), all combined to create a completely new aesthetic. It didn't take long before our synapses began to fire afresh and new ideas began to erupt. Josh sheltered me (more importantly, my digital camera) from the rain with an umbrella as I directed the band in and out of the rain. It was a quick shoot. We moved fast and were not constrained by preconceived ideas of what we wanted. Shooting off of the cuff like that doesn't always work and it presents its own challenges to be sure, but there's something about the freedom that it brings that always seems to make it a rejuvenating experience. All this to say, this is not how I normally shoot, both in terms of the end result as well as the method performed to attain it, but I'm so glad that things went down the way that they did!

A special thanks to Josh, Jon, and John and the guys from The Howls for willingly getting soaked in the cold rain!

Here are a few more shots..

Hire the Wrong Person for the Job

2011-08-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

If you're having a hard time finding the right person for the job... why not hire the wrong person for the job?

A recent assignment of mine was to produce an image using body paint on a person. The guidelines were wide open as far as how this was to be produced. This was a totally new realm of people photography for me, and quite frankly, one that I've never really been interested in. Day after day I attempted to come up with some sort of concept for the shoot and my all too often inept creativity failed me every time. Not only did I have no idea what I was going to shoot, but I didn't have a model booked and I couldn't find anyone who did body paint. Well, I shot a model for a different assignment last week and just happened to mention to her my current dilemma. Coincidently she was very into the art of body painting. Funny thing is, she had never applied her craft to another person, but rather had spent hours and hours in front of a mirror painting herself. She was stoked on the idea of working on another canvas, so she showed me some of the things that she had done on herself and, quite honestly, they were pretty impressive. We made a tentative confirmation on the shoot while I tried to book a model. I eventually found someone to model, but come to find out she is actually a body paint artist and had just recently started modeling "just for fun". So here we are with a great model who is relatively inexperienced at body painting, and a great body painter who is inexperienced as a model. I decided to just go with it in an effort to keep things fresh and try something new for everyone. The results were better than I even expected and I am very happy with the final shots! So I guess it goes to show that not only is the right person for the job not always the right person for the job, but also if you let go of what might obviously be the best solution (letting the professional body paint artist apply makeup on the professional model), you might get something unexpected... and it might even lead to the greatest results.

*Here's an alternate image from the same shoot.

**In case you're interested, the first photograph was shot using one strobe with a 40º grid about 5' directly above the model's face. The model laid on her back, supported by her elbows and looked directly at the light. The image was then rotated 90º to the right because I thought it had much more impact (it feels as thought the model is moving through the frame).

The second photo was shot with a beauty dish as key (camera left) and a 5' octabox as fill (0º camera axis, and about 7' in front of the model)... and yes, that's me in the middle of the catchlight.

Cosmetic Hardlight

2011-07-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

Above is the select from a shoot that I completed last week. My assignment was to use hard light to sell a cosmetic product (eye shadow) with a beauty shot. I'll tell you one thing, producing a beauty shot using hard light is not an entirely easy procedure. You certainly need to have the right model and a great makeup artist. Thanks to Morgan Polk (model) and Chantal Louise English (makeup artist) for helping make this shoot a success!

Technical details:
Key light: One strobe, bare bulb, 0º camera axis, approximately 7.5' high.
Edge Light: One strobe with large soft box, 135º camera left, approximately 5.5' high.

20 Expressions

2011-07-23T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new concept called 20 expressions. The idea is to explore different human emotions within a single space with a single subject and then to repeat this many times over with different subjects in order to get a broader look into what different people do to display the perceived "normal" physical reaction to a real human emotion. One of the most interesting, and also most difficult, aspects of this project so far is to realize all of the different subtitles and intricacies of how the face and the body can move and contort in order to express certain feelings and then applying that knowledge to directing a person on exactly what to do. It can be very challenging trying to draw out emotions that aren't actually present, but unfortunately I've worked with some pretty talented people so far, like actor/model David Namminga (featured above), and working with talented people like that always makes things run smoother and definitely makes my job easier.

