on the River

"Light Fuse, Run Away"

i think i finally figured out why some blog images, when clicked, enlarge...

...we went out on our friend's boat the other day .... spotting osprey nests & dragging each other behind the boat - Emerald Cove was empty & the ranger there ensured us that it was the calm before the 4th of July [Independence day for our non American visitors] storm - we're laying low & keeping the cedar shingled roof wet.

have fun & be careful.

20090704_transmission

Summer is in full swing - I'm still in Tahoe with the family & were having a blast: bikes, hikes, trams, crawdads, skurfing, canoeing, bird watching, jackhammer wake up calls....

I dipped back into the real world for a few days last week & hooked up with Andrea from Runner's World in Santa Barbara for a photo shoot.

Semi-Private Jet:

20090621_over & out for a while...

I'm on vacation/relocation - our annual Tahoe escape. I wrapped up a couple shoots last week & got out of Dodge... i took a few days to drive up solo & walk around in the Sierras - it's so massive & empty & beautiful up there... really cool.

I picked up the family a few days ago & we are in full summer fun mode - just had the best father's day ever, biking, hiking, napping, crawdad fishing, & generally being a dad.

so, posts will probably be limited, but i'll try & shoot some cool stuff to put up here [besides my hippy hiking shots below]

:: All Canon G10::

20090611_NIke

I was out in St. Louis MO on Monday & Tuesday shooting Hope Solo for the Swoosh - super fun shoot & a great crew... Thanks Erik & Ryan

Here are a few iPhone pics from the trip - we took a little tourist adventure up in the Arch.... i felt like i was in a capsule hotel the whole time.... not for the claustrophobic - stayed about a minute - long enough for the iPhone Pano below. 

Worth the effort though, it's good to try things that you would usually avoid or generally rub you the wrong way {crowds, tourist attractions, The Mid-West [just kidding], BBQ joints with people's nicknames in the name, driving all over the place searching for the world's best frozen custard [even when you don't know (care?) what that means]} all in the name of pushing your own personal boundaries & being open to possibilities [like food poisoning or collapsing arch shaped monuments]

.....& a couple other rando's from around the set:

20090604

....Went back to Salton Sea on thursday / friday for a night shoot for O'neill. We had a great crew out there cleaning up the rats nest of the abandoned pool - thanks to the local Cops & Fire fighters for keeping us safe & being cool & of course the NSM [North Shore Misfits].... 

Flor

Flor, Jen & the local FD.

La Luna

Kevin

20090528_scoutabout

I went on a scout yesterday - 'California Riviera' 

I like being able to drive a couple hrs & be in a completely different world.

My car said the outside temp was 122 & the place smelled like a bouquet of rotting seafood & landfill, with hints of urine, decay, & if depression had a smell, it was there too.

&

I quit Facebook the other day for the second time... i initially quit 'cause i found myself too interested in it & thought it was a bit of a waste of time... Good people, Good friends, but... i know most everyone's e-mail & i'm not too hard to find.... then i had to look someone's contact info up & it was back on & i had been ignoring it for a few months & then i started getting rando spam stuff that reminded me that it wasn't really for me.

.....anyway i still dabble a bit with Twitter but while trying to explain why to my parents i felt like a moron... it does free me up from having to bog down my blog with trivial minutiae... so we'll see.

20090521_canoe

Lake Tahoe [NV]

Canon G9

100 iso

1/200 @ f4.5

Testing "mobile uploads" from the phone.

20090515_KY

I just got back from a super fun & relaxing weeklong vacation with my 4 yr. old son ["Little Embry", no, seriously]. We went to visit my parents in Louisville KY & had a great time. 

Here are a couple pictures of Embry #2 fishing with Embry #4... 

It's a great time of year to be there... so green.

20090506_recent work

20090505_g10

...here are a couple Canon G10 images from SF a few weeks back.

simple enough to drive & shoot through the windshield -

but is that all i use this camera for? Blog Fodder?... i think so.

