The Rundown...

So it's been a lot longer than my normal hiatus of blogging, and I can't even say that I'm sorry I've been busy. I'm sorry I haven't blogged, but not that I've been busy. Over the last week I've covered more than my fair share of variety.


Shot that for Prudential Corporate to go with their online and print marketing for all of Indianapolis.


That's a White gold pendant that I shot for Midwest Coin and Jewelry in Nora Indiana, to go into full page newspaper ads.


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That was shot to go with a Transportation story about becoming a trucker in a Careerbuilder Special section.



That's a new promo shot for Adrianne from Metromix Indianapolis. Some people may remember the last set of promo's here.



This was an article about cleaning Dust out of ductwork to keep your heating and cooling bills down. This was for an article in Green Indy.



Last but not least, that's a photo from the the NRG Third Alarms vs the Rockford Rage. Made a special trip back up to where I grew up to see some friends just to be able to shoot this bout.

So there you have it, kind of a rundown as to some of the things I've been doing over the last week. Not a lot of technical shooting info this week, as much of it is just an update that I am still alive, and cranking. Have a bunch of phone calls I need to return, and if you're one of them I promise that you aren't forgotten. I'll get back to you as I can. Am working on some potential food clients, couple of weddings coming up, have a behind the scenes video for the ninja's over at www.fstoppers.com that I'm putting together, and already have a few of the NRG 2011 Calendar shoots written out. Things are about to get very exciting, very quickly. More soon.

Making Zombies...

(Nikon D3x, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@48mm. 1/30th@F6.3. Single 750Watt Studio light through a 60" and 42" umbrella on each side of the camera about 12 feet up. Single Dynalight 400JR set to 1/4th power fired by pocket wizard to low camera left. Single AlienBEE 400 Watt studio strobe set to 1/2 power from behind the crowd attacking the skaters from behind. Single 400watt AlienBEE studio strobe bare bulb to camera right set to 1/4th power fired by magic eye).

Despite 'South Park's' bold statement that Worcestershire sauce being the only way you make zombies; last September for the 2010 Naptown Roller Girls calendar I attempted to make my own. With several hours ahead of us, myself and some very talented people got together at the Roller Derby Practice space here in Indianapolis with about 15 volunteers and skaters to play with a little blood.....


The blood didn't exactly wash off, and we didn't know that at first. Everyone stood outside against a white wall where we had sort of a zombie assembly line. Inside two people worked face makeup, and applied a little bit of the edibile face blood; while outside we just splattered blood everywhere in an attempt to make everyone look like they had just come out of a Rambo movie. At one point. one of the girls decided to wash her hands after using the bathroom to discover that the blood didn't wash off. When she came out in a panic appropriately my response was; "Zombies don't wash their hands...". It was a wild idea for a shoot, we wanted to incorporate all of the volunteers into a shoot for the calendar this year, as the volunteers really do help make the league what it is today. What a better way to thank everyone, by covering them in blood, and working them in a cold space for 6 hours with he promise of some pizza at the end. Zombies eating pizza? Brilliant.



The shoot was WILD. The space we were in might as well be a black hole for light. If there was a way to install the sun indoors, we probably try just to give all the girls a little sun. It was so incredibly dark that it took an 8 light setup in order for us to get enough light just to expose the scene at F8 125ISO.. The basic setup for one of the shots is shown here:



That setup was the setup for one of the shots, with a wide surround of back lights while one even farther back popped everyone as kind of a key light. It started me out at a very even lighting, which I could then shape as necessary. Sometimes it's easier to light even and ten form, other times it's easier to cut away at the darkness. In this case I wanted to see everything, and then remove as I went, which after post processing gave us this shot here:


(With an 8 shot setup I'm going to leave the lighting for guesswork. If there's a big inquiry it can bea nother blog and I'll diagram it out, but the punchline is Nikon D3x, 100ISO 1/40th@F8. 8 Lights).

Anybody who's read my blog knows that this style of post processing isn't my thing. I guess it goes back to one of my New Years resolutions to try new things with my photography. These were not processed before the calendar was released, I revisited the shoot for this blog entry because I wanted to play around more with these things before potentially putting them into practice on my own. Not to say some of my shots haven't been re-worked like this; I just wasn't the one that did it.

