PHOTOSHOOT: Moonbathing with Amber

On a recent trip to the Keys, I had the luck of it being the dawning of the full moon. With the lack of ambient light in the islands, it makes it much easier to see the stars and the sky, creating the inspiration for this photo. This was shot after dark, with two shots composited together. One focusing on the lighting of Amber and the jetty, and the other focusing on the exposure of the sky and the moon. With the amount of wind, and lack of tripod, I was very pleased how it came out.



^Click Image for Full Sized Photo

Tech Specs:
Model: Amber Eastman
Shot on Location: Coral Key, Florida Keys
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f/4L Canon Lens
Lighting: Alien Bee 800, and Natural Moonlight

Special thanks to my lighting assistant: Cate Shea

PHOTOSHOOT: Lava Surfing with Leigh Anne

During a recent photoshoot for our Skinvestigator Covers, Orlando model/actress, Leigh Anne Thomas and I decided to do something a little more elaborate with our time in studio. I've always had a vision of a surfer riding a wave of Lava. It makes sense, sort of. So after some proposed alignments, we came up with this concept, and put this together. The imagery is obviously an allegory to the fall of the Berlin wall... or Dante's Peak.


^Click Image for Full Size Photo

Tech Specs:
Model: Leigh Anne Thomas
Shot in Studio
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f/4L Canon Lens
Flashes: Alien Bee 1600, 800, and Ring Flash

PHOTOSHOOT: The Skinvestigator Novel Covers

Our good friend Dr Terry Cronin, owner of 3 Boys Productions, the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival and publisher of our comic book The Vandyls, and Student of the Unusual, has taken time out of his incredibly busy schedule, to write a new batch of novels. I had the pleasure of shooting three cover versions for the series of books. We shot these in studio in 2 sessions. I also did the layout design, simple yet effective (hopefully!)


^Click Image for Full Photo


Tech Specs:
Model: Darryl Sposato, Leigh Anne Thomas, Anna Solyanik
Shot in Studio
Canon 5D Mark II, 55mm f/1.4 Canon Lens
Flashes: Alien Bee 1600, 800, and Ring Flash

Empyrean "Le Retour" Music Video

I had the pleasure of recently creating a Music Video for our good friends in the Orlando-based Metal band, Empyrean. The hired me on to Shoot, Direct, and Edit the video, for their song "Le Retour De Mere-Terre", on their album Resurrection Engine. The video was quite an undertaking, and we spent 6 days on location, 2 days in the mountains of North Georgia, a day in a Victorian manor in Gainesville, FL, a day in the woods of Geneva, FL, and 2 days in the Florida Keys. The the amount of labor and travelling (40 hrs of driving), this would be a great feat for any normal full sized film crew. None the less, we went armed with myself, the band, actors, and 5 makeup artists. We chose to laugh in the face of adversity (and Tifton, GA folk).

The video had it's grand premiere at the House Of Blues in Orlando, this past Saturday night, where the band, and 4 other local acts also performed. What should have been a magical evening, turned into turmoil, when after weeks of assurance from HOB that this was totally cool, they decide an hour before doors open, that they will NOT allow our video to play, due to content. We have a guy being hung, and a girl falling into the ocean... My argument was that just because our film didn't have "Pirates of the Caribbean" in front of it, didn't mean it should be censored. After a while of serious arguments and negotiations with HOB and Disney, we finally threatened legal action, and they decided they would let us show the video, if we blacked out the parts they deemed inappropriate. This amounted to 45 seconds of the 7.5 min video. Luckily, Drew, the band's drummer had a laptop only 20min away he could edit on, and he ran home to throw in the black. They were literally arguing over whether to play it, up till the time the screen rolled down. The crowd laughed and Boo'ed over the sections that suddenly cut to black and read "HOB EDIT". So other than suffering mild heart palpitations, the night ended on a high note, and we still came out on top.

Watch the final video here for Le Retour, in all of it's uncensored glory.

^Click Full Screen for Full HD

PHOTOSHOOT: 3 Paul's Howling at the Moon

I recently did a headshot shoot for our buddy Paul Steward (Director of Photography on Doomsday County, and Owner of 316 Productions) and during the conversations it dawned on us, that this man seriously needed an image of himself spoofing the infamous 3 Wolves shirt.


^Click for full photo

Tech Specs:
Model: Paul Steward
Shot in Studio
Canon 5D Mark II, 55mm f/1.4 Canon Lens
Flashes: Alien Bee 1600 & 800

R.I.P. - Steve Perry

It was brought to my attention today that Comic Book writer Steve Perry was recently found murdered in Zephyrhills, FL, only an hour and a half from my house. This was after he was missing for two weeks. We had the pleasure of meeting Steve while doing some video interviews with our friend Brian Pulido for the Hero Initiative at the 2010 Megacon Convention. Steve has been in the comic book industry for many years, known best for writing Thundercats, Silver Hawks and Time Spirits. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

More info on his death here.

Here is the video we were able to shoot with him about his struggles, only three months before his death...

^Double Click video for full size

PHOTOSHOOT: Totally Awesome Tasha

I had the pleasure of recently getting to shoot with local Orlando Actress/Model, Tasha Wise. I had promised her new headshots in exchange for a concept shot. While prop shopping for Doomsday County, I came across a retro pair of 1980s Back To The Future Pizza Hut Meal style glasses, and inspiration struck. We did this shoot in the studio, luckily dodging the intergalactic war going on.


*click for full photo

Tech Specs:
Model: Tasha Wise
Makeup by: CS Studios (www.csstudiosfx.com)
Shot in Studio
Canon 5D Mark II, 17-40mm f/4L Canon Lens
Flashes: Alien Bee 800 & Ring Flash