2019 Ford Ranger; Colorado

Mickey Wilson

Golden, CO

Silver Lariat Super Cab 2X4

When I found out that part of the Ford Ranger shoot was going to be in Colorado, I was pumped! That’s my home turf, and there’s no place I feel better shooting than somewhere in Colorado. Well I was in for quite a surprise. First up was Mickey Wilson aka Tricky Mickey. This dude is quite the showman and he did not disappoint. To say his stunts were epic is an understatement, they were literally breath taking. It was so stressful hanging out watching Mickey slackline across a canyon right there in Golden, Colorado. He did a slackfline to base jump landing right next to the Ranger truck. It was not all that high so he had to pull the parachute just right. Also from my vantage point he would just disappear into the canyon and your breath was gone until you heard that sound of a chute opening and then waiting a few seconds till the people on ground level started cheering. What a show from Mickey!

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Check out Mickey’s Instagram

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Tyler Brandt

Conifer, CO

Lightning XL Super Crew STX 4X4

Tyler Brandt is one cool dude. It was a real pleasure getting to hang with Tyler for a few days on the river. I’m not exactly sure where in Colorado we were, however I know we were close to FairPlay. Either way it was typical conditions, light snow in the foothills, winter dry, but that water was freezing. Like, really really cold. No biggie for Tyler tho. It was funny watching him float through chunks of snow and ice. Crazy few days : )

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Check out Tyler’s Instagram

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Cynthia Johnson

Loveland, CO

Black XLT Super Crew Sport FX4

Cynthia Johnson gave quite the tour of Loveland, Colorado. We all met up and crushed a shoot very early season. It made it a bit gnarly, with the base being so low, but nobody got hurt and we got some epic shots. It was totally awesome, very snowy and a couple of rad days. I should post some of the BTS video of everyone getting down in the parking lot at Loveland. lol.

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2019 Ford Ranger; Los Angeles

Alejandra Brito

Pismo Beach, CA

Black XLT Super Crew Sport FX4

Alejandra Brito is a pro Stand Up Paddle Boarder from Mexico. We got to hang in Pismo Beach, California for a few days with the crew and boy was it an epic few days. Great lighting, weather and all those sort of elements that we’d been fighting for weeks. From Sunrise till Sundown we were working with Alejandra and there are plenty of images to show for it. : )

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Check Out Alejandra’s Instagram

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Trevor Jacob

Solvang, CA

Silver Lariat Super Cab 2X4

Trevor Jacob knew exactly how to take away the breath of an entire crew. This stunt was kinda out of this world and one I won’t ever forget. Trevor leaped out of a hot air balloon over Solvang, California. It was so intense its hard to describe, and it might be in part that I was shooting from a helicopter. It was my first time in one and boy was it scary. Intense day that was……but great images.

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Check out Trevor’s Instagram

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MIGUEL CASAR & MARIANA MENDOZA

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Lightning XL Super Crew STX 4X4

So shooting at Joshua Tree National Park for the Ford Ranger project was totally awesome. It was my first time going to the park, which has been on my go to list for way too long, and the scenery did not disappoint. Both Miguel and Mariana had a very peaceful and positive vibe that really carried into the shoot. It was intense to watch them climb, and they really put on a great show.

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Check out Miguel’s Instagram

Check out Mariana’s Instagram

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2019 Ford Ranger; Seattle

Robert Wall

Glenwood, WA

Saber Lariat Super Crew Sport 4X4

Robert Wall blew our minds, and put on a show that will never be forgotten. He used a Stand Up Paddle Board to navigate the river upstream and then finished up by jumping off the cliff while doing a double. It was sick and Im glad he was safe and all went to plan I guess. What an epic morning that was. Holy Cow.

