Commercial photography commission for Comcast Beltway

I’m proud to present some imagery I created for Comcast Beltway’s public relations team, published today to announce the installation of a huge solar panel array on the roof of their tech building on Michigan Ave. in Washington, DC.

The project was a technical challenge. The only access to the roof was a very solid, albeit utilitarian ladder. My first concern was for the safety of myself, my crew and the subjects, some of whom I worried might lack the ability to climb up and down the ladder.

Up in the bucket truck. It seems much higher up when you’re inside!

Up in the bucket truck. It seems much higher up when you’re inside!

Another concern was timing and the weather. Although we could have made great pictures in almost any condition, our hope was for sunny weather to emphasize the solar panels. Thankfully, we picked a day with full sun and decent temperatures. Also, there were no problems with people going up and down the ladder with the exception of one person who decided to take a bucket from a bucket truck for a ride down. Thankfully, the client is a cable company with plenty of bucket trucks lying around.

The bucket truck also came in handy for the last shot of the day, an aerial showing the entire building. Being up that high is always a thrill. We are also lucky for the easy access to bucket trucks since drones are mostly banned in the DC region.

Check out the results below!

Arcade Fire for Metro

For two weeks in October 2013, I was living the dream as a photographer for the band Arcade Fire as they played a series of warm-up shows for their Reflektor tour in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. During our time in Miami, we produced a portrait shoot at a Haitian restaurant called Tap Tap, which has lovely paintings inside and great natural light. The images below made it into print in Metro, a British newspaper based in London. The shoot was produced on 800 ASA Porta 35mm film using natural light.

One of me by the band during the shoot.

Bus stop slumber

After a portfolio review in Austin last week and hearing great feedback all around, but especially from Will Chau regarding a quirky-ness in my work I hadn't really defined before, I've decided to post some recent work I made with my Hasselblad. I've also been on a cleaning jag as of late and in the process discovered a bunch of uncut, unscanned negs that I'm going to give a second look. I also have one more roll of black and white film I shot on the way home from Austin that I still need to develop.  

As for the review itself, I must say that I really need to step it up and attend these gatherings more often. It's hard to get honest feedback as a freelancer. We're kind of out here on our own and the opportunity to hear reactions to our work from professionals in the visual communication industry is priceless.

 

On a whim, I also went out to photograph a typewriter repair man after reading about him in the local paper.  There is something anachronistic about someone who still makes a living repairing old technology. The experience has sparked some ideas about what I might focus on next. We'll see!

 

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Natural light versus lit

Last month I had a couple of portrait assignments that contrasts how I work in different situations. In the first, the assignment was to photograph a long-haul trucker who was having trouble with his CDL license. Initially, I was told his truck would be at his residence. In fact, it was out at a yard that happened to be on federal property. For the moment, my lights are strictly AC powered although that is supposed to change soon. Instead, I had the blessing of a day with full sun, although clouds were slowly creeping in (at one point, we had to wait 45 minutes at a railroad crossing because his truck was just on the other side. Sometimes I really LOVE Houston...). I had him point his truck into the north so the grill would be in the shade. I then used a simple reflector to point the sun back into the shadow and photographed him with a 35mm/f1.4 lens. The next image was more controlled, but alas, the weather was crappy. I think it was Sam Abell who said bad weather makes good pictures. Because the sky was dark, it was a Saturday assignment and I had time and because I had a willing subject who was proud of his home, I was able to pull out some stops and practice my lighting. I lit the subject with a medium softbox from camera left and used a flood camera right to put a hard light on the side of his face and to also light up the house. Because I lit the scene, I was also able to create a more dramatic sky.

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