By the way, if you're in or near the Santa Barbara or San Diego area and you're interested in participating in this project please let me know. You can contact me through my website at marknagel.com

Smell . Taste . Savor . Repeat

2011-06-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

I just finished an 8 week intensive course on food photography and with it a small book of images produced, in most part, for that course. Above is the cover of the book. I must say that I was somewhat, and pleasantly, surprised at how much I enjoyed photographing food. It wasn't necessarily just the subject matter, in fact food can be very frustrating considering the ridiculous amount of tedious styling that goes into making food look like something that the viewer might actually desire to consume. And that's not even to mention the fact that during long shoots when you're practically famished, especially towards the end, it almost amounts to sheer torture to be intimately focused on the very thing that your weakened body is yearning for that it might attain some relief from your self-induced state of hunger. What I enjoyed most was developing ideas that would center around a concept concerning each particular shoot, and then finding ways to bring that concept to fruition through still imagery. I would love to write more on that, but I haven't gotten much sleep over the past few days, and I'm beginning to nod off in front of my computer screen. Anyway, I was fairly happy with the outcome, so I thought that I would share some of it here. I did write a forward for the piece which goes like this:

Food is a very interesting thing. It has the ability to move us into action or freeze us in our tracks and demand all of our attention until we can concentrate on nothing else. It can conjure up countless emotions within the human brain as it forces us to recall one of a million different memories. It can be dreaded and it can be joyously anticipated. It can bring families and friends together and foster the creation of new relationships as well as the growth of those already in existence.

It is no wonder why we are drawn to the subject. Perhaps it is because food is absorbed by every one of our senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and even sound. Perhaps it is because of the memories it conjures in our minds, like when the smell of a freshly baked apple pie takes you right back to your grandmother’s warm, sunny kitchen. Perhaps it is because our bodies have a basic human need to be sustained by it. Perhaps it is because we are cognizant of the pleasure that is about to ensue as we sink our teeth into that delectable dish. Or maybe it’s just because our own history is wrought with food being synonymous with good times. Whatever the reason, food plays an integral roll in our daily lives. Whether it's a croissant and a cup of coffee on the porch in the wee hours of the morning, or the pinnacle of fine dining on a Saturday night in the big city, food is very much a part of who we are.

Below are a few of my favorite pages from the book...

Goodwill - Perception vs Reality

2011-02-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

A recent assignment of mine was entitled "Perception vs. Reality". The idea was to visually show something unexpected (the reality) that may contradict the typical viewer's preconceived notion about that particular product or brand (the perception). The idea of "Perception vs. Reality" was made popular by Rolling Stone Magazine back in the early 80's. They began a campaign of advertisements that featured a double page spread. On the left was the perception and on the right, the reality, and each was literally labeled as such. For example, one such ad featured a typical, long-haired hippie on the left standing in front of a micro-bus (perception being that their main readership consisted of hippies) and a young Wall Street executive on the right (the reality being that their readership consists largely of young professionals... I guess you could say, "yuppies"). For this assignment, I photographed an ad for Goodwill (above). I decided to take a little bit less of a direct approach (which would say, "here's the perception, and here's the reality"), and instead gave the reality only, which would be a sharp contrast to the typical perception, and hinted at the perception just with the copy. I wanted to make a simple, clean image that would easily draw a contradiction between what the viewer sees and what they would normally think based on the brand name alone.

Andrew Wyeth and Art Appreciation

2011-02-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

A recent assignment of mine was to create an advertisement based on the look and feel of artist Andrew Wyeth. To be honest, I was not previously familiar with his work, or who he even was for that matter. But after researching Wyeth and his art, I can now call my self a big fan of his paintings. I am drawn to his muted, desaturated color palette that he often uses as well as the warm tones in a lot of his scenes and even the texture of his brush strokes (particularly in his outdoor scenes). What captured me most, however, was the way that he often depicts his human subjects facing away from the viewer and at the same time communicates a depth of emotion, by body position and posing alone, without even being able to see the subjects face.