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Check Out Robert’s Intsgram

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Eric Willett

Leavenworth, WA

Pepper Lariat Super Crew Sport FX4

I never knew about No-Boarding until this shoot. It was pretty rad, but seemed tough to learn. Eric more or less just stands on a board and rips it down mountains. No bindings, no problem for Eric. It was super snowy up in Leavenworth but it made for some epic shots and scenery.

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Check out Eric’s Instagram

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Geoff Guleveich

Leavenworth, WA

Lightning Lariat Super Crew Chrome FX4

Geoff is a mountain biker who knows how to rip. The snow base on the mountain had to have been only like 15 inches so it was soft, but if you fell it was a pretty hard fall. Didn’t matter to him, he was tearing it down snowy mountains. It looked like so much fun! I wish I had an extra day on the shoot to test out those fat bikes.

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Check out Geoff’s Instagram

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GoPro Mountain Games

Covered my first GoPro Mountain Games and it was really rad. Lots of events, people and tons of fun. I can’t wait to go back next year, to shoot, and to bring my kids to play. It was a really awesome event.

Here is a good group photo of the Outside TV crew. I know it’s missing a few folks, but we did get almost everyone. Love these people, and can’t wait for next years GoPro Mountain Games

VIDEO: Red Bull Signature Series

Snow machines jumping through the air, skateboarders on ice – the list goes on when shooting the Red Bull Signature Series promo for NBC in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Working alongside the great director/DP, Scott Duncan and the team at Otherfilms, I spearheaded the winter still images and short time-lapses video for the promo.

The conditions at the mountain were rough – but funny enough – the weather helped exceptionally for images I had envisioned shooting. I wanted to photograph the act of water freezing and expanding into snow, similar to the dilation of an eye. It wasn’t easy, in fact – boy was it hard.

I can’t really explain how it all happened but I finally got the ice footage and the time-lapse videos recorded for the final Red Bull Signature Series promo – featured on NBC!

VIDEO: Vans Time-Lapse – Born to Roll

Born to Roll

I’m no stranger to long shoots. I dream big, and it can take many hours to turn those dreams into reality. For this shoot, I wanted to show Vans BMX shoes being constructed on an assembly line that reflects the shoe’s life — on a bike or on a board, these shoes are born to roll!

Bruce Wheeler, Jr. flew in from Boston, and Jeff Farsai came in from Cali to help out on this shoot. They’re extremely talented individuals, and as a team we can really produce some incredible results. After two back-to-back eighteen hour days, and a total of 36 hours of shooting, these dudes really earned their stripes on this project!

The Vision

As you might imagine, these videos make for some mean GIF files! Click through to check out some of these looping animations. They’re wicked, clean and showcase the components of the shoes perfectly.

Now that I have a few reverse time-lapse projects under my belt, my mind just keeps coming up with new ways to use the technique. For this project, we decided to ditch the paint cans and try something different. After brainstorming some ideas, my team and I decided we wanted to try a reverse time-lapse with a pair of shoes being laced up. I knew we had to push the concept to the next level, so we stayed at the table and came up with the concept of putting the shoes on an assembly line, being assembled like in a factory.

Sometimes the simplest ideas can cause the biggest headaches! We had to take a shoe apart, piece by piece, while rolling the assembly line forward and creating the effect of an endless army of shoes. It was important for us to show each component of the shoe, highlighting the quality construction of the product. It was only fitting that we should use skateboards as the engine of the assembly line, reflecting the brand’s identity as part of skate culture.

With the concept clarified, it was off to the drawing board, the studio and the home improvement store to begin preproduction and figure out how we were going to make this happen.

Devil in the Details

Game Plan

When I closed my eyes, I could see the whole video: the skateboards carrying the shoes down an assembly line as the shoes are constructed. As I pre-visualized the shoot, I determined that we needed at least four pairs of shoes on four skateboards, to get three of them to be in the frame at all times.

I knew we also needed to tear apart two pairs of shoes, to complete the looping effect.

