Something Wicked This Way Comes.

This is not part of the project that’s starting TOMORROW, but it’s an outtake from one of the images.

Join me and a group of my buddies in looking at our summer project: The Steam Effect

For Your Viewing Pleasure.

This is Todd Raviotta of Natural Science Productions. He’s worn a bunch of different hats in Richmond over the last ten years. He’s been a filmmaker. He’s been a director. He’s been teaching at the Governor’s School and VCU. He’s been the mentor to a number of aspiring filmmakers who call Richmond home. And that’s the thing. When you wear so many hats, it’s easy to forget what you want to do, what you love.

This summer, Todd’s assembled a crew to work on a new film. He’s directing again. This weekend at Gallery5, he and his crew are holding auditions for their newest project, Every Guy Ever. It promises to be a good time, as all of his other films have been to date.

If you’ve got a heart that wants to act, come out to the auditions on Sunday. If not, you’ll just have to wait.

Joe is not Happy with Your iPod App.

These are really just test shots but they’re funny.

He’s rarely mad and always smiles.

More Spy Stuff.

Though we were shooting at a motel, Richard’s car afforded some slightly different scenes. I grabbed these outside as we were beginning the day. I was really happy with the way the reflections came out on the second one.

On A Mission.

I “met” Thadd through ModelMayhem. He’s one of the small group of people on the site who’s not just interested in shooting glossy glam photos all the time. He’s up for a different kind of challenge.

We talked a bit via email and conspired to meet to shoot together. I invited Richard and a buddy of mine, Nia, to come along and the four of us checked into a motel on the southside of Richmond for a few hours. We shot for a little over 4 hours and came away with a lot of cool stuff.

We grabbed lunch at a pizza joint nearby and parted ways by the early afternoon. We’re totally gonna cook up something else to work on together and do it again. We all had a blast.

I’m learning some post process from Richard — little things about cleaning up edges in images and working with skin tones. A recent one is putting these bars on the tops and bottoms of images to make a more cinematic feel. I’m thrilled for the tutelage and pleased with my results so far. Look for a few more images from this series as the week goes by.

What The–?!

A friend of mine on twitter gave me a small heads up about a local company that was looking to have some photography done of their baked goods. The client never surfaced but the idea stuck in my head.

How would I photograph baked goods without going the obvious route? I mean, without using bakery locations or chef’s hats or Jane Austen-esque women at high tea.

I started simply. I figured, what if I just put some cupcakes in some odd places? Nothing seemed to work in my head. Then I got to thinking that a lot of people describe confections as “guilty pleasures” and don’t always wanna admit that they’ve eaten them. I liked the way that was going and thought I’d take it a step further.

Before I could do anything I needed to shoot one to see if the concept held up as well in my camera, so I sent Joe a quick text message to ask him to stand in. I promised he could have the cupcakes after I was done. He was sold despite complaining that he wasn’t up to looking pretty.

This is what we got:

I think it’s pretty clever. The location needs a little bit of playing with and the lighting’s not exactly even, but for a 10 minute setup and 15 minutes of shooting, this is really close to what I was thinking.

I’m wondering if shooting the series and showing it to the client might not have some merit. I mean, they might just love the idea…

Strange Goings On.

I was working with Chris again. He’s so very pleasant and willing. I mean, how many people do you know who’d wade out into the river (the bottom of which neither of us could see) and wait patiently?

I’d tentatively titled this “Regarding the Recent Occurrence at Spaulding Creek,” thinking I’d write a short piece to go with it that was (longer than, but) in the spirit of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Alllsburg. Alas, I never wrote anything. Go figure.

I’ve got a couple of other shots like this planned and Chris has agreed to help me. Moreover, I’ve got some cool new models lined up to work on more images in this kind of spirit.

Keep watching!

Hangin’ With Carlos Part Three: Roped In

The music was really loud, but I got the story anyway.

The model is lady on the left. The guy? The boyfriend? He was there for moral support. He was just hangin’ out. He was visiting from out of town and thought he could sit at the bar, sippin’ on a drink and lookin’ hip. Boy, was he wrong. I wish you could’ve seen his face when I asked him to lemme shoot his picture!

Quit Yer Complainin’.

The series moves on.

The Hazards of Personal Music Systems.

We played around with a recipe for fake blood to come up with this shot. It took a good deal of lighting and the best friend of one of my model buddies, but it came out pretty well. It’s amazing how good a mens’ room in an old classroom building at VCU looks in pictures. I’m pleased with the results.

The idea was that his headphones (and perhaps the music) were so loud that his ears began to bleed. There are several other images, and this is a very rough post-process (In fact, Joe at Brainchild Collective will undoubtedly do a better job on it later), but it’s a kind of work I’m interested in trying more of. I’ve got a couple of other projects like this in the wings for the summer. Keep watching.