April 28 2013 / Comments Off

UrbanWorks UNO Charter School

This is the second UNO Charter School we’ve photographed with UrbanWorks. The first was back in 2009 and was really a great project to photograph. In that project, the architects created an inspired environment by reusing an old industrial site. The more recent school is an all-new structure from the ground up and is equally interesting.

April 12 2013 / Comments Off

The Smoothness

I’m just back from NAB 2013 and there was a lot of excitement at the show! RED bombarded us with more announcements than I could even begin to wrap my head around. Phil Holland, who I got to hang with at the RedUser party has a comprehensive summary of their new offerings here.

One of the things I was most anxious to see was originally announced on Vincent LaForet’s blog shortly before the show opened. LaForet teamed up with RC Copter manufacturer Freefly Systems to put their new hand-held stabilized camera gimbal through its paces. The still and video below are from his blog, which goes into great detail about the stabilizer (named the MōVi 10). Luckily for me they’ve built it just beefy enough to manage a stripped down Red Epic. I put my pre-order in as soon as I woke up wednesday morning and I was already order number 83. It’s going to be amazing for walkthroughs of architectural spaces, not to mention how great it will make our workflow on narrarative pieces. I could go on and on about the new rig, but I think it’s best just to watch the BTS Video.

April 5 2013 / Comments Off

Our New Short Film : Harrison’s Closet

We’ve recently wrapped production on another short film, Harrison’s Closet. Set in the 1950′s, our story is based on a script by Alex Whitmer and speaks of a middle-aged man coming to grips with his sexuality. Directed by the lovely Alejandra Valera with your’s truly directing the photography and our close-knit group of ever talented crew, we shot the new production over 5 days in the wilds of Berwyn, Illinois. I have to say… Just from an esthetic perspective, this is easily the most beautiful work we’ve ever done.

I really have to give a hand to Patsy McEnroe and Matthew Rivera for bringing the set to life and rigging substantial amounts of lighting in the freezing cold. Just to give you an idea what an amazing job they did, the first shot below was actually shot at night, as were several others like it.

And here are a WHOLE bunch of BTS shots. The black & white set is from David Munson and the color set from William Egbert. Big thanks to them both for doing such a great job documenting our antics.

(more…)

March 18 2013 / Comments Off

Exquisite Project by Goettsch Partners

We photographed this project for Goettsch Partners some months back. It took an AIA Interior Architecture Award (not surprisingly). Really nice design by Jim Prendergast and the gang.

March 15 2013 / Comments Off

More Rocks and Sand

Another from Monument Valley, monochromatic this time.

March 14 2013 / Comments Off

Home Work with Herman Miller

This is a bit of shooting we did with Herman Miller just before it got cold enough to start snowing. The idea was to create Home Office spaces using some really great locations in Michigan. The art director wanted everything to feel bright and airy (but with contrast). We also wanted to maintain all of the color in our products and props. Of course it was completely overcast for almost the entire shoot. THIS is why we drag tons of lighting everywhere we go. In any of the shots where you see nice sunlight coming in through the windows, thats all us. Yes, we are totally in love with our HMI’s.

March 3 2013 / Comments Off

Monument Valley PODAS

Last fall I attended a Phase One PODAS workshop in Arizona. I’ve never photographed landscapes before and I thought this might be a nice way to explore the genre, recharge my batteries and just have a bit of fun. Phase One puts on maybe a half dozen of these workshops a year and they take place all around the world. Check them out here. Here are some of my favorites from the workshop. These were all shot on my Arca Rm3d with an IQ160 digital back. I also have a ton of stuff I shot on the Leica and will have to post some of those too!

February 25 2013 / Comments Off

Working with LUTs

A LUT, or Look up Table, is a quick way to transform the look of digital cinema footage to a more film-like state. Here are a few images from the new short that show how the image changes. I’ll update this later with a little more info about the whole thing.

February 24 2013 / Comments Off

Cinematography Reel

Having just finished our new short film, Harrison’s Closet, I felt like I finally had enough material to cut together a little portfolio of my motion work.

Go full screen and turn up the sound!

September 23 2012 / Comments Off

New Client, New Design, Old Structure

I was contacted over the summer by 4240 Architecture to photograph a building that they had renovated for the GSA. The site on south State Street in Chicago is home to a few great old buildings in need of refreshing. The aim of the project was to create a sustainable work place that would be great for the environment while adding value to the area and the GSA’s properties.