Thu - October 22, 2009
another fortune cookie
average effort = average
results
for extraordinary results apply.......
for extraordinary results apply.......
Posted at 01:36 PM
Mon - October 12, 2009
Wire flying
I posted some additional pictures and diagrams on wire flying at:
www.maxwax.smugmug.com
I did actually write out a blog post on all the crazy hurdles we had to overcome to pull off this video, but it got to be the length of a small novella. It was so long my wife didn't even want to read it, so I just posted some pictures instead.
wire flying is dangerous, so for legal reasons, I advise you not to even look at the pictures.
Posted at 03:55 PM
Wed - September 16, 2009
Making Cross The Line
I remember being in a movie theater, amazed that
what I was hearing was recorded and written in our basement. Long before it was
popular, we were making dirt cheap records in our basement without adult
supervision. We carried that DIY ethic into our photography and album design
and we've always wanted to make our own videos but it was too expensive to do
so. Fortunately, what's happened in the graphic design, audio and photography
worlds is happening in video and the barriers to entry are now largely about
time and sweat. The recent advances in technology is giving rise to a new class
of multi media artist. I look forward to the revolution being
webcast.
Here's a short piece on how we shot a video by ourselves with a miniscule budget.
http://www.maxwax.smugmug.com/
(on a side note, the smug mug people have been great to work with.)
Here's a short piece on how we shot a video by ourselves with a miniscule budget.
http://www.maxwax.smugmug.com/
(on a side note, the smug mug people have been great to work with.)
Posted at 01:32 PM
Wed - September 2, 2009
the music video at last.
So here it is finally, the music video that has occupied my entire brain space and left no room for blogging. I will have more coming about how we did it, but for now, I'll just post it.
see it in high quality here:
http://www.maxwax.smugmug.com/
or in normal quality here:
http://www.vimeo.com/6393547
in both cases I believe you can download the original file to see it without stuttering if you have a slower internet connection.
Posted at 02:52 PM
Mon - August 24, 2009
papa john...
Sorry this blog has been dark as of late, I've been
rather tied up in a project very dear to my heart. Just as soon as I get it all
shined up, you'll be able to see what's kept me in the
cave.
In the meantime, let's talk about papa john.
The papa john legend says that to start the company he sold his beloved 72 Z28 Camaro to fund his first purchase of pizza making equipment. He was 22 at the time and fortunately it turned out to be a sacrifice well worth making. He's actually on the lookout for that original camaro, so if you happen to come across it, he'd like it back. In fact he'd be happy to give you $250,000 for it if you have it. Sadly that makes my quest to find a nice 72 Camaro that much harder. It's like cash for clunkers on steroids.
I was surprised to read on my pizza box about sacrifice. Lately, it seems as a culture we dream big dreams, but we want them american idol style. We want wall street money in a dot com work place with plenty of time off to travel the world. We expect to start life after college in trendy downtown lofts and drive nice cars. We want to be our own bosses and do only creative work and leave the boring stuff to the interns. Unfortunately, this is the interns I'm talking about.
So at the risk of sounding like I walked to school uphill in the snow both ways, i have to say it.
If you want to be at the top of the mountain, you are going to have to hike up there. Reality TV has shown us a lot of what it's like to live at the top of the mountain, but precious little about getting to the top. If you want to model your life on reality TV, start with Biggest Loser. Pretend Jillian is your life coach. She has one basic plan for achieving your goal and it is in a nutshell: "work your ass off."
It wasn't just a car that Papa John gave up, I have no doubt that while his 22 year old friends were out partying on the weekends, he was slaving over a hot oven. He probably did it for years. I have no doubt he is a focused man and a hard worker. Learn to work hard, learn to focus. They are skills that will serve you well and get you where you need to be.
No one makes an olympic athlete practice day after day after day. They don't start practicing after they know they are going to the olympics. They practice because they are olympians in character and spirit. The practice is not an unfair imposition on them. They don't whine about having to practice. They practice because they are olympic athletes and that is what it means to be an athlete.
So this is what it means to reach the top of the mountain. It is to climb uphill. And when life seems uphill, do not stop, for surely this is a sign that you are climbing your mountain.
climb on.
In the meantime, let's talk about papa john.
The papa john legend says that to start the company he sold his beloved 72 Z28 Camaro to fund his first purchase of pizza making equipment. He was 22 at the time and fortunately it turned out to be a sacrifice well worth making. He's actually on the lookout for that original camaro, so if you happen to come across it, he'd like it back. In fact he'd be happy to give you $250,000 for it if you have it. Sadly that makes my quest to find a nice 72 Camaro that much harder. It's like cash for clunkers on steroids.
I was surprised to read on my pizza box about sacrifice. Lately, it seems as a culture we dream big dreams, but we want them american idol style. We want wall street money in a dot com work place with plenty of time off to travel the world. We expect to start life after college in trendy downtown lofts and drive nice cars. We want to be our own bosses and do only creative work and leave the boring stuff to the interns. Unfortunately, this is the interns I'm talking about.
So at the risk of sounding like I walked to school uphill in the snow both ways, i have to say it.
If you want to be at the top of the mountain, you are going to have to hike up there. Reality TV has shown us a lot of what it's like to live at the top of the mountain, but precious little about getting to the top. If you want to model your life on reality TV, start with Biggest Loser. Pretend Jillian is your life coach. She has one basic plan for achieving your goal and it is in a nutshell: "work your ass off."
It wasn't just a car that Papa John gave up, I have no doubt that while his 22 year old friends were out partying on the weekends, he was slaving over a hot oven. He probably did it for years. I have no doubt he is a focused man and a hard worker. Learn to work hard, learn to focus. They are skills that will serve you well and get you where you need to be.
No one makes an olympic athlete practice day after day after day. They don't start practicing after they know they are going to the olympics. They practice because they are olympians in character and spirit. The practice is not an unfair imposition on them. They don't whine about having to practice. They practice because they are olympic athletes and that is what it means to be an athlete.
So this is what it means to reach the top of the mountain. It is to climb uphill. And when life seems uphill, do not stop, for surely this is a sign that you are climbing your mountain.
climb on.
Posted at 03:41 AM
Wed - June 24, 2009
a modern fairy tale
Once upon a time, in a kingdom not unlike ours
there was a common serving boy with dreams of knighthood. In those days, you
had to be a knights son to be trained as a knight. Sometimes if a dragon was
slain or a particularly clever irrigation system was invented they would make an
exception. But you had to be extraordinarily lucky since dragons were few and
far between and this was before American Idol had been
invented.
