Brady

These are a few edits from my recent photo shoot with Brady.  The two color images were shot on medium format film.

:)

Polaroid of Kel-Z

I wanted to post a quick Polaroid of Kel-Z.
This was taken in Boise during the filming of our last [FRAMED] episode.

I've been [FRAMED] ..... AGAIN!

I was once again honored to be on another episode of FRAMED. This was the season finale challenge episode (filmed in Boise, ID) featuring a photographer from each of the previous challenge episodes. Kel-Z from Salt Lake, Craig Lamere from Boise and of course me from Seattle.

The challenge was very cool. Extreme sports photography featuring a pro in-line skater, freestyle bike rider and a skateboard rider. The athletes were great to work with. I think what made it such a cool experience is that the riders know what they were doing, so it was more of a collaboration. We were on a time crunch so having a quick discussion with them prior to the actual shoot helped a lot. As I shot, I showed them the images so we could make adjustments in position to get pleasing images.

My one main goal was to show perspective. I wanted to show the rider in the air, but also show where they came from and where they're landing. I think that's important with this type of photograph. I wish I would have had more equipment with me, but we really had no idea what we were shooting ahead of time, so I packed light.
I didn't make any real magic with my photos, but I think they're good enough for the show.

:)

Polaroid of Melissa Niu

Last week I was in Boise filming the season finale of Framed, and I shot this Polaroid of Melissa Niu, the host of Framed. See all the awesome Framed episodes at www.framedshow.com

:)

1080p Shootout - iPhone 4S vs. Canon 5D Mark II

How good (or bad) is the video quality with the new iPhone 4S? Check out the side-by-side comparisons and see for yourself.



:)

I've been [FRAMED]

I've been [FRAMED]!
A few months ago I posted here that I was selected to appear on a web episode of [Framed].  Well, the episode is finally available for the world to see.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

After watching, it's pretty obvious that I was completely out of my comfort zone.  It was a challenging day for me because asking random people for their picture isn't something I'm at all comfortable with.  However, the experience itself was awesome and the [Framed] crew was fantastic to work with.

If you'd like to vote for your favorite images, Click Here to Vote

:)

Film Test with Rose - Seattle Musician Photos

I recently picked up some new Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.  This new version of the older Portra 400 was released last year.  I've been shooting the Kodak 160 NC for a while, but I've been hearing a lot of good things about this new 400, so I picked up a box. 

I got in touch with Rose, a talented singer/songwriter that I've known for a while and scheduled a shoot with her to test out the film.  We've had great weather here in Seattle recently so we scheduled the shoot for sunset.  Unfortunately, that evening inclement weather blew in and we had clouds, wind and light rain.  Since we all showed up, we decided to work fast and see what we could get.  It wasn't what I had hoped for, but we managed to get a few nice shots.  We'll try again at a later date.

Seattle Headshots for Actors & Performers

I recently had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with (and photographing) the very talented Aspen Lee Jordan.  She's spending part of the summer here in Seattle, then moving to New York to open a new musical.  We had so much fun during this shoot!  She's a great young lady and I sincerely wish her all the best.

I'm Being Featured on [FRAMED]

Okay, it's official. I'm being featured on [FRAMED], and we film the episode tomorrow. Yes, I'm quite nervous about it :) Once I have an Air Date, I'll post it.

:)

Behind the Scenes from the Beach House

The behind-the-scenes video from our last location shoot is ready. Thanks again to Kelly Bailey for filming and editing this into a nice package.

Update: I re-edited the video and added a new audio track to avoid any funky copyright issues.
Creative Commons Music courtesy of Heifervescent via Jamendo.com

Location Shoots - The Fear of Asking Permission

Have you ever seen a really cool location for a shoot, but were too afraid to ask for permission to shoot there?  Try to get over it and just ask.  You never know.. they might say, yes.

Finding great locations for photo shoots can be a real challenge, especially here in Seattle.  The weather forecast changes constantly making it nearly impossible to plan an outdoor location shoot in advance.  This means when I’m booking a team for a shoot, I plan for indoor locations first (Plan A) with the possibility of extending the shoot outside (Plan B).

I know of an ultra contemporary beach-front house that’s currently for sale and the homeowner is a neighbor of my mother.  I absolutely love the architecture of the home and have always thought how cool it would be to shoot inside, but I was uncomfortable asking.

A few weeks ago I finally mentioned the idea to my mother, so she put in a call to the homeowner and "broke the ice" for me.  We had a brief conversation on the phone and the homeowner enthusiastically agreed to allow the photo shoot.  She didn’t even ask a whole lot of questions other than just wanting to know when the shoot would take place and when I could come pick up the key.  Fantastic! 

