Red bidden

I mean bed ridden. Halfway through the edit day at the maritime, I was literally hit by the bullet version of the flu-train and I barely survived. I had felt a little sick in the morning on my ride over the Williamsburg bridge, but I've never had the onset of any sickness happen that fast in my life. Thank god the photographer was so nice and got me an SUV to take all the gear back to the office and then take me home. I didn't get out of bed all day friday, or most of saturday for that matter. I'm still not feeling all that spectacular.

I did however make it to my friends birthday part at the east river bar for a little while and managed to witness this....


We had the pre-funk for the party at my house and our friend Poe (above) stripped for our friends birthday. The production values were incredible (literally of Jerry Bruckheimer proportions) and included fog machines, laser light shows, "Eat it" by Weird Al and of course the male stripper. He kept it real at the bar later on but its just not the same without professional level special effects. But I'm sure it was memorable for everyone else at the bar to see a real life version of Nintendo's Mario strip down to America flag print briefs.

Last night turned quickly to a photo-orgy, as most of the major photo-industry businesses were represented, from big name photographer's assistants, to heads of digital companies and photo studios. To bad I felt like shit, but I still managed to dominate the field in a few rounds of Big buck hunter.

Last shoot day...

I'm turning to religion to get through this shoot....


I used to be obsessed with this song called wildcat by ratatat. Its a really good song. And then I found a mashup remix of it combined with "when under ether" by PJ Harvey and I can't stop listening to it. its seriously becoming a problem. Its not hosted on my shitty playlist thingie, so heres the link...

Ratatat under Ether

Also I added the PJ harvey song "when under ether" because its good by itself. Edit day tomorrow at the maritime hotel and then I'm free for 4 days! Sweet action.

things got a bit weird

Song "I got mine" by the black keys

We didn't leave here till after 11 last night and we're back 10 hours later ready for more monotony. When you're stuck in a studio for 14 hours with the same people things tend to get a little weird.....


I'm still trying to figure out their obsession with tying me up in gaffer's tape. Two more days of shooting, one edit day at the clients hotel and then I'm free until tuesday when we fly to miami. Then a few days of shooting editorial and hopefully I'll get some drunken fishing in with my favorite person ever Hector Rebellion. Yes thats his real name and he's the man. Hopefully that pans out, because I'm in desperate need of some outdoor activity.

I Got Mine or IGM, as my friend albert always says when the catering runs out, is this rad song off the new black keys album. That dudes voice is like a cross between zz top's and lynryd skynyrd's singers and the guitar is super gritty. Good rock tune. It will be a good BBQ song for this weekend and actually the whole album is pretty decent. Hopefully we get out of here before 6 today.....

ummm...seriously?

its now 7:30....still haven't started shooting. That brings the grand hair styling total to ten and half hours. I'm < thrilled.

i may or may not be bitter

Sometimes hair and makeup can take 4 hours. Once I had it take 5. Today JUST hair on this model has taken 9 hours. We have three shots to do on her, it is 5:30 and they are estimating and other 45 minutes before we even get started shooting. They've been working on her since 9 am. Awesome. Good thing I have no social life. Here's a picture that embodies how I feel right now....

earth day ironies....

Song: Battles "Atlas"

Its earth day. Sweet. I just went through a pack of photo paper, and a set of ridiculously overpackaged epson inks. All the prints will eventually end up in the trash. Happy earth day. However, I did ride my bike in to the city today, will ride it back.....and only drink tap water today? I don't know what else I can do, I'm working all day in a very wasteful industry especially in the catering area. Its really embarrassing how much perfectly good food and bottles of water are wasted every day we are on set. Especially after reading this article...

http://wcbstv.com/national/UN.food.production.2.704390.html

My wanderlust is getting REALLY bad and I think I might go crazy if I have to stay in New York much longer. This Miami job next week better not fall through. I have an overwhelming desire to get drunk and go fishing and Miami is one of the best places to do that. How charmingly redneck of me. I think this latest stretch of crazy started when I was organizing old travel photos and because of my friend being in Hong Kong. I did find this picture I took on that shoot we did in Brasil though and it really makes me want to go back.


and this one from st. lucia that was a 2 hourish exposure that just turned out terrible due to the fact that digital sucks.....


AHHH I want to to go somewhere. seriously. This song is really cool though. The breakdown half way through it really blows my mind. Most people can't stand this song but I really dig it and the music video is pretty simple and cool. I always had a thing for music videos the JUST have the band playing the song.

I literally have nothing to say about work today except that I don't like germans this week. Especially blond ones with bowl cuts that wear tight white necks that go down to their belly buttons. FASHION!