One day, on the advice of his wizard, the king made a new decree. All through the land it was proclaimed;
"Any person who can complete a marathon will be granted a wish from the king. This offer is good as long as the kingdom stands and the offer is open to all."
This was exciting news. The whole country was abuzz. Everyone wanted a wish from the king. Everyone made plans to run the marathon.
The marathons were to be held once a year. The boy signed up for the first one. Surprisingly there were few names on the list.
"I'll do the next one" said a friend, "I'm pretty busy right now".
"I'm not sure if I want the king to make me a knight or a minstrel, so I'm going to wait till I figure out which I should be" said another.
"My boyfriend wants me to wait till he can run it too said a pretty lass."
And so on the first marathon only half the town showed up. When the bell was rung, they started running the 26 miles they had to complete. (this was before the metric system). After about 2 miles, the first person gave up. At about 5 miles the boy was too exhausted to go on. He crawled for awhile till he passed out. No one from their town finished the marathon.
The next day, people were talking again, about how the king had set an impossible task. It was obvious that as many people could run marathons as could slay dragons. The general populace went back to living the way they did before.
A year later though, a skinny tailor won it. And the year after that a couple other people did. They all had their wishes granted. Still the people did not hope because many had tried and most had failed. They were not genetically predisposed to running marathons. They were a short and stocky people.
One day a knight came to town to talk about how he won the marathon.
The town hall was full because people always have dreams. The knight shared his secret:
"Almost no one can run a marathon at first try." he said and everyone nodded their heads at this truth. "No matter how hard you try." And the boy knew this was true because he had tried with all his heart but that had only taken him to mile 5. "but I know a secret that will help you pass the marathon" said the knight and everyone leaned forward.
"when I ran my first marathon, after 2 miles it became impossible and I quit. I went home defeated. But the next day I woke up mad because I am not a quitter and so I went back to where the marathon was held and though no one was there, I ran it again. And this time it was even harder because I had blisters, but I ran it anyways and at 2 miles it became impossible again and I went home defeated. Because I am stubborn, I came back the next day and ran it again. I did this all week purely because my nickname is stubborn joey. After a week though, I found that I could run 3 miles. So I was a little encouraged. I resolved to complete the marathon for my own pride and every day I ran and every week I found I ran a little farther. When the next year's marathon came around, I failed yet again, but this time I got to 18 miles before I had to quit. I ran every day until the next marathon and suddenly and easily I won the next marathon. As you can see, the king granted me my wish, I am a knight".
The people were angry.
"We want a proper secret!" they yelled. No one wanted to run everyday for 2 years.
"but don't you see?" the knight told everyone still listening "you can have your dream, you can have anything you want if you just dedicate some time to it every day. Even a little daily effort will get you closer to your dream. You just have to learn to push yourself a little farther every day. It's not that hard once you get used to it"... but by that time the only person who was listening was the boy.
So the boy resolved to train for the marathon. He ran a mile every day for a couple days... then things got busy and he told himself he would run 4 miles on the weekend when he had more time, but he ended up going to the beach with his friends. He always intended to start running again, maybe tomorrow or for sure by next week. He never gave up on his dream, he bought some very nice running shoes and did a lot of research about running. He did a lot of planning and made a lot of resolutions. But he rarely actually went running. He thought of himself as a runner and was bitterly critical of other people who trained and he was especially bitter about the people who won marathons. He drank a lot of ale and grew heavier but he kept telling himself that one day he would start training again, he would run the marathon.
Finally years later, he found the knight who gave the speech and he asked him how the king granted his wish.. did he rub a lamp and a genie came out? Did he wave a magic wand? The knight explained that the king sent him to see the wizard who told him this:
"You have already learned the secret to getting what you wish in life. Almost any change you desire can be brought about by daily practice. While your goals may seem impossible at first, with enough faithful training you can achieve them. Now go and spread this knowledge."
And the boy who was now a man became angry and hit the knight with a rock because he really didn't want to hear that the power to change his own life was in his own hands.
A great sadness fell over the knight because no one wanted to hear the fantastic truth and also he had just been hit with a rock.
and while the knight went on to live happily ever after, very few other people did.
One day, on the advice of his wizard, the king made a new decree. All through the land it was proclaimed;
"Any person who can complete a marathon will be granted a wish from the king. This offer is good as long as the kingdom stands and the offer is open to all."
This was exciting news. The whole country was abuzz. Everyone wanted a wish from the king. Everyone made plans to run the marathon.
The marathons were to be held once a year. The boy signed up for the first one. Surprisingly there were few names on the list.
"I'll do the next one" said a friend, "I'm pretty busy right now".
"I'm not sure if I want the king to make me a knight or a minstrel, so I'm going to wait till I figure out which I should be" said another.
"My boyfriend wants me to wait till he can run it too said a pretty lass."
And so on the first marathon only half the town showed up. When the bell was rung, they started running the 26 miles they had to complete. (this was before the metric system). After about 2 miles, the first person gave up. At about 5 miles the boy was too exhausted to go on. He crawled for awhile till he passed out. No one from their town finished the marathon.
The next day, people were talking again, about how the king had set an impossible task. It was obvious that as many people could run marathons as could slay dragons. The general populace went back to living the way they did before.
A year later though, a skinny tailor won it. And the year after that a couple other people did. They all had their wishes granted. Still the people did not hope because many had tried and most had failed. They were not genetically predisposed to running marathons. They were a short and stocky people.
One day a knight came to town to talk about how he won the marathon.
The town hall was full because people always have dreams. The knight shared his secret:
"Almost no one can run a marathon at first try." he said and everyone nodded their heads at this truth. "No matter how hard you try." And the boy knew this was true because he had tried with all his heart but that had only taken him to mile 5. "but I know a secret that will help you pass the marathon" said the knight and everyone leaned forward.
"when I ran my first marathon, after 2 miles it became impossible and I quit. I went home defeated. But the next day I woke up mad because I am not a quitter and so I went back to where the marathon was held and though no one was there, I ran it again. And this time it was even harder because I had blisters, but I ran it anyways and at 2 miles it became impossible again and I went home defeated. Because I am stubborn, I came back the next day and ran it again. I did this all week purely because my nickname is stubborn joey. After a week though, I found that I could run 3 miles. So I was a little encouraged. I resolved to complete the marathon for my own pride and every day I ran and every week I found I ran a little farther. When the next year's marathon came around, I failed yet again, but this time I got to 18 miles before I had to quit. I ran every day until the next marathon and suddenly and easily I won the next marathon. As you can see, the king granted me my wish, I am a knight".