The reality was that this video was way more complicated to produce than any of earlier my paint videos. There were more moving parts, space in the studio was tighter and the logistics were particularly complex. Since we were showing the shoes moving forward on the assembly line as they’re being constructed, we had to shoot in reverse, carefully tearing the shoe apart as it is rolling backwards.

I picked up my supplies, including four mini skateboards from Wal-Mart, and brought them into my studio to begin laying out my set. My studio isn’t very large, since I do a lot of location shooting, so my set for this shoot ended up just barely fitting, with ¼ inch to spare!

A few weeks before the shoot, I had planned everything out in my mind: every who, what, when and where of the shoot. Well, almost everything. There were still a few issues to be worked out before we began shooting. The skateboard trucks (the metal pieces that attach the wheels to the board) were a shiny silver, and were a little distracting on-camera. In addition, there was some variation on the colors of the wheels and the grip on the boards. Also, I needed a way to lock down the boards during shooting, so that they wouldn’t move even a little bit as I deconstructed the shoe on set.

My final problem was diffusion. Coming from a background in still photography, I’ve always used a Profoto strobe lighting kit. Strobes wouldn’t be practical on this shoot, as they would need to be popped thousands of times in a row. My solution was Husky lights from Home Depot! I have diffusion for my Profoto lights, but not my new Huskies, so I started walking around my house looking for something I could use for diffusion. To my wife’s displeasure, I ended up using a brand new white pillow case, stapled to a cheap picture frame I found in the basement. Despite the fire danger, it got the job done.

For the skaters: I know that these are BMX shoes, not skate shoes. I selected this shoe because the coloring and pattern would look better on-camera than an all-black shoe. Also, I know that many skaters and BMX bikers use their shoes for other sports all the time. Personally, I’ve found that my beat up old indoor soccer cleats make great skate shoes.

The Shoot

This was by far the longest shoot of my career thus far, but I did have a great team to keep me company and help make the shoot happen. In total, it took 36 hours of slowly pulling stitches and moving very carefully so not to ruin the shoot. Back at Brooks Institute, we had long projects that would last days, but nothing like this!

Compared to my paint videos, this shoot was more of a marathon than a sprint. With paint, the second you start pouring there is no stopping and no slowing down. With this shoot, we were able to take breaks, and even sleep in the middle of the shoot. Because this particular time-lapse didn’t have self-moving parts, we were able to take our time moving each component by tiny increments. We were able to remove a stitch every couple shots, taking one shot to loosen the thread and a second shot to remove it.

Freeze Frame

Wanna see details from the Vans video? Check out these 5.6k frame grabs! On this shoot we used: Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, 5D Mark II, EOS 60D and EOS 7D, with some supporting camera angles with the EOS-1D Mark II, EOS 20D and Canon Rebel XTi. With seven different cameras and 21 tripod legs to bump into, there was quite a bit of chaos going on. I am very proud that my crew was able to shoot for 36 hours with zero mistakes.

A New Look to GIFs

As you might imagine, these videos make for some mean GIF files! Click through to check out some of these looping animations. They’re wicked, clean and showcase the components of the shoes perfectly.

The small size of these GIF files makes them perfect for product pages, where loading time matters you want to show the inside of the product and the quality of its construction. Its a unique way of displaying a product, while leaving the viewer with the perfect final product shot. Each frame of this video can be used as a still frame.

Take a close up look of these looping GIF files, showing the close up details of the shoe, and the detailed stitching Vans puts into their shoes. Pretty sick right

The Gear

Hoodman

For these time-lapse projects, you have to be able to depend on the memory card in your camera. When you’re shooting 30,000 images over 36 hours, you need cards with huge storage capacity so you don’t have to touch the camera as often and risk bumping it out of position as you change out cards. You also need cards that aren’t going to fail in the middle of an insanely detailed and time-consuming shoot. If one of the cards fails, you’ll be missing a section of the sequential shots and must start over from the beginning.

