Holdfast. "Real Life" live acoustic video

We recently completed a live acoustic music video for the band Holdfast. They’re a super talented group of really authentic guys and we loved being a part of this project. Gillian handled all the set design and handled all the camera work. We originally planned to do this outside at sunset but we had been getting thunder storms every day for weeks and decided to retreat to safety in the studio which gave us predictable light and conditions for as many takes as was needed.

They asked for a really stripped down, one camera, one take approach which sounds simple at first mention, but then when you actually start filming the truth is that a single mistake can ruin the whole take and there’s no way to blend the takes together. The guys brought all their audio and recording equipment and recorded 7 takes. Once you start getting your marks all dialed in you get really cool shots in each take, but it’s impossible to recreate the exact same magic in each one so you’re going to just have to choose your favorite one and go with it! Ultimately #6 was the one we went with.

Here’s a link to the song on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2FKrE8ILj7tVzuhgW8AP0I?si=b487b8faa9d94952

Sam

We had a really cool fashion shoot with Samantha Burton of Wilhelmina Denver last week. Gillian styled and did the makeup and I… took the pictures. Low light, low key is my thing now. So, let’s roll with it.

Everything was captured with the Fujifilm GFX50r and the 45-100f4. All images were lit with just one Westcott FJ400 strobe but I varied the modifier. I used a large octabox for the first look, and then different reflectors and grid combos. There was a wall of black cards and diffusion net to further soften the light and prevent spill on to the background and for the last look we employed a smoke machine for that dreamy, ethereal look.

Moody studio still life

Gillian and I have been creating some new portfolio work lately and we’re really pleased with this one in particular. I’ve really been feeling the low light, low key look lately and think I may just do everything this way from now on. I think it’s who I am. I tend to change my mind on this kind of stuff every other week, so we’ll see.

Captured with Fujifilm GFX50r with the 50-100mm f4 and 2 Westcott FJ strobes.

Bright and colorful till life work in the studio

We’ve been experimenting with the new studio and how easy it is to create more elaborate lighting situations. It sure is freeing when you have the space to do just about anything you want! Here’s a watermelon drink with some bright and cheery lighting on red and almond seamless.

New gear alert! RED Komodo 6k and Canon c70

Newly added to the kit is the Red Komodo 6k and the Canon C70 4k. I decided to let go of the Canon c300 mark II in favor of these two cameras which will complement each other for different tasks. I’ll be using the Komodo for A cam in interviews and C70 for B cam where I’ll be able to maintain multi channel XLR audio for the boom or lav audio. The C70 will be great for handheld and tracking shots with built in image stabilization and ND filters and excellent face recognition for lock on auto focus. Meanwhile, it still provides a very good codec for post processing and color grading. Both cameras offer some slow motion, but the C70 gets great 120p in 4k while the Komodo is somewhat limited in super slow-mo. The Komodo will of course give me expanded color accuracy and grading possibility with Red raw and will be the choice in the situations that demand it. Color matching between the two for multi-cam is a cinch with removing a couple points of magenta out of the Canon’s highlights.

In the studio with Canon c70 on left and RED Komodo on right.

RED Komodo 6k with Sigma 50-100 f/1.8.