Ken Brown

Tumblr

2011-05-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

And for the even fewer people who still follow this: I will never make another post on blogger. Check my Tumblr for updates: www.kenkenman.tumblr.com

Nothing against blogger, Tumblr's just simpler. But thank you blogger for the good times!

On Twitter

2010-03-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

For the few people who actually read this blog (Hi Mom!) the reason I haven't been updating it is I am now on Twitter. Follow me if you're on it: http://twitter.com/KenBrownStudios

But I'll still post more lengthy stuff here in the future. Maybe later today!?

Clay Model Buildup

2010-02-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

Ghetto fill card:

Clay Model by Virgil Exner, Jr.

2010-02-10T21:28:00.001-08:00

Sorta knew how I wanted to light it right when I first saw it. Think the guys who did that Infiniti splash saw this model?

Also, new blog address: kenbrowncreative.blogspot.com

Parisian Love

2010-02-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

Apparently it's been out for a few months but airing during the Super Bowl was Google's first venture into Television Advertising. I think it's a fantastic start though I'm still curious what agency did it.

Here's Google's other "Search Stories"

Taboo

2010-01-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

The Ocean Again

2010-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

Found these while cleaning up the old hard drive.

Inspired by Mike Stacey's work.

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story | Video on TED.com

2010-01-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite talks. Being someone whose senior seminar was Ethnicity in Film, maybe I'm a little more partial to it:

Atrium

2010-01-18T22:52:00.000-08:00

Prague

2010-01-14T18:58:00.001-08:00

Birds @ the train station

2010-01-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

There were hundreds of birds at a train station in Rome. Not sure why but it was pretty ridiculous.

Vatican

2010-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

2010-01-09T23:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything. My computer recently crashed and I've since had to re-add all my photos to Lightroom. I've been going through them (all 50,000 of them) and think I'll post my favorites as they come by. First up is a random building in London.

Taxidermy

2009-09-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Working on a new project but I'm still playing with how to light them. Here's a couple polaroids of my favorite little guy. Not a raccoon but something similar...

Commercial shot with a 5D MKII

2009-09-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Shot a commercial for a local car Museum with a 5D MKII. Quality is exceptional. It airs nationally on The Golf Channel this Thursday-Sunday. Or you can check it out here:

New Camera

2009-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bought a 5D MK II the other day and went to the beach to try it out. It's nice and it has a shutter button like a 1DS series body (yes!). Shutter buttons are one of my biggest pet peeves...

2009-06-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you take crappy pictures. Sometimes those crappy pictures cost you $5 per sheet to eventually see. This is one of them. And I'm going to force myself to like it because $5 could have bought me a sandwich but instead I have this.

4.5 years remaining

2009-05-13T21:21:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I don't think the cd-rom drive would last that long. Freaking computers...

New Busness Cards

2009-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

Finally new business cards (I'm a big procrastinator). Big up to Josh Ross (www.joshrossdesign.com) for helping out with picking the card stock and printer.

Sometimes...

2009-04-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the driver adds to the list of what needs to be retouched...

Miniature Photos by Adam Makarenko

2009-03-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

I first saw Adam's work in American Photos Images of the Year 2007 in which he got first place in the Personal Work category (I got an honorable mention in that same category!). I never really knew his work until I just saw PDN Pulse's interview with him on his miniature photos.

Read the interview here.

Check out Adam's other work here.

GM CEO asked to leave

2009-03-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

The White House has requested GM CEO Rick Wagoner to quit. It seems the restructuring of the US auto manufacturers is finally seeing some action.

Read the article here.

Thanks Yahoo News.

The End of Intelligent Life

2009-03-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

This just in: Human Beings Reach New Low in Intelligence.

Reuters journalist Robert Muir has uncovered what I believe to be the final blow against what used to be considered one of the most intelligent races of the known universe. Muir's exquisite 2-page, short form essay entitled "Thirsty plants can Twitter for water with new device" truly defines a world gone mad with science.

