Jay P. Morgan Pictures Photo Blog

I love Photography and some times it loves me. This is a photo blog about the Photographs that I have shot, am shooting and will shoot. I write about the good times and the bad times of making a living taking pictures.
Wed May 13
http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I have been so busy this past few weeks. I have not posted recently.   I shot last week in an alley in LA for a company called Bootleg Brew.   It’s a small Root beer company that makes home made Root beer kits.  Very cool stuff. http://bootlegbrew.com  We shot an old fashioned car in an alley with a gangster in the forground. The smoke and lighting were the key to the shot.  I set up a smoke machine in the Background with one light behind it.  It made a very nice smoke screen for the Silhouette.  The car had a strobe aimed at it  with a grid to brighten the car and not light the man.    There are some very interesting versions.  The most intreating thing that happened was the rats that came out as soon as the sun went down.  They were everywhere.  They would run past he camera and almost right over your legs.  I was knelling on the ground.  Jared my assistant was shooting smoke at them as they ran by.  I love what I do for a living.  Who else shoots in an alley with rats to get a gangster shot.  Its al about the journey and the image.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/


I have been so busy this past few weeks. I have not posted recently.   I shot last week in an alley in LA for a company called Bootleg Brew.   It’s a small Root beer company that makes home made Root beer kits.  Very cool stuff.
http://bootlegbrew.com 

We shot an old fashioned car in an alley with a gangster in the forground. The smoke and lighting were the key to the shot.  I set up a smoke machine in the Background with one light behind it.  It made a very nice smoke screen for the Silhouette.  The car had a strobe aimed at it  with a grid to brighten the car and not light the man.    There are some very interesting versions. 

The most intreating thing that happened was the rats that came out as soon as the sun went down.  They were everywhere.  They would run past he camera and almost right over your legs.  I was knelling on the ground.  Jared my assistant was shooting smoke at them as they ran by.  I love what I do for a living.  Who else shoots in an alley with rats to get a gangster shot.  Its al about the journey and the image.

Fri Apr 3
http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ This image of the Sumo ski jumping is one of the most successful images that I have ever shot.  It was shot some time ago for a company selling a new floppy disk that would hold a ton of information and was very fast.  A ton was probably in those days about 50 Megs of information. That’s how long ago I shot this image.  Most people reading this won’t even know what a floppy disk is. I also shot a version of this image with two Sumos on the same set of skis. That image was for a new double density floppy disk. Twice the information as the single Sumo disk. This is one of my favorite images. Below I will talk about how it was done.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

This image of the Sumo ski jumping is one of the most successful images that I have ever shot.  It was shot some time ago for a company selling a new floppy disk that would hold a ton of information and was very fast.  A ton was probably in those days about 50 Megs of information. That’s how long ago I shot this image.  Most people reading this won’t even know what a floppy disk is. I also shot a version of this image with two Sumos on the same set of skis. That image was for a new double density floppy disk. Twice the information as the single Sumo disk. This is one of my favorite images. Below I will talk about how it was done.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ People still ask about the Sumo shot and how it was done.  Most think that it was done in Photoshop.  Nothing in this image was photoshopped together. It was done in one shot. We painted a backdrop that looked like blurring trees. Even though the drop was painted to look like it was moving past it was still too sharp. To solve that and blend the drop into the Sumo in the foreground we set the drop on rollers so that we could roll it back and forth during the exposure. Using Tungsten lights on the drop in combination with a long shutter speed made it look blurry and blended the figure with the background. The Sumo was lit with strobe lighting that froze him in place. The drop moving past blurred the edges of the Sumo so it blended together. The Sumo was too heavy to lean forward like he was ski jumping so we tilted the drop so he could stand up straight.The Sumo was standing on the end of a 4 inch by 20 foot long piece of metal box iron that was welded to a tripod behind the drop.  It had a lot of counter weight on the other end to counter balance the Sumo.  There was a small slit in the back drop for the post to come through.  We welded a plate that he could stand on and a metal band around his waist.  The band was hidden by his sash. The ski was attached to the foot rest. He could stand in there for about 20 minutes at the most before he was done.  I could see the blood pooling in his legs.  It was a little scary. The 4X5 Sinar View Camera was set at an 8th of a second shutter speed and f16 aperture.  We rolled the drop back and forth to give some blur on the drop and him. It worked out well. Better than I had thought it would. You always wonder how well things are going to go.  When a client calls and says lets fly a 400 plus pound Sumo on skis I casually say, “no problem”.  Then when you hang up the phone you start to get a bit nervous. How in the world will we do that?  It all comes together as you think and work on it.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

