2017...the adventure continues.
2016 was an incredible year, we were extremely blessed to shoot with some amazing companies and individuals. Our last big shoot of the year was with Elizabeth Marks (pictured above), and to say the least she is one of the most inspirational people/athletes you can imagine. With that incredible momentum, and new year's in the recent past, I thought it would be good to get the year started off with a blog about what's coming in 2017!
First of all, you might wonder why I haven't really posted on any of my social media channels (or at least I like to tell myself you've been wondering) and that's actually pretty easy to answer, I've been with my family. One of the main things I want this blog to be about is the importance of priority and scheduling. As I have blogged about before, I am a husband and dad before anything else, that's what my main priority is. When we ended 2016 I was working anywhere from 70-100 hrs a week just to stay on top of the deadlines, and we needed to take a minute to regroup as a family and get some quality time. Next week I will be back in full swing, but I wanted to take a second to challenge you as you go into this next year with a couple of thoughts:
1. Get yourself into a good headspace - This can mean different things to different people, whether it be through prayer, meditation or even just sitting quietly, take a minute every day to visualize your day and your career. I still struggle with this, but every morning I wake up, make coffee and take the first few sips just for me. You can look to people like Chase Jarvis, Marie Forleo and I am sure a million other succesful people for more ideas on this.
2. Take Care of your body - I definitely struggle here, but I have been working really hard at making sure I exercise and eat as healthy as possible. I hate the gym, but I go, and try to take a minute to breathe. We all work long hours, and this industry takes a toll on you, but you will be able to handle it better if you are healthy. Plus, for all my fellow dads out there, it will help you be focused and have more fun with your kids if you can still pick them up at the end of a long day :)
3. Take time for creativity - This can also mean a lot of things, it could be sketching in a coffee shop, walking through the city, watching a visually inspiring movie, etc. Make no mistake, creativity is nurtured, it needs love and time just like any other skill.
4. Schedule it! - I think one of my favorite quotes from Marie Forleo is "if it's not scheduled, it's not real!" I totally agree with this, and as crazy as it may feel at first you need to make sure you are scheduling yourself. I am not just talking about scheduling those meeting you have, I am talking about scheduling personal deadlines, projects, e-mails, marketing, etc etc etc. If it's important to you it should be in your schedule.
Alright, so with those nuggets in hand, what can you be expecting to see from us in 2017?! I am excited for what's coming, and while I can't talk about all of it, there are some really exciting projects we are working on. In the next couple months we will be finishing our huge video series on composite photography, shooting in studio and on location to show you guys how it goes together. I am also working on more Photoshop tutorials to give you guys all the puzzle pieces you need! A little birdy has been chirping unconfirmed rumors of a podcast...but you'll have to wait to hear more about that one :) Of course we have a bunch of shoots coming up, and we'll be posting all the bts and images through our different social media channels.
I am also planning on broadcasting live on Instagram this year, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
In closing I wanted to open the floor to all of you! I would love to hear what topics you'd like to learn about in 2017, whether it's lighting, business, composite, Photoshop, or anything else, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will do my best to respond or possibly do a tutorial!
Thank you all for an awesome 2016, and now, go BE AWESOME!
Behind the Image - Lisbeth Splawn
We recently had the pleasure of working with Model and Actress Lisbeth Splawn. The goal was to create moody, vintage portraits with a Dan Winters meets Aaron Anderson look. If you aren't familiar with Dan Winters work I would highly recommend you take a look at his website: www.danwintersphoto.com
One of the great and unique parts of this shoot is the DIY aspect. Both the background and table were made specifically for this shoot, and I'll talk a little bit about how it's done in the video. Check out the videos below and see how it's made, then keep scrolling to see the final images from this shoot!
Thank you guys for following and if you have any questions don't hesitate to shoot me a message...until next time, be awesome!
Ideas on Social Media
I recently had a conversation with a friend about social media, in fact it wasn't the first time I've had this conversation in recent history, so I thought it might be of use to talk about some of the things I am doing to grow, maintain and use the following I have. Let me be the first to say these probably aren't original ideas, but they are compiled ideas that seem to have worked for me. I'll try to keep it brief and useful!
1. Brand yourself - If you went to Art School you probably had this rammed down your throat, like I did. If you were anything like me you said it was stupid and a that you could do ANYTHING! Well, turns out I was wrong. People (especially agencies and art directors) want to see who you are, and that's really hard to do if you don't have consistent branding. All I can say is find your style, your look, your feel, whatever you want to call it, and hang on like your life depended on it! I should know it's you, they should know it's you...we should all know it's you, without having to check the name.
2. Post Consistently - I have found that posting between 7 am and 8 am every day is the best time for me. If I miss that window then I will typically wait until the evening to post, all those tired people getting off work like to scroll through an endless sea of photos...it reminds them of the desk job they left. Please notice that I said EVERY day, and yes it's a lot of work. Sure, I will miss a day from time to time, but for the most part I wake up and post first thing. (I woke up at 4:30 today and I started getting my posts ready, no joke.) You might be saying "What the heck am I supposed to post every day?!" That's kind of dependent on your brand and what you do, but there are a million ways to post stuff, like BTS, Gif's, Videos, your work or work in progress...the list goes on and on, and yes you will need to be creative. I find that I am typically either creating work, planning work, shooting work or retouching work...all of those can be posted with an image. When I am planning work I typically will find inspiration to use in the mood board, this can also be posted (see point #6) Sometimes you might even throw a selfie in there...or not.