Using state-of-the-art technology that is sure to have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money, researchers at NYU developed a way for a plant to tell its owner, via Twitter, that it was thirsty. Not only that but other technological revolutions have taken place in the daring experiment in which scientists matched each plant with its ~~supposedly~~ correct vocal intonations:

"Each plant had a 'voice' to match the plant type, such as the Scottish moss, which had a Scottish accent."

Even more disturbing is the fact that more than 2,300 people on Twitter are subscribed to one of the researchers plants, Pothos. I believe today is the day that I am now the only one without a Twitter account...

Pictured above: Pothos

~~Are you also not a media whore?~~ Do you also not have a Twitter account? Let me know in the comments! There are sure to be very few of us still around.

New Rebel shoots HD Video

2009-03-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

Just saw this over at PDN Pulse: Canon Rebel T1i Shoots HD Video & High-Res Photos. Shoots 20fps at 1080p, 30fps at 720p and is selling for only $799 (body only) making it the cheapest DSLR that can shoot HD video.

Advertising on the Rise

2009-03-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

The horrific economic downturn in the past few months showed a great decrease in the amount of ad spending. But with the DOW on the rise and many insiders saying they hope the worst has come and gone, the people over at Ad Age are blogging about auto manufacturers, McDonalds franchises (and eventually McDonalds HQ, and even the CIA increasing their ad spending.

Also of interest, Ad Age reports that Mini USA increased its sales in 2008 by 28% from 2007. Read more here.

Getting back into film

2009-03-10T21:36:00.001-07:00

Just got an Epson V700 and am loving the process of scanning my 120 and 4x5 film. The above shot (click it for a bigger version) was Portra 400NC. Need to buy some more of that...

Work

2009-03-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

Found this over at Dean Casavechia's blog. He ffffound it on FFFFOUND.

Andy Freeberg: Sentry

2009-03-01T22:42:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite photographers, Timothy Archibald, posted this on his blog. It led me to Freeberg's series entitled "Sentry," images of the reception desks at art galleries in the Chelsea district in NYC. Great concept, great images.

Cost Cutting even back in 2004?

2009-02-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

This struck my friend and I as extremely amusing when we were shopping at an H&M in NYC back in '04. The women's section was the same (well, with a girl, not a guy).

Click the image for a bigger size.

Christmas is Over!

2009-02-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, and it's been over for a long time. I had planned on doing this post the day after Christmas but my computer decided to commit suicide and it's only now that I've got all my images re-tagged and in a sense of order.

In other news, winter seems to have come and gone this past week in lovely California.

Nazi Zombies, Everywhere!

2009-01-29T22:27:00.000-08:00

Saw this funny news story. Apparently somebody hacked a construction sign to alert drivers that zombies were near. I hope it was a false drill...

Her Morning Elegance

2009-01-28T21:34:00.001-08:00

Love the music to the cool time lapse music video that Eyal Landesman created. Check out the video below and judge for yourself.

Found courtesy A Photo Editor.

More Oren Lavie here.

Photo Contests

2009-01-25T15:23:00.001-08:00

The post entitled "The Biggest Scam In Photography" got me thinking about photo contests. I've taken part in a few before; one gaining me some good exposure, the others doing nothing other than stroking my ego and shrinking my wallet. I agree a lot with what Rob has to say but for now at least, I'll still be submitting stuff to the big ones he mentioned. There's nothing like some extra ammunition when you want to go all out and cockrock (definition here courtesy Thomas Broening) when you've got some big name photo contests under your belt.

Seems Rob's post started some controversy (how easy to do) when he specifically mentioned the "Billboard Competition" that PDN runs. The bloggers over at PDN Pulse apparently didn't like it and have their own post defending it.

More:

Good comments in a recent PDN Pulse post that announces the extension of the PDN photo annual deadline, here.