My go-to supplier of high-quality memory cards is Hoodman. Coming from a background in film photography, I was reluctant to trust the new digital cards at first. Hoodman earned my trust the hard way. I’ve put them through every test I could imagine, and they’re taken quite a beating. Like the little engine that could, they just keep on chugging. I’ve never had a Hoodman card fail on me, and my confidence in their products has allowed me to use higher and higher capacity cards. I started out using their 4 gig cards, so that if something happened to the card, I wouldn’t lose the whole shoot.

When I called Hoodman up to tell them about my newest project, they sent me out a handful of their 32 gig cards. Quite an increase in capacity over my old 4 gig cards! As always, Hoodman cards kept my images safe during the shoot and in transit back to my computer, and they’re still kicking today!

Lowepro

There is nothing worse than working in the studio and realizing mid-shoot that you can’t find a piece of equipment. I like to have everything I need in front of me so I can think about the tasks at hand, and not running around trying to locate a fresh battery. This is especially crucial when you’re working on a lengthy time-lapse project. You can’t risk moving around the set too much, as any movement might bump the cameras or the set out of position.

Lowepro camera bags keep all my equipment organized and ready, no matter what I’m shooting. For this project, I was set up in my studio with eight cameras, 10 lenses and a massive amount of remotes, cables and miscellaneous bits and pieces. I was able to pack it all into my Lowepro Photo Trekker AW II bags, and transport all my gear to the studio. During the shoot, I use these huge bags to keep track of every piece of equipment, tucked away in its proper place.

PocketWizard

PocketWizard just saved me hundreds of dollars. With eight cameras set up around the studio (including one mounted to the ceiling!) it was impractical to purchase and synchronize intervelometers for each camera to ensure that they were all firing simultaneously during the time-lapse. Instead, I designated one easy-to-reach camera as the main camera and attached a PocketWizard transmitter to it. The other seven cameras were controlled by PocketWizard receivers and a shutter trigger, so that when the main camera fired all the other cameras would fire at once. This set up was by far a more cost-effective, efficient and reliable solution!

If I needed to pause shooting I only needed to stop the main camera, which instantly paused the other seven cameras. If I’d been using eight individual intervelometers, we would have had to run around the studio to pause all eight cameras! I could not imagine having to pause the camera hanging over the set every time we needed to take a break or fix something. If we were to bump the tabletop set, especially, all the camera angles would be affected and we’d have to start the shoot over from the beginning. The key to the success of these crazy shoots is to minimize the opportunity for disastrous accidents. PocketWizard saved the shoot!

Canon Cameras

My one and only Camera Company! I used several different Canon Cameras on this shoot, from the top of the line models to more common cameras: EOS-1 Ds Mark III, 5D Mark II, 7D, 60D, 1 D Mark II, 20D, Rebel XTi. I also used a number of Canon lenses, including EF 70-200mm 1:2.8 L IS USM and EF 17-40mm 1:4 L USM lenses. All of these lenses and cameras have been thoroughly tested, and I know that they produce quality and consistent imagery.

VIDEO: Nike Total 90 Tracer Football Reveal

Game Changer

The pressure was high to get everything perfect in a single take because once you start pouring paint, there’s no stopping!

This was definitely a team effort, and it was a great experience working with this group of talented individuals.  I am very proud of all the hard work that went into making this series of creative and unique time-lapse videos. The solutions to each challenge are creative and interesting.

These time-lapse videos of the Nike Total 90 Tracer Football were shot on top-of-the-line digital cameras with quality that is nearly impossible to beat.  At 5.6K, the imagery is sharp, clean and very crisp.  Each individual frame is captured at up to 21 megapixels in size, allowing for plenty of editing headroom.  Additionally, still frames from the video can be used as part of a coordinated print campaign. The stills from this shoot are stunning, high-quality images in their own right.

The Vision

This video is my second in a series of projects exploring the dramatic effects of poured paint and time-lapse technology. As in my first video, I was inspired to apply an artist’s technique — paint poured over objects — to my commercial work.

