New design comp Springleap launches it's first round of voting on April 1. The guys seem to know what they're doing, hopefully they won't go the way of several other tee comps recently... Especially since their primary goal is to gain some exposure for South African artists (well, besides making some cash, I assume).
"A UFO crashed northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947." - Wikipedia on Area 51. But what was never mentioned was the existence of a "Hangar 51". In 1947 the government ran a complex web of diversions that led the press and UFOlogists to speculate on Hangar 18 (another abandoned warehouse near Roswell that reportedly stored alien aircraft debris), several hundred miles from where the actual extraterrestrial material was actually stored. Only the highest government and military officials knew of Hangar 51, if indeed it existed.
Haha ok there really is this abandoned military hangar, but it's nowhere near Roswell. My friends Kristi and Stephanie had planned a road trip to Salton Sea for a photo shoot, but it rained on us on our way that morning (for the second time!). We took a little detour and found ourselves taking shelter in this old dilapidated warehouse. The place was incredibly filthy, with decaying wood, broken glass, torn out fixtures, and bird (owl?) droppings everywhere I stepped. It was perfect for a photo shoot!
A HUGE shoutout to our hair/makeup stylists: Denise and JJ, Paul from Blue Sky Videos, and our fabulous models Cazz, Denise, Tyler, Kylah, and Amy! Tags: artistic photography in southern california orange county
Note to self: Come back to Red Rock and plan to stay there all day (or two)
Just before leaving Las Vegas I decided to check out Red Rock, NV just west of the city. Oh man I was blown away by the beauty and immensity of this place! I managed to get a few shots before the sun went down, and left with regrets that I didn't come here sooner. I will definitely be back...
Here's a quick recap of the Anti-Workshop in Vegas: Day 1 we dove right into the deep end with lectures from Chenin, Doug, and John (JMC) about previsualization, context, making every image interesting, telling the story, and branding. (that's just a tidbit of things found in my notebook) Then we went out to shoot Elvis with polaroid cameras all over Downtown Las Vegas. Yes, Elvis lives! Too bad I didn't get (digital) pictures of this. But it was a great exercise in using a limited tool to rely on more "thinking" rather than having all the digital advantages.
Day 2 was all about finding the light, and creating dramatic lighting. And this time we got to shoot with our own cameras. Here's a few favs that I got of our models (and photographers) Trish and Jared:
Day 3 was all about creating TRUST from clients, directing, cool group shots, being proactive, album designs, self promotion, and workflow. We even got a little bit of expert PhotoShop tips from Doug.
And that evening we met up with my friends from San Francisco Ed and Monica Pingol (awesome photographers!) for an impromptu romantic photo shoot:
Afterwards we had a little fun while looking for a Starbucks (vid courtesy of Erwin, starring Monica, Ed, Jeff, me, Josh)
Ok it was about 3am in the morning and I had the wrong shoes on!
So the workshop ended with a demo shoot at "The Boneyard" - the Neon Sign Museum in Las Vegas. John, Chenin, and Doug The Anti-Students!
Oh wait, it doesn't really end there... we also had a chance to shoot Eliesa and Judd at Bally's They were totally cool and were down for anything!
New design comp Springleap launches it's first round of voting on April 1.