Anything for the client.....

Song "into the void" by Nine inch nails

Yea sure....I'll stay and upload half a gigs worth of High Res files to your FTP site in Germany so you can make sure the resolution of our 39 megapixel back is good enough. Yea I know its 7:30 and that I'll been here since 8. Don't even worry about.

Needless to say I'm a little sleepy today, and the 14 hour day where we only got 4 shots done wasn't the best way to start this ridiculous job. Plus I've been so slammed with post production orders I've been at my off set work station doing prints and preparing client drives/CDs, while monitoring the shoot on my laptop through apple remote desktop. It always makes my morning when the photographer knows I'm doing this and all the sudden this pops up on my laptop screen...


WE FINALLY BOUGHT A CANON 1DS MARK III! I know no one cares, but I am stoked. Its so nice...the screen on the back is beautiful and I love the sRAW format you can shoot in if you don't want to shoot full res. Super intuitive interface.....its nice. Also another 120 macro hasselblad H mount lens. Cause thats the only lens we use. literally.

Umm about this song. I love it. I also love NIN. But this song is just amazing. I just love the progression in it. I recently got part one of their newest album called ghosts which is all instrumental and I believe has 5 discs total. The first is free on their website but you have to buy the rest. Its really haunting music (really? ghosts? haunting?) but its great in the background of whatever you're doing. I recommend it. Plus I'm really down with bands doing the whole online release, limited pay thing. Its the next generation of music distribution. I'm on this shoot until Friday, so expect more rants and generally boring posts....I have to do something for the 4 hours during hair and makeup.

this JUST happened

I just got stuck in a fight between the head creative director for the entire agency, the three german creatives from the germany branch, the art buyer, the client, and art director about whether or not a 750x2000 mm crop will work on a portrait or landscape image and still have enough resolution for the models head to be blow up to A1 size. This is what it felt like....

Soggy Sundays

Song: "Reckoner (acoustic)"- Thom Yorke

I love the original version of this song. I've been borderline obsessed with it since in rainbows came out. Then I discovered this live acoustic version on a music blog. Then I sent it to my good friend Kenny. Kenny has a blog. He is in Hong Kong and posting alot.

http://kennyheartshk.blogspot.com/



So shooting today (hopefully it won't be another 12 hour day like yesterdays prelight), and at least the weather isn't great. It was misting during my bike ride over the bridge this morning and the temperature is a stark contrast to yesterday. I won't be depressed about being inside all day now. Still a good view though. We're not going anywhere soon (except Miami next week), so the wanderlust is kicking in with a vengeance. I have a trip planned for the entire month of August that is going to be ridiculous....Starting in Seoul on August third and going down through Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Min City, and then cutting through Laos into Thailand, where I fly out of Bangkok on August 30th. Too bad that isn't till August, so for now I'm living vicariously through Kenny's much more imaginative and entertaining blog. I think I'll start a new one for that trip, as I don't want people I know reading this blog and I'll probably link my family to that one.

We literally have 30 people on set for this shoot, and as I said in earlier posts, I've linked up feeds to a flat screen in a conference room and have another viewing monitor 100 feet off set. The hierarchy of photo shoots kills me....Basically the ones paying for everything have to sit in isolation and watch with little to no say, while the art directors and ad agencies argue for a few hours about crop, styling, hair makeup and poses. All the client has to do is say "hey dudes....that looks fine. Lets kill it and bill it." But no, because its hard to hear the client when he's locked in the conference room looking at pictures of me like this....


I'd have a hard time getting the ball rolling too. And its usually impossible to please everyone when there are 10 people who all have different "creative visions." Not to mention the fact that I've had three meetings in the last two days about whether the resolution of a 39 mega pixel back will be enough for a magazine ad.

So while I'm riding over the williamsburg bridge tonight, probably listening to this song, and mentally traveling through east asia in August, I'll really be worrying about FTP upload speeds to Germany, that one select they REALLY like that was over exposed by a stop and half, whether or not I'll be able to finish the processing, and if that retransmitting lost data error I had in light tests is going to be a problem tomorrow. Longest sentence ever.

The crazy money job

Song: Miranda that ghost just isn't holy anymore by the mars volta

Started shooting this week long money job for a hair company today(saturday...lame). Well we're pre-lighting at least. There's something about sitting in a beautiful sunny studio and watching everyone enjoying their saturday outside that makes me really sad. Especially since I've been inexplicably homesick for the last week. I first noticed it when I was having drinks in my backyard with my roommate and a close friend and she noticed that the snack food I had was pop tarts and nutty bars. I think I'm reverting back to my high school days. That coupled with the fact that I was trying to go home and see some friends and family next week and then we got booked pretty much all through may. Oh well.