I Loved the idea of the zombies, and next year I have something pretty solid planned for the big group photo but we'll just keep that under wraps for now, as I've got a few things to pitch to the league's board before we get started. Thanks to Mike Guio, Tom Klubens, Jason Pittman, Michelle Pemberton, Melissa Brooks, Megan Gill, and Heather Burdette for all of their help in making that crazy Saturday work the way it did. Everybody was a trooper (especially the ones where the blood didn't come off).


(Nikon D3x, 160ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@18mm. 1/30th@F9. Single 750Watt Studio light through a 60" and 42" umbrella on each side of the skaters on top of the platform. Single Dynalight 400JR set to 1/4th power fired by pocket wizard to low camera left to add fill to the front of the platform, Single AlienBEE 400 Watt studio strobe set to 1/8th from above behind camera for depth on the hands. Single AlienBEE 400 Watt Studio Strobe to camera right bare bulb set to 1/4th to camera right about 40 feet back as a side fill. I'm not sure this last one made a difference, but it is in my notes so I'll put it in here.)



The problem with a lot of the shots that the skates weren't as visible in the images as we all would have hoped. Considering this is for a Roller Derby Calendar the skates were somewhat of an important visual. The shot we chose was pretty close to straight out of camera, which is the style that I like. There are more photos posted on my facebook Photo Fan page here. Leave some comments if you wouldn't mind; let me know what you think about the excess post processing. The final shot that was in the calendar is the last image in this post. Thanks in advance and as usual; More Soon. :)


(Nikon D3x, 100ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@21mm. 1/30th@F9. Single 750Watt studio light with a 60" umbrella above camera right set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard. Single 750 Watt Studio light to low camera left fired through a 42" umbrella set to 1/4th power fired by pocket wizard. Single Dynalight 400JR bare bulb fired by eye sensor to behind the crowd left set to 1/8th power. Two Snooted Dynalight 400JR's set to full power fired by Pocket wizard on the ground to cash shadows of a few zombies that I separated from the pack for that purpose.)

Firefighters: June 2010

SO I suppose if I'm going to talk about a few months out of the Roller Derby Calendar I should start with the very first shoot done right? Ok maybe not,but this one required the least amount of work to be able to display on here with any piece of mind at all.
(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@28mm. 1/80th@F10. The lights in back are Dynalight 400JR's set to 1/2 power fired by pocket wizard. Joanie is lit by a single Dynalight 400JR fired by pocket wizard set to 1/8th power through a 24"x24" softbox, and the open garage door on a nice sunny afternoon.)

That's Joanie Gouge and yes she is actually a firefighter. In fact she is the reason we had access to 'The Belle' which I believe was the name for the firetruck. Heck I'm lucky to remember to eat lunch some days, so I guess we'll just have to hope for the best on that one. Either way, people tend to think that you always go into a shoot with something set in your mind as to exactly how you want it. You usually always do, but you don't always get what you want; especially if you haven't seen the location before you get there..... The shot above was an outtake of the 'Firefighter' Shoot for the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar. We shot individuals of the girls at this shoot because at that point we were still pretty ambitious. I'll say one thing though, Joanie there looks like a force to be reckoned with and on the Track; and she is.

(Nikon D3, 250ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@24mm. 1/60th@F7.1. Two Dynalight 400JR's at 1/2 power as hair lights at each corner behind the girls, another two dynalight 400JR's set up behind left and right camera set to 1/4th power shot through umbrella's)

We did quite a few things with the truck, and I praise the lord I didn't break it while I was there. I stood on the hood for this shot, and whoa baby talk about nervous. Next thing I know I'd have fallen straight through the engine and would be running for the coast of never to be seen again with several firefighters in pursuit. Luckily, nothing happened. They even let us play with the firehouse actually....

(Photo by Tom Klubens)

Unfortunately the best of my final shots ended up being Vertical which doesn't exactly work with the format of the calendar....

(Nikon D3, 800ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-F4.5@18mm. 1/1000th@F4. Nikon SB-900 Speedlight to camera right to fill the girls at iTTL+1EV, Single SB-800 Speedlight behind the girls as a hair light set to iTTL 0EV, Single SB-800 Speedlight set to iTTL+2EV to the left of the girls in a hallway to give som hilight to the water. Speedlights fired by SU-800 Commander unit attached to hot shoe on camera.)

Really though it was a fun shoot to do, especially when Joanie asked if she thought we should play with the firehose. Yup, I turned back into a 5 year old (visually, I'm mentally 5 all the time). The risk to self and equipment was 127% worth the risk of being hosed for the shot above. I was pleased with the overall outcome of the shoot because these girls looked HOT, which was totally the idea. Oh and I mentioned ideas when going into a shoot? The idea for this one was to have one of the girls dressed like some sort of super pyro, with her hands on fire and such. That didn't exactly work out for us, but here was one of the shots that was to be photoshopped as such. I tried to throw some fire on there, and could never get it to look right......