Now, I am, by no means, an expert when it comes to fine art paintings. I don't know the big words to use when "critiquing" someone's art (I don't have experience in the field of fine art to be able to accurately judge someone's work anyway), and I don't have a vast knowledge of art history (though I'm working on it). But that certainly does not mean that I, as a visual thinker and a creative person, can't properly appreciate his art. I'm afraid that there exists a bit of snobbery within certain fine art circles that says, "If you don't use the right words and pick apart the right things within a certain piece of art, then you don't really know what you're talking about and you can't properly appreciate this art." You know what I say to that? "That's a bunch of bulls#$t!" I believe that all it takes to appreciate art is looking at it and letting yourself be moved. Maybe it calls up a memory in your mind from when you were younger, appreciate it for that. Maybe it makes you sad for some reason, figure out why and appreciate it for that. Maybe it brings you joy, maybe it makes you nervous, maybe it makes you angry, maybe it turns you to compassion. Appreciate it for those things. Maybe you're blown away by the talent of the artist: his color palette, his subtleties, the way he depicts emotion, or paints light and shadow… appreciate it for those things. The point is, you can appreciate art at any stage of the game whether you call yourself an artist (or a critic) or not, and don't let anyone else cause you to think differently. I digress…

The photo above was created as an ad for Fidelity. It was designed as a two-page spread with a tagline and subhead on the right hand side. You can click the image below to see the completed ad.

Inspiration and Fine Art Photography

2011-01-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

I was recently on vacation back in my homeland (rural Kansas, south of Kansas City). There are many things that I love about where I grew up. We lived in one of three houses on our street when we first moved out to the country, surrounded by miles of gravel roads connecting farmlands and empty fields that seemed to go on forever. I was eight years old. There is something very romantic about growing up in the country. You feel like you have the run of the land... almost like you own it... your own little kingdom. Exploring the woods beyond the hill, navigating the river for miles beyond, chasing cows, skipping rocks, and finding a cave that we so creatively named "the rock" was all part exploring life "on our own", sort of a rite of passage, I guess. Smells of campfires and the summer rain are still so fresh in my mind after 20 some odd years, as are sights of thunderstorms, burning-red sunset skies, and fields that flashed all night long with a million soft, green, strobes from the tiny tails of fireflies. I mention all of this because after so many years of living in the city it was quite an inspiration to be back home again at the end of November. It was cold and everything had gone into its respective hibernation for the months of winter. The leaves had fallen, much of the grass had died, many of the birds had migrated, the crops had been harvested and their beds laid bare. Everything seemed so... still. There is something very sad about that, but there's also something beautiful. I think it has a lot to do with the anticipation of the spring. Just as there is a time for life, beautiful, green, new life, there is also a time for death and I believe that beauty can be seen in that just as well.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace. (Ecc 3)

Enjoying the brief season of decay--the quiet, the cold, the solitude--while we wait for the rebirth of spring can be a cathartic and renewing experience. Okay, maybe I've gotten a little deep here, maybe not, but at any rate, thus was my inspiration to delve into some of the photographs taken during that week as well as the video that I shot during the same trip (http://vimeo.com/17626954). Here are a few my favorite photos. I am also working on a storefront where I will be selling these and other fine art pieces. I'd like to have it up in the next couple of weeks, so please check back. Until then, enjoy these, and let me know what you think.

601

2010-12-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

The video below was done in collaboration with Matt Perko, Bryan Markwardt, and Joseph Mitchell as a final project for the motion picture class that I just finished at Brooks Institute. I'll leave any interpretation of the content up to you, but I will tell you a bit about the shoot. If you'd like to read more, continue on after you watch.

601 from Mark Nagel on Vimeo.