Funny story about winning a contest, here.

Best and Worse Fight Scenes

2009-01-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, there's nothing better than a bad movie. Without further ado, truly, the best (in a bad way) fight scene ever:

And the worst (in a good way):

I remember seeing video clips of a great, bad movie over at Something Awful almost 10 years ago but it seems as though they've taken them down. The title had Black, and maybe Hand in it. Basically each fight scene consisted of men slapping each other. Good stuff.

Chase Jarvis Shoe Project

2009-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this random project created by Russell Byrne to shoot hotshot photographer Chase Jarvis' shoes. Got them from another local photographer, Scott Hargis (fantastic Real Estate photography), and incorporated them into a recent shoot. Follow the project at www.chasejarvisshoeproject.com

The Very Calm Photographer

2009-01-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

Car photographer Easton Chang posted this hilarious (well, at least to me) animated gif of a photographer at a Rally Race acting like a high speed crash is nothing to fret about.

Original thread: Here

I Love Tina Fey

2008-12-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

And so should you. Featured in Vanity Fair's January issue, Annie Liebovitz shot her for the cover and article, and Maureen Dowd wrote the article. Read it here thanks to Vanity Fair understanding the potential of posting articles online. Or buy the magazine. Or do both, like I did.

You can see a pathetic video of the shoot here. This was the first time I checked out Vanity Fair. I hope their video production gets a lot better in the future...Off to watch some 30 Rock episodes.

Badass Barber Business Card

2008-12-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

Still hunting for inspiration, found this awesome logo. Here's the card.

W

2008-12-22T19:36:00.000-08:00

Got the new W in the mail today. Good photography.

Abbey Lee photographed by Claudia Knoepfel and Stefan Indlekofer:here

Christy Turlington photographed by Mario Sorrenti: here

No models but an interesting apartment instead. Klaus Haus photographed by Dean Kaufman: here

Business cards

2008-12-18T21:35:00.001-08:00

Mine sf
Originally uploaded by dailypoetics

I was chatting with a friend of mine about business cards the other day and realized I should update mine. I hate the design I currently have (so much I'll never post it online) so I figured now's the time to change.

In my search for inspiration, I ran across these sites/blogs that feature cool business card designs. Some of them are really, really cool. Check them out:

http://www.reencoded.com/2008/05/20/42-awesome-business-card-designs-with-links-to-100s-more/

http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_design

Work for Free!

2008-12-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

No, not really, but some are advocating it (well, sort of, read the posts) over at Strobist and at Chase Jarvis' blog.

I think Vincent Laforet hit the head on the nail with his post in response to all this buzz about working for free, here.

From Vincent's post:

"Big name actors do occasionally work for free, so do big name talent in all areas - IF THE PROJECT is AMAZING - and not backed by a HUGE company sitting on cash. This is a VERY IMPORTANT DISTINCTION."

Very well put and it is quite the distinction. I have an education in Film and in school, my friends and I would crew on films for free all the time. But those same people we helped out would later help out on our film. Now, these projects weren't amazing but they were experience and portfolio builders. I worked for free on those film projects but it was a very selfish free. I don't think I can emphasize the selfish aspect enough.

Maybe I don't understand David's point but I don't really consider doing charity work or shooting TFP or TFCD shooting for free. That's just portfolio building. The thing I worry about is people might think too small or screw themselves over instead of actually understanding what is good to shoot for free.

And lastly, a rant so fitting for this topic:

Video: Immersion

2008-11-22T09:43:00.000-08:00

photo copyright Robby Cooper via NY Times

Immersion, by photographer Robbie Cooper, is a video that shows the reactions kids have while playing video games. Pretty interesting to see. Note the stoic blonde girl they cut in occasionally to contrast against the others.

Video

Stills

Altamont Pass

2008-11-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

One more image from a 1ds MKIII. Taken at 10pm in the Altamont Pass.