People still ask about the Sumo shot and how it was done.  Most think that it was done in Photoshop.  Nothing in this image was photoshopped together. It was done in one shot. We painted a backdrop that looked like blurring trees. Even though the drop was painted to look like it was moving past it was still too sharp. To solve that and blend the drop into the Sumo in the foreground we set the drop on rollers so that we could roll it back and forth during the exposure. Using Tungsten lights on the drop in combination with a long shutter speed made it look blurry and blended the figure with the background.

The Sumo was lit with strobe lighting that froze him in place. The drop moving past blurred the edges of the Sumo so it blended together. The Sumo was too heavy to lean forward like he was ski jumping so we tilted the drop so he could stand up straight.

The Sumo was standing on the end of a 4 inch by 20 foot long piece of metal box iron that was welded to a tripod behind the drop.  It had a lot of counter weight on the other end to counter balance the Sumo.  There was a small slit in the back drop for the post to come through.  We welded a plate that he could stand on and a metal band around his waist.  The band was hidden by his sash.

The ski was attached to the foot rest. He could stand in there for about 20 minutes at the most before he was done.  I could see the blood pooling in his legs.  It was a little scary. The 4X5 Sinar View Camera was set at an 8th of a second shutter speed and f16 aperture.  We rolled the drop back and forth to give some blur on the drop and him. It worked out well. Better than I had thought it would. You always wonder how well things are going to go.  When a client calls and says lets fly a 400 plus pound Sumo on skis I casually say, “no problem”.  Then when you hang up the phone you start to get a bit nervous. How in the world will we do that?  It all comes together as you think and work on it.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ Here is another shot I did on the same set up.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

Here is another shot I did on the same set up.

Wed Mar 25
http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I am trying to be more reguler with my blog.  Its hard because when the work is happening then there is no work there is nothing to talk about.  I need  more discipline and more time.  Anyway Monday night we shot up in a water drainage bowl above Los Angeles.  I had met these guys that skateboard up there and they told me about the place.  Its a cement bowl about an eight of a mile from the road that is covered in graffiti.  It seemed a little scary to be up there at night but they assured me that it was not a problem…very often.  Well I went up and scouted the place with one of the skateboarders.  I wanted it to be a portrait shot at night.  In my head I could see one of the guys up front and the other coming over the jump in the back.  We arrived at about 5 p.m.the  day of the shoot and loaded all our equipment onto a mag liner.  We took a small generator, 3 Photoflex Mono Blocks and 1 2400 wts second speed-o-tron pack.    It was a lot of stuff to push up the mountain.  Its hard for me to travel to light.  I like to be ready to solve any problem that may come along. We shot a few images of the guys on the graffiti before the sun went down.Then we set up and shot 2 different images to compose with a background shot I had already shot.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

I am trying to be more reguler with my blog.  Its hard because when the work is happening then there is no work there is nothing to talk about.  I need  more discipline and more time.  Anyway Monday night we shot up in a water drainage bowl above Los Angeles.  I had met these guys that skateboard up there and they told me about the place.  Its a cement bowl about an eight of a mile from the road that is covered in graffiti.  It seemed a little scary to be up there at night but they assured me that it was not a problem…very often. 