When i first got it i took it with me a bunch & thought it was fulfilling a need i had... what i gave up was pocket size-ability & what i gained was a 'good' camera with tons of potential, that i don't need & won't realize - cause i have other cameras that are good at being really good.

i miss my pocket camera.

any suggestions?

20090427_swoosh

Some locations from Sunday's swoosh shoot.

20090424_no one home

A couple travel photos for the weekend.

I have a shoot on Sunday with no people in it... strange, i know...

Have a good one.

• Vancouver
  
• Geneva
• Hawaii
• Bali

20090423

No particular reason for this one, i just had it floating around on my desktop. Feels like Summer.

Oneill

North Shore

1DSMK3

24-70 2.8

LR - i can't stand crooked horizons.

shots from shoots

Rambo's Tacos on Venice Blvd. 

Great prop styling.

Ben, posing with a relic of a lost art form - the light meter.

follow up

Here are a few more images from last month's O'neill shoot with Flor that i blah, blah, Blogged about.

• 1DSMK3
• 24-70mm 2.8/35mm 1.4 [love this lens]
• PROFOTO 7B [bare head, beauty dish, & octo]
• Lightroom

20090413_DC

I shot a couple of days at DC's in house studio last week for the "oh nine, oh ten, depending on what season your market is in" Women's line.

It's always a great crew over there & we got to work some ghosts out of the digital machine while we were @ it.

I was capturing [tethered] to a Mac Pro with all the bells & whistles - except mac osx 10.5.6 - & we clocked the tether speed from a single canon 1dsmk3 file @ 15 seconds [!!!!] waaaay too slow. 

So, with a single upgrade in software, which required multiple levels of IT security clearance, we bumped our speed up to 2.5 seconds [Thanks John!] unfortunately all the awesomeness caused multiple freezes & crashes - regardless,  we got it done.

Kevin, who is a clear front runner for "assistant-as-stand-in-poseur" went the extra mile with the arched back & coyly/shamelessly pointed toes... well done.

& big thanks to DOM for wheeling in the old FORD.

20090411_nike

I just wrapped up a 3 day gig for the big Swoosh in LA.

I've had great luck lately with amazing crews & super cool & fun to work with clients.

An all star cast with Ben, Brian, & Fab from O.T.M.F.C. & John Shin on the massively fast 8core g5 Digi kit... simultaneously backing up to 6 drives [safety never takes a holiday & the president & vice president never fly together].

The crew [Dina, Sorenne, Matt, Sarah, Kyna, Nicole, etc...] from Beaverton was a genuine pleasure to work with. 

some highlights:

a lot of sweat, sunburn, possibly some tears, a narrowly avoided stabbing, Wabi-Sabi sushi, Viceroy, a stolen skateboard, chewebacca, essdeebag, highly overqualified 'b-roll' cinematographer realizing the 5d's limitations, fierce Gondoliers, Big Llou Voice over drive by's, 7360 without using the motor-drive & the best hot sauce i've had from a a taco truck [Rambos]. Still wading through the images - i'll post some up when we're all clear. 

20090401_bike related

I had these piling up in my 'to be uploaded to the blog' folder so here it is, a couple bike pics.

Deadly Nedly - MTB Legend, for Bicycling Magazine

& these two shots of my bike are actually on the same trail in Sedona, AZ.

Runner's World in Marin

.......So, I was up in Marin Co. last week doing some shooting for Runner's World - my last post was from there as well, but here are some set up images that show what we were doing. I've been simplifying the lighting on these RW cover images a bit... i think I can definitely lean towards 'overkill' when trying to 'freeze' a fast moving subject like a runner while maintaining a nice saturated yet realistic ambient exposure...

We were super lucky with the natural light & added just a little bit of front light with the ProFoto Beauty Dish [bi-tube] & a hint of rim light with a plain old reflector. i wouldn't say we went full on 'wild style' but, i definitely loosened up the reigns a bit & took the time to experiment & see what was actually necessary.  The shoot flowed much faster & we shot 4 different locations as our repo's were quick & easy.