The people were angry.
"We want a proper secret!" they yelled. No one wanted to run everyday for 2 years.
"but don't you see?" the knight told everyone still listening "you can have your dream, you can have anything you want if you just dedicate some time to it every day. Even a little daily effort will get you closer to your dream. You just have to learn to push yourself a little farther every day. It's not that hard once you get used to it"... but by that time the only person who was listening was the boy.
So the boy resolved to train for the marathon. He ran a mile every day for a couple days... then things got busy and he told himself he would run 4 miles on the weekend when he had more time, but he ended up going to the beach with his friends. He always intended to start running again, maybe tomorrow or for sure by next week. He never gave up on his dream, he bought some very nice running shoes and did a lot of research about running. He did a lot of planning and made a lot of resolutions. But he rarely actually went running. He thought of himself as a runner and was bitterly critical of other people who trained and he was especially bitter about the people who won marathons. He drank a lot of ale and grew heavier but he kept telling himself that one day he would start training again, he would run the marathon.
Finally years later, he found the knight who gave the speech and he asked him how the king granted his wish.. did he rub a lamp and a genie came out? Did he wave a magic wand? The knight explained that the king sent him to see the wizard who told him this:
"You have already learned the secret to getting what you wish in life. Almost any change you desire can be brought about by daily practice. While your goals may seem impossible at first, with enough faithful training you can achieve them. Now go and spread this knowledge."
And the boy who was now a man became angry and hit the knight with a rock because he really didn't want to hear that the power to change his own life was in his own hands.
A great sadness fell over the knight because no one wanted to hear the fantastic truth and also he had just been hit with a rock.
and while the knight went on to live happily ever after, very few other people did.
Posted at 11:06 AM
Fri - June 19, 2009
dust to dust
This is my buddy dust. He stopped by and I volunteered him to stand under a new softbox I was testing. Dust is doing cool little videos with a d90. Well he was anyways. He just bought a canon 5dmkII which thanks to a recent software update now has full manual controls for video. No 24p yet though. You can see his work at dustbrandfilms. It's really amazing what he does with some decent ideas and a good aesthetic sense and very small budgets. Any man who rents a t-top firebird for a video gets my vote. Dust also is the musical genius behind mars ILL. I have probably $40k more gear than he does but his videos are just as entertaining as my videos. If not more. It's the mind behind the gear that counts. Dust built his own dolly. What he does with his tiny budgets is inspiring. Dust is charging into battle with a rusty butter knife and a lot of determination and he is winning. Don't buy his brand of butter knife, buy his brand of determination.
This picture looks a little different than my normal stuff cause well... I'm tired of my normal stuff. Ironically, it reminds me of my older stuff and my original style where I was cribbing off of yann-arthus bertrand. Right now I'm actually trying to rip off my friend Sarai who is getting gorgeous shots out of her hasselblad. I was hoping I could replicate the feel with my 5dmkII but so far, it's a pretty pale sad imitation of what she does. I've been tired of my photos for awhile so I've been reaching out to try other things, looking into medium format and black and white film e.t.c. You should have seen the look on my wife's face when I told her I was thinking about building a dark room... the house is already overflowing with gear stacked on top of other gear stacked on top of boxes that studio stuff came in. I need a man cave so I can get my crap out of the house. Which will then become a proper house/girl cave. (UPDATE: my wife informs me the term she prefers is "lady cabana"). If marriage is so great, why are most men banished to the garage?
What's funny, is that while I'm tired of my stuff, the people who are booking me don't want black and white or artsy TTV stuff... As an artist I tend to constantly innovate, I hate to repeat myself and while that's great for evolving, sometimes we lose perspective and we can walk away from our natural gifts. We undervalue anything we can do. I see it in bands all the time. I think that's partly why I don't take as many pictures anymore or blog them. Renay shared her blog with me last week and I'm not sure where she lives, but I found her photos fascinating because they are so different from my life. It was a good reminder that what may be old hat to me, might still be worthwhile to someone else. So I'm going to try to get back into the blogging thing, to include you guys a little more on what I'm working on, because even though I'm sick of it, maybe you guys aren't.
Posted at 10:53 AM
Wed - June 10, 2009
We built this city
Just finished this shoot for centricity, it's a band called 16 cities. In brainstorming a concept for them I wanted to construct a city in photoshop made out of shots from 16 different cities. Sadly there wasn't budget for travel to 16 different cities. I almost always come up with an idea I love that's about 50 times the existing budget, I'm sure I annoy marketing directors to no end.
I have been drawing more influence lately from film and tv promo images so I wanted a glossy bright look that was slightly surreal.
After Steve Ford and I did some location scouting on a conveniently overcast day (we love overcast for shooting). I evaluated the test shots and I settled on this location for the city shot.
What made this shoot challenging, and there's always a challenge, was that the band would be in town for 2 days, only one of which they would be available for this shoot and this was only one of 4 set ups, 3 of which were outdoors. There's only about 2 hours in the evening and 2 hours in the morning that are good for light and that's assuming that it's not pouring rain. I was hoping for overcast actually. So I had to make an outdoor shoot work regardless of the weather on a fixed day.
Since it didn't look like it was going to be overcast, I had to do a lot of testing.
This location is 15 minutes from my house, I drove out there every 3 hours to shoot test pictures and evaluate the changing light. I rode my motorcycle so the task wasn't an onerous as one might think. The day before the shoot the band had a wardrobe fitting and while they were doing that, I did test shots of the band so we could evaluate wardrobe and I could get a sense of how I wanted to light them. When I got home, I made a test composite of this entire shot, so I would know how I wanted them to stand. We didn't have budget to block the road off so people and lights would have to move on and off the road and I would have to know what I wanted. It's hard to make decisions when you might get run over.
I had a backup plan to shoot everyone in studio and mimic overcast lighting in the studio and composite the shot. I tested that idea by pointing my biggest soft box at my large white ceiling to get the softest most diffuse lighting I could, similar to cloud cover. I took a picture of myself under those lighting conditions and then composited myself in. It looked hilarious and not in a good way. So we were going to have to use golden hour for this location. I was able to make the other location work primarily by shooting in the shade. (I had sent steve out to the location at 4pm to make sure this was possible). We arrived at our main location around an hour before I figured the light would be good.