The hardest part about this shoot was getting the weather/time of day to cooperate... actually, it never did. We had less than a week to shoot, but had to get all of the shooting done in one day. The original vision of the film required an overcast sky, and, as you can imagine, in Santa Barbara, that's fairly hard to come by. We had one day that had a partly cloudy outlook, that is until the morning of the shoot... not a cloud in the sky. We were prepared for this and got to the beach to set everything up well before dawn so that we could get the predawn light before there was any directional sunlight contaminating the scene. As the sky began to break to day we realized that any amount of cloud cover was not in the cards, so we had to shoot quick! There were no "take two's" and everything was shot within about 30 minutes. It was a crunch, and in the end we didn't get all of the shots that we had hoped for, but we made it work, and I think it was a success (I guess you can be the judge of that).

A second thing that I would note is that none of the sound on this film... none.. was captured in camera or at the scene. All of the sound and sound effects come from royalty free samples and loops that were either downloaded from the Internet or found within Soundtrack Pro. Putting together the soundtrack was a project in and of itself, but a good experience, and, coming from a musical/digital audio background, it was fun to delve into multi-track editing again.

It has been really fun to jump into video production over the last couple of months. It has been a good break from the norm and good practice at where I believe, at least partially, the industry is heading. If you are a photographer and haven't tried your hand at motion picture yet, please do. I think that you will find it an easy crossover, and I believe that you will have a lot of fun turning your photographic vision into moving pictures.

Forgotten

2010-12-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

I am currently taking a class in motion picture. It has been really fun for me to switch gears a bit from stills to motion. And now that there are pro-grade cameras out that will do both amazingly well I see this as a viable part of my future. Here is my first personal project shot solely on the 5d Mark II. The imagery in this short film, both stills and video, was captured almost entirely within an abandoned farm house in Kansas. I stumbled onto it when driving through the country with my dad. I was immediately struck with a strange feeling while walking through the remnants of lives that seemingly just disappeared there. The feeling was partly mysterious and curious and partly sad. Many things were still in tact and there were definitely signs of family life (children's books, toys, Christmas ornaments, dolls, trophies, books, an old TV in what was once the living room, etc.). It was really quite an amazing place and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it, but I couldn't help but to document it. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you are in some way moved.

Forgotten from Mark Nagel on Vimeo.

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Be Inspired

2010-10-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'm studying to be a professional photographer in the field of advertising where I am going to predominately be shooting what other people want. Yes, I hope to have a fair amount of input into the creative process, but that is never a given. That means that if I want to feed my creative desires, then I will need to continue to make art for myself... for the sake of feeding my own soul.

I am reading a book on the story of art by E.H. Gombrich and I came across a particularly profound quote this evening. It inspired me to continue to push outside of my preconceived notions about how my work should be represented and in turn perceived by other people. It makes me want to take up the practice of trying new things... or trying old things in a new way... and to not care if it even makes sense with the laws of the world around me. There is something to be said about not caring what other people think with regards to your "art". I have decided to shoot with only film and toy cameras this week. I am not relying on the crutch on instant digital feedback (a crutch which I must admit I lean on very heavily all too often), nor on digital manipulation, and I'm throwing the all of the traditional "rules" of photography right out the proverbial window. I'm not caring what anyone says about these images or even if they see them. This is for me... this is my practice at my art for the sake of the representation of how I see things around me. All that said, please read this quote by Gombrich. You won't be disappointed and I truly believe that you will be inspired:

"We are all inclined to accept conventional forms of colours as the only correct ones. Children sometimes think that stars must be star-shaped, though naturally they are not. The people who insist that in a picture the sky must be blue, and the grass green, are not very different from these children. They get indignant if they see other colours in a picture, but if we try to forget all we have heard about green grass and blue skies, and look at the world as if we had just arrived from another planet on a voyage of discovery and were seeing it for the first time, we may find that things are apt to have the most surprising colours. Now painters sometimes feel as if they were on such a voyage of discovery. They want to see the world afresh, and to discard all the accepted notions and prejudices about flesh being pink and apples yellow or red. It is not easy to get rid of these preconceived ideas, but the artists who succeed best in doing so often produce the most exciting works. It is they who teach us to see in nature new beauties of whose existence we have never dreamt. If we follow them and learn from them, even a glance out of our own window may become a thrilling adventure."

