Some Things!

The above photo is from the newish Southern Tier Brewing in Cleveland - I was up there for a shoot in the Key Tower. I don't have a coherent post to make right now but that doesn't mean I haven't been shooting some personal stuff. I've been making images on my way to and from other gigs and I've also been doing an Instagram takeover of Summit Peeks(click HERE). So check out about a week and half worth of these somewhat random photos. 

Snow Globe Akron

On my way home from a shoot last night I stopped and met Erin & friends for Musica's newish Happy Hour on Thursdays. When we walked out it was a GD winter wonderland. I was parked a few blocks away so I snapped as we walked to the car. Apparently it was a little preview of what we are about to get tomorrow. 

Earthquaker Devices

I've been the product photographer for Earthquaker devices for a little over a year now but I hadn't posted anything about it here yet(just some hints on social media). Earthquaker is a world renown guitar effect pedal company located in Akron, OH. I've known the owners and many of the employees from my years playing in bands so it was really cool to get this gig. When I walk into the shop to pick up new item its like visiting a bunch of friends. The few employees I didn't know when I started shooting there have now become friends or at least acquaintances(I even ride bicycles with some of them). Since almost everyone at the company is an artist in some form the are very particular about their photography - which always makes it a fun challenge. (Also - I get to see the new products before they are released!). 

Paris (Under)Exposed

When I pulled this roll out of the fix I thought to myself, "oh no, did I somehow just develop a roll of film I didn't expose?" Upon closer inspection I realized there was a little bit there - just vastly underexposed. It didn't take me long to realized I must have shot this roll of Ferrania P30 with my camera still set to ISO 400(because I usually shoot Tri-X400). There is a chance I realized this when I went into a Paris camera store to buy a few rolls of Kodak Tri-X and that I would have planned to try and develop for the mistake - but over the intervening months I had simply forgot. So anyway - most of the roll is a waste(or at least not worth editing and posting) but a few of these shots still came out kind of interesting. 

Snow & Beer

Here are a couple snaps from the weekend. On Saturday Erin and I attended the Cottage Crawl with some friends at Lock 3. It was quite different than last year - a better beer selection and many more people. On Sunday we went for a hike on the Plateau Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley. It was nice to finally get a pretty snow hike in. 

God's Favorite Customer

I've mostly used photographic gels to correct or "balance" color from my flashes to match the light in a room - tungsten or florescent(orange and green). A few time working as an assistant to Rick we used blue gels to set a cool techy or medical look. I had an aversion to using them in artistic ways - probably because I associate them with cheesy swimsuit model stuff from the 80s. Lately I've seen them coming back into style in my Instagram feed and yesterday I was listening to 'God's Favorite Customer' by Father John Misty - I decided to recreate the three gel look of the cover photo.(HERE). I assumed I would know how to do it - but I would rather practice now and be sure before I get asked at some point. 

France on Film

I'm a 'to-do list" maker and developing my rolls of film from my April trip to France has been on my list since I got back. I'm pleased to say I finally got the first one done and there are some great shots in there. They came out well even though I did a number of things wrong. I put this roll in the development tank months ago - and while I didn't think that would effect it - I didn't know for sure. Then when developing it I accidently poured the stop bath in before the developer - I did the whole development routine before realizing what I had done. I rinsed the film a few times and started over. Finally - when I went to hang dry the film I knocked a dirty rafter worrying me that the film would dry very dusty. Despite all the results were really good! 

'Splorin

The owner of Dirty River Bicycle Works had become a really good friend of mine over the last few years. We spend a lot of time together and I have made some videos for him and also shot some photos and he helps me fix all of my vintage bikes. As a thank you/trade/sponsorship he built me a Raleigh Tamland 2 with a mix of components we had. It is my first modern gravel bike and it is a lot of fun. Last weekend was so nice that I went out and put it through its paces on all kinds of surfaces - old oil roads, wet Towpath, abandoned Akron roads etc. I brought my GoPro and made a short movie highlighting some of the adventures.

New Year

So I wound down 2018 with a some great people at the studio - a few of whom are pictured above. I know some people aren't huge fans of resolutions but I like to take the time to reflect and set some goals. When I was writing at this time last year I really believed it would be the year of getting back to personal projects - more analog film, more YouTube videos and things like that. In fact it didn't work out like that at all. I shot more videos and photos than ever before - but it was mostly for work. Most of the personal projects came from my travels. That being said my biggest goal had always been to a professional photographer and now it is to grow my business - so I'm not mad at all that things didn't go as planned.