I'll post the final image when the magazine comes out & we'll see how it looks.

...Speaking of 'wild style'... 

Joe Budd  going the extra mile as a stand in.

&

 Malcom Fearon

maintaining his Digi-Hut, complete with a modified wooden cutting board laptop platform: genius.

Thanks Guys.

These BTS images were shotwith the 5dmk2 which i'm really starting to like.

my 1dsmk3 never came back from CPS [looooooooong story] so i shot alot of travel & scouting stuff with the 5dmk2 & everything, besides autofocus, was great.

we actually did a not-scientific hi ISO test in a darkened Pub between the 5dmk2 & the 1dsmk3 [rental] @ 800 or 1000 ISO & the 5dmk2 looked 'better' [detail / color] like i said, not too techy, but we were in a bar.

MT. TAM

I'm up in SF for a few days - i Love it here this time of year.

i've been exploring Marin the last few days & I can't believe i haven't spent more time here, it's amazing.

We got up to the top of Mt Tamalpais this evening before dinner @ the Pelican Inn.

This is facing South from the summit with San Francisco & the bay out beyond the Marin Headlands....

Canon 5dMK2

24-70mm2.8

this image = weird shit

This is a shot of a couple guys walking through the parking lot after surfing.... pretty much straight out of the camera. I took this shot on 9.24.2004 & it was way back when you could interchange your digi back & your 120mm film back on the same camera, so if your back died, you could back it up with film... I just saw it while looking for something else - thats how memories get remembered sometimes.

When i shot this 6 years ago I was 'toying around' with digital but definitely not sold on it at all... The quality wasn't there, the backs were fantastically expensive, there was temperature sensitivity, etc...

Plus, I always loved the 'weird shit' that can happen to film - not so much the weird shit that ruins your film leaving you with nothing to look at, but the cool weird shit like focus warps, vignettes, color aberrations, marginalia, Lomo / Holga stuff, etc...

so, anyway, this image was kind of a from the hip snapshot with this big ol Hassy with an Imacon digi back on it.... no focus, or exposure checking - wild style... & it didn't look all sterile & 'perfect' like i thought all digital photography had to look.

so, this image, from Ponto Beach in Carlsbad, CA, when i saw it, changed my mind about digital photography. 

20090309_Oneill

This is from Thursday's Oneill shoot in Laguna Beach.

We had fantastic weather, a beautiful house to shoot in the hills  - thanks MT -  & of course, the beach.

Big thanks to the crew & our beautiful Argentine, Flor.

i'll get some tech specs & behind the scenes shots up later.... 

20090303_web update

Just put a few new images up on the website.

.... a couple oldies that haven't made the rotation.

 

20090302_ a couple random ones

bambi

a few images from my South West Roadtrip.

This little Airstream is where i am staying in Santa Fe - doing a quick shoot tomorrow in Albuquerque & then making my way home.

20090216

20090214

I'm getting out of town for a few days - taking the family up to Tahoe to show these kids of mine what snow is all about. They are going to freak out.

Here are a few 'cold' images for the week.

Amanda - This image was shot during a DC shoes campaign... not really selling much product here... cool cat eyes though - if you click it does it enlarge?

1dsmk3 85 1.2

1 big ol octo with a narrow Black Flag down the center [cat-eye]

This is Ryan modeling his 'Oregon Tan' for us last week @ Ray St.- sorry buddy, i had to, it works with my 'cold' thing... a wonderful cinematographer & assistant, he was 'standing' in for our talent who was nearly a foot shorter...

1dsmk3 85 1.2

back ground lights, beauty dish & a ring all profoto

.... & a random snowboarding shot from Northstar last March [might have been the last time i saw snow] - might have been St. Patrick's day.

1dsmk 2/3[?] 70-200 2.8 

keeping an eye on the market

There's always free coffee somewhere.