About the lack of posts...

Just headshots, video, and corporate work lately. No personal work. Did a behind-the-scenes shoot on a music video for Tito Jackson, (sneak peek below), but those photos are on hold till the video is released.

I'll try to get some new stuff up here soon. I'm getting antsy to shoot just for fun again.

Getty Center

Took my first trip to the Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Great architecture. Wall to wall inspiration. A beautiful place to spend the day with someone.









Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70 f/2.8L lens.

Nicole at Griffith Park

Wanted to break a recent unlucky streak I've had going with photos, so I called my go-to model/actress Nicole Dionne to see if she was up for a shoot. She was, so we went to Griffith Park to have some fun. We always get great stuff, and this time was no exception.

Timing and coincidence can be everything, especially in this case. Nicole was in a cowgirl mood, so we pulled over at one of the horse trails. Perfect light pouring in behind her as the sun went down. Not only that, we got even luckier when an extremely nice gentleman came by with his horse, and offered to let us use it for some photos.

















Nicole then wanted to do some "Earth Goddess" shots. I protested, due to not being keen on the whole modern-hippie movement. She vetoed my protest. I'm glad she did, since I love these shots and her look fit the lighting and mood perfectly.













At the end of our shoot, she decided to play on the rocky hillside we were near. The way her dress blended in with the dirt and gravel caught my eye, and I thought it would make for some interesting photos. And after two sunset-specific setups, I needed the change of pace.







But that ended once the rocks gave way beneath her. :-)



Photos taken with a Canon 5D Mark II, and 135 f/2L lens. Post done in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS4.

Battery Row Premiere Afterparty

After the premiere for Battery Row, a new film noir serial by Jim Rhodimer, a group of us went to Jerry's Famous Deli to celebrate.

Taking these photos brought me back to my college days, when a group of us would go to an empty diner at midnight, (or later), and I would bring my camera along to take b&w film candids. Of course, we never wore 40's Noir outfits, but it still felt comfortably familiar and created a sense of personal nostalgia.





















Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and 24-70 f/2.8L lens. Post done in Lightroom 3.

Commercial #2

Wow. Been ignoring the blog big time. This video has actually been live for a couple of weeks now. Need to do better at keeping up with this...

The second commercial for chrissista.com has arrived! This isn't the follow-up that was originally planned. Got about half way through filming that one, had to take a forced break before finishing it, and then realized in that time that it just wasn't working. Got the idea for a new commercial, and here it is.

Many thanks to my costar, Kair Cogswell. A very talented actress and singer that you might recognize from the "Portraits" and "Musicians" galleries on my website. She knocked it out of the park with the voice, reaction, puppetry, everything.

Check out some of Kair's work here!

Now, my other costar. The puppet. Had to seriously MacGyver her. Started with a build-your-own puppet for a foundation, added the sunglasses, altered the included princess gown into a casual dress, took fabric from the second included gown and turned it into the lips, and created my own hair from a 99¢ Store cheerleading pom pom. Even trimmed the bangs. I suppose that means I can put myself down as wardrobe, hair, & makeup in the credits. ;-)

Also, big thanks once again to Todd Drow, for being behind the camera when I was stuck in front of it. And to Rob Lanza, for reading lines and doing a scene stealing reaction in the final shot.

So here it is. Once again, if you like it, please spread it. These are made to attract new clients, and I can't do that without your help. Post it on facebook, twitter, your blog, and even myspace, if any of you are still using it. Thanks, everyone!

Here's the link to share:

http://youtu.be/O8RF8Cpcg9U

Shot with a Canon 7d, and 50mm f/1.4 lens.

My first commercial. The whys, whats, and hows.

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to do things differently. I knew I needed to market myself, but I didn't want to stick to the classic photographer methods of postcards or local ads. Two reasons for this. One, I hate doing things the way I'm supposed to. That's boring. Two, why use a classic method when there's all these new and innovative ways to go about things?

As I've mentioned before, I made the switch to Canon after years of shooting Nikon, because of their lead with HD video in DSLRs. So why not use these new capabilities? Why pay to air it locally when youtube will make it available to the whole world, for the bargain price of free? I make something that hopefully entertains people, they repost it, it potentially goes viral, I get some more business. Sounds like a plan.