We got everyone sorted through wardrobe and then did a series of test shoots to finalize where people would stand. Traffic wasn't too bad, but we definitely had to have spotters in each direction to let us know when cars were coming. We used white gaff tape to mark everyone's positions as well as lights and camera. I used 2 lights, one main fill on an umbrella and one rim light. My main light was an sb800 and my rim was a vivitar 285hv on boom stands so I could get the height and angle I wanted. I used the alien bees wireless units and they performed very nicely. We had people assigned to the lights and they would walk on and off with the talent when someone yelled "car!"
When the light started to get good, we shot a series of exposures in between cars. Then we would walk off and wait 10 minutes. As the sun starts to go down, it changes literally ever 10 minutes. So we'd walk everyone back out, reposition lights and camera and shoot for another 5 minutes. We shot some without lights, some with only key and so on. We were out there for probably two and a half hours. I was happy about 30 minutes into it, but I kept shooting till it got dark just to see if the light would get any better.
When I got back, I had a series of images with varying light conditions. There were 2 sets that gave me the look I wanted and I picked out a shot and got to work.
My B plan for the sixteen different cities was to have all my friends who are shooters send me their skyline shots and make one uber city out of that. Everyone agreed to send shots. All my friends are very very busy so in the end, only Jen Kroll made the deadline, so that's her shot of Chicago in the background. The sky I shot the week before. It was a little challenging to composite this in a way that looked natural. It doesn't look realistic at all, but I wanted it to look a little surreal. It was probably 8-10 hours of post for this single shot. I was sad to walk away from my concept of a single city made up of landmarks from 16 different cities but I realized that probably only one obsessive compulsive person would realize that it was made up of 16 different cities. People would probably just assume it was vegas...
I tend to get calls where people want me to come out for quick shoot, usually just one set up, 2-3 hours. I wanted to illustrate that for this single shot that I saw in my head I spent an entire day in pre production and an entire day in post production. Counting scouting and conceptualization, probably 24 hours of time went into this shot. That's 3 full work days. It's not the most profitable way to work, but it is the only way I know how to work. I conceptualize the idea, I test it usually to the point of mocking it up completely, than I shoot it and then overshoot it. Then I detail it, till it looks right to me. If you shoot enough, anyone can assemble a good portfolio from getting lucky. When the band is only in for one day then you can't bank on getting lucky.
Since I'm not the kind of person who gets lucky, this is how I deal with it.
Posted at 01:58 PM
Wed - June 3, 2009
Make a Wish
When I was in my twenties I would say things like
this:
"If we spend the next 10 years of our lives doing this and we only touch one person's life, it will be worth it."
And I meant it. But as I got older, cynicism and practicality and a good dose of reality set in and I started to wonder if I'd had a positive effect on anyone's life.
In retrospect perhaps I should have been developing a proper career or in the words of jackie chan realizing his days as a stuntman was limited and right before he became a superstar actor he went home broke to his parents with these heavy words on his heart:
"I have spent my whole life training for a useless profession"
But this last weekend, we spent the day at the zoo with a little girl from Make a Wish foundation. If you don't know, they help grant wishes for children that are terminal or struggling with a life threatening disease. She's 8 years old and her greatest wish in the whole world was to go to Hawaii and swim with dolphins. Her second wish was to hang out with us. We spent the day at the zoo with her and we got to break the news that she was going to Hawaii to swim with dolphins. I personally felt like she should have asked for Bono or at least Miley Cyrus, but it turns out, our music has been helping her get through her treatments and is meaningful to her.
I have a gold record, ascap awards, songs in over 100 TV shows/movies and a grammy nomination.
But I think the greatest honor of all is being the wish of an 8 year old girl.
I guess it was worth it after all.
I'm honored to play second fiddle to a dolphin. :)
tech note: We may be transitioning servers and/or moving to a proper blogging program, so if the blog vanishes, look for the new one at www.maxwax11.com
"If we spend the next 10 years of our lives doing this and we only touch one person's life, it will be worth it."
And I meant it. But as I got older, cynicism and practicality and a good dose of reality set in and I started to wonder if I'd had a positive effect on anyone's life.
In retrospect perhaps I should have been developing a proper career or in the words of jackie chan realizing his days as a stuntman was limited and right before he became a superstar actor he went home broke to his parents with these heavy words on his heart:
"I have spent my whole life training for a useless profession"
But this last weekend, we spent the day at the zoo with a little girl from Make a Wish foundation. If you don't know, they help grant wishes for children that are terminal or struggling with a life threatening disease. She's 8 years old and her greatest wish in the whole world was to go to Hawaii and swim with dolphins. Her second wish was to hang out with us. We spent the day at the zoo with her and we got to break the news that she was going to Hawaii to swim with dolphins. I personally felt like she should have asked for Bono or at least Miley Cyrus, but it turns out, our music has been helping her get through her treatments and is meaningful to her.
I have a gold record, ascap awards, songs in over 100 TV shows/movies and a grammy nomination.
But I think the greatest honor of all is being the wish of an 8 year old girl.
I guess it was worth it after all.
I'm honored to play second fiddle to a dolphin. :)
tech note: We may be transitioning servers and/or moving to a proper blogging program, so if the blog vanishes, look for the new one at www.maxwax11.com
Posted at 10:55 AM
Tue - April 14, 2009
Less than perfect.
"you played a good
hand"
"no, i played a bad hand very well, there's a difference."
Before I made records, it was easy to be critical of music that I deemed less than perfect. I didn't understand that records are usually made under less than perfect circumstances. With unlimited time, budget and a perfect team, I'm sure a lot of records would be better. I'm not sure how many people get that, I'm thinking it's pretty much only sting and michael jackson...
When I first went rappelling, while I was in line to try it, I observed how everyone faltered at the first step, the part where you stick your butt out over the 8 story drop. I resolved to not falter, to cheerfully walk backwards right off the cliff face so as not to annoy the people like me who were waiting for you to grow a pair and hurry up so the rest of us could have a shot.
When it came to my turn, harnessed in and ready to go, I got a good look over the cliff face. Parts of my body that typically hang outside, retracted inside my body from fear. I think I may have whimpered a little. I took as long as everyone else to find the courage to step off the edge. It's easy to be critical when you're not the one hanging your butt out.
