Le Vino Rouge- A New Behind the Scenes Video

*A Quick Note:  I recently signed up for Google Plus which conveniently links all user account related apps together including this blog.  I was not reading the fine print and accidentally deleted a default album which happened to contain ALL the images this blog ever had posted.  As you can imagine, my frustration cannot be described in politically correct terms as I now have the task of attempting to reload all the images for nearly 2 years of posts.  I cannot guarantee I will get this done as I am having to work on it in my spare time.

On a lighter note, this post is about a recent collaboration I did with Audrey,  a local cosmetologist and part-time model that  approached me with this creative and unique concept about love, wine, and elegance.  I was instantly on board with this concept as I felt it would be a great opportunity to share some basic lighting techniques and film another behind the scenes video and Strobist tutorial.  And Audrey does such great work with hair, I had to work with her again.  I initially met Audrey during the Audrey Hepburn and Jean Harlow shoots as she did the hair.
See more images and the Video after the jump...

Abandoned Macabre

I recently had another great collaboration with Kelsey of Kel-Z Photography. This time she stepped behind her camera instead of posing in front of mine. We found a local designer who made several unique dresses created around a macabre theme. Kelsey provided the location, a little set of abandoned buildings just off the beaten path of a suburban neighborhood. Add three talented models and we were off, shooting away.
Chris and my production team came out to record the whole thing for the BTS video as well as to assist me with my lights.
Take a look at the results.
And be sure to view the video behind this to see how I accomplished these shots.

Beach Blanket Bingo- Behind the Scenes

The 48 Hour Film Project

I just wrapped on our third production for the 48 Hour Film Project's stop here in Salt Lake City. I feel we created our best short film yet. And with our new hardware, we were able to create a true cinema feel with amazing color grading and a nice shallow Depth of Field.

The 48 Hour Film Project is an international competition which takes place in many cities throughout the world, Salt Lake being one of them. It's primary competitors range from beginning amateurs all the way to SAG talent and professional indie film makers. It's basically a run and gun fly by the seat of your pants deal where you have only 48 hours to write, film, edit, and produce a completed original 4-7 minute short film. And when I state original, that includes all music and dialog too. To make the competition official and prevent any pre-production, you have no idea what your film's subject matter is going to be until the Friday night kickoff where each team draws a genre out of a hat. From there, you are given a prop, line of dialog, character name and their career which must be implemented into the film.

This year, our team had the following:
-Genre: Film Noir
-Prop: Egg
-Line of Dialog: "that's what I'm here for."
-Character: Ed or Edna Keegan who is a reporter

We made a great film and it will premiere on the Big Screen tomorrow night. We are excited and anticipate winning something this year. We had an excellent crew. I love making indie films as much as I love photography! The film will be loaded to YouTube and Vimeo later this week following the premiere.

Behind the Scenes Strobist Tutorial: Pinups n Hotrods

I finally completed another behind the scenes tutorials in off camera lighting. This one was from a shoot last summer where a retro pinup concept was developed. The entire shoot was built around the dress, including the model, car, and location. Please view in HD and full screen if you have a high speed connection. Some exciting projects and shoots coming up including a urban Geisha theme today...

BTS Photography coming to Video

Last year during some of my memorable shoots, I had my friend and fellow film tech Chris Thompson accompany me to shoot some behind the scenes footage so that I might one day create some editorial or how-to videos pertaining to my work and how I ended up where I'm at.
The first video is of that of a on location beach shoot with Stephanie, a local model for Chic Elite. It centers on how we achieved three looks in three locations while only using one flash or speedlight.

The second video will be that of a studio oriented shoot of a model that desired some basic flattering looks for her portfolio.

And the third video will take us out on a conceptual pinup shoot with a model and a hotrod. We will discuss the techniques of shooting automotive subjects, including learning how to light a car only using speedlights, controlling glare on reflective surfaces, and what happens when we interject a model in to the scene.

Stay tuned... The first video will be out the first of the week.