I have been following Taylor Morris’ story since the beginning. We share a mutual close friend, and because of that I was quickly exposed to the story of a Navy EOD tech who lost all of his limbs in Afghanistan. His story has been nothing short of inspiring and motivational, but furthermore he has had the help and support of a few amazing videographers and photographers to help spread his story.
I first came across Richard Johnson‘s work in a group I belong to on Facebook called CREATIVOS. I have watched his Imagination series grow and grow over the last month or two, and his post processing really is quite unique. Richard is a 30 year old graphic and motion graphics designer, residing in Orlando FL. I have said it before, and I will say it again, but I believe that shooting personal work is a great way to grow as a photographer. I asked Richard some questions about himself and his series for the readers of Fstoppers.
There is no denying that super slow motion looks awesome. I would love to get my hands on a Phantom Flex for a day or two and just shoot video of what would normally seem like the most mundane things, just to watch them slowed down to a speed where the eye can discern all the little details and nuances of what is happening. The team at Variable shot 8 Hours In Brooklyn using a Phantom Flex, and it is meant to serve as a visual case study of various aspects of daily life in Brooklyn.
For me, it seems like hurricane Sandy was forever ago. Then again I live in Las Vegas, and I wasn’t affected by it. Talking to friends and family back east though, it’s a different story. Vogue is catching a lot of heat from angry readers, saying that their latest fashion shoot by Annie Leibovitz is exploiting and profiting off of the recent natural disaster.
As I am writing this I am trying to fall asleep. I am supposed to be up in 4 hours to head off on a little snowboard adventure with some friends. Instead of sleeping though I am sitting around watching snowboard videos, smart move right? Anyway a buddy told me to check out this movie called The Art Of Flight on Netflix, and I can tell you this much, it doesn’t disappoint. The cinematography is gorgeous, but they took it a step further, and really worked with the sound to make it a totally immersing experience. Check out this BTS on how they used Dolby 7.1 to enhance the sound of the film.
Every morning I wake up and walk out to my living room. I sit down on the couch and bask in the sunlight coming through my sliding glass doors. I love how the light cutting through the vertical blinds creates a pattern of lines going across my living room. I have often thought how cool it would be to shoot a photo with the light like that, but at sunset when the light is real golden. The only problem? I can’t shoot a sunset like that because my door opens on the eastern side of the house…
I know that high end retouching is not everyone’s cup of tea. For me though, I love fashion and beauty photography, and because of that I love amazing retouching work. I understand that different people view photography differently, and to me that’s what is so cool about photography. It can be so many different things to so many different people. I digress, anyway, I was recently shown the high end retouching work of Cristian Girotto from Paris and I was blown away. Whether high end retouching is your thing or not, there is no denying the talent which Cristian possesses.
When I was a kid (and still now) I loved Terminator 2. The special effects at the time were the best we had seen yet. The way the T-1000 morphed in and out of liquid metal blew my mind. Now days it would probably be done 100% with CGI, but when this movie was made CGI was still in it’s infancy and they had to use a lot of puppetry. T2 had a lot of CGI firsts though, including being the first movie to have realistic human movements on a CGI character, the first use of a PC to create major movie 3D effects, and many other firsts. Check out this BTS video on how they made some of the molds and puppets for T2.
A couple years ago I discovered Kevin Russ on Flickr. I love his portrait work and his use of natural light. I hadn’t seen much from him on Flickr in a while and just the other day I found out why. Kevin has been traveling the United States, shooting landscape photography with just his iPhone, and living off the print sales.
I woke up this morning to an iPhone picture from my dad. It was a picture of a wall that said “Mario Testino In Your Face.” Ok dad, you did it, I am intrigued. Upon further investigation my dad and my little sister had gone to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to check out the exhibit today and told me it was amazing. Well I live exactly 2,725.2 miles from the MFA, so I had to just do some online research for myself. If you live in the New England area though, this looks like an amazing exhibit you don’t want to miss.
I use my iPhone camera more than any other camera I own. It is on me all the time and is so convenient to quickly share photos from. Even on photo shoots I always find myself pulling out the iPhone for a couple BTS snaps or video. I have had the iPhone 4 since it came out and it has been showing it’s age. I heard of a way to get an iPhone 5 for the cost of sales tax, and so I decided to give it a shot tonight.
18 years ago this Christmas I received my first snowboard, and with that my first true love was born. I went from the age of 10 till 18 snowboarding as much as possible. The last 10 years have been a little more difficult as life consistently has landed me in places not nearly as conducive to snowboarding as growing up in NH was. That’s how I came to fall in love with photography, a lack of snowboarding. Today I was introduced to the work of Ben Birk, and I am now left with an ache in my hear that only the mountains can cure. Check out his work, and be sure to check out his portfolio and flickr!
I have been following Julian Berman’s work for a long time now. I first discovered his stuff around the same time I discovered Odd Future. Julian has been documenting Odd Future, aka his friends, since early on. At just 21 years old he has accomplished a lot, and only continues to grow more and more.
Today I was introduced to the photographic works of Mark Sink. Mark utilizes wet plates for a lot of his work. Wet plate photography involves shooting onto a large plate of metal or glass and then immediately developing it after shooting it. I won’t get into too technical of details about it, because to be 100% honest with you, I have never done it. With that being said, I love the way that wet plate photos often turn out. Invented over 150 years ago, it looks like wet plate beat Instagram to the punch. (That was a joke)
Like it or not, Instagram isn’t going anywhere. I personally love Instagram because I can snap a photo, post it, and share it with everyone who follows me in less than a minute. With that being said though, I do miss the times I spent as a kid, looking at projected slide film with my family on the holidays. Now thanks to Projecteo I can have those times back again!