For this video, I chose to pour paint over a soccer ball and film it using multiple cameras and time-lapse technology to gradually reveal the ball through the paint — with a surprise at the end.  I wanted to challenge myself and push the techniques I had already begun to explore in my last project. Before we poured the first cup of paint, I was visualizing how the paint would play off the ball, defining its shape and surface.

One of my most important decisions was which soccer ball to use. I decided to use the Nike Total90 Tracer Football, the official 2010-2011 association ball for not only the English Premier League, but for leagues all over the world.  I began to think: How could I show the unity embodied by this one ball, and that it did not matter what country you’re from, what your religious beliefs are, or how you live — people from around the world all use this ball to play the most popular game on earth.  I decided to turn the ball into a map of the world itself! During the time-lapse, I wanted the paint to gradually reveal the ball, spinning around to show the entire world.

With the help of several creative and very talented friends and colleagues, we went to town on this project.  At our pre-production meetings, we put every idea on the table.  These types of projects are breaking new ground — there’s no textbook for what we’re trying to create. We’re battling dozens of interdependent elements including paint flow, equipment and timing.  Collaboration was the key to this project’s success.

Crazy-Making Details

Game Plan

As in my previous video, it took precision planning and execution to bring this concept to life. I was able to re-use my plans and materials for the Nike logo set, and from my last shoot I learned a few tricks to help the shoot come together more smoothly. For instance, I learned that I needed to inset the logo deeper into the tabletop, so that the paint would fill the logo and spread more evenly across the table.

Another big change was turning the set black — black background, black tabletop.  At first, I had the idea of shooting it with both a white set and a black set, which would switch back and forth in the final edit. In the end, however, I choose to stick with just the black set, which felt more dramatic and different.

The paints needed to be thoroughly tested before we began shooting, so we could anticipate where and how quickly the paint would spread. I called up an old friend and painter, who knows paint better than any one I know. Thank goodness he was up for a challenge! Some of the paints needed thickening and had to be put out the night before, while others were too thick and needed paint thinner added to become runnier.  After plenty of experimenting, we found the perfect consistency for this time-lapse.

The Shoot

Many details of this shoot were similar to my previous time-lapse, but there were some very challenging elements my team and I had to deal with. I had to juggle the mechanics of spinning a ball on cue, controlling paint speed, lighting and synchronizing six cameras. My hands were definitely full on this one!

I was eventually able to solve the problem of the ball itself, which had to begin spinning with paint already present on the table, which I didn’t want to smear or splatter. The ball had to be secured to a stand with an internal mechanical component that controlled the spinning. After a few trips to the hardware store, I was able to assemble the necessary components, which included some plumbing piping.  I was able to spin the ball from under the table, using a big bar to control the spinning, and make many small movements. This allowed me to take a ton of shots so the spin would look really fluid.

Post-Game

Dealing with the Deluge: 10 Unique Time-Lapses

I learned from my first time-lapse that I was going to produce tens of thousands of images in a very short period of time. I’d already developed a system to help me organize all those images, which made post-production that much more efficient. For this particular shoot, I ended up with a total of 10 unique time-lapses, each containing hundreds of images. One of the larger time-lapses contained 3,500 images — and that’s after removing the unusable frames in which someone’s hand appeared on-camera to make a mid-shot set adjustment.

My Secret Weapon: 5616 X 3744

Shooting this time-lapse contained a secret weapon. For the main angle, I used a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with a Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85mm ZE prime lens. I shot ISO800, at an f/4 aperture with 1/6 second shutter speed.  The image quality of this setup is incomparable, capable of producing each frame at a 21 megapixel RAW image.  At more than 5600 pixels across and 300ppi, we effectively created a 5.6K video…way cool!!!

