Archive | March, 2010

New iPhone Photos in My Portfolio: Be My Editor

By on March 30, 2010

I began posting portfolios of images shot with my iPhone more than two years ago now. And my love affair isn’t wearing off, it’s growing stronger. The best camera still is–and always will be–the one that’s with you.

I post iPhone snapshots everyday to my twitter, facebook, and www.thebestcamera.com, but I haven’t updated my iPhone portfolio page in quite some time.

Until yesterday.

I dug through a huge pile of images and completely refreshed the gallery with some new favorites. Scott and I are in a little disagreement as to which ones are hot and which ones are not. As such, I’d love some of your targeted feedback. Please visit my new iPhone portfolio page here and tell me in the comments below which image is your most favorite AND which is your least favorite image. We’ll did this crowd-sourced edit once before and it was really helpful. We’ll make some changes if a pattern emerges.

Since there’s work involved in your edit, I’ll give some shoutouts and send a signed book or three to some randomly selected people who are willing to lend a hand with editing thoughts. Thanks in advance for your time. Continue Reading →

4 Days Left To Snag $10,000 from SanDisk

By on March 29, 2010

Remember the campaign I shot for SanDisk down in New Zealand last autumn? T’was the campaign where SanDisk was cool enough to let me blog/tweet/facebook about shooting the ads in real time, which made it the first global campaign of its kind. In part, those ads I shot have been used to promote their Best Photo Sequence contest in partnership with Freeskier and Snowboard Magazine.

Plain and simple, the best skiing and the best snowboard photo sequence selected from a panel of judges (include the photo editors from both magazines and yours truly), will EACH win $5000 in cash and have their image run in the mags. That contest submission period ends on this Thursday, April 1st at 5:00pm MDT. So if you don’t have a half dozen or so epic images in the running and if you live in the US of A (sorry foreign friends…us dullard yanks are working on changing things for these contests in the future…), get your gear, hit the slopes for the big spring dump, and go make some pictures.

Submit your images here, plus lots more info at www.bestphotosequence.com and after the jump… Continue Reading →

The Price Of Admission

By on March 26, 2010

I had a mini-epiphany after receiving some comments and re-reading a post I wrote earlier this week called Bet on Hard Work Over Talent.

That epiphany is pretty simple. I forgot to include one or two key sentences: We shouldn’t celebrate or over-dramatize that we work hard, because no one cares. If you’re a professional creative, then working hard and being good at your job is the price of admission.

We don’t hear PGA golfer Phil Mickelson telling the press how hard he works. Instead, he wakes up every morning and practices. And then, on game day, come rain or shine, in front of 10 people or 10 million people and hits the ball right down the middle. And you know what? That’s the price of admission. You don’t get to be a pro golfer without it. Yo Yo Ma isn’t reminding us how much he’s practiced the cello. Hugh McLeod doesn’t remind us that he draws thousands of cartoons in order to produce a book. You’re not in the PGA, you’re not a concert cellist, you’re not a professional cartoonist until you have worked really hard and actually seen results.

It should be of no surprise then, that we all–you and me and the rest of us professional creatives–are subject to the same laws. Hard work is the price of admission. It’s what happens after you get in the show that really matters. Continue Reading →

Chase Jarvis RAW: Cameras at Risk

By on March 24, 2010

Even after years of doing this stuff, I still get excited watching $70k worth of camera hanging 30 feet in the air off a couple of measly bolts.

Last week I posted two 3 minute films that I’ve been commissioned by Russell Investments to create exploring the topic of ‘risk’. In these vids (please check them out here if you missed them), our crew hauled a RED One digital cinema camera and a handful of Nikon D3s HD dSLR cameras into a skateboarding park and glassblowing studio with the goal of making some pretty pictures. In the process, we put these cameras to work in some pretty fun ways and I thought it would be cool to share those with you.

Thus, here’s another Chase Jarvis RAW behind-the-scenes video where you’ll see the RED One being shot handheld, slung from a jib, on a dolly, and on an Easy Rig. You’ll also see the D3s handheld, in shotgun mode, on a steadicam, and remotely chasing a skateboarder on a fun new three-wheeled dolly. There will be no cameras on tripods anywhere in this video.

Hopefully this vid answers a lot of the questions that poured in last week in the comments section, via my @chasejarvis twitter handle (I’d love your follow), Facebook (fan me?), and via email. If I missed something, give a holler and I’ll do my best to respond in the comments below.

A dozen or more behind-the-scenes photos plus some links to worthwhile gear after the jump. Click the ‘continue reading’ link below … Continue Reading →

Bet on Hard Work Over Talent

By on March 22, 2010

“If I’m going to be in this industry, I’m going to want to be the best at it. And yet I couldn’t guarantee is that I was going to be the most talented in this business. But one thing I could guarantee is that I was going to work harder than anyone else.” -David Droga, Founder of droga5 Agency

Creative talent has always been a wispy thing, although you may know exactly where you fit in along the ‘talented’ spectrum. If you’ve got “it”, then–of course–enjoy sleeping in and waiving your magic wand. Seriously. I’m jealous as hell.