Now... be inspired... go make art... don't over-think... just create!

Perfectly Balanced

2010-10-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

I just finished an assignment with a few friends and fellow photographers (Ike Kraussar, Matt Perko, and Max Younger) entitled "Big Set". We were to choose any beverage, come up with a photographic concept centered around a tag-line for that product, construct a life-size set using at least two walls, and photograph at least two models within that set. We chose, of course, Jameson Irish Whiskey. The tag-line that we chose was "Perfectly Balanced". Our concept was to illustrate a somewhat dingy bar during an earthquake. Everyone in the scene is being rocked by the quake... except for the waitress in the foreground with her tray of Jameson. The waitress and her tray are indeed, "perfectly balanced," and unaffected by the ensuing chaos.

In addition: We estimated $41,000 for the job (if it were to be done in the "real world"). Most of that would go into expenses for a much larger scale production than the one for this photo (usage for a full page, national ad plus the creative fee landed at just over $10,ooo). Ah... if only that were real money ... soon enough :)

My Favorite Model and Biggest Fan

2010-10-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

Below is a photograph of my beautiful daughter, Iris Lorraine. Once again, I chose to have her model for an assignment of mine. She's always willing and almost always has a fun time with it. The assignment was to choose a product or service, create a tagline for that product or service and then photograph something analogous to that tag-line that does not include the actual product or service (something totally unrelated to the product, but directly related to the tag-line). The service I chose was Fidelity Financial Services. I created a very simple tag-line: Protect Your Investments. And then I photographed my analogy: my daughter, being protected, by a seat-belt. I won't bore you with the technical details of the shot by forcing you to read through them, but if you are interested, read below.

I wanted the shot to look like the interior of a car at nighttime. I had to shoot this in broad daylight, however, and that can sometimes get a little tricky. The first trick is to properly expose your subject (as if lit by a particular source, in this case the interior car light) and then let the ambient light fall at least a couple stops below this value in order to get a fairly high amount of overall contrast to the scene, as you would experience in a similar situation at night. In practice, one simple way to do that would be to set your camera to underexpose the ambient by 2 stops and then adjust the power of the flash until your meter gives you the exposure that you have set in your camera (or until the surface of your subject is properly exposed).

I, of course, had very limited room to work with in the back seat of a two-door Honda Civic, so a couple of small speedlights did the job just fine. I gelled the key light with a 1/2 CTO in order to warm up the light on Iris so that it would appear as if the light was coming from a tungsten source like the interior light of a car. Yes, this light is a bit overstated for an interior dome light, but some things are okay to fudge a little, as long as the integrity of the shot as a whole still holds together. If the viewer still believes it without really having to think about it, then it doesn't really matter if that's how it looks in the "real world". Remember, we're in the business of faking it... we get paid to "lie".

Another technique used here is the secondary light source coming through the window, camera left. Nighttime, interior light usually reads as warm (or "yellow/orange-ish") while nighttime extiror light reads usually reads as cooler (or "blue"). Whether it's moonlight or a streetlight of some sort didn't necessarily matter to me in this shot, but it needed that secondary light source in order to make the shot look real and in order for it to read immediately: in a car, outside, at night. I simply placed another speedlight on a stand outside the back window of the car and angled it down so that the direction of the light would mimic that of the moon, or a streetlight. I powered it so that the exposure was about 1/3 - 2/3 below that of the key light.

