Posts Tagged ‘Alpharetta Photographer’

I had an assignment to shoot a local restaurant a few weeks ago.  The idea was to capture the look and feel of the environment:  People having fun, good food, good drinks etc.  As I was working through my pre-shots and what I wanted, I had a crazy idea.  What if I had two people in the street.  2 normal people, sitting (in the middle of the street) having a drink….on a green chair.  What if one of those people was in a robe……….with a pipe ……….and had a golf club near by.  I was not even remotely sure what the client would think, but I figured that you only live once, so why not try it.

For a lot of these shots I was lying prone in the street shooting; prone in the MIDDLE of the street shooting.  I had no way to tell if a car was coming by; I could not see, could not hear, nothing.  There was enough nearby traffic that if a car didn’t see me, I would have been toast. I would never have heard it coming.  Thankfully that did not happen.  Most people stopped and more than a few times, people were staring at us trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

It was hard to keep a straight face for some of these!  This was a lot of fun.

Blue House Portrait

May 5, 2010
My new favorite thing to do with an image is to add  tonal contrasts to an image.  While I don’t want the subject to become “funky”, I do want their  surroundings to be interesting.  I look for an image be felt and not just sit there; not to be flat.   Perhaps That is too much philosophy , but that is what I strive to do.  Sometimes I push it too far, but sometimes (most of the time), it just works.

Below is an example of that.  The first image is the finished work, and below that the original.  The original is not much to look at, but by adding tonal contrast to the house and playing with a levels adjustment, you can see the result.  It literally is night and day.

Rock Gym Shots

April 14, 2010

A local Rock Climbing Gym asked me and the great Megan Case to shoot the gym for a new website they are putting together.  To be honest, this ended beng a lot harder then I thought and I think we are going to have to go back.  While I got a few good shots, most of them are not what I would want to show the public.  I decided that I needed to do my lights a bit differently and shoot at different angles.  While the lighting was OK, the angles just were all off.  Live and learn as they say.

But as I said, I got a few and here they are:

Yes, she is climbing upside down.

I am litterly hanging over the edge to get these next two shots.  One of the guys was hanging onto my belt as I leaned over (way over) the edge.

Rock and Roll Portrait

March 27, 2010

I was asked a few weeks ago to shoot the Georgia Healers (a Southern Blues Band) during one of their gigs.  While I am almost done editing them, this one just totally popped out at me and I wanted to share! I am not a music photographer but I enjoyed this night a lot; might want to do it again!  As always….more to come.

Last night I drove, what seemed like forever,  to a small city 30 miles south of Atlanta to shoot with some other photographers.  We had 2 great models that we worked with in both outdoor settings and inside.  Not only do I love getting the chance to work with models, but I also enjoy meeting and learning from other photographers. I always find that it is the small things that I pick up that makes me better at what I do.  Can’t wait for next time.

A sneak peak at one of last nights shots!

While Larry may not look familiar to you, many of you do know him, you just don’t know it.  He is one of those Hollywood behind the scenes kind of guys.  But if told you “who” he was, you would know him or at least his work.  Simply put,  the words that you have heard on many TV shows have been his, not his voice, but the spoken words.

Many years ago Larry was a typical hollywood struggling writer.  He graduated from NYU film school, but was having the hardest time finding consistant work.  But with a bit (OK, a lot) of  fortitude, Larry’s success has finally come.   His resume now reads like a hit show wonder.  And to be honest, I think it is about to get bigger.  Larry has either written or produced for shows like Six Feet Under, Alais, Boomtown, Millennium. But this next Sunday, one of the most exciting projects he has worked on thus far will start to air.

I am not exactly sure how long I have known Larry, but my guess is we are at about 20 years or so.  Larry is one of those people that I consider one of my best friends. We may not speak every day, or even every month, but when we do, it is like not a day has passed since we last saw each other.  Each day when I come to my office, I get to see Larry, along with Bear, (Bear’s name is another story), in a photo from many years ago right after we all jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.  The smiles on our faces were as wide as they could get.

Larry and I have been through a lot together.  Truly the good bad and ugly.  That photo is certainly from the “good”.  A number of years ago, Larry was writing for a show and called me a few days before one of the eposides to let me know that he has a little shout out for me that week.  I was not sure what to expect, but when we watched it, I laughed out loud. Two of the shows characters that week were “Chris and Priti” (my wife).  Thankfully neither of us died in the show, but it was truly funny and one of those things that Larry will at times pull out of his hat.

A few weeks ago, I was in California and had the chance to spend some time with Larry.  Just as he was about to take me to the airport, I took 5 minutes and shot a few frames in his backyard by the pool.

If you have a chance and would like to see some of Larry’s work, on Sunday, HBO will start the 10 series show The Pacific.  Larry has written two of the episodes for this series.  And while I have not seen the final product, I can tell you that the previews look awesome.

I received a call the other day from some local realtors asking if  I would help them with a new listing that they had.  It was a big deal for them and they wanted to make sure they could do the best they could.  They had been working with the homeowner for 2 years and felt they really needed to go all out for their client.  And for a $1.3mm house, I think I would go all out as well.

We spoke about what they were looking for and what they needed.  The project ended up taking a bit more time then I planned on, but I wanted to makes sure that they got it right and had a client who was thrilled with the images of their home.  Below are some of the shots that I took.

As a PS: yes, these are all HDR.  And no, I don’t think that is cheating. The goal is to show off the house right?  And I think these images do just that.