Well I went up and scouted the place with one of the skateboarders.  I wanted it to be a portrait shot at night.  In my head I could see one of the guys up front and the other coming over the jump in the back.  We arrived at about 5 p.m.the  day of the shoot and loaded all our equipment onto a mag liner.  We took a small generator, 3 Photoflex Mono Blocks and 1 2400 wts second speed-o-tron pack.    It was a lot of stuff to push up the mountain.  Its hard for me to travel to light.  I like to be ready to solve any problem that may come along.

We shot a few images of the guys on the graffiti before the sun went down.

Then we set up and shot 2 different images to compose with a background shot I had already shot.

Shot #1,  One of the guys standing holding his skate board in the foreground with the wash in the background.  I processed this and took some of the color out of the image with a program called Color Efex Pro.  I like the Bleach Bypass filter.  The program works with photoshop.  Here is the link http://www.niksoftware.com/cepnx/usa/entry.php  to check out.
Shot #1,  One of the guys standing holding his skate board in the foreground with the wash in the background.  I processed this and took some of the color out of the image with a program called Color Efex Pro.  I like the Bleach Bypass filter.  The program works with photoshop.  Here is the link http://www.niksoftware.com/cepnx/usa/entry.php  to check out.
Shot #2. Another guy jumping off the concert ramp.  Again using the Bleach Bypass.
Shot #2. Another guy jumping off the concert ramp.  Again using the Bleach Bypass.
Shot #3.  An old shot I did at the Sepulveda Dam in LA when I was on a Mitsubishi Truck shoot.  Again I bleached the image.
Shot #3.  An old shot I did at the Sepulveda Dam in LA when I was on a Mitsubishi Truck shoot.  Again I bleached the image.
http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ Julene did a great job putting this together in photoshop.  “Skateboarder Portrait”

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

Julene did a great job putting this together in photoshop.  “Skateboarder Portrait”

Thu Mar 19
http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I shot a final image for Palm press last week. It was a shot of the LA Theater down town LA for a Christmas card.  Cool old theater.  We  had them put Happy Holidays on the marquee.  I arrived about 1 hour before sunset to get things set up.  We changed the marque and I set my self up across the street with my new Canon D5 Mark 2. I love this camera.  It has a large preview screen that makes it very nice to view the images.  I was never comfortable judging color and exposure on the screen OF my IDS.  The screen was to small.  The D5 is large enough TO ATTRACT ATTENTION.   I had 3 different people walk up and look over my shoulder while I was shooting and scare me to death.  One girl got right next to my head and commented that it looks good.  I almost jumped into traffic she startled me so bad.  People could see the screen and were drawn to it.  I shot until 1 hour past sunset.  Its the best time to shoot with neon and city lights in my estimation.  The sky goes very blue and the city has a Max Payne look about it.  I love these simple type city images.  Very easy to do and they look great. I keep my Aperture the same and lengthened my shutter speed.  There is only a small window when the Sky, Neon and city lights are at the same exposure.  It came and I shot as many versions as I could in the 15 to 20 minutes that I had and then it was over.  Great fun.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/

I shot a final image for Palm press last week. It was a shot of the LA Theater down town LA for a Christmas card.  Cool old theater.  We  had them put Happy Holidays on the marquee.  I arrived about 1 hour before sunset to get things set up.  We changed the marque and I set my self up across the street with my new Canon D5 Mark 2.

I love this camera.  It has a large preview screen that makes it very nice to view the images.  I was never comfortable judging color and exposure on the screen OF my IDS.  The screen was to small.  The D5 is large enough TO ATTRACT ATTENTION.   I had 3 different people walk up and look over my shoulder while I was shooting and scare me to death.  One girl got right next to my head and commented that it looks good.  I almost jumped into traffic she startled me so bad.  People could see the screen and were drawn to it. 

I shot until 1 hour past sunset.  Its the best time to shoot with neon and city lights in my estimation.  The sky goes very blue and the city has a Max Payne look about it.  I love these simple type city images.  Very easy to do and they look great.

I keep my Aperture the same and lengthened my shutter speed.  There is only a small window when the Sky, Neon and city lights are at the same exposure.  It came and I shot as many versions as I could in the 15 to 20 minutes that I had and then it was over.  Great fun.