Thunderbird Motel

Here is an editorial portrait I did for a story on the Thunderbird motel. It is a very funky motel with a 1960s tiki, Native American vibe. It has a great bar where we shot this. One of the quotes in the copy I was sent said "everybody has a story about the Thunderbird motel". I had dinner with my parents the day after the shoot. I told them how cool I thought the place must have been in it's hey day of the 1960s and asked if they had ever been there. Turns out one night in 1966 the Thunderbird was hosting a singles party. My dad went there with some friends while my mom was there with some of her friends. My dad asked my mom for her number and as they say "the rest was history". That's my story about the Thunderbird motel.

Painting With Light and Sprint

When I first got into photography I was attracted to the magic of light exposing film and then watching the prints develop in the darkroom. Right away I started experimenting with light painting. Basically it's the technique of keeping your shutter open as you move a light source inside the frame. The effect is very cool. It is also very difficult to control. That is why it is usually avoided in most commercial applications. I continued to experiment with it all the way through college. Then I entered the world of advertising photography. Where everything is pre planned and tightly controlled and I concentrated on learning the techniques of lighting commercial products for advertising. I love lighting and controlling light but I constantly have to remind myself that you need to experiment. Sometimes you need to let go and just see what happens. I think that's why I like this Sprint commercial so much. It reminds me of the magic that can happen if you just let loose and play around a little. The funny thing is that I know this commercial was highly planned out. It's a national tv ad it didn't just happen in a weekend. I still think the creators embraced the idea that not everything has to be perfect and I like that.

This commercial combines both the light-painting technique and flipbook animation (see "Coolest Girl" post below) technique. I think the end result is very cool.

Be sure to watch the second clip also. It shows the Japanese troop pika pika behind the scenes (and in the frame) creating these drawings. For geeks like me this is almost cooler then the ad........almost.

Coolest little girl in the world

I made this flipbook animation from around 275 still images. It stars our friends daughter Elena (who's favorite director is Tim Burton). We turned on some music told her to go crazy and I let the motor drive rip. I then put all the images together in quicktime to make this little movie.

Note........The sound doesn't start for about 15 seconds and try to ignore the horrible web compression.

Happy July Fourth!

Miami and D65

I was in Miami for a week attending Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer's D65 digital workshop.
It was an excellent class and I would highly recommend it.