Shadow Play

2008-11-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Nifty shadow play in the new Bebe Holiday Campaign. Check out the rest of the images here.

Worst Ad Ever

2008-11-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

Mono Lake

2008-10-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Tried out the 1Ds at Mono Lake, California:

Lovely build quality. Produces nice files, too. I so want one now. Canon is a drug dealer and the 1Ds is crack.

New Camera!

2008-10-23T19:58:00.001-07:00

Sort of. I got a 1Ds MkIII on loan from Canon for a week and a half (very nice, so far). I tried it out last night on the cat's but I plan on getting some real images up next week after my trip to Mono Lake.

Off to do some night landscape's for now...

Martin Schoeller/Paris Hilton

2008-10-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

As a fan of Martin Schoeller, it was nice to see his name in this month's copy of Bazaar. I had to chuckle when I saw the part in the video where he's using his two Kino-flo's on either side of the face technique he's most known for. That and the scene at 0:48 where you see rolls upon rolls of 120 Portra.

Watch the video.

Read the article.

Gaetan Caputo

2008-10-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

I got a copy of Canon's new magazine, CPN, the other day and in it they were talking about the 1DS MKIII. They had a couple images by Gaetan Caputo and I was entranced by how beautiful they were. I'm not really into people photography so I don't know how common it is to use kino strips on either side of a face (other than Martin Schoeller) but I love this image they featured:

Don't know or care who did it first but I love the telephoto look with low DOF mixed with the light of the kino's. I think what I love about it is he's using a method similar to Schoeller's except in the beauty genre rather than in editorial portraiture, which I think works out beautifully.

Check out his site here for more of his work: www.gaetan-caputo.com/

Here's a link to the online article (funnily enough, not in the magazine), though it's basically just a plug for the camera: cpn.canon-europe.com/content/road_test/gaetan_caputo.do

Jaguar CX-F

2008-10-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Christopher Sargent, the DP for this latest Jaguar spot, really went to town with the lighting. It's beautifully done with some fantastic editing. One thing to do is watch it over and over again, slowing down and stopping in certain spots to try and reverse engineer the lighting. I learned some stuff I most certainly want to try out.

It's the first spot on Sargent's reel which can be viewed here:
http://www.skouras.com/dps/sargent/reels/1110733.mov

Maserati MC-12

2008-09-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

This past Monday I found out that Maserati North America was sponsoring a car show in my home town and they were exhibiting their race car (the MC-12) at the Blackhawk Museum, a regular client of mine. Long story short, the car would be in the Museum Friday at 10 am through Saturday at 4 pm. The Museum was holding a party that Friday night so the car would only be accessible to shoot after that party. Wanting to get the MC-12 in my portfolio, I waited until 11 pm on Friday to call my contact & friend at the Museum before he let me know when we could move the car into place and start setting up for the shoot. We got the car in the studio part of the Museum around 1 am and I shot until 8 in the morning; surviving on Red Bull's, a Safeway pre-made sanwich and a lot of determination. Looking back, I'm glad I did it. And I'd do it again and again and again if such opportunities came at me.

The image above is the money shot I got that night. I'm also fond of the rear end:

And for the gear heads out there, a short video of the car roaring like a beast:

"Hello Gorgeous"

2008-09-03T18:31:00.001-07:00

London based production company Gorgeous Enterprises has been a favorite production house of mine for a few years since I stumbled upon their unique, cat-based website. While some might not like the cat thing (and if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, check them out here), I'll tell you this: I first stumbled across their site in '02-'03 and almost immediately forwarded the address to all my friends. Fast forward to '08 and a few days ago, I remembered the site when chatting with my rep about commercials. Searching for "Cat" and "Commercials" didn't yield any results (put Cat's in your keywords, Gorgeous!) but I eventually found it. I've frequented many websites for still and motion advertisements but the cats...I remembered the cats. There's nothing else like it on the web and it's actually pretty funny, especially their contact page.