First things first, though. What to make the commercial about? Should I talk about the quality my photography and why you should want to shoot with me?... Nah. Too pretentious, and my work should speak for itself anyway. I've seen a few photographers brag about how their headshots open doors, but I always figured that's what doorknobs are for. So I won't use that line. What I needed was to get people to see the work, and let them make a decision from there. I figured, best way to do that is to make people laugh, and push them in the direction of my website. Thankfully, absurdity is becoming a much more mainstream style of comedy these days. And since I'm a big dork with an odd sense of humor, I would be allowed to play to my strengths.

Now, what would the content be? Well, I had a few small comedy shorts that were stored away in the back of my head, so I went with those. Only difference is, I would be in front of the camera instead of behind, and I had to bookend them with promotional content. I think I could handle that. So I have three commercials planned right now. The first is embedded below. It was the first because, well, it was the easiest. Good practice, and a good way to figure out if I could handle being an "actor". The second is in production. And the third is the big one, so that will take some time to organize.

Before I go, I want to thank my good friend Todd Drow, who was the man behind the camera for this commercial. You have no idea how hard it is for me to let someone else look through the lens. I needed someone whose eye I could trust, and he did a great job.

And lastly, I have a favor to ask of you. You know how I mentioned the commercials going viral? Well, that's where you come in. If the ad works and makes you laugh, please post a link to the youtube video. Facebook, Twitter, you name it. This goes double for people in the Los Angeles area. And it goes triple for anyone with a lot of actor friends who are in the market for headshots. Thanks, everyone. I greatly appreciate it.

Shot with a Canon 7D, 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, and 50mm 1.4 lens.

D23

Spent Sunday at D23, the annual all-things-Disney Expo in Anaheim, CA, right down the street from Disneyland. I'm too impatient to stand in line for hours for panels, (And The Avengers panel from Marvel happened the day before, anyway), so I just wandered around the main hall for a while.

I love the way this life-size Lightning McQueen made entirely of Legos photographs like an 8-bit video game character.



Some large props of Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum up for auction. Think they may have been from the Alice In Wonderland ride.



Winning artist of the worldwide t-shirt design contest signing autographs.



Some animation maquettes of elves from an upcoming Disney Christmas animated movie.



An animation maquette of Tinkerbell used for one of her straight-to-video movies.



One of the showcased artists doing a live painting.



A Lightning McQueen that will be used in the upcoming Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure.



A maquette of the new Storytellers statue that will be on display at Disney's California Adventure.



A model showing the upcoming redesign of Fantasyland at Walt Disney World.



Father and son checking out the wall of Animation.



And, finally, Mickey watching over everything.



Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-70mm f/2.8L lens.

Trip to Solvang

About a week ago, I decided to drive up to Solvang. The two purposes for the trip were to have a fun time with my friend Jennifer, and get some great photos. The fun part was a success, it's a cool place to visit. The photos part didn't quite work out. The cloudless sky was too flat for any exciting landscapes, which was what I mainly wanted to shoot. Got some good photos, but nothing spectacular.

First stop was Ostrichland, U.S.A. Thought it would be a lot of fun to see ostriches, but it was actually quite lame. About 15 people all showed up at once, and we were all gone within 15 minutes. All the kids freaked out when the ostriches were near them. The smell was pretty bad, and the flies were worse. And ostriches are a real pain in the ass to shoot. Even at a high shutter speed, they were moving too quick and kept ducking out of shots. Although, as each car left, another pulled in. And with only one employee, the place must be making serious bank. I think I'm in the wrong business.



Next, we took a tour of Gainey Vineyard.







And then we spent the rest of the day driving around the surrounding area, looking for photos. By the way, it's one of my personal photo quests to get a great "Lone Tree" shot. Always been a fan of that particular photographic sub-genre. I like this one for now, but the quest will continue, as I feel there's a better one out there waiting for me.







Shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, 135mm f/2L, 24-70mm f/2.8L, and 16-35 f/2.8L II lenses.