If, on the other hand, you’re like the rest of us and unsure if your talent alone is enough, don’t bet on it. My suggestion is to work your ass off. That way, whatever talent you’ve got under the hood will be amplified and you’ll at least have a well-earned chance at success. Hard work is where the rubber meets the road.

The video snipit from where I snatched the above quote, plus a couple of other tasty streaming bits from Droga and friends over at Black Bag, Diary of a Creative Director.

5 Photoshoot Ideas Worth Stealing

By on March 19, 2010

Running dry on ideas to push yourself and your photography portfolio? Here’s 5 ideas worth stealing. Perhaps one might catch your attention, or inspire to you do something similar. Or very very different.

1. Photograph one of your grandparents extensively. Might sound boring, but I assure you it will be profound. If you’re lucky enough that your grandparents are still with you, spend an entire day–or better, a week perhaps–photographing your grandma or grandpa. 1,000 images at least. Portraits, close ups of her eye, her hands. Fill the frame with her face. Photograph her in her home or wherever she lives, those places tend to be visually wonderful and strange at the same time. Amazing still life’s everywhere… You’ll connect with your grandma in a very deep way and you’ll have made some amazing photographs. And when he or she passes on, you’ll have the world’s best images to remember them by. Cost: $0.

2. Flood a space with an inch of water. Have a dancer perform, or some sports stuff, shoot from overhead. Capture an ethereal moment of where it looks like someone is performing on water. Shoot any, some, all of this from a tall ladder. Or flood a tennis court and shoot some crazy cool shots. Logistically this isn’t as tough as it sounds. You’ll need the right space, some visqueen and sandbags, and a good bit of water, but this could be a portfolio opener. Some really cool post production will take this shot to the moon. Think of the reflections and the depth. Estimated costs: under $500.

3. Get 5 friends to drive their cars onto the freeway at bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic… Have your friends jockey their cars into position side by side. You’re waiting at the next freeway overpass with your camera. As your friends approach, the all stop for about 10 seconds in a line. The traffic in front of them continues to pull forward under your overpass. Start shooting. If you’re friends are as crazy as mine, have them hop out of their cars and pose for a couple of seconds while you grab the shot. Imagine the final images, 5 cars in a row with 1,000 cars lined up in the background. Estimated costs: $0. Unless of course Continue Reading →

Exploring Risk: Conversation Yields Innovation

By on March 17, 2010

The times they are a changing. We’re finally breaking into a new era, one that’s much less about companies filling formulaic advertising buckets like single page ads and 30-second spots, and much more about finding new approaches to connect meaningfully with an audience.

As a professional creative, this is a huge breath of fresh air for me.

It’s with that in mind that I’m excited to introduce some of my latest work: two short films exploring the topic of RISK. Risk is something we all experience everyday. It presents itself–and is mitigated–in a myriad of ways. What are YOU risking in pursuit of your job, your hobbies, your profession? How do you deal with it?

The two shorts above are the beginnings of a five-part series that I’ve been commissioned to create, thanks to an amazing company called Russell Investments and their latest campaign Conversation Yields Innovation (please check it out).

Few clients give the kind of freedom to the artists they hire as I’ve been given on this gig. The normal escapades usually require that we dress-up advertising imagery to simulate real-life. This project is entirely different. At its core, Russell has asked me to find and interview Continue Reading →

Creativity Alone is Not Enough

By on March 16, 2010

There was a time when good advertising photos and commercials stood out because they were creative. When just having a picture in your ad could set you a part. But those times are long gone.

In today’s crowded, noisy world good advertising photography and video must transcend just ‘creative’. Arguably, everything that is made is creative. But if you flip through any magazine or browse any interesting site, there are images that engage you and images that don’t. Gideon Amichay, the ECD of Y&R; in Tel Aviv, helps us understand that we must press beyond base creativity. In this new era of media we must be…

Brilliant. In a word, this is easy to say, but hard to do. What is brilliance? It’s insightful. It works harder. There’s more happening on a deeper level…more neurons firing when you look at the work. But beyond being just brilliant, for work to get ‘noticed’ it also has another characteristic. It is….

Different. Some professional creatives roll their eyes at ‘different’ because they argue that different for the sake of being different isn’t worth much. I agree. That said, ‘different’ with brilliance works. If you haven’t seen something before–say a fresh camera angle or a unique treatment on an image or video–you’re more likely to Continue Reading →

Deconstruct This Photo 2.0 – REVEALED

By on March 12, 2010

It was good fun poking through all the great comments as hundreds of y’all deconstructed the advertising image I posted on Tuesday. Tons of great insights, lots of great ideas I didn’t use (but might next time) and, while it was a tough choice, I think J. Harrington was the first person who most accurately pulled apart the technical aspects of this image. We’ll send him a signed book or something fun. In the meantime, here’s the de-brief. Numbers on the image sorta correspond to the numbers below:

[Update: I also posted a jpg of the RAW image with no post production after the jump]

1. Overhead lighting. Indeed the image was strobed. In this case we fired a Broncolor Scoro A4s pack with 2 heads and PAR reflectors through a 12′x12′ one stop silk, parallel to the floor and cranked overhead at about 10′ using some beefy stands.