The Shantyannes

2010-09-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege this past weekend of shooting my good friend, Joe Freeman, front man for San Diego based "Shanty Rock" outfit, The Shantyannes. Check them out on Myspace or Facebook, and, if you haven't already, go to a show and be thrilled with their unique and captivating live performance. I'm hoping to do a shoot of the full band soon.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the shoot:

Do Not Try This At Home

2010-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

A recent assignment of mine was to create a tag-line for a product that would involve the reader in an advertisement and then to create an image around that tag-line that would incorporate at least one of the basic methods for gaining a reader's attention. The tag-line that I chose was "Do not try this at home." The ad is for Outback Steakhouse (or a similar restaurant specializing in the cooking and preparation of steak). The idea of the ad is that the best way to eat a steak is to enjoy one that has been prepared for you, perfectly, by a professional cook, otherwise you're basically settling for this, a shitty TV dinner. I decided to take the extreme approach and not only use involvement to capture the viewer, but also a little bit of shock. I wanted to create a very bad photograph of a very disgusting meal. Yes, I tried to create a bad photograph: when you light food with flat, frontal light, it looks horrible, and that was the intention here. I put the tray on white seamless paper, shot through a ring flash, and colored the background in post. That was about it... just about as easy as it gets, but I think it was a success. Sometimes the best way to communicate an idea is with the simplest elements (one object on a blank background with one light).

On another note, going against my better judgment, I did try the steak. It was not good.

Learning to Walk

2010-09-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Iris, my daughter, has always seemed to be "one step ahead" regarding her mental capacity. She's had the ability to learn words, their meaning and repeat them in context from about 9 months on. Yet, her physical abilities have tended to sacrifice. What I've come to learn is that, almost always, a child develops in one way much faster than the other, the mental before the physical or vice versa. Neither is particularly better, just different. In Iris' case it was the mental learning came first, observance, association, responsiveness, communication, and words. She was much later to crawl than most kids her age and at 15 months she still has not taken her first steps (despite how much she enjoys "walking" while holding mom's or dad's hands). I think that whichever route your kid takes, as a parent, you are just so stoked on what they're doing that it doesn't even matter, at least that's the case here.

So all of that said, here is the purpose of this post: This was one of the very first videos that I shot with my Canon 5D Mark II. I ran across this the other night and it made me smile. Nothing crazy conceptual or particularly creative at play here, just spending a day with my family at the zoo (Iris LOVES the zoo!).

[If you have the bandwidth, and these days you probably do, pump that sucker up to 720p in the lower right after you press play!]

Mountainscape

2010-09-08T16:55:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting to a few of the images that I took when my wife and daughter and I took a little road trip to the southwest corner of Colorado, to an old mining town called Ouray. The mountains there are more beautiful and majestic than any I have ever seen. We took hikes to a few different mountain passes and road dirt-bikes to others (A KTM-250 will take you just about anywhere). It's always so refreshing to find yourself in such a quiet place that has been virtually untouched by modern machinery. It's unfortunately a rare circumstance anymore, at least for me, but one that I continue to treasure, and one that always seems to regenerate, at least to some degree, my love for photography. There is a big need for us creative professionals to take a step back once in a while and be creative for ourselves, not for the client! Creating something for the sake of the art in order to feed my creative desires is something that I don't do enough. It is something that I'm sure we could all use a bit more of. So if you have the opportunity, go breathe in some fresh mountain air. Take a hike to a secluded lake. Take your camera on a stroll in the woods. Take a day off and busy yourself with not being busy.

Here's one of my favorite shots. After hiking to over 13,000 feet with my dad, we found ourselves in a meadow near the peak of a mountain and overlooking the peaks on the other side of the valley from where we had just climbed. It was a beautiful site.

2010-08-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

I recently received an assignment to go out and photograph 25 strangers. The 25 images had to be of people whom I did not know and they all had to be centered around a particular concept of my choosing. Having worked in office job for several years and hating it (hence, why I'm back in school learning how to do something that I love in order to actually make a career out of it), I decided to shoot people either at work or on their way to work. The catch is that I wanted to portray them with their mind on something other than work. To do this, I went out and bought a bunch of different props, most of them children's toys, and asked my strangers to pose with them. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot (more on the experience below).