Either way, winning awards left and right, the production company and its directors/writers are some of the most creative and talented people in advertising. From clients such as Aristoc to Vodaphone, the Gorgeous website is certainly worth checking out as it allows you to view it's directors work.

And if you're wondering what these guys can accomplish, here's Peter Thwaites' award winning Vodaphone ad from a couple years ago:

Tim Kent, Photographer

2008-08-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Tim Kent, a car photographer out of the UK who shot the much known Chevy Malibu ads, did a recent interview with PDN in which he talks about his style and the new grounds car photography is making. Read it online here and check out his other work on his online portfolio (well worth spending the time to check out) here: http://www.timkent.co.uk/

9/8 Update (Thanks to David Hobby @ Strobist for pointing this out):
Be sure to check out the break down of his lighting he did for a Hummer ad too: http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003835303

Watch this

2008-08-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Unless it's one of those faked photos of a rare Brazilian tribe or a burning town in the Middle East, I'm a sucker for photo journalism. Perhaps it's because it's such a different approach to using a camera that I'm used to but either way, great images are just that and Luis Sinco has some stellar work in his presentation on Marine Lance Corporal James Blake Miller. I won't comment on how I feel about the war but I've got friends who are or who have been over there. This presentation just made me remember to take them out to ~~multiple~~ lunches or buy them a beer ~~keg~~ the next time I see them.

The future of television

2008-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a motion guy at heart and plan on shooting a reel sometime in the future. One thing I'm doing till I find the time to film something is wasting away in front of www.channel101.com and acceptable.tv (like watching Operation Kitten Calendar above). I could go on about how it works but you can just check them out yourself:

www.channel101.com
www.acceptable.tv

There's also http://ny.channel101.com/ which is the NY version of the original Channel 101.

I'm a big fan of Yacht Rock, Water & Power and most recently, the Wonder Years spinoff: Making Mistakes.

And I tried to resist embedding another video on here but I couldn't help it. If you only watch one thing this week, make it Homeless James Bond:

Portfolio Update

2008-07-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

I probably should be a little more creative with the titles by inserting a pun here and there whenever I announce an update to my site. But really, I'm lame enough in real life. I don't need to do it here, too. Trying not to be lame though... Really, lame.

Now that I dug myself into that hole, on to the images!

Here's a shot of a BMW logo:

It's on a '35 roadster. Basically, the car looks like an American 30's car, just shrunk down to about half the size. Sort of weird but that's why I like it. What originally started out as an experiment shooting the wheels of the car turned into shooting this logo at the top of the grille. Originally, I didn't think of shooting it at all since it was rather beat up (click here for the "before the retouch" image)

After looking at it though, I decided to put some time into it and clean it up a bit. To be honest, I like the un-retouched version a little better. It has soul and character. Like it's on a real car and has seen some driving. Something a lot of the classics don't exhibit due to over restoration.

I lit it with a softbox just directly overhead. Pretty darn simple, actually. Some of the best images are lit simply.

The next one is an image of a '56 500 TR/625 LM Ferrari.

The car was rolled into the loading area and I was doing some video work with a few hot lights so I dragged them over to the car to get a better look at it (it's rather dark in that area). As I was walking around the car I saw this shot. The lights were already pretty much in place but I had to adjust them a tad to get it just right. After putting a circular polarizer on the lens, I shot away. Cleaned up a couple specular highlights that the polarizer didn't quite eliminate and the image was done.

Seeing as how I almost always use flash and never direct, undiffused hotlights, I will definitely experiment with this form of lighting in the future.

The F STOP Mag

2008-06-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

It's made its rounds around the internet already but it's still an online mag worth talking about. The F STOP, created & produced by photographer Zack Seckler, is a fantastic way to get into the heads of some of todays top commercial advertising photographers.