3. Have a Purpose - I think the black hole of social media happens when you don't know why you're there, and I'll give you a hint, it isn't to waste time and avoid work you should be doing. Social media is a tool that should be used to gain exposure to the people you want to work for and with. If you really think about it, we have access to an audience that the photographers before us never had, EVERYONE! You used to have to pay thousands of dollars to put your pictures in print so that Art Directors and Agencies would see your work, now you can send them a tweet for free. It's said that it takes more than 7 times having your face/work in front of someone for them to have a chance of remembering you, today it's way way easier, but I would say you need to be in front of them even more than 7 times because of all the noise.
4. Know your audience - This point is definitely not original, but it ties directly into the point above. One of the most depressing thoughts is to send out a tweet, instagram, etc and just be hoping that someone special might see it. I spend time researching and following potential clients, even creating work just to send their way. It's a lot of work, it takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. One of the most pertinent sites for this is Linked In, and I will give you a cheat for that in a minute.
5. Don't buy them, earn them - I am not a fan of the whole "buying followers" idea, and while I do use Crowd Fire to control who I am following (which is a paid service), I also use it to follow specific people and the people who are influenced by them. Think about the people you want to see your work and who they are following, the photographers you want to be like, the agencies you want to work with, and start to grow your list. Then make sure you are posting things that are relevant and they will notice.
6. Be Social - I know this is cliche, but you should be engaged with the people that follow you. They took the time to follow you and look at your work, and it isn't that hard to say thank you. Also, and this is especially for Twitter and Facebook, don't always just post your stuff. If you see things that are helpful, especially pertaining to your audience, then SHARE it! Don't be afraid to share awesome work, it all comes back around.
This last part isn't a point, but it has been one of the most useful tricks I learned as a photographer. This is specifically for Linked In, which I strongly believe every serious photographer should be active on...at least for the moment. When I started Linked In it seemed impossible to reach out to the people I really wanted to connect with, that is without paying gobs of money every month to send invites and e-mails. So here is what I did. Start connecting with photographers who work with the companies you want to work with, and yes you will need to research that. Photographers tend to be much more welcoming then many other professionals when you are first getting started, especially if you have posted some rad work. Once you've connected with those people then you have access to the people they are connected with, and while it's never a guarantee, it will most definitely start helping you to connect with and network inside of the companies you want to work for. I have grown my Linked In network to thousands of industry people, and yes it has turned into clients. I have found that the mobile app is a little more friendly when connecting with new people...so you might want to try that, wink wink.
Ok, so those are 6 things and a bonus that can help get things going. Just so you know, it takes time...or at least it did for me. Maybe you are a social media phenomenon and I would love to hear if you have any radical tricks that have worked for you!
Until next time...be awesome!
P.S. The image below is of actual human interaction...and yes, it can be used on social media.
Dragon Alliance
Hello Everyone! I apologize for the gap in bloggin, it's been a crazy couple of months. In fact I am taking a break from retouching over 800 images just to write this :)
Recently my images for the Dragon Alliance Floatable sunglasses came out, and I wanted to give you a little behind the scenes look at how those were created. When the client came to me they wanted something that was epic and showed off the glasses, while implying that they floated (which they do and it's awesome!). We ended up shooting the glasses out of water so we could control the lighting and perspective more readily, and then shooting the water and glasses in the water separately to pull from for the final composite. All said and done this composite is well over 100 layers and was shot in the studio in pieces to create the exact shape and look that the client wanted.
Couple cool tricks for shooting this type of image in case you want to try something similar!
1. You can pick up a large fish tank at most pet stores for relatively cheap, no more than $50, so getting all the splashes and water images doesn't have to break the bank.
2. When you are making the splashes have your assistant use a squeegee on the inside of the tank, as they pull it across you get some great waves and the glass stays clean!
3. Make sure you light your background and the background is white! For these images we had a white seamless lit from behind to reduce any kind of lens flare.
4. Use Hi-speed flash or hi-speed sync. To really freeze water you need to have hi-speed flash (meaning the flash duration is short). You can look at the Elinchrom ELB 400 with HS heads or Action heads. The HS heads are hi-speed sync and the Action heads have a very short flash duration. I know there are other brands out there that can do this as well so start your research!
5. Plan! I've said it before and I'll say it again, Plan! Make sure you have a shot list for a project like this. You want to know what you are going to need in post production so you don't have to go back to the studio and do this huge set up more than once! Make sure you shoot WAY MORE than you think you'll need, I mean we're not shooting on film anymore :)
Alright, enough typing, let's look at the final images. Below is a simplified animation of how the file was made and the final images with the graphics from Dragon. You can also head over to their web page: www.dragonalliance.com to see it in real life :)
Until Next time...be awesome!
