Well I drove out to Waterton Park last weekend (close to the US border) and went camping for the first time since I rolled a car in an accident a few years back. Anyway, I’m still not a great driver but again I survived and with some photos I don’t normally take. I’m not much when it comes to nature and geography, so this is what I’ve got.
Blog
Stills from ‘The Women Upstairs’
Looks like I forgot to publish this one, I believe this was the beginning of the year.
During some extraordinarily busy weeks at my day job, I had the chance to do some low ball indie film work, I put on my lazy director of photography hat, and shot another Tito short film with some friends. In between setups I had a few chances to get stills with my hobo kit.
During some extraordinarily busy weeks at my day job, I had the chance to do some low ball indie film work, I put on my lazy director of photography hat, and shot another Tito short film with some friends. In between setups I had a few chances to get stills with my hobo kit.
 |
 |
Good old Point and shoot?
Alright so, I tried out my cheap ebay speedlights and triggers for the first time. The good news is the $35 yn460 light seemed to work as well as a $300 dollar SB-600 for my uses, the bad news is I failed to get the corresponding light stands so I fumbled quite a bit trying to wield my old d70 in one hand and an umbrella with a light tapped to it in the other. I came out with some good shots but, I lacked the variety I wanted with that light setup. Anyhow, being a free practice shoot n’ all I had no trouble coaxing Anna into doing a re-shoot, where I left the lights in the trunk and just got back to good ol’ point shoot. Let me know what you think.
jesse
Washing clean laundry?
So, I guess I like laundromats…. well, somehow this was the first time I was in one (two actually). I should be shooting every couple of days but, I always seem to find excuses, one being I’m far too poor to have the proper gear. I can put that to rest now… sure I can’t do everything I want but, with a modest 300 dollars worth of gear but it certainly does simplify things.
This was a couple months back after purchasing my very first DSLR…. that’s right, I’ve been borrowing for the last 2 years. Anyway, I swiped an old noisy Nikon d70 for around 200 bones on ebay and a cheap 50mm f1.8 portrait lens for another 100. With the exception of the last three shots that’s all I was working with, not too shabby.
jesse
Commercial work: Photoshop Before and Afters
Alright, so I’m a little hesitant to post these as I’m not sure if those in the ad world want to reveal what I assume everyone already knows, every advert image is photoshopped to death. In fact, these aren’t even the finished images, they’re just how far I went before handing them off to our graphic artists at work. Anyway, questions comments…etc.
Jesse
A few stills from ‘The Great Recession’
Without the possession of a camera for about 6 months I had been getting a bit antsy and finally scratched together about 300 and a change to buy a d70 and a cheap portrait lens. A friend of mine invited me out as an extra pair of hands making a short film. So, when I wasn’t carrying anything I was trying to get my photo barrings back, I think it was a good start.
First step with architectural photography
These are some shots of a luxury condo downtown Edmonton, this was my first attempt at architecture photo jazz. I’ve gotten a lot of practice since snapping these, and gotten much better, these were educational for me. Being a completely new kind of shoot, I was a little out of my comfort zone but, I think I’ve gotten the hang of it.
Yes, it has been literally months since my last post, I’ve had my web design hat on for a while, but I’m still shooting, and will be like crazy in the coming months so stay tuned.
Off topic, Jesse and low ball cinematography
Ok, so we shot this way back in August and to be perfectly honest I’m not the most proud person…. I hate pretty much everything “creative” I do… at least the first time around. We shot it last summer, I was editing in the begining in the fall and it’s been on “the interwebs” for about 4 months or so. This was my first attempt at cinematography and editing, it’s not really finished, but this is probably how it will remain for the next while. Keep it real, stay classy, keep your stick on the ice? It’s called ‘Edgars Epilogue’
Another test with simple design
I had a lot of fun with the last post so I decided I would give it another try. This didn’t go as smoothly as I just didn’t have any fresh ideas. I tried to remain simple here so it’s very two demential. If anyone has any constructive criticism that would be welcomed. I’m always trying to learn so let me know what you think.
