May 8th, 2013
Blacks is an up and coming hip hop artist hailing from right here in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He’s got a new mixtape that’s about to hit the internet very soon so he brought me on to capture some images of him in the recording studio and some portraits for the album and other publicity.
For the studio images we didn’t have a whole lot of time so I went in with a fairly minimal kit—couple of speedlights, a shoot-through umbrella and a Lastolite LTP softbox. The studio itself was really lived-in (a nice way of saying “messy as hell”) and I liked that about it. I only wanted to move the bare minimum of stuff around that would make the shot work, other than that I liked keeping things as they were. This shot of Blacks getting a drink of water next to the microwave is actually one of my favorites because of how ordinary everything looks—point being, making music, or any art for that matter, isn’t usually a glamorous affair. It’s work and it’s done in spaces with shitty looking microwaves and water coolers. For the most part, at least!
We shot Blacks’s portraits in my home studio. Just a beauty dish, speedlight and black flag. Even threw a little free lensing in here just to mix things up a bit. Because every once in awhile you why not shoot without your expensive lens directly attached to your camera body!
April 7th, 2013
It was a fast trip to San Antonio; as I type I’m already on the plane back to NYC, but I’m feeling really fortunate to have been brought out by these two wonderful people to capture their wedding. I’ll have a full post up later, but for now here’s a little sneak peak of Adam and Derya after their beautiful wedding at the Koehler Cultural House in San Antonio. Man, it was just a crazy beautiful day….just look at this gorgeous light!
Congrats to both of these crazy kids. Enjoy the honeymoon in Costa Rica!!
April 1st, 2013
I’m going to be in San Antonio shooting their wedding this coming weekend; about time I featured their engagement session up on the blog!
Derya here is a makeup artist that I’ve worked with on a number of occasions and Adam is an actor and filmmaker. In other words, these are my people here! It was great to have a shoot here in Brooklyn since they’re making the move out to L.A. by way of a few months in San Antonio. We rambled around Williamsburg and ended up at one of their favorite places, Cafe Collette. Cool joint, great cocktails. Not a bad way to wrap up a shoot!
And for you photo-heads, this is the second of my shoots to process with Visual Supply Company‘s Film Packs. I freaking LOVE these plug-ins. The best I’ve seen at replicating the tones and feel of film. I believe I edited this shoot mostly with Film Pack 01, primarily using the plug-ins for Fuji 800Z. But I’m a real big fan of the Kodak Portra 160VC plugins in Film Pack 02, I can’t get enough of it. What’s great about all of this though is that you’re not locked into one look, everything is fully customizable with all the tools that you usually have within Lightroom. If you’ve been missing the look of film in your digital images, you best check it out.
Congrats again, Adam and Derya! Can’t wait to see you both in San Antonio!
February 13th, 2013
I’ve been extremely fortunate to work with some super talented people, both as a photographer and as an actor. One of these people is Ryan Andes here. My production company, Charred Oak Films, cast Ryan in our upcoming feature The Widowers so I got to work with him both as an actor and a producer. While we were on location in upstate New York I did a few portraits for Ryan’s website and just a couple weeks ago I got him into the studio for some new headshots. This guy has been killing it recently; look for him in the production of Big Fish that’s due on Broadway this fall! Congrats, Ryan!
January 9th, 2013
Well, last year was a bit of a doozy, to put it mildly. Aside from a wild amount of drama in my personal life, my business saw it’s first solid year of operation. There is still growth to achieve, but I’m proud of everything that’s been done so far. At a New Year’s party two weeks ago, I found myself in the great company of some old and new clients; to listen and hear how in love they are with their wedding photos and how much they cherish them, it made me feel great. I have a renewed sense that what I’ve chosen to do really matters to the people that hire me. I’m deeply grateful for those that have entrusted me with capturing these important moments in their lives: be it their wedding, headshots, or images for their brand new business.
I’m excited for the new year and what may bring. I’m going to be introducing some new packages and products for my wedding clients, and this weekend I’m going to be attending a weekend workshop with NYC headshot photographer Peter Hurley that’s going to leave me teeming with new ideas on what to bring to the table for all my actors. Oh, and I also got a brand spanking new Nikon D800 that I’ll be able to make gorgeously huge prints with this year. Since a medium format system isn’t on the near horizon for me, I am super excited by what I’m going to be able to create with this baby!
In the vein of wanting to do some test shots with the D800, I tackled some self-portraits yesterday. This is the face I’m putting on for 2013: determined….and heavily bearded. Let’s get on it, guys.
