Jay P. Morgan Pictures Photo Blog

I have been working on a lighting DVD series for Photoflex the...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:38:01 -0800

I have been working on a lighting DVD series for Photoflex the past few weeks. Its been a long hard process. I shot all the HD Video with my 5D Mark 2 and loved shooting with it. Its a whole new world for me. I have shot many commercials always on film until the past few years when HD came on the scene.
The new 5D gives you a great film look because of the shallow depth of field. I would recommend the camera to anyone.

This image I’m posting was part of the series that we did for Photoflex. It was shot to show how to color balance your 5D with a gray light disk. I will show the HD clip in the future.

The shot was done with a special effects item called an air cannon. Its a canister that holds air from an compressor. It has a gage on it so you can build the presser to a given point and then hit the trigger and let the air out all at once. In this case we made a wooden seat for the little boy to sit on and then ran a 2 inch pipe from the air canon over the pool ending behind his seat. The pipe was underwater just a little bit so that it would spray water when the air was released giving us the splash look. I love special effects photography. The kids did a great job. It can be scary to have the noise of the air cannon going off and water splashing all around but they did great.

The lighting was very simple. I have one strobe light from behind to light the water. If you do not back light water it is very hard to see. I then had a small soft box to the right of the camera for the faces of the kids. Ambient provided my fill.
If you are interested in the lighting Video that I did you can get it for the cost of shipping from photoflex. Go to

http://www.photoflex.com/showcase/Jay_P._Morgan_DVD/index.html

Have a great holiday.

Photo

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:10:49 -0800

Photo

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:08:00 -0800

I shot this past week with Traver Hispanic Marketing Group. We...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:05:38 -0800

I shot this past week with Traver Hispanic Marketing Group. We shot Liz Hernandez for standees that they are working on. The images from the shoot and the client I can’t discuss until it comes out.

I did however do some shots of Liz at the end that I can show that came out quite well.
Liz is a DJ for Power 106 and very easy to work with. Some talent and especially celebrities don’t understand still photography. Liz understood that there are moments that you need to give the photographer and that you pause briefly. Its a timing process where you can get into a rhythm and get wonderful images.

I had set up this old wall on the side and had it light so at the end if she was willing we could get a couple of shots. She was very gracious and gave me the time.
I wanted to use an old radio as a tie in to her job. The images are light with 3 lights.
#1 strobe light with a grid coming across the wall from the left.
#2 Overhead strobe with warming gel aimed straight at the floor in the doorway.
#3 A strobe ring light on the camera.

A ring light is a strobe that has a flash tube bent in a circle in a flash reflector around the lens. Its about a foot in diameter with a hold for the lend in the middle. I rented mine at Samy’s camera http://www.samys.com/ in pasadena.

Its fun to shot with and gives you a lot of mobility. I hand held these shots with the ring light around the camera. I love these types of shots centered around sets or architecture. It was a great shoot.

I'm Back

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:46:15 -0700

I have been very busy the last few weeks that I have lost track of the blog. I just finished shooting an hour long lighting DVD for Photoflex. It will be available on their site for free in about a week. I will post the link when it becomes available. For now this is the Teaser posted below. It was a lot of fun to shoot HD Video on the 5D. I love this camera and all that it can do. I will also post the short we shot when we are done with the editing. I’m back and will be more diligent with new postings.

The Slanted Lens Lighting series Vol. 1

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:23:00 -0700

The Slanted Lens Lighting series Vol. 1

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/I know I committed to post even when...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:45:28 -0700

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I know I committed to post even when its busy. It is so hard to do when I’m working 12 to 14 a day. I was shooting for Lifetime Products and shot this image of their “Jumping Jack Trailer”. There were several images that I liked.

This shot was take the last day at Point Dune beach in Malibu. The sun was gone so I got out the small Photoflex (http://www.photoflex.com/) mono block strobes and placed them into the tent. The light that came out the windows of the trailer worked. Combining the strobe light with a long exposure It keep us shooting for an hour after sunset.
At the beach you can not have a fire unless you hire a Fire Marshall and jump through all kinds of hoops. I choose to simply put a strobe head into the metal fire ring that we bought at OSH and cover it with a red gel. It works quite nicely. I might retouch a flame into the fire ring to make it look better but don’t feel like it’s a must.

I hate to stop shooting when there is a chance something exciting will happen. This shot is a good example. The day was gone and we had been shooting for a long time but there was still light in the sky. I just have a hard time walking away when there is even a little light left. Strobes keep me shooting so I use them. I’m loving my new camera the Canon 5D Mark 2. It is sharp and the images look great. I will start shooting HD as soon as I can. Life tis good. Until next time.

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I have been so busy this past few...

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:26:35 -0700

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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/ This image of the Sumo ski jumping is...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:43:36 -0700

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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...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:42:07 -0700

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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...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:02:38 -0700

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

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I am trying to be more reguler with...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:26:32 -0700

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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...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:24:05 -0700

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...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:23:17 -0700

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...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:22:38 -0700

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...

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:21:36 -0700

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

http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ I shot a final image for Palm press...

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:58:03 -0700

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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/

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:53:24 -0700

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http://www.jaypmorgan.com/ We have been shooting greeting cards...

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:35:58 -0800

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We have been shooting greeting cards for Christmas the past 2 weeks. Its always a good time to shoot cards. Flamingo’s with Santa Hats to a snow man on the beach. I bought this pink tree at a hardware store because it was just funny enough to be cool. We hulled that around everywhere. I shot it in Yosemite next to the river, on top of a green bug, and made an orchard of them on the computer. Some times an odd prop like that will stimulate the creative process.

After a while it gets old and like a new toy louses its luster. Its good that it does or it would turn into an obsession and suddenly a Wegman is born. What would have happened if his first dog was a poodle. Things would have been much different. Anyway it was a pink tree christmas. Some images will be cards and others will go to stock. I know this much I’m done with the tree.

Pink Trees below.

Pink Tree at beach

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:34:54 -0800

Pink Tree at beach