New image wip

The first two came togther pretty well. This one needs work. Clouds look wrong and it all looks cut and pasted together.

New Work in Progress of Second Sierra Image

Little Movie Showing How First Sierra Composite Was Put Together

First Retouched WIP

Here is the first round work in progress from the retoucher (Laura Johnston). It looks really close. Usually the first round is not as good as this but Laura is really talented and I think in this case it was shot to be put together pretty easily. My fear is that the surfer and snow images will create more serious problems for her. Oh and I bet bikers will be a big mess to make sense of. It always works out best when I can pre-visualize the final composite image before taking the first picture in a composite.

On this picture I still have to decide if he needs to be higher or lower in the frame. When I shot this picture in Mono Lake I remember the camera being pretty close to the ground and we made sure to shoot the hunter from the same angle. There is also a bit of a black line under his left elbow that gives away the composite so that will need to be addressed.

Super Rough Comps

Here are rough comps of what I shot. I will post some of the different rounds of changes when the real post production starts.

Sierra Photo Shoot Yesterday

We had a great shoot and a very long day. I think we got six pictures we can use and maybe four home runs. But that could just be the after effects of having a good time. All photographers are geniuses in the first few hours of taking a picture and it is only after a few days have passed does the photographer wake up to the realization that they have made a photograph that more often than not is a cliche and is not very good. This has happened to me countless times and was particularly the case back in the film days when it was a mystery if you had anything at all. It was only when I got in the darkroom did I learn that amazing moment I thought I had looked like it was actually shot from the moon or the film failed to advance or was way way out of focus.

I think a big reason for yesterday's success was the casting (blackwellfiles.com). Without exception each model needed very little direction and worked because of who they were not me telling them to act a certain way. Nancy (the woman in the snow with the girl) walked on set, I asked her to run as if chased and she nailed it the first time. She could have gone home after one take but since we had for few hours I asked her to do it over and over but basically she got it on the first frame.

I thought Kasey did a great job styling and liked everything she did. Jasmine was probably the most talented make up person I have worked with. As long as the h/mu person doesn't make the female models looks like French hookers and the male look like transvestites I can't tell the difference between good and great h/mu. She was able to bring a point of view to her work and make everyone look good and finished but also reenforce the central premise of each photograph.

Casting for Sierras Shoot

Just completed casting for Eastern Sierras shoot. Trying to do 6 pictures in one day. Sounds ambitious.

Rough Comp from Eastern Sierras

Here are a couple rough comps from my trip to the Sierras last week. I am now in the process of casting people for the foregrounds.

Road Trip

Drove 2000 miles in four days in the Eastern Sierras. Shot film for the first time in a couple years. Pretty Great. See website for new work in coming weeks. Mark Kitchell the location scout did a great job of planning the route and showing me the best placs to shoot.

Ad for Modern Postcard

One in a series of ads running in trade pubs featuring my work.

PDN Photo Annual

My website got into the Annual.