(Nikon D3, 200ISO, Nikon 28-70mmF2.8@56mm. 1/125th@F8. Single dynalight 400JR to camera right through a 60" umbrella set to 1/2 power fired by Pocket Wizard. Single Dynalight 400JR to camera left set to 1/4th power shot through a 42" Umbrella fired by Pocket Wizard. Single Dynalight 400JR shot directly at the concrete behind the truck set to Full Power. Bare Bulb fired by Pocket Wizard)

In the end the final shot chosen was one I was happy with. I'd like to thank Jason Pittman, Tom Klubens, Michelle Pemberton and the entire Pike Fire Department for helping this month come together. Without everyone's time, cooperation and skills this wouldn't have gotten us started on what turned out to be as daunting of a project as it always is. I will be pulling more and more photos aside as I go though. Check for things to be posted on the blog, as well as on my newer facebook page in the soon to be coming Behind the Scenes Gallery. Thanks again folks, and as usual; More Soon.

"Third Time's a Charm"...

Some of the best things in life are the hardest things to do. Asking for a date, making new friends, confronting someone about a problem of some sort or another, chasing your dreams........ect. I give a lot of credit to people that are willing to look things face to face, hold their ground and do what they need to do. For the last several months I've been working on the 2010 Roller Derby Calendar, and more than enough times I remember thinking to myself that it wasn't going to get done, or that I was going to mess it up somehow. Sure enough though, after several nights of lost sleep, coordinating with 45 individual girls, makeup artists, other photographers and delivering products to an art director; it's done, and it looks good.

(Nikon D700, 2000ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8Nano Macro 1/50th@F4)

This project did not come without its hardships before, during and after completion. The hardest thing I've had to do in a while was look three of my friends in the eyes and tell them that the shoot they had for the calendar wasn't going to make it in the final product. I've had to deliver bad news before, but when it's your friends it's the hardest; especially seeing how the girls and the fans react to the product that we produce for them.

(Nikon D700, 1100ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8Nano Macro 1/50th@F2.8)

Face to face may be the most difficult way to do something, however I believe that everybody deserves the opportunity to be looked in the eye and told the truth. I can't say that I always do that, not by any stretch; but everybody seems to handle things differently. In today's day in age people like to rely on the phone, email, or text messaging to deliver communications to people that they either have a problem with or who may mean the most to them. I was recently stopped to talk by an old friend who appeared to walk out on a business deal we had almost two years ago. At the time I was disappointed that she had disappeared on me and I had considered it a bad business practice; but she stopped and talked with me face to face tonight about it. That alone to me means more than the fact that she wants to make good with me over our original contract from way back when. People don't often do that anymore, and for that I thanked her, and thank her again even now. Everybody reacts to situations differently. Some people disappear completely to never be heard from again. Some people brush things under the carpet in fear for a short timer before dealing with them; sometimes to only make things worse. I've had kind of a lot of those kinds of people in 2009. I can't say I haven't brushed things under the rug, or that I haven't avoided things even. Very few people will stand up and admit fault, or do what is right; and those people are the gems in today's world.

(Nikon D700, 1600ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8Nano Macro 1/50th@F4)

These photos show the work that never ends. The calendar is being officially launched on December 10th at the NRG toy Drive at Spencers Tavern in Downtown Indianapolis. Girls will be on hand to sign calendars, and collect toys for 'Toys for Tots' which is our December Charity. Sooner or later there will be prints for sale too, but one step at a time. The photos in this blog are everyone preparing the 200 calendars for our season ticket holders as their packages include a signed calendar for that year. It was a frantic time, trying to get all the girls to go through the rows of calendars, but they all did it.

(Nikon D700, 900ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8Nano Macro 1/50th@F2.8. Original photo by Michelle Pemberton)

The calendar is a compilation of concepts and photos from some incredibly talented people. Tom Klubens, Michael Guio, Michelle Pemberton, Megan Gill, Nikki Sutton, Polina Osherov, and Jason Pittman. Everyone did some fantastic work on this project and I have to extend an extra thanks for all the work they put in helping schedule girls, themselves, and make every arrangement necessary to get this Calendar done; it looks outstanding. More Soon.