On a positive note, we have two of the studios at milk all week and I'm going to make bank on this job. We had a big BBQ in my backyard last night and I saw some old friends (all of whom are in the industry), so it was good to talk about work with people I don't work with anymore. Jesus, I even talk about work in my free time.

This song is rad and the whole album its off of (frances the mute) is phenomenal. Try the tracks "The Widow" and "L'Via L'Viaquez" too. Both really remind me of the summer and rocking out. I recently rediscovered this album when I was recataloging my music and now I'm trying to get back into the Mars Volta. They have a new album out I need to check out. I just got the new raconteurs album and the new Black Keys one, but I haven't had a chance to listen to them properly. Maybe tonight since I have to work on sunday. I think a good book, Verb cafe on bedford and some new albums are going to dominate my evening. Hopefully this prelight doesn't take too long.....

the office

So I recently became obsessed with the american version of the office. Unfortunately I watched the first episode of the UK version last night and now I have lost all respect for the american version. I knew it was based off of the UK one, but this is just a total ripoff. I'm bitter.

Shooting in studio ALL WEEK. like literally. I don't have the weekend off or anything. But tomorrow I am setting up an off set viewing station for the client that consists of running a 100 foot DVI cable into a conference room and hooking it up to a 42 inch flat screen. Thats three huge screens connected to my mac pro. Dorking out I know.

Jackson Hole Why-oming

Song: "In particular" by Blonde Redhead.

First off, I need to learn HTML for posts so I can imbed mp3s into the posts. I have all these great rare tracks and b-sides I want to post but instead i have to use this crappy project playlist thing that doesn't even have most the songs I want.

Ok, so I went to Jackson Hole for a two day shoot a few weeks ago, and it was a cold one....


We shot at a pretty crazy hotel outside of town and let me tell you this job was complete torture. Not because the job sucked, or because the days were long, but because ever day we were there they got THREE feet of snow on the mountain every day I was there. I only had one day on the mountain this year and I was going crazy as it was. The shoot was uneventful....one day we literally set up a seamless and shot studio. Oh the excess of the photo industry. I spent the other day wrapping my monitors and macpro in plastic bags so we could shoot spring clothing outside in 15 degree blizzard weather. Poor models and even poorer client. They flew us out there to get the tetons in the background and we never once saw them. Until the day everyone left and I stayed for a day of blue bird - 2 feet of fresh snow skiing with my dad who drove over on the last night. My boss was kind enough to pay for my ticket change so I could stay and ski for two days, the second being the best day of skiing I've had in my entire life.

Backing up...on the wrap night we went out with all the local PAs to some crazy dive bar and just acted obnoxious. I seem to remember doing the waltz with the 1st assistant while the photographer bought tray after tray of vodka shots. It got a bit ridiculous once the one of the PA's puked in the sink in the men's bathroom and blamed one of us. It got even more ridiculous when....well I guess some things are best left on the road. Ahh if only every trip could be just like that. Except for the work, the 22 equipment cases (and $1500 in overages each way), and the vodka. Ok I guess the vodka can stay.

working for the weekend....

the title would imply an 80's song, but unfortunately I'm going to have to rock another chromeo song....fancy footwork.

Worked a saturday last weekend shooting an italian fashion ad series at the crash mansion on bowery. We did a very terry richardson-esque party lighting which was cool and the shoot went very well and we were done out and out enjoying the sun by 3. Also the PA was really hot. Come to think of it....the producer was pretty hot too.

A few things about shooting in bars on saturday mornings......DON'T BE HUNGOVER. I got my party bug squashed on thursday but the first assistant didnt. Bars that are open till after 4 am on saturday nights usually have just the slightest smell of a virtual chemistry lab full of every conceivable form of distilled beverages and vomit. You never really notice it when you're indulging in said concoctions, but a tired sober person forced to work in these smell dungeons on a day of rest will want to go crazy or be sick. The crash mansion stole my soul.

That being said...

Shot all last week. all womens underwear. some call it lingerie. I call it boring. There is nothing that personifies anti sexy more than the most beautiful women forced to look attractive for a job. It really takes all the fun out of it. That being said at least we got to shoot at an amazing three story townhouse in the west village with some beautiful avedon prints on the walls and great taste in design. I was obviously very excited to be there......

i don't post nearly enough and that catagorizes me as lazy.

I think the title says enough. I'm going to work this. I'll get right on it. I swear.