J
 |
 |
First attempt at typography
Well, I honestly couldn’t say whether or not this is my first attempt, I think I have a vague memory of messing around with this stuff when I was in about the 5th grade. I really should have contiuned with it then rather than following that phase with about a 10 year hiatus from graphics. Anyway, this is something I put together tonight over about an hour or so…. hmm maybe over 2 hours… my skills are a little rusty.
The secret is out, I use photoshop
I was sorting through some old work last night and came across this image. I was doing still photography for an independent film here in Edmonton and Tito Guillen (Director) wanted to use this shot as the poster. Unfortunately this was just one of those shots that didn’t work out, basically it’s terribly out of focus and our actor is yawning in the shot. There was also a lot of negative space on the left side which bugged me so I decided I was going to work on it a little before I gave it away. Here’s what I came up with. Be sure to click the thumbnails to see the full before and after images.
haha, I should mention that 98% of what I usually do in photoshop is color modification and shading. I never transform any of my portraits like I did this one. This was just one of those instances where I had to salvage a shot I would normally have deleted. In this case as I was editing a story and a characters appearance, not solely a person in a portrait where I wouldn’t ethically be able to modify this way.
J
My first attempt at sports photography….
The challenge: make division 4 soccer look exciting. It certainly helped that Carey’s team took a terrible beating. Unfortunately, I missed most of the low bows and angry expressions that came from that later in the game. Anyway, here are some shots of my brother and his soccer team getting destroyed as best as I could capture on my first try. I think I’m going to give this a little more practice in the future as I felt I missed a lot of moments. I really should have been concentrating on the players eyes rather than the ball, lesson learned.
Jesse
After a long hiatus the blog returns – last thing first, Ashley Turlock Miss Planet Beach Video
It’s finally September and Photo season should be slowing down. Well, not as much as expected, there’s still a lot of editing to do, and Carey keeps getting steady bookings so, lets say maybe November. In the mean time between shoots I’ll find a way to put up a little progress every 8 to 10 days.
So starting in reverse chronological order here’s the latest video Carey and I put together. We spent a couple hours last Tuesday doing a photo shoot for Ashley Turlock, a local fitness model and winner of the Miss Planet Beach Edmonton competition. While on location we recorded a promo video for entry in this years International Miss Planet Beach competition, take a look.
For the video/photo/gear nerds – This was almost solely shot with a still camera, the Nikon 90 DSLR and also a bit with the aging Panasonic HVX HD cam with a little audio gear.
Special Thanks to DJ Nitro from the music, you can check out more of his stuff at www.djnitro.net
Until next week,
J
Beard Pelly Wedding
Notice the shortage of awful Micheal Bay shots in this one. No absurd pans and twists, must mean I’m developing taste… sweet. Anyway, Carey and had a lot of fun cutting this together, we’re both improving as editors and it’s showing.
Anyway, gotta love hotal Mac weddings, I’ve only done two there but they’ve been two of the best ones. The deco, the venue the couple, the food, the wedding party… everything was really good. Oh yeah the DJ was pretty good too, there wasn’t too much modern pop coming out of the speakers, I really wanted to stay at the end enjoy the dance. I’ll stop now, lets just it was fun. Enjoy the video. 
It’s photo season. Busy :) Fusion video of the Beestons
It’s been 3 family sessions, a corporate, a wedding, a couple and a pregnancy shoot since my last entry… I never fail to find excuses for not keeping up with my blog. Here’s the latest video of the Beeston family shot about a week ago. This time, I avoided any auto settings and tried to focus on getting a shallow depth of field (no pun intended). Anyway, half the time it really worked, the other half the Beestons would be blurry… uh oh. No worries, the footage has been getting better with every shoot. Every editing session is scheduled for 3 hours and ends up doubling that, so Carey and I are really beginning learn what works and what doesn’t.We finally went for an old film look with this one. This is a pretty good Wonder Years rip off so I hope you like it.
Jesse
