I recently worked as cinematographer in creating a music video for Marissa Nadler’s new single, If I Could Breathe Underwater. This was my first underwater shoot and I definitely learned a lot in the process (I used a Canon 5DIV with an Outex camera housing). I love this song and I’m happy to see this out in the world!
Read MoreKey Art Shoot with Charlamagne Tha God for New Comedy Central Show Tha God's Honest Truth
Back in June I joined forces with the creative team at @comedycentral to create the key art for @cthagod’s new show @cthashow. It’s been so cool to see images of the art out in the world and I’m really looking forward to watching the show premier this Friday…
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Images From My Creative Portrait Workshop
This past weekend I hosted a 2-day Creative Portrait workshop at my studio. In an effort to keep the atmosphere intimate and allow for a lot of hands-on time for students, I capped the workshop at 5 students. We covered a range of techniques such as using flags to shape light; color theory; making and using snoots; long exposure portraits; and lighting with projectors. We packed a lot in, as you can see below…
Read MoreDreamy Shoot with Actress Aleksa Palladino
Always great to shoot with @aleksa_palladino. Thanks to @nalanihmelo for co-directing and styling the shoot. Also, how amazing is that light through my fungus lens?!
Read MoreThe Score- Head Up Photo Shoot
Grateful for the chance to create photos and motion for @thescoremusic upcoming album cycle. Super cool to work with @jesseleestout and @grantjamesorchard of @metaform.studio on their vision. Thanks to @baileykobelin for assisting and to everyone on the creative team for a great shoot!
Read MoreRyan Bingham for Easyriders Issue #2
In February of 2020 I shot portraits and a short film about @ryanbingham_official for @easyriders magazine. Then the pandemic hit and the issue was placed on an indefinite hold. For a long time I didn’t expect that the story would ever see get to see the light of day, but the day has finally come…
Read MoreMaking Light in Darkness
Talking about light and darkness and then making light in darkness. Had a great time chatting and making with @dust__shape
Read MoreThe Boy Who Was Struck By Lightning
When @mengesdesign was 8 years old he was struck by lightning. That random fact immediately came to mind as we looked over the first two images from our latest collaboration…
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Creating Dappled Light with a DIY Reflector
What if I told you that i only used one light to create this image. It’s true. I used one of my favorite lighting modifiers— a DIY reflector…
Read MoreWater Drops, Light Painting, and Lens Fungus (Oh My)
When Lily arrived at my studio I decided to start off with some colorful water drop portraits before getting into the light painting…
Read MoreMy Shoot with Beartooth for Revolver Magazine
It was great to reconnect with @beartoothband for @revolvermag. I wanted to honor the album art that @tnsndvsn made for their new album so I decided to work within the same purple color palette. I was happy that @calebshomo was so patient and willing to let me experiment on making the image that ended up running as the newsstand cover. I’d never done that technique before and wasn’t sure I could pull it off (swipe for behind the scenes). It was a deceptively simple setup (just a flash, a sheet of plexi, and a projector) but super technical when it came to angle, distance, focal length, and aperture. Thanks as always to Jimmy and the crew at Revolver for the opportunity.
Coors Light: Hold My Coors Campaign
I recently teamed up with the creatives at Five Hundred Degrees studio to shoot the Hold My Coors campaign for Coors Light. We spent a day on location and a day in studio capturing this clever line of beer accessories. I legit want one of those hoodies now.
Read MoreStudying Time with Multiple Exposures
For the last week I’ve been working on creating content for a chapter about in-camera multiple exposures, which will be included in my upcoming book, The Creative Portrait. @yungallyce graciously popped by my studio and patiently waited as I worked through a number of different techniques…
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Conceptual Photo Shoot on Vision for The Wall Street Journal
In today’s edition of the @wsj there’s an incredible article written by Susan R. Barry about eyesight. The piece focuses on Liam McCoy who, at the age of 15, underwent corrective surgery to give him the ability to see. As Barry articulates in the essay, when a blind person gains the ability to see later in life “the improvements [are] discombobulating. Surgery plunged Liam into a world of sharp lines and edges. While we all see lines at the boundaries of objects or shadows, we know where these lines belong. We recognize an object immediately—all of its parts combine together, instantly and effortlessly, into a single unit. But after a childhood of near-blindness, Liam did not recognize the lines as boundaries of known objects. Instead, he saw a tangled, fragmented world.”
This is where I enter the equation…
New Work for Angels and Airwaves Album Lifeforms
Last year I teamed up with Brandon Rike and the crew at Tension Division to shoot art for the upcoming Angels & Airwaves album, Lifeforms. Modeling by Shelby Stephens and hair by Christine Pointdexter.
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Photo Shoot with Ronnie Radke of Falling in Reverse
In March I set up a makeshift studio in @ronnieradke ‘s dining room and in 10 hours we shot 25 unique setups. It was just the two of us, improvising and playing with light. He ended picking one of the shots for the cover of his upcoming book. I love when the creative process is allowed to flow, unchecked.
Read MoreAmerican Lung Association: Keeping Student Bodies Healthy
Back in December I teamed up with the creative team at Fahlgren Mortine to shoot an anti-smoking campaign for the American Lung Association. Bill Fioritto, one of the creative director at Fahlgren, came up with the concept of a group of students (aka student body) all posing together to create the shape of lungs, to accompany the tagline: keeping student bodies healthy. Since we were in the middle of a pandemic I suggested that we shoot 8 different models in a range of poses and outfits that could be composited together later on. I thought that it’d be advantageous to book dancers as half of the roles since they could offer much more dynamic poses, giving us more options when it came to compositing the final image. Thanks to all the models for doing an amazing job, as well as to Ryan Wyss, the composite artist. Finally, thank you to Bill and the rest of the team at Fahlgren Mortine. This was a really cool project to work on.
Read MoreWhat Nightmares May Come: Exploring Prisms and Mylar
I’ve worked with prisms from time to time over the years and enjoyed the effects that they offer but never really fell in love with them. Last week I decided to see what would happen if I used a prism while photographing mylar. The beautiful nightmarish images that were produced are the closest visual representation of a panic attack that I’ve ever seen. Now I’m in love.
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Americana / Film Noir with Skrizzly Adams
One day last year (what is time) I worked with @alexhaldi of @pawncreative to create art for the new @skrizzlyadams album cycle. We shot a bunch of smoky images on location at a bar to match the classic Americana aesthetic of the artist. My assistant @sethmosesmiller helped me position a snooted speedlite up near the ceiling for the first setup, which created a shaft of light in the smoke. For the second setup we wanted to imply sunlight coming through the window blinds but since it was in fact a rainy morning we had to fake the light with a projector. Less is more, more or less.
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A Fixed Point in Space Over Time: Photo Shoot with Ballet Dancer Kristie Latham Zurmehly
In my art my go-to techniques all center around the passage of time. Take this shoot with Kristie, for example. I made long exposures and multiple exposures in order to observe how she moved through a fixed point in space over time, which I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see with my naked eye…
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