March Madness

March has been a real flurry of a month so far (and its not even over). In the past 4 weeks i've shot in a pool with a 5D and an underwater housing, worked on 2 overnight music videos, shot at an Express fashion show, and assisted on a Nickelodeon shoot. I also shot two days of interviews with all 10 winners of the Charles Bronfman prize, which is an award given to philanthropists who are doing some truly amazing things. I managed to fit in two days to take a road trip up to Ormond Beach to visit a friend and test out a Hasselblad 500CM that i borrowed, and I loved the way the pictures came out. I was a little nervous that I screwed them all up since the meter was dead and I used my Iphone light meter app, and also it was my first time home developing 120 film. I ended up being blown away with the results and getting really excited about the pictures, which is why i love shooting in the first place. I'm now writing this from New York, where Steffy and I came for a wedding and to spend a few days hanging out before we leave for our honeymoon in Ireland. We land in Dublin tomorrow and are going to spend 8 days doing a loop around the northern half of the country. It will take a little while for me to develop all my film when I get back (I packed 15 rolls... overkill?) but expect lots of good things to come! Here are some pictures from some of the shoots I spoke about and a couple film scans. My wife the professional blogger says that I need to have more continuity in my photos, but there is no continuity in freelance work so i'm okay with them being a bit jumbled. What do you think?

The New Year

The past two months have been a whirlwind and I've had some really interesting and challenging jobs (and I got married!!!). A big part of survival in the freelance film industry is not only being versatile and wearing different hats on different days, but being able to think quickly and figure things out on the fly. While I would never take a job that I was completely unfit or unprepared for, I would miss plenty of opportunities if I shied away from the unfamiliar. I've found myself in a few situations recently that tested my nerves, but I gave it my best effort everything has more or less worked out. Here are some snaps from along the way, on different shoots, at the wedding, and on a trip to Puerto Rico. 

California + Puerto Rico

My photo and video background has always been a digital one. The first camera I ever owned was a little canon digital point and shoot that I got way back in 2004. I bought a little water housing for it to take my first surf pictures, and carried it around everywhere. For some reason, I never took photography in high school and never got to experience shooting film back when it was a more viable option. It was never really a thought that occurred to me until in 2008 when I was studying in Peru, when a friend gave me a plastic medium format camera. I happened to live near a place that sold and developed for really cheap and ended up shooting hundreds of photos over the 6 months that I lived there. Since then i've learned how to develop my film at home and I scan it with a negative scanner (unfortunately I still have never gotten the chance to print in a darkroom). It's time consuming and can be frustrating, but I have a nice book of negatives that will be around for as long as I live. Here are a couple shots from California and Puerto Rico, followed by a few digital ones.