Why? This creates a huge light source and the falloff in the corners of the gym (and in this case, our shot here) which simulates the sorta crappy light that gymnasiums from this era almost all have…sorta bright enough in the center, but mediocre to crappy everywhere else. We overemphasized this a bit as well to add to the drama of the image. This gym was pretty dark, so creating this really big source of light was quite important.

2. Fill light. Most of you were correct in nailing that there was a second light source above the model and camera left. In this case, we fired the Broncolor Mobil A2r pack using one head equipped with a beauty dish.

Why? This helped bring out some definition in the model’s musculature and cheekbones–toughed him up a bit–and …[more details along with a larger version of the image after the jump. Continue Reading →

Deconstruct This Photo 2.0

By on March 9, 2010

Deconstructing the work of others has been–and continues to be–one of the most influential things in my technical development as an artist. I’ll always bring my own vision, but I’m constantly asking myself, how in the hell was this, that, or the other photo made?

That said, we’ve dug into this before on a similar post that proved to be quite popular and–according to feedback–fun and helpful. As such, I’m interested to hear how YOU think I created the above LuluLemon Athletica advertising image. Was it in studio? Location? Composited? What was the lighting? The circumstances? The camera settings? The equipment used? Tricks?

I’ll reveal the details in a followup post. The person who gets the closest to describing the actual means of my creating it gets a signed book, a high five, or something interesting. G’head and let ‘er rip, love to hear your thoughts. Please don’t be shy… [...click the 'continue reading' link below]
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The Best Photo + Video Locations in the World

By on March 4, 2010

In the era before blogs really hit the mainstream, it was very unpopular in photography circles to share thoughts, techniques and insights about the craft as well as the industry/trade. It was taboo. Well, the monopoly on information has obviously crumbled and, while it upset a handful of ivory-towered folks in the photo, film and video industries, we’ve broken out of that paradigm to a new era of more democratized creativity.

Let’s consider doing the same thing with photo and video locations around the world.

It occurred to me some time ago that I’m in the remarkably lucky position of getting to shoot in some of the best photo and video locations in the world: the beaches of the South Pacific, the peaks of European Alps, the deserts of the Middle East, the markets of South America, the warehouses in Brooklyn, the streets of Paris and countless others. It’s a perk of the job, for sure. It also occurred to me that, it would be really cool to share the privilege of the knowledge of these locations with the world and, perhaps in return, get to learn about dozens, hundreds, even thousands of new locations that I’d never known of otherwise.

I’m admittedly in the very early stages of this idea, but I’d love to see if there’s an initial interest from this community such to spark–or help me motivate–a sort of crowd sourced aggregator of cool places to shoot images. If you have an interest, please take a few seconds and list a location or two you love that you’d like to share in the comments below. Whether it’s beautiful… [click 'continue reading' link below]

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…sublime, gritty, or downright dangerous but fascinating, let me know if this is a good idea by listing a couple of your favorites. I’m looking for not just popular ones, but remote, unknown, etc. Under a bridge, next to a stream, in a warehouse or in an alley, etc. No limits. And the more specific the better. And let go of your fears that this information should somehow be sacred. Let’s turn that upside down.

If there’s a small groundswell around this idea, I’ll put in some more effort. If not, then at least this post can be a cool list of some new locations for those not in the know.

To start it off, I’ll offer a beautiful place I shot some winter lifestyle images yesterday–atop Chairlift 12 at Telluride Moutain Resort in southwest Colorado. An utterly sublime snow scene, with a warming hut not more than 100 meters away to stash gear and get some coffee. The iPhone snap above is sort of dark because we’d just finished shooting, but you get the gist. This was just one view of the backdrop next to the open snowfield (looking northwest).

So do you have a few places you wanna share? Where do you love to shoot?
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Making Old Spice Sausage with Wieden + Kennedy

By on March 2, 2010

Ok, I promised a follow up to Friday’s funny video post about making sausage. If you missed it, my point was largely that shooting ads and making commercials is much like making sausage–you love the taste of it, but you’d probably risk losing your appetite if you watched it being made.

That last part of that statement is of course tongue-in-cheek, since learning more about how we make this sort of stuff–as it relates to professional photography and video– is likely a prime reason that this community exists, but hopefully you get my point.

That said, I thought the above vid was a great run-down of some more sausage being made, this time not by me, but rather by the fine folks at Weiden + Kennedy (specifically Craig Allen and Eric Kallman – respect!) This piece is in reference to their Old Spice deodorant commercial that ran during the Superbowl (my fav from that day). Here, they appear on Twit TV with Leo Laporte for the full breakdown. I especially like the lines “…we built half a boat”, “…it’s like a poor man’s roller coaster…” and “…those diamonds are pouring over a fake hand…”

Surprised at all that went into this? It’s never a pretty thing, yet it’s beautiful at the very same time. Enjoy this tasty behind-the-scenes morsel.

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