For the most part, you usually don't have enough budget to hire the orchestra you wanted, you don't have indefinite time to write that perfect 10th song and you would have an easier time herding cats with a straw then you typically do getting band members and label staff all on the same page. And that's on a good day. You're lucky if there's not at least one christian bale class meltdown somewhere in the process.
As you get close to finishing your first record, you start to realize that there's no button in the studio that makes your humble efforts sound more like the records you loved and rather than enhancing your performance, the studio only tends to shine a light on your flaws. A bit like discovering that a good photographer doesn't make you into a supermodel. You just get a nice picture of your funny looking face. (at least that's what happened to me.)
So having been through the humbling process of making a record, I now tend to be much less critical of all art. I understand that usually, what I'm listening to, someone worked very hard on and most likely, it is a gift from their heart. It's easy from the back seat to say you could have done better, until you get a chance to drive and you discover that man, it's harder than it looks. (a bit like being married that one)
I was briefly part of infuze magazine and the slogan there was "criticize by creating". I always thought it was a great ethos. Rather than spending our energy lamenting the lack of art we like, perhaps we should turn our considerable energy to creating it.
get out there. make art. be gentle with your fellow artists.
extra credit: the opening quote is from the whedonverse. which show? discuss joss whedon's fascination with strong female characters.
"no, i played a bad hand very well, there's a difference."
Before I made records, it was easy to be critical of music that I deemed less than perfect. I didn't understand that records are usually made under less than perfect circumstances. With unlimited time, budget and a perfect team, I'm sure a lot of records would be better. I'm not sure how many people get that, I'm thinking it's pretty much only sting and michael jackson...
When I first went rappelling, while I was in line to try it, I observed how everyone faltered at the first step, the part where you stick your butt out over the 8 story drop. I resolved to not falter, to cheerfully walk backwards right off the cliff face so as not to annoy the people like me who were waiting for you to grow a pair and hurry up so the rest of us could have a shot.
When it came to my turn, harnessed in and ready to go, I got a good look over the cliff face. Parts of my body that typically hang outside, retracted inside my body from fear. I think I may have whimpered a little. I took as long as everyone else to find the courage to step off the edge. It's easy to be critical when you're not the one hanging your butt out.
For the most part, you usually don't have enough budget to hire the orchestra you wanted, you don't have indefinite time to write that perfect 10th song and you would have an easier time herding cats with a straw then you typically do getting band members and label staff all on the same page. And that's on a good day. You're lucky if there's not at least one christian bale class meltdown somewhere in the process.
As you get close to finishing your first record, you start to realize that there's no button in the studio that makes your humble efforts sound more like the records you loved and rather than enhancing your performance, the studio only tends to shine a light on your flaws. A bit like discovering that a good photographer doesn't make you into a supermodel. You just get a nice picture of your funny looking face. (at least that's what happened to me.)
So having been through the humbling process of making a record, I now tend to be much less critical of all art. I understand that usually, what I'm listening to, someone worked very hard on and most likely, it is a gift from their heart. It's easy from the back seat to say you could have done better, until you get a chance to drive and you discover that man, it's harder than it looks. (a bit like being married that one)
I was briefly part of infuze magazine and the slogan there was "criticize by creating". I always thought it was a great ethos. Rather than spending our energy lamenting the lack of art we like, perhaps we should turn our considerable energy to creating it.
get out there. make art. be gentle with your fellow artists.
extra credit: the opening quote is from the whedonverse. which show? discuss joss whedon's fascination with strong female characters.
Posted at 03:30 PM
Wed - April 8, 2009
testing the 5dmkII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WLudodYv4
click on the HD button if you have a decent internet connection.
Since my RED camera is in Chicago on a shoot, I broke out the 5dmkII for a quick promo video. It's no RED cam, but considering that it took 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to shoot, I think it looks pretty good. The 5dmkII really isn't meant to be a video camera, but with some creative workarounds it is possible to get some decent looking stuff. The backlights are just stage lights and the front lights are 2 of the very affordable 4x55 softlights from coollights.biz. I know some of you guys are using work lights from home depot to light and while it does sort of work, if you can swing the extra cash, the cool lights stuff is a much better option at $359 each. You can get them with daylight or tungsten balanced tubes depending on your needs. If that seems freakishly unaffordable, check out how much kinoflos cost. :)
As an alternative to that, pick up a couple of the cool lights softbox bulbs at $79 each and build your own softboxes or umbrellas. All you need is a mogul (lamp) base, some white ripstop nylon or a cheap photo umbrella. It wouldn't be much light to a red camera but for the 5dmkII you could probably get away with it. If you want to mix normal tungsten lights in the background, make sure and get the tungsten balanced bulbs. Another common thing to do is to stick the bulb in a china ball, which is merely one of those white paper chinese lanterns. You can get a lot of this stuff at www.filmtools.com. For nice soft light though, I like at least a 3 foot foot soft box, which is why I double up these lights. Also remember, the farther away you put a softbox, the harder the light source gets since the rays become more and more parallel. Usually I have the softbox just out of frame.
If you're determined to use work lights, there's some info at the coollights site about how to convert them to fluorescents and a kit to add barn doors.
click on the HD button if you have a decent internet connection.
Since my RED camera is in Chicago on a shoot, I broke out the 5dmkII for a quick promo video. It's no RED cam, but considering that it took 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to shoot, I think it looks pretty good. The 5dmkII really isn't meant to be a video camera, but with some creative workarounds it is possible to get some decent looking stuff. The backlights are just stage lights and the front lights are 2 of the very affordable 4x55 softlights from coollights.biz. I know some of you guys are using work lights from home depot to light and while it does sort of work, if you can swing the extra cash, the cool lights stuff is a much better option at $359 each. You can get them with daylight or tungsten balanced tubes depending on your needs. If that seems freakishly unaffordable, check out how much kinoflos cost. :)
As an alternative to that, pick up a couple of the cool lights softbox bulbs at $79 each and build your own softboxes or umbrellas. All you need is a mogul (lamp) base, some white ripstop nylon or a cheap photo umbrella. It wouldn't be much light to a red camera but for the 5dmkII you could probably get away with it. If you want to mix normal tungsten lights in the background, make sure and get the tungsten balanced bulbs. Another common thing to do is to stick the bulb in a china ball, which is merely one of those white paper chinese lanterns. You can get a lot of this stuff at www.filmtools.com. For nice soft light though, I like at least a 3 foot foot soft box, which is why I double up these lights. Also remember, the farther away you put a softbox, the harder the light source gets since the rays become more and more parallel. Usually I have the softbox just out of frame.