Automated Bliss: 30,000 Images

On an average shoot, I might generate 1,000 images. With these time-lapses, however, I have to organize and process over 30,000! After my first time-lapse, I was completely blown away by the sheer number of files we produced. It’s all worth it, though, as capturing so many images allows me to very precisely control the speed of the motion in the final edits. As in the first time-lapse, my toughest step in post-production was the Photoshop scripting. Normally this step can be quite easy and only take a few minutes to run, but when you’re handling so many images it makes things tricky. My process involves first going through a single time-lapse and grabbing about 10 random frames, including one from the beginning and one from the end.  Then I choose the image with no paint and begin work on that.  I get my basics down first: color correction, white points and black points. Then I add a sharpen layer, with some contrast and saturation. When I’m done, I export those 10 images and check each one and compare it to 10 images from each of the other time-lapses, before running an action on the rest of the time-lapse frames. I believe this process has helped keep the same look and feel to each time-lapse, so that they can be edited seamlessly together in the final video.

The Perfect Frame

Once the first drop of paint hits the set, there’s no turning back. You can’t hit “pause” on flowing paint, so we had to be sure every detail was perfectly planned before we began shooting. Orchestrating six cameras (with 18 tripod legs to bump!) while capturing flowing paint was a huge challenge, but the final result is so worth the effort.

The Gear

Hoodman

Hoodman cards have changed the way I think about shooting. In the past, I never would have trusted a 16GB CF card on a shoot – What if something went wrong? What if the data was corrupted when I went to download the images? What if I dropped a card into the river while shooting? Coming from a background shooting on traditional film, I would never think of shooting a single roll of film containing hundreds of images! If there was a processing error, you’d lose the whole shoot. Instead, we shot on rolls of just 36 images. When I began to shoot digital, this way of thinking led me to purchase small 2GB cards so that if one card were corrupted, I wouldn’t lose everything. However, Hoodman’s high-quality, performance-tested cards mean there’s no reason to ever fear a card read error (yes, even if I drop it in the river). Hoodman is now my sole provider of CF cards, and I’m honestly more likely to misplace a card than to have one fail.

I trust Hoodman on every shoot and I trust them with my reputation. While shooting my reverse time-lapse films recently, I relied heavily on Hoodman’s RAW STEEL 16GB SHDC CLASS 10 cards. When you’re shooting 30,000 images in five hours, with five different cameras meticulously positioned all around the room (including one on the ceiling!), you don’t want to have to risk bumping a tripod or set element to change cards every other minute. By using these massive CF cards, I only had to change cards once during the entire shoot! There are so many variables that must be managed on a high production value shoot, and I have to be able to count on my cards. Shooting on Hoodman cards lets me focus on everything else that can go wrong a shoot – except losing my data.

Read more about how Hoodman cards have changed the way I shoot here.

Lowepro

Sometimes you find a product that is so perfect that it’s impossible to replace because it just won’t die. My Lowepro camera bag is like my favorite winter coat. I grew up in Chicago and later Denver, where winter coats are worn practically half the year. My mom was constantly buying me cheap new winter coats, because every year I’d destroy the old one (and what’s the point of buying an expensive one if I’m just going to destroy it?). Between walking to the bus and playing football with my brothers and friends, it took quite a beating. Towards the end of middle school, I finally convinced my mom to buy me a really nice winter coat from North Face, which I’ve worn for the last fifteen years. It wouldn’t even tear when I skied through tree branches slapping at full speed as I tore down a mountain slope. As trusty a companion as that coat has been to me, I resent it for being so indestructible. Every wintertime photo of me from age 14 to now, I’m wearing that coat. Last year, I finally let myself buy a new coat – not because the old one was damaged or worn out, but because I just wanted something different! It’s the same story with my Lowepro camera bag.

