After nearly a year of waiting, I can finally share a few images from a very cool project. I’ve done a lot of work for Discovery Channel over the last few years. This is the 3rd paranormal promo shoot I’ve done and they are some of my favorite shoots I’ve done to date. Katrina and Nick from Paranormal Lockdown were super cool to work with! Our location, an abandoned warehouse complex in Atlanta, couldn’t have been more perfect. We shot alongside the video promo crew who were awesome to work with as well! Hopefully I will have more to show soon!
New Work: American Dakota Rugs
I recently shot some new work for a small but awesome specialty rug manufacturer. It was a full day shoot to gather a library of social media content. The location was cool, the models were cool, the props were cool. I fell in love with the Jeep Commando that we used for the cinemagraph above and am currently searching for fun and creative ways to tell my wife that we need one! The goal here was to get a good variety of fun, lifestyle shots that feature the rugs. Here's a small sample ...
New Personal Work: War Reenactors
I'm working on a new personal portrait series with War reenactors. This is an ongoing series that I hope will eventually encompass every American War genre. I've always been fascinated by American war history. As I've started this project I have grown equally fascinated with the attention to detail and the dedication that the reenactors that I've worked with exhibit. More to come in this series ...
New Work: Finn Wolfhard
Atlanta's a cool town. Lots of movie and television production going on down here at the moment and depending on who you talk to, that's either really exciting or a real pain in the you know what. I land on the "exciting" side because lately it has offered me opportunities to do some cool work. Exhibit A: A little photo shoot with Stranger Things' star, Finn Wolfhard ...
New Work: Mizuno USA
I did a big shoot back in the Spring for Mizuno's new running line of shoes and apparel. It was a long 3 day shoot with a long and varied shot list. Luckily I had a lot of great people along with me to make sure the shoot went smoothly. It was a great shoot and I can finally share some of the images.
It was cloudy with a good chance of rain for all 3 days of the shoot. We never got rained on but we never saw any sun either. Clouds make for some good soft light but they can also make images look a little gloomy so we had to get a little creative. This became our sun for the duration of the shoot. Usually placed just out of frame to provide some warm "sun-like" light. :-)
And now a few images from the catalog ...
Ichiro Suzuki for Mizuno
I love baseball. I love sports in general but baseball has always been my number 1. I'm so grateful to Mizuno for having me shoot this assignment for a tribute to a baseball legend. It was truly an honor.
Tearsheet: Chief George Turner, Atlanta PD for South Magazine
New Work: Los Angeles Laker Brandon Bass
I traveled to the West Coast last month for a shoot with LA Laker, Brandon Bass. Brandon was great to work with. This is the 3rd time in as many months that I've been to LA and I really love it there. I found a great little sushi place that has Korean BBQ sushi. My taste in sushi is limited to maybe 1 or 2 kinds (California rolls or some variation thereof) but this Korean BBQ sushi might be the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. I'm considering making another trip soon just for that! Here are a few from the shoot:
ESPN The Magazine: Melo Trimble
I recently had the pleasure of photographing The University of Maryland's point guard Melo Trimble for ESPN The Magazine. I didn't have a lot of time with him as he obviously is in the middle of his season and trying to stay focused and prepared to compete. We shot at their main arena after they finished up practice. Melo was a great guy and so easy to work with. Here are a few from the shoot:
Tearsheet: Reuben Cannon for Emmy Magazine
EMMY MAGAZINE
True Grit: Atlanta Magazine
I did a shoot recently for Atlanta Magazine that featured 5 Atlanta area athletes and their commitment to excellence. The feature included Nate Stupar of the Atlanta Falcons, Justin Holiday of the Atlanta Hawks, wheel chair tennis player Jennifer Speer, Atlanta Ballet dancer Peng-Yu Chen and Olympic Track hopeful Aleec Harris. All of the athletes were really great to work with. Here are a few from the shoot with tear sheets at the bottom.
Justin Holiday / Atlanta Hawks
Justin Holiday / Atlanta Hawks
Nate Stupar / Atlanta Falcons
Nate Stupar / Atlanta Falcons
Jennifer Speer / wheelchair tennis
Aleec Harris / Hurdler
Aleec Harris / Hurdler
Peng-Yu Chen / Atlanta Ballet
Later 2015
Hang On! 2016 is just around the corner!
Insubordinate Claus: A Christmas Card Story
This year's Christmas card shoot was a blast! Our Santa and Mrs. Claus were so great! Hope everyone had an awesome holiday!! Here are a few secondary shots. :-)
#holidaycheer
BTS courtesy of Zane Hollingsworth
Christianity Today: Tedashii
Here are a few shots from my shoot a couple of months ago with Christian rapper, Tedashii for Christianity Today. Had a great time with him at his recording studio in Atlanta.
Tearsheet: South Magazine
Global Trade Magazine: Lodge Manufacturing
I recently photographed Bob Kellerman, CEO of Lodge Manufacturing for Global Trade Magazine. It was interesting to learn that all of their cast iron products are manufactured right here in the US and even more interesting to witness the process.