If you're determined to use work lights, there's some info at the coollights site about how to convert them to fluorescents and a kit to add barn doors.
Posted at 01:38 PM
Thu - March 26, 2009
done done on to the next one
Elvis has left the building, the newsboys record is finis after a 9 month creative process. I can't take credit for this record, it was Peter's vision all the way through, but I'd like to think that Jeff Frankenstein and I helped keep it moving along and brought it in the door kicking and screaming. If there is a small touch I am proud of, I think that Peter's singing on this record is the best we've heard from him yet. This was an experiment in teamwork and so I personally have to tip my hat to my brother monk Brian Gocher as well as Reid Shippen, Lee Bridges, Buckley Miller, Ainslie Grosser, Dave Perkins, Stu G, Phil Joel, Jamie Rowe, Michael Tait, Steve Taylor and of course the newsboys themselves.
For everyone that booked me and has had to wait for the last 3 months that we ran over schedule, I am SO sorry and if you still want me to help you finish your projects, please get in touch with me again as I've got more time now.
We now return you to regularly scheduled blogging.
Posted at 02:52 PM
Mon - March 9, 2009
I'm not dead yet
A concerned email made me realize that it had passed
from neglecting my faithful readers to having them think perhaps I had slipped
away from this earth without blogging about it. It reminds me of the scene from
the holy grail:
MAYNARD:
It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
ARTHUR:
What?
MAYNARD:
'...The Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
BEDEVERE:
What is that?
MAYNARD:
He must have died while carving it.
LAUNCELOT:
Oh, come on!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR:
Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaaaaggh'. He'd just say it!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what's carved in the rock!
GALAHAD:
Perhaps he was dictating.
In this era of twitter and facebook, I guess when someone dies, the blog just goes dark. Unless indeed they are dictating... nonetheless, I'm not dead, I'm just in that all consuming phase right before mixdown where all the Ts need to be crossed and all the I's dotted so I haven't had any spare mental energy to blog. In a week though, this 9 month project will be done and I can move on. If you've seen that case in missouri that's on ebay you'd know that I want it. A friend of mine said "I just don't know how you can live in a cave all year round." The answer to that is, 10 years in the studio making records and you feel perfectly at home.
Regular blogging will resume shortly.
Thanks for the concern folks!
MAYNARD:
It reads, 'Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
ARTHUR:
What?
MAYNARD:
'...The Castle of aaaaaagggh'.
BEDEVERE:
What is that?
MAYNARD:
He must have died while carving it.
LAUNCELOT:
Oh, come on!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR:
Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaaaaggh'. He'd just say it!
MAYNARD:
Well, that's what's carved in the rock!
GALAHAD:
Perhaps he was dictating.
In this era of twitter and facebook, I guess when someone dies, the blog just goes dark. Unless indeed they are dictating... nonetheless, I'm not dead, I'm just in that all consuming phase right before mixdown where all the Ts need to be crossed and all the I's dotted so I haven't had any spare mental energy to blog. In a week though, this 9 month project will be done and I can move on. If you've seen that case in missouri that's on ebay you'd know that I want it. A friend of mine said "I just don't know how you can live in a cave all year round." The answer to that is, 10 years in the studio making records and you feel perfectly at home.
Regular blogging will resume shortly.
Thanks for the concern folks!
Posted at 01:11 PM
Mon - February 2, 2009
grammy nom nom nom
If you're going to create art, you have to develop a thick skin. No matter how great your work is, someone, somewhere won't like it and with the advent of the internet, we're no longer shielded from all the snarky comments. I don't read reviews anymore, too many of the bad ones depressed me for days at a time. Somehow the good ones slide right by, but the bad ones, man they stay with me. Making art for the public feels like standing naked on a pedestal in a museum and people wander by and discuss you. It can seem so arbitrary, some days they hate you and suddenly one day you find yourself at a grammy nominee party.
I've been in the studio pretty much non stop for 3 years and my lack of socialization showed. They herd the nominees through a media line and do brief interviews. Our first stop was channel 5 which everyone from Chicago knows is NBC. They asked how it felt to have our music in so many films and TV shows and I made a point to talk about how amped I was to see Steve Carell over one of our songs in a recent NBC promo. The interviewer didn't react at all when I said it, so as we moved on, I asked our management girl if channel 5 was NBC. She said yes. She's from Chicago though. Turns out in Nashville, channel 5 is not NBC. It's CBS. Woops.
Later that night, my management introduced me to Trace Adkins. I'd watched part of the Celebrity Apprentice because my former road manager ZIto was on it with the Backstreet Boys. Trace was a contestant and he came across as a really nice, decent guy and my first thought, was : Wow, that's Trace Adkins, I have to tell him how much he impressed me on the Apprentice. Unfortunately, I had just seen that youtube clip where a college student, interviewing John Cusack compliments him on his work in American Beauty. If you want to see awkward awkardness, google it and you can see for yourself where he tries to tell her that she's thinking of Kevin Spacey. With that scene fresh in my mind, I was suddenly terrified that it wasn't Trace Adkins on the Apprentice and so I said nothing about it and was about as eloquent as a potted plant. In fact, Tyler Hilton, India Arie, Steven Baldwin, Johnny Lang, Robert Randolph, Kerri Walsh, Bob Christian, Evander Holyfield and a bunch of other people all probably thought I was either deaf or mute when they met me.
BTW Trace Adkins is really big. I mean huge. He's like he-man in a cowboy hat. He was very nice.
I'm off to the grammys next weekend, thanks everyone for all the support.
Posted at 02:54 AM
Sun - January 25, 2009
5dmkII
I read once that women like movies where one person dies slowly, but guys like movies where many people die quickly.
Well just so you know, if you're not into photography, this post will seem like one person dying slowly, so you can stop here.
Otherwise, on with it!
The canon 5D has been my workhorse camera for a couple years now and most of the images you've seen here are from it. I've had the 5DmkII for awhile now and here's my general impressions.