This was a very interesting look into different personalities. Some people wouldn't give me the time of day. Some laughed and continued to walk on. Most people I approached said "No". Most people that said "No" had the excuse, "I'm late". I only had one person who couldn't think of an excuse and just mumbled "Sorry, I've gotta... I'm... a... I need to....go..." and then gave up, turned, and resumed his head-down stride down the sidewalk. I also learned an interesting fact: everyone in a suit in Santa Barbara is late for something.

Of the people that said "Yes" some were reluctant, yet some really were happy to help me out and actually got into the whole concept and had fun with it. It's not fun getting turned down every couple of minutes, but the times that people said "Yes", especially when they really got into it... that made it worth it.

County Fair

2010-05-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

Being in school full time while having a full time job doesn't leave me with much time to shoot for myself anymore. This saddens me because it leaves all of my shooting for assignments and I have lost touch to some degree with the enjoyment of it all. This should turn around as I get into upper division in a couple of months and start concentrating on a major, but in the meantime I guess I've just got to find (or make) the time to shoot for myself.

My wife and kid and I went to the Santa Barbara County Fair a few days ago and it was really fun for me to simply let go of the rules and just photograph whatever I wanted and however I wanted. This is becoming a "must" for me and I am ready to start making time to do so. Here are a few of the images that I really liked from that day:

One Color

2010-03-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

Using one color in an image can be a very simple and effective way to visually communicate an idea or concept and can also be very effective in instantly drawing a viewer's attention directly to where you want it.

[Above]:
Is your breakfast (or lunch or dinner for that matter) really as healthy as you think it is?

[Above]
I didn't really have a specific concept in mind for the next image. It's more of a graphically oriented stock shot. But I had fun with it and kept from getting too messy

Both of these were shot in the comfort of my living room using my coffee table as a tabletop and white and black seamless as the backgrounds. Shot with hensel monoblocks, two large softboxes, a 16x20 mount board for fill, a Canon 5D Mark II, and a Canon EF 24-70 L f/2.8 USM lens.

Yes, I did drink on the job... and yes, it did benefit the shots.

The Homeless of Santa Barbara

2010-01-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

For the conclusion of Lighting People we were to turn over six images as a final project. We were required at the beginning of the session we had to submit a proposal detailing what we would shoot, how we would shoot it, and why we chose the subject(s) we did. We were also required to list one photographer who's work would inspire this final project. This is the abridged version of my proposal is below if you are interested. Here are the images:

One of the largest catalysts for my becoming interested in the art of photography was a trip that I took with my wife to one of the many rural regions in South Africa in 2005. What we were able to capture with an inexpensive, point-and-shoot, digital camera inspired us. When we came home to our comfortable, American life we were so impressed by how much those images moved others who weren’t even there. We then saw, first hand, how an image can tell a story, and in this case, better than words could even attempt. The predominant mass of those images were photographs of the poor, the hungry, the destitute... those whom we had come to help however we could in such a short amount of time. Too often it is those who need to have a voice the most that seem to have no voice at all. To take one person and give them that voice, even through a medium as simple and unassuming as a photograph, can truly make a difference. I believed that then, and I have seen it happen over and over since, thus I now know it to be true. Now, change needs to be brought about, not only in remote regions of third world countries, but also in the communities in which we live. Even in the opulence of the paradise that we call Santa Barbara, there is a street full of homeless individuals that have a story to tell and that need a medium through which to “speak” that story to those who may not listen to words uttered, and who may not read the signs that have been painted as they pass by on the street. I took this opportunity to photograph a small handful of these individuals and thus give them, even a small voice for the story that is their life.

