Free tan!

This job was different (I guess every one is different).
This job came because a client gave my name to one of his clients and they hired me to shoot this job. Pearl Media does huge advertising displays just like the one above for Fox's new show Fringe. They wanted a lot of people around their display, so we shot during the All Star Parade (see the red carpet?). Even with over one million fans on 6th Avenue in NYC, my 6' tall 19 year old son and I (he watched my back and carried the laptop), got good spots in front of installations on 47th street and 57th street. The sun was hot and the day was great, the people were fun but nobody understood why I was shooting the buildings while everyone else was photographing the old baseball players. It's a nice way to make a living... hanging out on 6th Avenue in New York City on a beautiful day.

Photoshop

I know this looks like an office window. It might (I hope) make a nice background for a corporate portrait. My client at Gerber is hiring me to shoot 2-3 days of portraits. The shot that is 2 entries back was for him too, but required a great deal of stripping and retouching to include an office window background. This image at 5x6 feet will save me a lot of effort and time when shooting many people.
It looks like a real shot, but actually exists nowhere but here. I took a picture of one slat of a small window mini blind. Next I shot an image outside the window of trees and sky. I rotated the mini blind slat 90 degrees, transposed it to fill the image vertically and copied and repeated it across the image. I added some walls above and below the window and soft shadows where the blinds cross the walls, not the window. This image will please a good client. This image will make my life a little easier. This image could never have been created if I wasn't so experienced in Photoshop®. There you have it. To succeed, a photographer needs to expertly control light and focus, and know Photoshop® very well.

Son of Sam

You never know what will happen when you work as a photo assistant...

"While most of the New York media dismissed the cult possibility out of hand as the ramblings of a crazy man, the demonic possession angle intrigued me.

The fact of the matter: Both of Sam Carr's sons died in the midst of the Son of Sam spree.

Michael Carr died in a single-car crash on a New York City highway. Far more ominous, John Carr died Feb. 16, 1978, at the Air Force base in Minot, N.D. It appeared to be a suicide, with a shotgun placed vertically from the ground up into his mouth. But conspiracy theorists to this day suggest it was murder."

The preceding is a quote from the New York Daily News web site. I have to laugh in a sad sort of way.

I spent two years with Michael Carr when we were both photo assistants in a New York photo studio. I knew at that time that Michael was a member of the Church of Scientology. I remember him continually trying to be "clear". The conversation that really stands out to me is when Michael said to me "Bill, you and are are the same, we're both very spiritual." I was a young Christian at the time, and said: "Mike, we may both be spiritual, but we're on opposite sides!"

He died soon after that in a car accident. The Michael I knew was very, very sad. He was abused by the photographers he worked for, and he was trying so hard to find happiness. Then he was gone. Cult? Church of Scientology? One in the same?

This all happened while I was working as a young freelance photo assistant in New York City. Maybe the next time I'm bored, I'll write about the time I walked into a Chemical Bank in the midst of a robbery.

Portraits

Corporate portraits;
Here is the thing about being a commercial photographer. We are not a portrait studio but we shoot portraits. We aren't baby photographers but we shoot babies. When you are a commercial photographer, your job is to satisfy your client. That means shooting everything that they need for the jobs they give you. Here is a group portrait of three executives at an international food corporation in New Jersey. This client usually hires me to shoot food, but knows we can handle a portrait shoot of executives, do a great job, and not embarrass him in the process.
The original shot was against a gray muslin backdrop that I usually use. It can be easily color corrected to almost any color background. This time however, my client wanted an office/corporate background, so I stripped the people away from the background and put the window shot in behind. It was a fun day with fun people and in the end, we have another happy client.

It's a peacock!

Okay, this one is weird even for "the woods". It's dusk, cloudy, rainy and what walks across our front yard but a peacock! I guess one of the farms around here must keep them with the horses, but this male got away. It walked across our yard and off into the back woods. Bye peacock. Have a nice life.

The Bear

I live on the edge of the woods in a house we built 14 years ago. I live there with my family, some neighbors, the deer and the bears. It's a nice life. I like to drive into New York City with a car full of equipment, shoot all day and then drive home to my family, the deer and the bears. It helps to keep everything in perspective. Sometimes I need that.

Top Ten Trust List

This is my top ten list of trust. From most to least.

trust the most
1.) God
2.) My wife
3.) My family
4.) My clients
5.) Individuals
6.) Corporations
7.) Law Enforcement
8.) Most Higher Educators
9.) All Building Contractors
10.) Any Politician
trust the least