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Lee Morris

Charleston, SC
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Articles from Lee Morris

The First Ever Digital Camera And Its Creator

This is by no means the most thrilling video but it is really interesting. I've always wondered what was officially the "first" digital camera, and I guess I now know. Steven Sasson claims that he invented digital photography when he created this strange looking camera. The camera could shoot stills and record up to 30 of them on a digital tape.

Lakai Blows Up Skateboarders To Sell Shoes

You may remember a post that we did months back of Lakai shooting a video with skateboarder jumping over huge flames... Well I believe this video is actually older but I like it more. This time the shoe company used explosives to ramp up the excitment and I love it!

Cat Footwear Produces A Slow-Mo Matrix Style Commercial

Director Paul Clements produced a pretty amazing commercial for Cat Footwear. By using a single high frame rate video camera and a large array of DSLRs he produced something that I am having trouble describing with words. You'll just have to watch it for yourself.

Check out the BTS below and the finished product below that.

How To Shoot A Super Hero Action Shot

I know a couple of Fstoppers that go by the names of Tiffany and Gianna that are going to love this one... Jay P. Morgan is back again with a really unique concept. In this video Jay explains how he created a super hero concept from nothing and then shows us every minuscule detail that goes into making that image come to life.

Make Any Camera Shoot Ultra Slow Motion

We have posted about Twixtor before but today I was sent 2 great examples of it being put to use. Instead of simply slowing frames down, Twixtor actually can create as many frames as you like for super smooth ultra slo mo. Obviously nothing beats actually shooting at 1000fps but this program is quite good in most cases. We used it on every frame for the intro of The Wakeboard Studio Shoot.

A Time Lapse Shot Of 3 Locations At The Same Time

Everyone likes a good time lapse right? Well Philip Bloom just created one but it has a unique twist. Bloom's video was created with 3 cameras shooting simultaneously outside of his hotel window. He shot with a 5DMII, T2i, and T3i all shooting towards different areas of the landscape at different focal lengths.

DC Creates An Epic Skateboard Commercial

Skateboard and snowboard companies have really been pushing their advertising budgets to the limits over the past decade. In the video below we can see exactly what goes into creating amazing 10 second clips of individual skateboard tricks in super slo mo. The concept is simple but actually making it happen is another story.

Motorcycle Destruction In Super Slo Mo

Allstate created a pretty clever advertising campaign for motorcycle insurance that showed super slow motion motorcycle wrecks without their riders. Their tag line is "Bikes never crash alone." I think this ad makes a really strong statement without being gory. Check out the BTS below and the finished product below that.

Fstoppers.com Now Has A New Look

Welcome to the new Fstoppers.com. We still are working out a few glitches here and there but almost everything is working perfectly now. We put a lot of thought into the new update and we decided to keep the layout the exact same and simply add some helpful features. The update was done by the incredibly talented team at Novum Studios.

GPP Shoot Out 2011: Zack Arias VS Joey L

Each year Gulf Photo Plus takes place in Dubai. During part of the show they pit 2 or more photographers against each other in a surprise photoshoot. Last year the shoot out involved Zack, Joey, and David Hobby of Strobist but this time Zack and Joey were the only shooters. This years subject was quite a surprise and a bit more difficult to shoot than the beautiful women they had last year.

Space Shuttle Program Turns 30, Takes An Epic Picture

This month NASA's space shuttle program turned 30. To commemorate the occasion they decided to take a single image that included every single employee standing together in the shape of a shuttle.

Jonathan Mannion Is Hip Hop's Photographer

I'm a pretty big fan of Hip Hop music and I have seen every one of the pictures in these two videos. What I didn't know was that they were all taken by a single person. Jonathan Mannion is extremely talented but he also seemed to be around in exactly the right time to shoot the faces of this growing genre of music.

The Home-Made 3D Matrix Effect

We have all seen stuff like this done before but it's usually some sort of huge production team. All of my friends seem to own at least 2 cameras each so I could easily pull this off if I could get 12 of them together :).

A Quick Video With A Happy Ending

I just saw this and it made me smile so I thought I would share it with all of you. Keep in mind that you still have a few days left to help Noam with our Photoshop contest.

If you have no idea what is going on in this video then you need to watch this.

More Proof That Expensive Gear Does Not Equal Good Pictures

I created the iPhone Fashion Shoot to attempt to prove this point. 50% of the people who saw it "got" it and the other 50% claimed that it only looked good because I used $10,000 worth of light. Well I've always said "light is light" and all those expensive light modifiers do is make the light source bigger or smaller. Don't believe me?

Photographer Travels To The Most Remote Part Of The World To Give Away A Portrait

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Help-Portrait, an organization of photographers who shoot free portraits to share their art and enrich others lives. Most photographers shoot free portraits around their communities but Sasha Leahovcenco wanted to shoot people that may never get the opportunity to have their picture taken at all.

