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.
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.
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.
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:
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, 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/
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.