Now, here’s the catch, you have to be insured.  If you don’t have insurance, don’t even attempt this.  The last thing you want is a huge bill to replace the drywall in a million-dollar house because your light stand fell over. 

I let her know that I was fully insured and was even prepared to pay a rental fee, but she didn’t want any type of payment.  She was just happy to help.

The shoot went well and it all came together because I asked.   

What’s the worst that could happen?  

They say, no? 

What if they say, yes?

Models: Lanna Barrones & Anastasiya Hrabar Ambrosiya

Hair & Makeup: Julie Stevens

Wardrobe Design and Styling: Kim McCormick

Assistant: Elise Liptack

Polaroid 600 SE

For whatever reason, I'm really into Polaroids right now.  I just love the imperfect nature of instant film.  You get-what-you-get and you can see the picture within a few seconds.  No Photoshop magic.  No tricks.

The photos typically have flaws from the chemical developer and marks from the rollers, especially if they're not clean.  I love that!  It's freedom from the perfect photograph and that's what's so appealing.

I have been using a Polaroid 420 land camera, but I recently purchased this 600 SE from ebay.  The 600 SE dates back to the early 1970's.  It has interchangeable leaf shutter Mamiya lenses and interchangeable film backs.  The lens options are a 75mm wide angle, a 127mm normal and a 150mm portrait lens.  I have the 127mm.  The camera does not have a built-in light meter nor does it take batteries.  It's a fully manual system with aperture and shutter speed adjustments on the lens.  You have to use a light meter to determine the exposure.  By the way, the free light meter app for iPhone works great!

Gear Review - Tenba Roadie 2 Travel Bag

I haven't done much in the way of gear reviews on here, so I'm kicking it off with my review of the new Tenba Roadie 2 travel bag.

I had a commissioned shoot in Las Vegas recently and really wanted a new travel bag (with wheels) for my photo gear.  I've been using a Lowepro backpack, but after a while it gets very heavy and difficult to lug around.  Especially through airports when you're traveling with multiple bags.

I went down to Glazers Camera  in Seattle looking for a different bag, but ended up buying this one.



:)

Yuri Arcurs on Micro-Stock Photography

I follow Yuri Arcurs on Twitter and saw that he posted this nice video from Euromaxx.  The video explains what micro-stock photography is and how Yuri has become a millionaire from it.
Click here for the Eruomaxx video

:)

New BTS Video

My latest behind-the-scenes video (filmed & edited by Kelly Bailey) featuring Deven and Layla is finished.  Once it was posted, it was featured on the FStoppers blog which gave us a lot of traffic.

Thanks again to all involved!

Music Video for Creem City

Last summer I helped work on a music video for local rock band, Creem City. The video was recently released, so I can finally show it. I was the lighting coordinator and one of three camera operators.
Direction and story by Tuffer Harris.
Additional camera operators were Kelly Bailey & Jeremy Center.

Compact Florescent Bulbs For Your Home

Compact Florescent Light Bulbs are everywhere.  They use less energy and last longer.  However, unlike traditional bulbs, the color spectrum with CFL's is all over the chart, and if you're not aware of the color options when making your purchase, you might wind up very unhappy.

Traditional Tungsten incandescent bulbs have a nice warm yellow glow that we're all very accustomed to.  CFL's also come in this warm color, but you have to check the label to make sure you're getting the right ones, especially since the cost of CFL's are significantly more.

In the image above you'll see two very similar-looking CFL bulb options.  Both are 75 Watt equivalent using between 18 and 20 Watts.  If you look closer, you'll see a number with a K after it.  The K stands for Kelvin which is a standard color temperature scale that measures colors in degrees of "Kelvin".  You're looking for anything close to or under 3000K if you want to match regular Tungsten incandescent bulbs.  Once the number goes up, you start getting into the green and blue colors that don't mix well indoors.

In this case, I went with CFL's rated at 2700K.  

The example below is a Daylight balanced bulb that's rated at 6500K which is very blue.  It looks great outdoors in daylight, but if you mix this blue color with a standard yellow incandescent bulb, you'll get a very ugly and obvious green.  Scroll up and take another look at the first image.  You can see the obvious difference between these two bulbs.

It really doesn't matter what color temperature CFL's you choose for your home, but if you choose one color, make everything that color.   DON'T MIX!