1. Useable 1600. It's not perfectly clean in the shadows but it's definitely useable. In a pinch, you can get away with 3200 but you will see noise in the shadows. These images are 3200. If you blow them up, you can def see shadow noise. That's ok for live or documentary but not so much for some of the album or magazine cover work I do. I'd rate it as a stop better than the 5D since I used to consider 800 useable and 1600 ok for some situations. From what i've heard the Nikon D3 and D700 are still the king of the low light game, but the 5DmkII is definitely playing in the ballpark. Especially when paired with the 50 f1.2 or 85 f1.2. With either of those lenses I can shoot indoors at night, existing light. You can not underestimate the importance of an extra stop of useable ISO if you shoot in low light. I was hoping for 2 stops of improvement, but it seems like about one to me. Think about adding a stop to each of your lenses... that's a big deal. That can mean the difference between freezing the lead singer in a mid air jump or having a blur.
2. It feels slightly faster, enough so that I probably caught a shot or 2 I might have missed before when I was shooting live concert action.
3. Video. For low light video, I believe this is as good as it gets. I own a $17500 RED camera and in low light, the mkII is substantially better than the RED. For all other things, the RED is better, but for low light shooting, I think the 5DmkII is one of the best options right now. It will not automatically make you into a cinematographer however, that is a unique skill set that requires practice just like photography. In addition, the lack of manual controls and poor ergonomics for video make it slightly challenging. Nonetheless I expect to see a flood of music videos and youtube spots shot on the 5DmkII. For the money, it's an amazing deal.
4. Massive drop in price for used 5Ds. I've seen several 5Ds go for around $900. This is a huge bargain for a great camera. Almost all the work on this blog was shot with a 5D.
If I was shooting concerts, I think I'd still get a nikon D700. It has considerably better autofocus points and seems to have a slight edge for lowlight.
If I was getting started and wanting to trade up to a full frame camera, I'd get a used 5D
If I was a budding filmmaker, I'd buy a 5dmkII.
On the low end side, I've seen refurbed rebel xts going for $299 and even less than that used. It's a great time to get into digital photography.
Posted at 03:10 AM
Wed - January 14, 2009
tour poster
Took a break from working on the record to shoot this tour poster for the boys.
For you shooters - large overhead softbox is the main light, smaller softbox underneath to control shadows, hard lights in back for the rims. If you want hard rims, you have to use a hard light source.....
Posted at 12:56 PM
Tue - January 6, 2009
Cintiq
I've been wanting a cintiq for a couple years now.
It's a wacom screen you can actually draw on with a pen, instead of using a
mouse. Technically you can draw on all screens with a sharpie but you only get
to do it once. It's a bit of expensive kit, so I was worried it was going to
end up being a paperweight. (I'm talking to you sony psp!)
I've only had it for a bit, but I find it improves my work flow with
photography - masking difficult areas and hand retouching
video - rotoscoping and wire removal
design - adding hand drawn elements
audio - increases audio editing speed
So basically you can have it back over my cold dead body.
I ended up getting the 21 instead of the 12 based on Kevin's advice. Kevin works at a big animation house. The kind that make movies about ursine martial artists. I know him and another guy there named Tim. Tim used to work at a company that made movies about vegetables that sing. It was good advice.
I got mine as a floor demo for $1800. I've since seen it refurbed for $1500. The 12 inch model is around $1000. If you don't need to be on the mac side, look for an older tablet (like from motion computing) that uses the wacom screen technology. I have seen them for around $650 on closeout and you could probably get a used one for $400.
This pic from above is one of my first quick tests. I was trying something in the marvel comics style for a tour poster.
I've only had it for a bit, but I find it improves my work flow with
photography - masking difficult areas and hand retouching
video - rotoscoping and wire removal
design - adding hand drawn elements
audio - increases audio editing speed
So basically you can have it back over my cold dead body.
I ended up getting the 21 instead of the 12 based on Kevin's advice. Kevin works at a big animation house. The kind that make movies about ursine martial artists. I know him and another guy there named Tim. Tim used to work at a company that made movies about vegetables that sing. It was good advice.
I got mine as a floor demo for $1800. I've since seen it refurbed for $1500. The 12 inch model is around $1000. If you don't need to be on the mac side, look for an older tablet (like from motion computing) that uses the wacom screen technology. I have seen them for around $650 on closeout and you could probably get a used one for $400.
This pic from above is one of my first quick tests. I was trying something in the marvel comics style for a tour poster.
Posted at 01:11 PM
Mon - December 29, 2008
old made new part deux
As promised, here are the instructions, although there are already many tutorials to be found on the web. This is called TTV and it stands for Through The Viewfinder. It's a way of adding some vintage crustiness to digitals sparkling cleanliness. Essentially you find an old camera and you point your digital camera at it's viewfinder. Some people use old cameras that have focusing screens, some people don't. A popular camera to use is the kodak duaflex and it's later versions the II and III. It goes for about $15 on ebay, something I found out when I bid $20 on 5 different auctions and ended up winning 4 cameras. woops.
The duaflex does not have a visible focusing screen and though it's widest aperture is f8, the viewfinder doesn't go through the lens and seems much brighter than f8. It's relatively easy to disassemble for cleaning, although some would argue the dirt and crap is why you bought it in the first place.
You're going to need a macro lens, or a bellows setup like I have above. To get the biggest image possible, I used an old manual focus nikon 85mm lens on a bellows. Any old macro lens will do really. Then you mount the duaflex as close as you can get it to the lens and keep it in focus. You really don't need something as elaborate as what I made, I've seen people use cardboard tubes. I built it this way cause I have an extra something in mind to do with the rig.
After you have your macro lens mounted and your duaflex at the right distance, you need to block the light leaks, so you should fashion a black tube of some kind. I made mine out of black poster board and gaff tape.
You're just trying to keep the light from reflecting off the viewfinder. It doesn't have to be perfect. Most designs I've seen use the tube itself as the load bearing element that holds the camera. It would weigh a lot less than doing what I did.
Having shot just a little with this monster rig, I must say it's very odd to shoot with. The duaflex reverses the image left to right and all your motions must correspondingly reverse. I've contemplated putting a lens in the rig to flip it or using some kind of mirror. Also, it's hard to get it up to eye level since I'm looking down through the camera. I have some ideas for how to improve these things and I'll post if they worked out.
I don't have any really great shots using this rig yet, but here's something I shot just to show you roughly what it looks like.
Posted at 09:18 PM
Sat - December 20, 2008
old skool meets new skool
I've been messing around with new tricks. This is a shot from my 5D but through the viewfinder of a vintage kodak duaflex. You can get them on ebay for around $15. More detailed instructions soon.
