Actually, it's almost the middle of the end ... but that's not as catchy of a title.
Almost finished with week 9! Wow, where has the quarter gone? Next week is it ... game over. So needless to say the battle for gear and studio space is on!!! I like to think that I won a small battle today. I got the beauty dish. My new favorite light modifier.
But all this fighting over gear stuff is getting old. It's a privilege to be able to check out gear. One that I take pretty seriously. I try to be as considerate as possible when I check out gear ... I think minimal. What's the least amount of gear that I can get away with? I want other people to have gear, because I know what it's like to be left out when it comes to gear. I would hope that other have the same consideration when they check out gear ... unfortunately, this is a one way street that I travel.
Other than that ... lots of shooting this weekend ... hopefully. Assuming all goes as planned, I should be good for next week. But we'll see.
the beginning of the end
Almost there
It's my pleasure to present to you, bottle+rocket.
The website is about 70% complete, but we're still announcing it to everyone.
What was that, "we"? Yes, we. Noah Culver and I are doing this venture together. It's kinda like tag team photoshooting.
Go check it out. Hire us. Be happy.
to the victor go the spoils
Well I did it ... I managed to pull off what I thought was an impossible shoot.
And it turned out really nice!
I'm still playing around with some different post processing options ... right now I'm kinda leaning towards a Dave Hill kind of post. It makes it look a little grittier. I'm just glad I was able to pull it off. Huge thanks to Denver for doing the hair, and huge thanks to Larissa for being my model for the shoot!
i'm a producer
Being a photographer is essentially being a producer. You have to produce. Find models, get equipment, props, locations, assistants, and all sorts of other things. It can be pretty intense. So far, I've had it pretty easy as far as production goes ... no elaborate sets, no models (that weren't my friends), never really had a need for an assistant, and never had a Harley Davidson as a prop ... a prop that must somehow make it to my location when the owner of it will be out of town, a location that I am yet to find, for the model that I have to yet to find to interact with said prop, all while using the equipment that I have yet to procure. And I have to do it all by Sunday. Wow. It's only week four, but I'm totally feeling some week ten pressure on this shoot!
But oh man, just wait until I finish my super secret summer project ... It's going to be amazing.
it's not me ...
So all I have to ask is this: who's awesome?
You would think that I answer I was going for is "Jimmy is awesome". But it's not.
Jessica is awesome! We did this shoot today ... partly for fun, partly to get an idea for something I want to shoot for school. Either way, it turned out really nice ... even though the particular Hasselblad I was using today was nearly impossible to focus. Get is sharp in the viewfinder, the image is soft. So we had to guess how far away she was, se the focus that way, then tweak it to find the actual focus point. Talk about a pain, so the majority of the images went from out of focus, to close to in focus, to a little closer, a little farther, then dead on sharp. But we did end up with a few good ones. scratch that ... a few great ones!
But I still can't get over these Phase One digital backs, every single time I see an image from that camera and digital back, I actually say "wow" ... out loud ... even when I'm alone. The quality of the images that these cameras produce is unreal. Can you say Christmas?
It's official ...
I hate my Canon 5D.
Well, not hate. But I guess it's relative. I've been using Hasselblads with Phase One digital backs ... they are amazing. It's a 6 megapixel back, and it blows my 12.8 megapixel 5D completely away. No competition at all.
I look forward to shooting with it A LOT.
Oh summer, '08
Did you catch that pun? I'm clever like that.
So this summer is shaping up to be kind of awesome.
School: I have some really cool classes this quarter. The one I'm most excited about is fashion and beauty photography. Our teacher, Greg DuPree, is kind of a great photographer ... not to mention that this is the kind of shooting that I want to be doing after school. He's also requiring us to use Hasselblads with digital backs! Can you say "effing awesome"?
Second most awesome class is Individual Projects, which is exactly how it sounds ... you get to shoot whatever you want. So I have to figure out what I want to shoot there.
Runners up in classes are a Weddings class, basically a lot of business talk bout how to make money and not get screwed. Last, and certainly least ... product illustration. I'm a people shooter. Products are fir someone else, but oh well, I'll learn it.
Oh yeah! I also have to have a hair stylist and makeup artist for my shoots in the fashion class, so I'll be teaming up with good ol' Sommerville for that. Good times.
I'm working on a special summer long project ... look for it at towards the end of summer, I'll keep you posted it's progress.
Here's a sneak ...