A Birthday Celebration

There are a couple of birthdays to acknowledge today. First, today is my younger brother Peter's birthday. He is 42 today. So Happy Birthday Pete!

The second birthday is for my blog. One year old today. The Seinfeld of blogs, the blog about nothing, makes it to one year. How did I find so much uninteresting stuff to write about? It takes real talent. So for the ten of you out there that reads this thing, have a beer on me.

Marliese in Santa Fe

I'm planning on writing a more complete post on my trip to Santa Fe later in the week, but for the moment, I thought I would post one of the pictures from the weekend. This is Marliese who is a relatively new model, only 9 months in the business, and a mere 19 years old. As my dad use to say, "I think I have ties older than that." (Do people still wear ties?) Anyway, not only is she a natural beauty, but smart and creative to boot. I put one of the other shots from this set up on my Flickr page, so as not to bore people over there with redundant shots I thought I would post this one here. More on this trip later this week.

Friend of the bride and the groom

I had the chance to take pictures of my friends Joe and Alaina a week or so ago. They will be getting married later this month and I thought it would be fun to capture some engagement photos before the big day. I was really happy that they agreed to allow me to take some images of them. The shots that we took were against a simple white seamless backdrop (next time I will be more organized and we will do an outdoor shoot). Joe and Alaina were great models and they had a lot of great ideas about poses and composition. Perhaps because the love between them is so real the photos have a authenticity about them that was unique for me to capture. All in all a fun shoot.

The Mojo Farmers

One of my friends at work is managing a local band on the side. They have a new CD coming out in a few weeks and so I asked her if I could photograph them and would be happy to let them use the photos on promotional material or their website. The band is called the Mojo Farmers and they have a really good sound. I got a chance to shoot with them last Sunday.

One of the things that I am learning about photography is that it is not just the technical aspects (lighting, exposure, post-processing)that you need to learn but also the ability to bring creative ideas to your subjects so that there is a collaborative effort in producing the final image. So as I started out to photograph the band I was thinking more about an edger, ultra-modern look like Dave Hill or Joey Lawerence. I wasn't able to take the time to really learn what type of image or feel these guys were going for. They are more of a laid back group, in the same genre as the Grateful Dead. As you can see by the near by photos I'm pretty sure I did not get the image that they were looking for. I pushed the limits even further with the individual head shots that I took. I was going to line all five of the shots up side by side with all five band members. I took these extreme close ups and then post processed them with an edger effect. The feedback that I got back from my friend from the band was not the greatest: they thought I made them look like meth addicts. Nearby is Darin's before and after picture, and no he doesn't work in a coal mine and is not a meth addict. Sorry Darin!

Overall these guys were really good people, friendly and great to work with. I just wish I could have connected better with them and gotten them photos that they would have liked, well, there is always next time.

My friend the band manager gave me permission to blog about the shoot and post the photos; as she said: "any publicity is good publicity'.

Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker

Matt Foley was introduced when this skit was broadcast on Saturday Night Live on May 8, 1993.

A couple of things I find interesting about this video. First, Matt Foley is the antithesis of a motivational speaker, out of shape, horrible dresser, and he ridicules people instead of encouraging them. But in an ironic way he is able to motivate his audience in the right direction precisely because they no longer want him around.

Another thing about this video is a the great physical comedy, and I'm not talking about the "Jackass" movie type physical comedy. This performance is staged and written; and then has to be executed by a great performer.

And finally, sometimes the best way to honor someone is to take a moment to remember them. Chris Farley was a comic genius because he never was afraid to have people laugh at him. Enjoy.

Rocky Point

I had a chance to go to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico this past week for a lighting workshop. I have taken workshops from Don Giannatti before but I think I am finally starting to comprehend some of the principles that allow me to use the technical skills that I am learning in order to produce the shot that I have visualized in my head. In essence, I'm gaining some confidence in the control of the shot and light.

Accompanying this post is a little video that I put together of a few of the shots that I took while in Mexico. Flickr has just recently started to host video and limits them to 90 seconds so I followed that rule in order to have it hosted on the site. I should have some additional post later in the week on the Mexico trip, but I thought that I would get this little video posted for now.