You Have 7 Days Left To Design Noam's Next T-Shirt

This months Fstoppers Photoshop contest is all about helping Noam Galai (The Stolen Scream). His image was stolen hundreds of times and to make a small portion of his money back he is selling a few of his personal "scream designs" in his scream store (both Patrick and I have already been sporting a couple of his shirts around town).

Shoot RAW Stills While Filming To Create Matte Paintings

When I shoot video I like keeping things simple but after watching this tutorial, I feel like I may have to use this technique in my next production.

Instead of lighting a stationary background to perfection, why not take a few RAW images and create the perfect setting in Photoshop.

The Most Detailed Video On Beauty Dish Lighting I've Seen

I've seen a lot of videos that attempt to explain why you would use a beauty dish over a softbox but I've always had a hard time understanding the subtleties. Jay P Morgan created a video that not only explains everything in great detail, but he also shows 3 lighting examples with each type of dish configuration.

How To Create An Amazing Band Photograph

Ben Von Wong just sent over a quick video explaining his latest band photoshoot. Their isn't any actual video footage of the shoot (feel free to scold him for that) but Von Wong does a great job of explaining his process without it.

Sometimes Harsh, Direct Sunlight Can Be Beautiful

When it comes to my photoshoots, I almost always look for shade. I find managing harsh, direct sunlight to be a problem for a number of reasons but I may have to give it another shot. In the video below Phillip Dixon shows us that not only is it possible to directly light your subject with the sun, it can produce stunning results.

Hands On Review Of The Red Epic-M

Now we don't usually post product review videos on Fstoppers, especially for gear that we don't currently use, but in this case I have to make an exception. Although I may never get my hands on a Red camera, I can dream can't I? Honestly this video isn't even really a review but by the end you will know that this camera is "pretty coo'". But hey, it still got me all excited.

How To Quickly Style A Model And Location For A Photo Shoot

The guys over a Lighten Up And Shoot have created a quick video that shows how they quickly created some very compelling images of a model with very little work. I think its very easy for us to over-think when we are on a shoot but sometimes the easiest answer is the best answer.

Mike Folden Shoots An Album Cover

I've had some great BTS videos piling up here so I am going to post them all now. Check out the video below where Mike Folden shoots an album cover for "The Resume".

Support Noam, Create A T-Shirt With The Stolen Scream

The Stolen Scream 5 Days ago we released The Stolen Scream, a story about Noam Galai's stolen photographs. So far, it has been viewed by over 130,000 people and hundreds of websites have already picked up the story. As you know, Noam has made almost no money from his images being used around the world but I think that we can help him in a small way.

Greenpeace Through The Lens: Photographer Pierre Gleizes

In 2011, Greenpeace - the world's largest environmental campaigning organization - celebrates its 40th anniversary. French photographer Pierre Gleizes has shot some of the organization's best known photographs over the three decades he has worked for Greenpeace. Some of these pictures have truly changed the way we look at our planet and the environment.

How To Shoot Photos At Capitol Hill

I just saw this video pop up on the front of Vimeo.com and I knew I would love it before I even saw it. Chris Gregory does a fantastic job of capturing the life of a Capitol Hill photographer. There is so much more too it than I ever really thought about. Make sure you head over to his website and check out his amazing portfolio.

How To Suspend Your Model From Wires In The Studio

In the video below Jay P. Morgan shows us the setup for his latest sports image. Using a special body harness, the goalie is able to move in a very realistic way without the potential for injury. As always, Jay does a fantastic job of also breaking down his lighting scheme.

Fstoppers Original: The Stolen Scream

What if you took a set of images that became so popular that it was used hundreds of times all around the world by hundreds of artists, businesses, websites, and publications? As photographers, it's what we all dream about but what if you were never paid for your work? What if you weren't even given credit? What if your images were stolen for years and you never had any idea?

Today Fstoppers Turns 1 Year Old

Exactly 12 months ago Patrick and I launched Fstoppers.com. We had never filmed a video before, we didn't have a single follower, we had never used a blog before, and we had no clue what would happen.

The day we launched Fstoppers nikonrumors.com posted about us (luckily we shoot everything on Nikon) and we got a few thousand hits on the first day.

The Underwater Snowboard Shoot

This is such a crazy idea and as I was watching the video I kept thinking about ways why this wasn't going to work. Well I was wrong. Scott Serfas had an incredible concept and he created an incredible image from it. More info and the final image can be seen here.

Behind The Scenes Of A Stylized Tennis Portrait

Mike Tittel takes us behind the scenes of his most recent photoshoot at Salt Lake Swimming and Tennis Club. This video is beautifully filmed and edited and I'm sure you will take away some great concepts and lighting ideas.

Night Photography: How To Paint With Light

Scott Martin and Lance Keimig teach a night photography workshop in Texas and they created a quick BTS of the experience. The video is beautifully filmed and incredibly interesting to watch.