:)

Behind the Scenes Video with Bianca and Lauren

As promised, here's the behind-the-scenes video that Kelly Bailey filmed at my photo shoot a few weeks ago with Bianca and Lauren.
We have at least two more videos in the works, so be sure to stay tuned!
:)

Unsexy House (Real Estate) Porn

"House Porn" is a term that describes the millions of photographs on-line of homes for sale. Unfortunately, not all of them are sexy photos.

Unsexy House Porn Vol. 1
Unsexy House Porn Vol. 2

From the article:
"Agents who can't take good pictures take them anyway, and then don't bother to pull them from the listing even when they see how unsexy-- even flat out disgusting-- the pictures make the house look."
:)

Five Smart Ways to Sell Your Home

I heard about this video through my Twitter feed and thought it might be a good idea to post it here.



:)

Real Estate Video - Brilliant or Offensive?

I saw this link over at Larry's Photography for Real Estate Blog and it certainly gets your attention. But does it get your attention in a negative way? I'll let you decide.
Read an article about it here.


:)

Correcting Perspective in Photoshop

This is a really simple tutorial I made on how to correct perspective problems when shooting architecture.
One way to avoid making this type of correction in Photoshop, is to compose and shoot the image correctly to begin with. However, if that's just not possible, compose the shot a lot wider than normal knowing that you're going to loose some of the photo in the process of correcting it.
Another way to avoid Photoshop is to hire me to shoot your listings. :)

Dark Side of the Lens

This video popped up on Twitter through the Chase Jarvis blog and I thought it was outstanding and very inspiring.
The monologue throughout is beautiful especially towards the end, but the one quote that stuck to me was; "Do something worth remembering".

G-Speed eS Storage - Real Time Photoshop Edits

I've been looking for a large capacity, safe storage system that could handle a significant amount of data and that I could also work from as well.  Because let's face it, what good is data if you can't use it?  Recently I had been using a Synology NAS box (and before that a few D-Link boxes), but it wouldn't let me make a change to a file that was on it without it locking down my whole computer.  So I had to drag projects from storage to a dedicated drive on my PC, make edits, save, then copy back to storage.  What a waste of time.

When I started researching G-Speed data storage, I couldn't find any real-world examples of editing Photoshop files straight from it, so I wanted to make my own video demonstrating a real time edit scenario just in case anyone else was looking for this same kind of information.

G-Speed eS Storage - Real Time Premiere Pro Edits

When I was researching new data storage options, I couldn't find any real-world examples proving video editing straight from the G-Speed was possible. I was looking for a large capacity, safe storage system that could handle a significant amount of data and that I could also work from as well. Because let's face it, what good is data if you can't use it?

I ended up buying two of the 8TB G-Tech G-Speed eS enclosures and configured them together into a single Raid 5 set up. So far, they seem to be working pretty well so I wanted to make a video demonstrating a real time video edit scenario just in case anyone else was looking for this same kind of information.

Tripod Head Comparison

This is just a quick video comparing two different types of tripod heads and why I use one over the other.  Keep in mind that I shoot a lot of architecture where straight lines are critical, so having the most control possible over where the camera is pointing makes life a lot easier.

Sad, but True.

I saw this linked on another web site and thought it was funny.  It's a good spoof, but it's also an unfortunate reality.  When you really think about it, it's pretty silly.

What's in the Bag - Part Deux

I was packing up for a large shoot and wanted to take a few minutes to share what I'm packing. One thing I didn't talk about is my laptop. I'll be shooting tethered to the laptop into Adobe Lightroom so I can see the images more clearly and make small adjustments on the fly.
Video taken on my iPhone and graded (poorly, my bad) with the CinemaFXV app.

Behind the Scenes - 2011 Lexus Commercial

I've been seeing this commercial on TV and came across this 'behind-the-scenes' video of how they did it.  Surprisingly, they didn't lighten the cars in any way.

What's in my Bag - Real Estate Assignments

I made this video a few months ago and thought this was a good place to put it. Especially since I'm trying to add content here. :)

This is essentially what I bring when photographing a home for a real estate listing. The glidetrack is optional depending weather the agent wants a sweet HD video to accompany the photos & marketing package.


What's in the bag. from #95 on Vimeo.

Back Again

After about a year off from having a blog (deleted my old one), I've decided to give it another go.  I've sort of been using Facebook as a blog because it's simple and since I'm not really a writer, I don't feel pressured in writing meaningful content.  I'd like to give this another go and try harder to keep it current.

You can expect to see content here ranging from my own photographic work, random stuff I see on line, videos, iPhone pictures, stuff about my dog, behind the scenes looks from my work as a photographer and just overall off-topic stuff.  If I keep the subject matter here light, I think I'll have more fun with it this time.

- John