Say what?? - Overcoming Language Barriers

2009-11-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

One of my assignments for last session (Lighting Theory) was an editorial portrait. This was to be done using at least one small, off-camera flash, diffused in some way, and balanced with ambient light. I used a Canon 580EX II speedlight on a light stand with an umbrella. I exposed properly for the flash and underexposed ambient by 1 stop. Not too hard. Where it got a little dicey, however, was when I decided what/who I was going to shoot. I had a vision for shooting a motel cleaning staff person sitting on a freshly made bed looking straight out the window. I wanted the person to be lit solely with window light and have the camera in a position to get her profile. Unfortunately, this didn’t exactly coincide with the details of the assignment, which is why I shot it like I did (using artificial light and having the subject look into the camera). Anyway, I wanted to do this at a specific motel down the street from my apartment (I liked the colors there), but unfortunately none of the cleaning staff members spoke a lick of English and my Spanish is awful! I had a problem! Luckily a friend of mine here at Brooks is from Mexico city and she agreed to go with me and interpret. I didn’t think that this would be absolutely necessary, yet very helpful. Man, was I wrong… yes it WAS helpful, but it was ABSOLUTELY necessary! The manager at the front desk said that it was solely up to the discretion of the employee whether or not they wanted to be photographed, and then he left us to wander around and find someone that was willing. The first two women where not interested. Ana (my friend) tried to talk them into it for a good couple of minutes, but they just gave her the run around. We then headed upstairs and found another lady (pictured here). Ana had to kind of coax her into giving us her permission to photograph her and thus take 15 minutes off of her schedule. She was reluctant at first, but was very nice and ended up being very willing to work with us. Without Ana, I would have gotten nowhere. So thanks, Ana! Although the shots didn’t exactly pan out exactly like I had envisioned, I think that the shoot was a success… judge for yourself.

'Tis The Season

2008-11-24T13:14:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I walked into my local Starbucks last night (well, one of my local Starbucks) and proceeded to order my go-to taste of caffeinated delight, the single Americano, straight up (I know, I live on the edge). Waiting in line for my drink I grabbed one of those "Good Sheet" thingy-ma-bobbers entitled Holiday Economy. It basically makes a quick list of some of what this great nation of consumerism spends it's money on during this season of "giving." Here's a quick recap:

- $9.3 Billion - jewelry store sales - 11-12/2007

- $5.8 Billion - retail stores on hobbies, toys, and games - 11-12/2007

- $19.8 Billion - computer and video game consoles and accessories - 11-12/2007

- $700 Million - candle sales - holiday season 2007

- $26.3 Billion - gift cards - holiday season 2007

Along with other doo-dads and such America topped $474 BILLION in holiday retail sales in 2007 (much of which was most likely spent on a bunch of worthless shit)!!

Don't get me wrong, I think that giving gifts is a great way to not only show someone that you care about them, but also to help someone out who is in need. And with the present economic situation the way that it is right now I believe that the latter should be deserving of both more of our attention and more of our action. I read this blog entry today from a friend at IJM, Bethany Hoang, who noted that, "It is the global poor who are ultimately left the most destitute in these times of financial havoc," and she encourages us to shift our paradigms a bit on what holiday gift giving should be. Example: instead of getting your kid the latest X-box game, buy a poor family in another country a goat and explain to him how his sacrifice has helped a family in need survive!

IJM has a gift giving page where you can support their efforts in investigation, advocacy, or after care for victims of sexual slavery.

World Vision has a gift catalog where you can choose from hundreds of items ranging from a $10 child education fund to a $500 dairy cow to a $18,000 deep fresh water well and many in between.

I'm not trying to give you a guilt trip (or maybe I am... and in that case, I should be giving myself one too - the guy who just spent $2 on what amounts to basically a 12 oz. cup of water), I just want to ask you to think about it. Let's all really, intelligently, and thoughtfully process how we can use our money this season in giving gifts that actually can, and will, change things... gifts that can go so so far in helping people that are much more vulnerable that you and me.

now watch this (Rusty, thanks for sharing the video):