Mr. Kellerman was really great to work with and a really good sport. Apparently he's well known for always wearing his bow tie sooooo ...
Inked Magazine: John Barrett
A couple of months ago I had awesome tattoo artist, John Barrett, up to the studio for a shoot for Inked Magazine. I had a great time with this shoot. John made it pretty clear from the start that he wasn't having any of the boring, stuffy shots. We did some cool, fun shots and John had some creative ideas of his own. This shoot was truly a collaboration. Have a look at John's work (@yogi_barrett on instagram) and you'll see that there's no lack of creativity on his end. The images are in the current issue of Inked Magazine and Freshly Inked Magazine.
FRESHLY INKED MAGAZINE
INKED MAGAZINE
Fantomworks Key Art for Velocity
I REALLY love this photo. I love it for two reasons that I'll share with you in a bit. But first ...
I was hired recently by the Velocity Channel to shoot some key art for one of their shows, Fantomworks. Fantomworks is a garage in Norfolk, VA that does classic car restorations. The assignment was to shoot portraits of Dan, the owner, in various locations within his garage. I arrived in Norfolk the day before the shoot and met up with the Discovery Communications (parent company of Velocity) creative team to scout locations and finalize the shot list and plan. The sheer volume of beautiful classic cars sitting in Dan's garage was truly impressive. Add to that the fact that the space itself was a huge smorgasbord of visual awesomeness and it was kinda hard to go wrong here. We had a pretty significant shot list and somewhat limited time the next day to shoot so we spent the afternoon planning the locations and finalizing the schedule.
So that's the back story. Now back to the photo. Like I said, I love this photo for two main reasons.
Reason one - It wasn't planned. The Discovery creative team had a pretty specific vision for the shoot and, with the limited time we had, everything had to be planned. We spent the scout day going over the plan and deciding which cars would be featured in the shots. This car was not to be featured. At the end of the scout, I walked around snapping some photos with my phone to share on social media and whatnot. at the front of the garage next to a big roll up door sat this beautiful, dirty old car. The light from the roll up door was pretty great so I snapped a photo of it with my phone. Here's the photo:
As I looked at the photo I thought "Man, with that nice light coming in it would make for a great portrait of Dan leaning on the side of the car". It wasn't on the shot list but the car was right next to the location of our first planned shot so I figured I could do it pretty quick after we wrap the first location. The next morning as we finished up that first shot, I grabbed Dan and had him lean on the side of the car. The beautiful light shone in, Dan basked in the glory of the great business he had built, the Heavens opened up, Angels began to sing and I pressed the shutter button. Boom! Done!
Reason two - This is 100% natural light. At every one of my shoots I bring an arsenal of lights and modifiers and I use the crap out of them. I love using lights. I love it because I can control them and make them do what I want and create what I see in my mind. Sometimes though, you don't need all that extra stuff. Sometimes the natural, available light is pretty perfect. This was one of those sometimes. Natural light is not the norm for me but I stepped outside of my comfort zone and resisted the temptation to "create" light.
So there you have it. I REALLY love this photo for two reasons - It wasn't planned but I was able to pull it off on a tight schedule and I was smart enough not to screw it up by adding a bunch of lights. Maybe it's not the very best photo I've ever taken (maybe it is, I don't know. It's hard for me to be objective) but it's definitely one of my favorites. And, as it turns out, Velocity liked it too as it was one of their final selections.
Here are a few more that made the cut along with a couple of behind the scenes shots of me doin' ma thang!
Up high ...
Photo courtesy of the Discovery Communications creative team
Down low ...
Photo courtesy of Kieran Wagner
A BIG thank you to the folks at Discovery, Velocity and Fantomworks for having me. Another BIG thank you to my awesome assistant for the day, Kieran Wagner. Until next time ...
Race Across America: Purdue Alumni Magazine
A couple of months ago I was contacted by Purdue University's Alumni Magazine about doing photos for a story about Bryce Carlson, one of their staff members, competing in a race across the country. A race ACROSS THE COUNTRY! The entire country ... coast to coast ... on foot! These are the kind of assignments I love. I love meeting interesting people who are doing amazing things. This was an event to raise awareness of childhood obesity and to encourage children to live healthy, active lifestyles. The group of runners began in California and for four and a half months ran a marathon (or a little more) every day with an average of one rest day per week and finished their journey at our nation's capital. I met up with Bryce in South Carolina and spent a day with him to capture the experience. I got to speak with Bryce briefly about his cross country journey. It was interesting to learn that the toughest part of the whole thing was not the physical aspect but the mental and social aspect of spending 4+ months away from home with strangers. I have a ton of respect and admiration for all of the runners who were able to compete and complete such a monumental thing.
Here are the tearsheets from the magazine:
Tearsheets: Employee Benefit Advisor
Employee Benefit Advisor
Employee Benefit Advisor
Employee Benefit Advisor
Employee Benefit Advisor