About six years ago, I bought the Lowepro Photo Trekker AW II, and it’s so good that I almost hate it. Whenever Lowepro came out with a new model or added new features to their line-up, I dreamt about the day when my old one would finally break down and I could buy a shiny new model. Like my old winter coat, my Lowepro bag just won’t quit. Even though it’s still in perfect condition, I recently bought a few new Lowepro bags, just to try something new. I’ve never had a single issue with my old bag, and I’ve traveled the world with it. It’s been to Africa and thrown into sketchy planes with fuel leaking out of the wing next to the bag. It’s been crammed into tiny overhead bins on tiny commuter planes. It’s fallen off a snow machine at full speed, right into fresh powder. It’s been by my side in the deserts of Namibia , shooting star trails in the freezing winter and in the sand dunes of Colorado and California. It’s been co-opted as a seat, a pillow and an umbrella. My Lowepro bag has taken everything I could throw at it and more, protecting my expensive photography gear and keeping me shooting.

Take a peek inside my bags to see how I packed for my latest shoot:

LowePro Photo Trekker AW II -Bag   #1

• 5-Cameras; 1-Ds Mark III, 1-D Mark II; 5D Mark II;  20D; Rebel XTi (not shown in photo)

• 6- Lenes;  70-200mm, 100mm Macro, 17-40mm,  15mm FishEye ,  Zeiss Planar 85mm, Ziess Planar 50mm

• 1- Case for Hoodman RAW compact flash cards

• 1-  Hoodloupe 3.0

The equipment list for bag #2

1-  Hoodman Cinema Kit Pro

• 4-  Pocketwizards Plus (1 transmitter & 3 receivers)

• 16-   Batteries  (extra batteries for all cameras; cable releases; pocketwizards)

• 13- filters (ranging from ND, split ND, polorizers, and more)

• 1-  80-200mm lens

• 4- Cable releases (2 timers, 2 regular)

• 1-   Sekonic light meter

• 1- set of extension tubes (for extreme close ups)

PocketWizard

We set up a total of 5 cameras, all shooting at the same time. I have only 2 intervolmanters (they are a bit pricy), but I make up for it with PocketWizards. During the shoot, I had my main time lapse camera running on a timer remote programmed to shoot an image every 3 seconds, with a PocketWizard transmitter on that camera. The other cameras all have a PocketWizard receiver on it, with a cable to the cable release. Once the main camera takes a picture, all the rest of the cameras fire as well. This PocketWizard setup saved me money and provided a very dependable way to remotely fire cameras. During this important shoot, with so much time put into set up, I had to be sure that all cameras were in sync. I trusted PocketWizards to come through, and I always do.

Creative Collaboration

Brian Wall Fine Art

I asked Brian for the impossible and he delivered! A local painter with a seemingly endless supply of talent and creative solutions, he was able to achieve a feat that other artists wouldn’t even attempt. He came in during our time-lapse shoot to slowly paint a globe on the wet and endlessly-rotating ball, working methodically from the top down, moving out of the way every few seconds so we could capture another frame for the time-lapse, all while maintaining our pristine set. If he’d bumped the ball, spilled some paint or even dropped a brush, we would have to start over from the beginning. Talk about pressure!

Brian has become my go-to guy when I need an artistic miracle, and he never disappoints. I love collaborating with him because he goes with the flow and is always up for whatever crazy idea I throw his way. In addition to paint, he works with plexi, plasters and a myriad of other mediums. He’s a great addition to any shoot, and he really stepped up to the plate on this high-pressure project. I’m so glad he was able to work with us and add his unique flavor to the project.

Check out Brian’s website where you can purchase his amazing artwork.

Shawn White wins Gold at Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado featured in Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated – Leading Off-

Night Flight-

Shawn White won the gold metal in Superpipe at X Games 2012 in Aspen, Colorado on Sunday with a perfect score of 100 in the means final.  It was the 5th straight that White had won the X Games Superpipe competition.

Running at Sand Dunes National Park

No crew, no lights – just one model, running at Sand Dunes National Park, some camera gear and myself. It was possibly the most fun I have had on a shoot in years.

