The Zack Arias Misc. Workshop

Zack is an amazing teacher, so when I saw him post a link to attend his first workshop in a couple of years I immediately signed up. The day was split into two sections - a relaxed lecture and shooting. Zack would set up a light, explain a few things, and give us some time behind the camera. We could each direct the model and move the light around, all while he gave us instruction.

It was an incredible experience to have someone that knowledgeable give me some hands-on teaching, and it helped me see things with a new perspective.

Here's a few photos from the first setup.

...and a totally flattering behind-the-scenes shot of our model, Julia, nomming on a donut...

These next two photos are a great example of what I meant by "seeing things with a new perspective." This is a great reminder that camera only sees what you tell it to see. This could be anywhere, but it's just a wall in Zack's studio, and nobody is going to know that I was sitting next to a refrigerator unless I tell them.

Zack, teaching away...

Afterwards, Zack invited all of us to his house for dinner where we were treated to a delicious meal prepared by his wife. Their four boys were also entertaining to say the least.

Exhibit A:

It was nice to get away from my desk for a day to learn from one of the greats and meet some incredible photographers. I had a blast!

Jason’s BMW from The Price is Right

Back in August I got a call from my friend Jason in California that he was on the Price is Right. Not just there, but on the show. I thought he may have won a blow-dryer or something lame like that.

Nope.

He ended up winning a BMW! I couldn't tell anyone, and I didn't even tell my fiancé. I told her that he won a $90,000 BMW and she said "No way, they give away Kias on that show."

The show finally aired in November and here's how it went down:

The circumstances are kind of amazing, aren't they?

The car was delivered last week and the first thing we did was a photoshoot.

Malachi’s Second Birthday

My friend Kayla has one of the cutest kids on the planet.

I captured Malachi running around, opening presents, and sitting in awe of Shrek 2 throughout the day. I ended up making a photo-book for Kayla and it turned out great. I know it sounds cliché, but processing these images in black and white really does make them seem timeless.

These are a few of my favorites and I've also included a few images of the photo-book.

Those are a few of the images that made it into this book for his mother.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Dr. Sanjay Gupta was in town to answer questions and report on the implementation of the ACA or "ObamaCare" as a part of a tour he's doing with CNN. I saw him on the sidewalk downtown next to his tour bus, asked him a couple of questions, and as he was being taken to his hotel I asked if I could get a quick portrait of him. I had about ten seconds to get a good shot, so I took one frame, gave him a little direction, and took the second. Fortunately I didn't mess anything up!

When I took the photo of his face I left a little more headroom than normal, then took two more photos: one tilted down a bit, and one of his torso. I stitched those three images together in Photoshop and it resulted in the final crop below, a 43 megapixel stitched portrait that has the same characteristics of a Medium Format photo. This is often referred to as the Brenizer method.

He was very polite and I'm glad I was able to take his portrait.

Here's another photo of Dr. Gupta talking to a Greenville resident about the ACA.

101 Legends of the Dragon Tattoo

My friend Kat and I have been trying to figure out a creative project to do for a while now, and she came up with an idea for a ridiculously fun shoot. She created costumes for some of her favorite characters from video games, television, and movies. We spent the better part of a Sunday shooting these and had a blast! I took the photos and she took care of any Photoshoppery such as the plumbob above the Sim.

Character List

A Sim
Blue Barracuda Team Member, Legends of the Hidden Temple
Alex, Clockwork Orange
Lisbeth Salander, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Cruella De Vil, 101 Dalmations
Beetlejuice

Enjoy!

Our friend Maggie tagged along to take care of hair and makeup and I was able to grab a few fun portraits of her as well.

I can't wait to see what Kat comes up with next. Check out her website here.

Kopecky Family Band at the Channel

When I was first introduced to the Kopecky Family Band, I enjoyed their three EPs: Embraces, The Disaster, and Of Epic Proportions, and when I heard their first full-length album, Kids Raising Kids, I was blown away. Their songs have been featured on Vampire Diaries, Parenthood, ESPN, and they've been selling out almost all of their tour dates. They are well on their way to being the next big thing, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. (Just use The Google to see what I'm getting at.)

Last Friday I went to their concert at The Channel in Downtown Greenville, and I made sure to bring my camera. I stayed in one spot the entire concert with my 50mm Zeiss, so unfortunately I wasn't able to get good pictures of everyone on stage. I went as a fan, not a photographer. That being said, I was able to get some good pictures.