There's a couple interviews with some photographers who shoot cars as well: Jan Steinhilber, Kai-Uwe Gundlach & Garry Simpson. Definitely worth checking out. It's nice to see 4x5 film still being used in the car advertising photography world.

Last but not least, a favorite of mine and someone who lives in the city I call home: Erik Almas. Not a car shooter & a bit heavy on the post side but the results are both beautiful and inspiring.

Photographers personal sites:

Jan Steinhilber
Kai-Uwe Gundlach
Garry Simpson
Erik Almas (Caution, resizes your browser. I hate that...)

I'm Ken. I drive a G20.

2008-06-17T22:47:00.001-07:00

Possibly the best spoof of a car commercial yet:

And this one really made me want a Pentax (sorry, no embedding):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qs9svuf8g88

Was this youtube day, perhaps?

New Work!

2008-06-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Some new photos I'll be uploading soon.

The first is an Infiniti in a nearby BART station parking garage. I really like the lines leading out and the fact that they get lost in the blown out sky.

Post wasn't too bad. Cleaned up the garage a bit, desaturated it and touched up the car a tad. I got all cute and added an Infiniti logo on the pillar in front of the car as well. Shot with a Canon G9. Who says p&s aren't worthy?

This second one was a personal shoot I did about 6 months ago of a friends Mercedes. I didn't have the time to retouch it till recently, though.

This last one is really just a personal favorite. And another one taken with a Canon G9. I think I had the white balance set to fluorescent for this one and it was shot a little after the sun went down.

Both Ivan Makarov and Andreas Reinhold take some amazing landscape photographs that always have incredible colors in the sky. Their images sort of kicked me in gear to shoot more landscapes, experiment and have fun with photography; something that is sometimes difficult to do when it's your day job.

Phase One and Car Photography

2008-05-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

If you're at all interested in car photography (and if you're reading this, yeah, you probably are) check out the latest brochure Phase One put out:

Click Here!

It features some great car photography and the photographers of those images even share their lighting setups. Definitely worth checking out. If those guys actually use Phase One backs or not, that's your problem.

The Subject

2008-05-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of emails asking for advice on how to shoot cars. I try my best to answer their questions but most of the time, they're just inquiries on what lens, camera body, and flash unit(s) I use. I never flat out tell them that the technical stuff doesn't really make the photo because it does sort of...well, to an extent.

But I will prance around the issue in my replies. Usually, I'll write something like "I pick the lens that'll let me shoot the car the way I want it to look." Very poetic, I know, but it's the sad truth. Basically, it just seems that people rely too heavily on equipment and they use it or the lack thereof as an excuse for failure. We're all guilty at one point or another (don't get me started on what equipment I need), but the sooner you suck it up and say "let's do with what I have," chances are the quicker you'll succeed.

Take this image of a Mercedes Gullwing, for example.

Before I shot that car, I was hung up on the fact that I didn't have the proper equipment to shoot cars. But, instead of feeling defeated, I went to work on what I could do with my limited amount of equipment: shooting details. I treated a car like it was the world and each detail on the body became its own separate landscape. Cheesy analogy? Totally, but doing so worked and I trained my eye to see parts of automobiles that were lost to normal viewers.

In this time I really began to enjoy using flash. It was like magic being surrounded in total darkness: a strobe would go off and a beautiful image would appear on the LCD of the camera, every time. Ok, that's a lie but failure is a great thing. Such was the case when I shot that Gullwing photo. I wasn't even really thinking about the concept at the time I was shooting it. Instead, I was shooting the interior, and nothing great was being produced. I stepped back to take a shot of the setup to remind myself how much it sucked when I checked the LCD on the back of the camera and instantly saw tremendous potential if I were to alter the light and camera angle a little bit. I setup the camera and lights accordingly and after a couple shots I had captured everything there is about the Gullwing in one image.

Point is, don't worry about lenses, bodies, et cetera. Instead, experiment, don't feel afraid to fail and concentrate on your subject. That's what you're aiming to capture anyway.