Notes from the Studio
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2|072012
The Brokenmusicbox Full Album
The cover for the single, "We Will" was a teaser for the full album—which I'm excited to say is out in it's full glory. The music, design and photography have all come together in harmony to form an exciting album.How was it all done??We met with Tony and Kim from The Brokenmusicbox in September of last year. In the meeting we talked about what the album meant to them and what they were trying to convey with it. During the meeting we came up with some basic ideas and then narrowed it down to one. After the meeting I gave them a final sketch of my idea which they approved before I started photographing.The technical part:
The dirt was pilled up in front of a turquoise background. Once I was happy with the shape of the top dirt I placed the flower. I test photographed about 6 flowers but only one was used for the final image. The dirt was lit from above with a long strip box. This gave the dirt a nice edge light. The lighting also left the front of the dirt dark, making it easier to blend with the "underground" dirt photo. I had one light with a 7" reflector coming from the back to give the photo lens flare. The flower that I picked didn't have any leaves so I had to photograph them from a different flower. Once I was happy with the dirt and the flower I used a water spray bottle to add the rain.
The "underground" portion of the photo was taken separately and upside down. This way I had gravity working in my favor rather then against me. The root for the actual flower in the final image wasn't very photographic so I picked a different plant that had a nice root. I then used scissors to trim the root so it didn't look too busy. Once the bottom image was photographed I just rotated it 180 degrees and blended it with the top photo.It was great working with The Brokenmusicbox and Amy Gregg from A1 Design.Listen to the full Album here http://thebrokenmusicbox.bandcamp.com I love all the songs but my favorite is "California Year." Listen to the album and post which song is your favorite. -
1|132012
Editors' Choice
The latest issue of Macworld Magazine gave me the chance to use my new 100-400mm lens. San Francisco is the perfect city for it! Every neighborhood has a view.
It is crazy how many tourists come and go to famous landmarks. They take their photo and then on to the next spot. I guess I do the same thing when visiting other places. As we waited for the sun to go down, we were asked by at least 7 tourists to take their pictures.
Here are some photos I took from the same spot at full zoom.
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1|112012
The Brokenmusicbox Single
The Brokenmusicbox has a new single out, "We Will" from their upcoming album. You may remember their first album from when I used the song, "Time," for my video, "Macworld Cover Creation."I was very excited they asked me to collaborate on the album art with them. The photography on the single is a teaser of what the photo will be on the full album. I was also lucky enough to work with Amy from A1 Design on the album design. -
12|162011
Macworld January Cover
The iPhone 4s has been unleashed all over Macworld Magazine, inside and out. The cover may look nice and clean but the set to light it was a mess.
If you're traveling for the holidays, load your iPad up with the Zinio version or look for the analog version at your airport news stand. -
12|082011
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
About a year ago (November 2010) Dwell magazine hired me to photograph a bunch of cool chairs. Of course one of the chairs was a requisite Eames chair. Dwell had asked if a film crew could come by my studio as well since the editor of the magazine (Sam) was being interviewed in a film about Charles and Ray Eames. They thought they might get some footage during the day. See photos from that day hereFast forward to now, and the movie, Eames: The Architect and the Painter, is now out in theaters. I went to see it since I thought it would be interesting and I wanted to see how the film turned out. I wasn't expecting to see any footage from my studio but was super-excited to see that towards the end of the movie my studio (and I) were shown. I even had a big line—I don't want to spoil it—but it was something like, "I think we should move the chair."I encourage you to see my film debut this really fascinating portrait of an incredibly innovative, influential and talented couple. http://firstrunfeatures.com/eames
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12|062011
Red, Red, Red
San Francisco Magazine approached us with a fun idea for "The Trend" section of the December 2011 issue. They wanted to incorporate the color red in an over-the-top fashion. They provided a selection of red products to pick from to form the groups. Rather than washing the photos with a red overlay in Photoshop, we went old school and used red gels. Each grouping was giving it's own surface and gel treatment. This allowed the photos to have their own identity while relating to each other as a series.
Read it for free at http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php or download their free app for your iPad and iPhone at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
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11|292011
city lights
It's always fun when we collaborate with clients and come up with bright ideas. This time we captured the luminance of lamps against a city background for the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Dwell Magazine. It took a few extension cords to get all the lamps lit. We also got to roam the streets of downtown San Francisco pretending we were tourists and photographed various city backgrounds.
You can find it on newsstands or zinio.com
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11|212011
Made in the USA
I've always been interested in knowing where things are made—it is a fascination of mine. I'm especially passionate about things being made in the USA, since it seems so much manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries. Given the option, I would always choose items made in the US—even my clothes. I want to support the companies that make the effort to keep the manufacturing in the USA. Often I would be wearing at least one American made item, but along the way I became compelled to try and have a fully American made outfit (including socks, shoes and underwear!)
I continued to research and source American made clothing, accessories, shoes, etc. I found some really great options…some are even being made right here in San Francsico, which is very cool. I feel so passionate about supporting these efforts that I'm committing to buying only American made clothing going forward. I've been so energized and inspired by the process that I decided to start a new personal photo series of made-in-the-USA clothing and accessories. This photo showcases my first completely American made outfit. (Sources below)
Shirt: Hlaska http://www.hlaska.com/ They just stopped apparel but still have bags made in the USAT-shirt and underwear: American Apparel http://www.americanapparel.com/Belt: Sole Survivor http://www.leatherbelts.com/Jeans: Lucky Brand http://www.luckybrand.com/ only some jeans are American made.Socks: Wigwam http://www.wigwam.com/Shoes: Red Wing http://www.redwingheritage.com/ -
11|092011
Aperture Smart Albums
People often ask about our Aperture workflow so I've decided to once in a while share little ways in which we work. You can see all my past Aperture posts by clicking on the Aperture category on the right side of the website.For this post, I wanted talk about smart albums. We use smart albums to pull together images that are spread across different projects. For example, if I wanted to find all the Macworld covers I photographed during 2010 and 2011, I can create a smart album that searches only the years 2010 and 2011 for photos with the keywords "macworld" and "tearsheet-cover" since these assets where originally keyworded during import. We always tag each photo that is imported into the library. This makes it easy to search and separate certain assets. -
10|312011
Clutch Bags With SF Magazine
Now that the we finally got the blog up and running with Posterous, we are playing catch up with a few new blog posts of recent work. The September 2011 issue of San Francisco Magazine includes three of my photographs in it's "The Trend" section. This time, we got to work with fancy, designer clutch bags and incorporate fruits and vegetables. Shannon Amos (stylist) came through in the clutch to provide good quality and photogenic produce.
Read it for free at http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php or download their free app for your iPad and iPhone at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8
