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I have not yet posted the final image of the truck passing over the LA Sky Line. The info and diffrent images that went into the making of this shot were posted on Nov 26th 2008. Here is the final retouched image.
The elements were shot early November. With client changes the retouching was not finished until this past week. Things take a while to get client approval. Most print jobs are working months ahead of time. We just finished sooting greeting card images for next December. When I do a shot and a Talent calls me the next week and asks if the image is in the magazine yet I can’t help but laugh. It takes months for most things to make it to print.
A look back at the Nov 26th posting will give you background info on this image.
I was excited to do a shot for Photoflex Web school. Its a Valentines shot. Its posted tomorrow (Jan 27th 2009) at
if you have a desire to see the process you can find it there. We had a photographer covering the shoot so there are a lot of behind the scenes images.
I do love what I do. It is hard some days and the economy has not been kind this past year but none the less I do Love it. That is why I keep shooting. I just got a Canon 5D and I find it incredible. You should check this camera out.
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=215&modelid=17662#ModelDetailAct
The 3 inch screen is a dream. I look forward to shooting HD in the future. Always something new and cool out there to keep us going.
This is the final shot from a Pilot Freight Services shoot that we did last week. It was a great shoot. See below for how it was done.
I shot for Al Paul Lefton last week. Its a cool shot of an Operating room with the patient laying on the operating table, but the table has never been uncreated. It was for a freight Company called Pilot Freight Services.
We shot at a stage in Valencia called Sets in the City. Its a stage that specializes in medical rooms. They have a complete Hospital there. Each room of the Hospital is a stage to shoot on. There is a great lady named Lucy that knows all that is medical. She is a nurse and she can advise and set things up to look authentic.
The room was set up to look like an operating room. We shot for 2 hours with the talent. I used a small Photoflex Box overhead and several grids from the sides. http://www.photoflex.com/ . The Box overhead light the table and gave the look of the operating lights. The grids from the sides lit the faces of the doctors. There was a grid from each side for faces and a grid on the front of the crate to give the crate some de-mention. I did not want it the same tone across so a grid gave it some highlight.
I had a head pointed straight up to act as a fill. It gave me nice open light on the whole set. The reason it worked so well is that the ceiling was covered with Bead board. Bead Board is Styro Foam panels. They give a nice soft bounce light.
You can see the placement of the photoflex box overhead. http://www.photoflex.com/
Out of my own pocked I paid the stage and the talent to shoot a few shots at the end of the shoot. It was fun and wacky. It may be to small to see but its a Surgery book called Surgery for Dummies and there is a small organ flyng out of the patient.
I still have not finished the freeway shot. It is being reviewed by the client. Hopefully next week.
I am shooting for Lifetime Products this week. We have done some very interesting images in the past and continue to do so. This image we shoot a while back. I love this type of work. The Art Director wanted this wacky barbecue scene. I suggested that we have a grill on fire in the background and he loved the large hamburger idea. We fitted the barbecue with a burn bar. Its basically black plumbing pipe attached to a propane tank. The bar is placed on the grill and gives you as large or small a fame as you want. It can be very dangerous to work with so don’t try this unless you have someone that is trained to rig a burn bar.
The flame alone is not enough. You need smoke as well so we rented a rosco smoker. That was piped through the back of the grill. The flame kills a lot of the smoke so you need to direct it behind or around the flame. It becomes a balancing act to get the flame and smoke working together.
The hamburger was made by Julene my wife. She is very good with props and creating things on set. She cooked large buns and patties for the burger and then assembled them with lettuce and the works on set. I loved the kid holding the burger in front of his head. I thought is was funny.
This was shot on the north side of the house so we got a lot of shade. When I shot in the shade like this I usually set a strobe head to act as a key or main source of light. I want there to be a nice sunlight type highlight in the shot. I set one behind the smoke to the right. There is a Photoflex small Soft Box set to the left on the boy up front. The tree branch is flown in on a c-stand. Its a nice way to frame the shot. I will carry a wild branch with me on location to fly into the top of the shot. I like the look. Fun stuff.
I have been very busy and have not paid much attention to the Blog. It seems to go that way. I was given as assignment to shoot a large delivery truck in a big city setting. The agency came up with the idea of shooting a Freeway exchange with the LA Sky line behind it. We first found the best overpass to shoot.
