merry christmahanakwanza

I finished this before Christmas.
I just forgot to hit upload.
I hope that you are forgiving,
and not a Christmas toad.
I hope that this will find you
singing a happy song
I wish you all a Merry Christmas,
and may your days be long…

and they are with children like ours.

a hero

I have been so flipping behind on the bog it is sad. But it is actually good as I have been very very busy. Here is the latest from your’s truly. Another low budget spot that I refuse to make look low budget. It is kind of interesting how this one came about. The client didn’t have any phones in that I could photograph, so I had to do the whole thing with one flat image. Nothing you see here was done with 3D software, this is all Indesign psuedo-3D.

If you want to catch up on other spots I have done click here.

North squared

Last night I shot a timelapse of a small section of Unalakleet. Now it looks like it might have been the only chance I’m going to get. A few hours ago we got word that a severe storm is on it’s way. We might have waves coming in 12 to 15 feet high. The town is prepared, but we might get stuck here. Here are some photos of day 2. Technically the day isn’t over yet, but we are eating lunch in a pizza place and they have the fastest Internet in the village. Plus we might not have power in a couple of hours.

Frozen Cowboy

I’m currently up in Unalakleet, Alaska shooting a commercial for a cellphone company. I’ve been taking some random iPhone shots and felt like sharing. First day… It’s really cold. Really cold. Especially after living in Austin Texas for the last year.

Rocketman

I’ve been waiting to post this a while. I was going to do a behind the scenes and have some details of the making of the actual props, but it will have to wait, as I am really, really busy at the moment. The actors have been waiting to see the finished product. Here it is in it’s glory with more info to come, Rocketman:

p.s. Today marks the anniversary of the day Doc Brown hit his head and came up with the Flux Capacitor, which makes time travel possible. Since I have a nice hat tip to the Capacitor in this commercial, I thought it fitting I post this today.

Directed and produced by Vince Penman and Matt Twohy.

social sabbatical

I have been actually taking a break from social media. Believe it. Shoot, my Analytics count for this site wont dispute it either. But I have to confess, it has felt wonderful. A lot has happened in the past month and a half and I promise some good blog posts coming up. Here is a rundown of some things:

1. I enjoy running now. I will run a half marathon in December.
2. I have taken a much needed creative break from photography.
3. I have lost 10 pounds.
4. I took a week vacation to perform endless hours of manual labor.
5. I have made a deck with my bare hands (and power-tools).
6. I have refinished a floor. Tore up vinyl and carpet, then stained the concrete.
7. We are moving to a new house in 6 days.
8. I am making an arcade (look for great post on this later). On hold for now due to other items above.
9. I am building a man cave.
10. Yes, I AM building a man cave.

While you wait

While you wait for some new projects I’m finishing to be put on the blog, please enjoy this slide-show of the Worlds Ugliest Dog Contest.

Here is a preview:

hot off the press

Just finished doing the post work for this image for an ad and thought you’d like to see it. I had way too much fun making the jet pack for the shoot. We shot this on Saturday, just two days ago. We were also supposed to shoot video for the TV commercial part of the campaign, alas, Texas was receiving MUCH needed rain all weekend (worst drought since 1950) and we couldn’t shoot outside. We are scheduled for Tuesday to shoot the commercial, so keep your eyes peeled for something early next week. As promised I will have a blog post dedicated to some behind the scenes action as well.

Here is some close-up on a little detail:

Also what the ad will most likely look like for the print campaigns:

some randomness

Any of you remember the Searching for Sonny post I did a while back? Until the film comes out they are keeping up a nice little blog you should follow, if you like film. It’s at dslrfilm.com. Anywho the image above is a weekly comic they are doing about what should have happened in a particular movie. Get the reference? Think Kindergarten Cop. Link to post here.

I laughed almost as hard as I did when I saw this picture from awkwardfamilyphotos.com: (the caption makes it more funny)

(caption: The cat is thinking of entering him into some more shows.)

I have fought a good fight

You are looking at the final picture that was edited for the coffee table book. Yes, that means the photo editing is now finished! All 100 portraits. I feel like this woman above right now. Giddy beyond all. If it were not 4:00 AM, I would be jumping around the house. No, I’d be running down the street Doc Brown style, with my arms held high. What does this mean? It means Tiffany needs to get her buns down to Austin, so we can shoot the cover photo and plop the text in, and get this book printed. Then make it a New York Times best-seller in the Coolest Photography Coffee Table Book category. That category exists, really .

In reality, we want this book to be a huge success, not only because we put so much time, time, energy and time into this book, but because we believe in the message. This book is about destroying negative Alaska Native stereotypes. There is still so much intolerance and ignorance in the world today. Even with the culture shift of becoming “more acceptive,” the pendulum swings just as easily in the other direction. I think this message can be applied to any culture. Ignorance begets intolerance. So buy the book and get educated.

OK. I’m now off of my soapbox. I really am excited to have these done. It took me too long. Sometimes I would spend an hour on one image. NOT, I must quickly add because they needed to be fixed. I just want everything to be perfect. In reality the images are hardly touched up. We want honest faces. No liquify tool. No magazine-style-have-no-pores skin. Just honest to goodness portraits.

So there you have it. Now it’s time to run down the street… if only I had a Delorean.