Posted at 06:59 AM
Thu - December 4, 2008
How a magazine cover gets shot...
I got a request to shoot superchick for a magazine cover, which was probably due to me being in the band and thus free. We're big fans of NBC's Heroes and the show's theme; that we have a purpose and a destiny resonates with what the band believes, so Heroes was the inspiration.
I started off by visualizing the picture in my head. I wanted it to seem as if the band was floating. I sketched out a rough drawing on an envelope, which I would show you, but I lost it. If anyone finds it, please let me know since it also had our pre amp settings on it. I am not terribly organized. The picture I drew looked somewhat like the final photo except the cables hung straight down. I thought the cables would give it a sense of height and realism so it wouldn't feel like I'd merely photoshopped people into the air.
After I had my visualized idea, I had to solve the logistics. I'd recently had to solve the wire flying problem for our music video so I was able to use that prototype for theis photo. The rig was made out of rock climbing gear from R.E.I.. I've done enough rock climbing to understand how to set anchors and tie ropes so it was only a matter of riding the lift up 40 feet in the air to set the anchors. It was a touch unnerving I'll admit to be that far up in a swaying bucket lift.
Then I had to light it.
Suspending 5 people simultaneously in the air in an aesthetically pleasing manner was a logistical nightmare so I decided to shoot each person one at a time and composite it later. This also allowed me to be in the picture. It ended up being 5 people because Brandon decided there was no way he was going to be hoisted up in the air. I respect that decision. If you've met Brandon you will understand that when he makes a decision it is to be respected.
I'd planned on using a strobe for the main light because my stands only go up to about 25 feet and I didn't want to have to hang a light as well. At it's full extension the stand can't hold an HMI so I used a lighter weight strobe with a very shallow softbox. This let me put the light right above the subject's head with them 20 feet in the air. I used fresnel CDM 150 constant lights for the side lights because once the subject was in the air I wanted to be able to aim them easily and it's not always easy to aim a strobe using the modeling light. As it turns out this would be a bad idea.
I did my testing at ground level to get my lights and exposures ball parked. The 150s weren't nearly as much light as I wanted so I had to dial the alien bees down to almost nothing. I didn't bring enough strobes to do the sidelights so I just lived with a slightly higher ASA than I would normally. I should have tested it at home first, but since we use these lights for video tests, I misjudged their brightness. This only goes to show just how much more light you can get out of a strobe than you can out of constant lights.
After I had set my exposure I hoisted my first victim in the air and set about aiming lights. It didn't last very long. Matt is usually my test subject, since he has a history of skateboarding and is not afraid of much (besides planes). It wasn't very long though before he was begging to be let down. Literally begging. Later we would discover that if you're male and you're in a harness, you should check to make sure it is set just right before you put your full bodyweight on it. I won't be more specific except to say that none of the girls suffered from nearly the same discomfort as Matt experienced.
Because of Matt's sacrifice I was able to get my exposure dialed in so we hoisted tricia into the air. When I looked at what we were getting however, I realized that the rim lights were not defining the legs enough and since i had a frensel 575 HMI I used that as a backlight to pick out the lower half of the body. It was not my intention to use a visible backlight but I just went with it. One has to think quickly when the talent is literally hanging in the air.
While in the harness, Tricia had to find ways to pose that seemed magazine cover worthy and we quickly blew through a stack of shots. I was shooting as fast as she could change expressions or positions. This is the great strength of digital. It costs nothing more to shoot 1000 shots than it does to shoot 1. I moved fast hoping I would get lucky before she became too uncomfortable. I won't get into the digital versus film argument except to say that while I find film more aesthetically pleasing, this shoot would have been prohibitively expensive on film.
After Tricia was done we shot everyone else, by Matt's second try he was able to adjust his harness in a way that did not interfere with his ability to create children later. Lastly they hoisted me in the air and Melissa clicked away on the camera which was locked down on a tripod for all the shots to ensure a consistent lens length and field of view.
After that I had to take it all down again and that creaky bucket lift freaked me out just as bad the second time.
When I got home I had 678 photos that looked like this:
Ignore the overhead lights in the picture, they didn't affect the exposure. Those are just the room lights. Out of these pictures I had to make one picture. For anyone who was playing a guitar I didn't bother hiding the harness under their clothes. I figured the instrument itself would mask it. That was another decision I would come to regret.
As you can see the harness is plainly visible. Also while we hid it on Tricia, the harness tended to pull out at the sides giving her an extra wide waist. Girls rarely like to appear wider than they are.
After I threw out all the obviously bad pictures I had it down to 108. Out of those I had to compose a pleasing but realistic composite. Here's an early rough attempt:
It's actually very close to the final but I went through several iterations, trying out different poses. It took awhile. After I was happy with my composition I sent it out to the band to see if anyone wildly objected to the way they looked. No one did, so it was time to clean up the photo. Clean up was challenging, I had to erase harnesses, ropes and lights and in some cases clone in parts of the picture that were obscured by the harnesses. If you look at the shot of Dave you can see where I had to invent parts of his arm. Also I had to make it look like everyone was in the same physical space so shadows had to be added and I made Tricia's belt reflect in Dave's guitar. I had shot a plate of the floor which I used to set the physical space. the plate looked like this:
I used that to clean the floor of assorted ropes, cable and light stand. At this point I decided that the cables looked awful. I hadn't noticed when we were shooting and I tried erasing the cables but it just lacked that touch of reality that would add an apparent height. I tried reflecting the band in the floor and that only made it look lower. So I had to reshoot the cables. I did that in my house, the setup looked like this:
My poor wife was enlisted to click the shutter and I flung cable about to get shots like this:
From that i had 132 shots of cable. I worked those in until I was happy with the composition and then spent some time making it pop with my usual post techniques. Since the color theme was black and gold I had to change everything that wasn't black or gold into black or gold. I never could get the boombox right. From about 800 shots (counting test exposures) and 35 hours of work I had one picture. One perfect picture for a magazine cover. It wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped for, but it still looked pretty great to me. The only thing left was to turn it in.
Sadly, the magazine didn't like it and it didn't run.
And that is how a magazine cover gets shot....
down.
ah well. it was all good fun anyways.
Posted at 02:39 AM
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Published On: Oct 22, 2009 01:36 PM
Published On: Oct 22, 2009 01:36 PM