We shot at the Great Sand Dunes National Park for no more than 24-hours. The model and I started the shoot at around 6:30am, with a break for lunch and a short nap, and finished at sundown. Shortly after we heading back to Denver. When I say this was a fast shoot I mean it – in and out. I was quick but efficiently captured thousands of running photos in the mean time.

The things I love best about these one-on-one shoots are you get a chance to know your talent. My model is such a dynamic athlete and it was a blast exchanging battle wound stories. And we each had each other’s undivided attention, which gave me time to focus on nailing the shot.

As I was sitting there with my model waiting for the light to be in the right spot, I could not help but to think, this is a wonderful day! Rather than dealing with getting a crew, chatting up a client, or directing a whole team, I was watching the sunrise over the Colorado Mountains creating splashes of light on the dunes. It’s moments like these that remind me of how I love photography.

FYI: These are just a few of my action shots for the day. I will do another post following this, same model different sport – stay tuned!

VIDEO: Commercial Underwater Spot- Part 1

These days commercials are built to WOW you. They are meant to BLOW you away.  To get that great spot, a huge amount of time is spent communicating and collaborating between the creative and production team to be able to turn that concept into STUNNING motion visuals.

This time around, I worked as the director of photography on a three-part commercial series for CrossPoint, we boiled up some epic imagery ideas in preproduction and how we can make those idea come to life.

For part one of the series, we submerged the camera underwater. We wanted to convey the look of a person, “drowning,” in the legal system. This was a feeling we could all relate too — the feeling that you have no control or can’t seem to see an end to all the frustration. We wanted the person to look like they weren’t actually “drowning,” on camera but rather struggling and reacting frantically in the water. Seems simple right?

Shooting underwater is a delicate situation. Many precautionary details need to be taken care of or allcould go wrong. Although I am experienced in photographing underwater, I always face an extra level of nervousness for the equipment. Details such as pressure control, level of visibility, and optimizing lighting are just a few factors we had to address in the preproduction of the underwater spot.

After scouting a couple locations we ended up settling on the Scuba diving facility, A-1 Scuba. The space was going to be easily controlled without any unnecessary distractions to the shooting space. The team at Crosspoint and I even talked with a couple divers at A-1 to ensure what we had envisioned could work at this pool. Location, check!

Next up was the lighting.  To create optimal lighting at A-1 we had to black out the entire bottom and two sides of the pool to reduce reflections. After 20 by 25 feet of blacking out in the pool, we had to fix the bright overhead lighting as well. Following the trend, we hung a black cloth over the entire ceiling of the facility. The key grip on set, then hung 10K light 20ft above the surface of the pool. “And that’ll do the trick,” he said.

Now let’s grab the camera! I knew from the get-go that the equipment was going to be plentiful and complex. I was first introduced to the complexity of underwater equipment with surf photography, but this was going to be a new ball game.

There are many components to underwater photography, especially at such a large production. For our camera we decided on a Sony FS700, which would also work for the other two spots. I found full functioning housing for this Sony camera, as well as back up, so all was set! One hint though, make sure to buy housing unsealed because when ours arrived from Florida it popped open! The pressure change caused a loud surprise for the crew! After finding all the equipment, we were ready with a total of 4 cameras, housings, and a few domes we were ready to shoot.

Lights, Camera, Action! Once we arrived on set, the crew started right away putting up the black walls, lighting and safety features. My trusted team, Buddy and Adam geared up the underwater housings, cameras — and all that jazz. Once the subjects were ready in the water, I suited up in my scuba gear, grabbed the housing and jumped in. For a couple hours at a time I was underwater shooting. I used tricks such as a barrel roll with the Underwater Sony FS700, which made the subjects look like they were caught in a washing machine. It was super sick! We really nailed the concept of the subject struggling underwater. The key was to persistently get a few shots in a row underwater to limit the amount of surface time. I made sure to use hand signals and body language to talk with the guys up above. Good communication above water translated into great footage below. The day was a success!