Child’s Play

I am fortunate enough to know some extremely talented people. Right now these folks have put their best feet forward for a good cause, a charity called Child’s Play created and sponsored by the guys behind Penny Arcade.

This year I was honored to be asked to create some photographs for the legendary Harrison Krix of Volpin Props as well as a new friend who’s talent is equally unparalleled, Catherine Jones of God Save the Queen Fashions.

Half Life 2: Gravity Gun

Street Fighter: Chun-Li Corset Top

These two photos are just a sneak peek, I will have the more images from each shoot with a brief writeup on how you can possibly own these items very soon!

NAPCP

I recently had the pleasure of creating a logo for a colleague and friend of ours, Alice Park. Alice and her husband have created an organization called NAPCP – National Association of Professional Child Photographers (try saying that 10 times fast). The organization was created for photographers who specifically work with children and they provide resources and help connect photographers and parents to one another to foster a safer, trusting working environment for both parties.

Intially, Alice had mentioned that she wanted a “seal” and something that brought about the “Real Simple” look and feel and I was happy to give it a try. I tried to bring in something simple, but clean and official feeling without being too institutional and the following is what I came up with for round 1.

After some further discussion we decided it would be better to bring in some neutral, child-friendly elements and we came up with butterflies and ladybugs, pretty universal non-offensive kid stuff. I created the ladybugs by hand using the Wacom and Photoshop skills, not the kind of element I usually create. Alice also liked a softer shade of blue-green and an “est. 2009” was added to the seal. What we came up with was this final design.

I’m really happy with the logo and Alice is too. I’m glad Alice put some challenges in front of me in terms of designing some softer, child-friendly materials. It’s always easy to go modern and gritty, but creating something that makes people feel comfortable and safe is always more of a challenge, and more rewarding in the end.

Thanks Alice!

Iron Man Shoot

In the Fall of 2008 I got together with some amazing guys here in Atlanta who call themselves Nightmare Armor Studios. What NAS does is create props and replicas from video games, feature films and anime.

After seeing these guys at a Halo 3 launch event, and later at Dragon Con I got in touch with owner/lead designer Sid Garrand. I offered Sid a free photo shoot since they didn’t have much going on in the photography department. They had just done these beautiful Iron Man suits so that’s what we shot. These images are what we came away with and I’m really happy with how they turned out.

I had a good time working on this shoot and I’m working on doing more photography involving people who do cosplay and build movie props. Sid and his team do AMAZING work, and you should check out their site and keep up with them.

This is something I really love and hope to do more of in the future, I have a website called Cosfolio in the works that will house all of my cosplay photography work.

Brad Kayal

I stumbled upon Brad Kayal’s work while I was trolling Flickr a few months ago. Brad consistently creates amazing work in every medium he’s involved in. This most recent poster really blew me away with it’s simplistic layout and attention to detail.

Whenever I feel like I need a boost of creative inspiration I head on over to Brad’s website, and Flickr page. His posters, photography, websites, and even Flash video games are all strokes of genius. Please be sure to check bookmark him, he’s truly a master.

5D Mark II

Time for an upgrade! Since it’s announcement and initial glowing reviews we knew that the next piece of equipment for our business was going to be the new 5D Mark II.

We had been shooting with… let’s just say, older bodies for quite some time due to our firm belief that you should only upgrade when you need to upgrade, not every time a new gadget comes down the pike. So this is a big change for us, and the full-frame sensor means my 35mm lens will once again be a true 35mm.

Needless to say I’m really enjoying the camera, and I will have more to report soon on the low-light image quality and the highly controversial HD video recording mode.

5D Mark II + Japan

I started out today thinking I wanted to blog about something, but I hadn’t quite found the inspiration. Then upon doing my morning RSS reads, I came across this exceptional new footage from the Canon 5D Mark II.

I honestly was blown away by the video, not that it was the best short film I’d ever seen, but more because it takes 3 things that I’m really crazy about; Japan, Cameras and HD video, and it puts them all into a single film that showcases what the new 5D is capable of.

There is so much potential with this camera, not only for the video functionality, but the actual photos. When this thing drops stateside in later this year I will definitely be picking it up… or maybe I’ll wait til Spring when all of the rebates show up 😉

El Scorcho in Access Atlanta

On the way to getting my morning coffee, my good friend Braxton called me to let me know that one of my photos was being used in today’s Access Atlanta. Nice!

For those who might not know, El Scorcho is a Weezer tribute band, a band that I was a part of for 2 years right after I moved to Atlanta. Since I departed to pursue other things I’ve been regularly photographing the guys.

This photo highlights a nice little write up about El Scorcho, and their show this weekend that precedes the actual Weezer show up at Gwinnet Arena. Be sure to visit El Scorcho’s website.