Click on the first image and use the arrow keys to navigate.

Here are a few of my favorites:

And here are the rest that made the cut:

Be sure to listen to these guys via Spotify, iTunes, or go to kopeckyfamilyband.com get their album and see when they'll be in a city near you.

One Year With The Golf TDI

Exactly one year ago today, my girlfriend and I drove up to Maryland to purchase my practical dream car - a 2010 Golf TDI. It gets insane mileage, it's fun to drive, and I've gone 25,000 miles with zero problems. Actually one of my reverse lights went out...so I guess not zero. Just before I left the office today, I heard a train coming and took advatange of a good photo opportunity.

And after the train was gone I took some more...

Now when I say insane mileage, I mean I'm averaging between 38 and 40 miles per gallon on full tanks, you can see all of my fuel-ups here on Fuelly. I get between 42 and 48 MPG on my trips to the office! I've only had two tanks under the 500 mile mark, and that's only because it wasn't convenient to get diesel after passing 500 miles. I can go to Charleston and back with a hundred miles to spare on a tank.

Speaking of Charleston...

While it hasn't broken down on me, it's still had some bad luck from time to time.

Anyway if you're looking to get a new car, get this one. I can't wait to see how many miles I can go in this thing.

My Interns Are Awesome

Every semester, we at View get a couple of interns from Clemson to help us out. This past Summer we had four because we were working as the production company of an independent movie.

After principal photography, they had a little down time in between things to have some fun...like helping me test some Ektar 100 film on my old Minolta...

Going on Starbucks runs...

And being subject to spontaneous, continuous lighting tests...

Dispersed Memorial

I met up with a friend of mine, Daniel Hutcherson, in New York this past summer. He's a part of a 9/11 memorial project titled "dispersed memorial." These are a few shots from our visit to ground zero. Visit the Dispersed Memorial site to learn more about their project. I hadn't been to ground zero since 2005, and it's changed a lot since then. I think that the memorial is actually a great way to pay tribute to the lives lost on that day while showing the magnitude of what happened.

The memorial is essentially two huge holes in the ground. Buildings used to be there, and people used to work in those buildings. It's a lot to take in, but it's a peaceful and quiet place, so at least it's a good environment to do so.

Soaked 2012

If you haven't noticed, I love slalom waterskiing. So when there is a tournament in the middle of downtown Orlando that hasn't taken place since the year I was born, I'm going to be there. My friend Gareth and I took the seven hour trek in my TDi and stayed with my buddy Colin of HartFX in Orlando.

It turns out that the course on Lake Eola was only four buoys instead of six, and they slowed to boat speed down to 34 from 36 MPH since the conditions were so bad. But even with those drawbacks, I was still excited to see the sport I love most literally taking place in the middle of a big city.

We started out on the north side of the lake to get a good view of the jump event.

After the jump preliminaries, we met up with John Horton of BallofSpray.com (one of the biggest waterski websites, check it out) and ended up getting on a photo boat after hanging out by the starting dock for a few minutes. Unfortunately at this point, my digital camera's batteries were almost dead, so I used the Minolta X-700 once it was kaput. The 50mm lens wasn't exactly ideal, but I still got some shots that I'm pleased with.

This was definitely my favorite boat at the competition:

We made it back to the starting dock at the end of the Women's finals and waited for the Men's event to get going. Regina Jaquess ended up winning the Women's Slalom event.

Sitting close to the starting dock didn't give me a good perspective for photographing the actual ski passes, but I got a few good shots of some interaction on the dock, and we were able to hear the judges. Thomas DeGasperi of Italy and Nate Smith of Indiana ended up tying in a runoff four times! Eventually, due to some complicated rules, Thomas lost even though he tied with Nate.

The next morning, we met up with Thomas at his ski school at 8:30am. I felt kind of bad booking a lesson the morning after Soaked, so I talked to him at the tournament and he was all for it! Even though the weather was horrible during our lesson, he immediately picked up on a couple of bad habits and was able to put us in the right direction. I have major respect for him since he was willing to hang out with a couple of amateurs the morning after a tough tournament loss. Seriously, he didn't have to do it, but he was more than willing and was great at articulating specific instructions.