Thursday, March 06, 2008

My Little Helper Carissa



I always look forward to my kids coming home from school. My wife and I are blessed to have the school bus drop our kids off practically on our doorstep. I decided to shovel snow while I waited for the bus to arrive.

Yesterday I did not get a chance to shovel the snow since we had an early call and start time on the other side of town for the Commercial Video Production. I always hate to drive over snow in the driveway-- doing so compresses it and makes it more difficult to clear and causes the snow to turn to ice. It was bad weather yesterday and I broke my rule to get to the set.

This afternoon was my window of opportunity to clear away the snow, ice and slush before it froze again. It's always a pain to remove wet and heavy snow. My youngest child, Carissa, blessed me with her enthusiasm to pitch in and clear the driveway with me. She did an awesome job. We worked together outside for about an hour. As we finished up I decided to turn the work into a photo op. I wanted to share the moment with you.

All these photos were taken on a Canon G9. I am so glad that I purchased the Canon G9 Digital Point and Shoot at the end of last year. It's a super camera and the best production camera I have owned to date! It also takes amazing video. All that from a camera that can fit in my shirt pocket.

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

In front of Camera!

John gets a touch up from stylist Kirsten Roberts.


(One Handed Self portrait taken with a Canon G9 camera. It was more challenging to take a photo myself without moving my head toward the camera-- did not want to make Kirsten's job any harder. It guess you could call this my attempt to take a one handed Candid Self Portrait)

Today was a different experience for me. I drove my kids to a Commercial Video production shoot and I ended up being a part of the production as an extra. Not sure how, when, were and why it will be used. If I would say more, I would be breaking my disclosure agreement. The only thing I can say is that I was an extra and I got paid for it.

I found this experience very educational. For the first time in my life I was on the other side of a Production company that I had nothing to do with. I had friends who were professionals in the industry photograph and video tape my wedding-- so that was different too! For commercial work, in the past when I was used, I was actually brought on as part of the production team and my hand would be used or even once, I was the assistant for a photo ad and the model all at the same time. That ad ran about 10 years ago for University Med Net. I ended up having my head take up practically the full page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. After it ran, I remember running around my neighborhood recycling the recycled newspaper to get extra copies. That's when I learned how out of registration the color on the Plain Dealer was. I was in a B&W add in which they added a Rubick's Cube in Post. It appeared in my hand in Color.

Unfortunately when I have photographed for newspapers such as the New York Times, I have to go to the newsstand and buy a couple of copies. Newspapers never provide tear sheets. Even though I have photographed for the Boston Globe, I have never seen my photos that have appeared in them. They do not publish locally like the NY Times. Magazine and client work is different-- they provide copies as part of our licensing agreement which makes it a lot easier to acquire tear sheets. After one job is done, I'm off to the next assignment and I do not have the time to track down my tear sheets.

I have to give the director of todays production a lot of credit. He did a great job running the production despite the fact that some of the hired talent gave their unsolicited advice on how things should be to everyone in the room. I chalk this up to lack of experience on their part. I remember hearing a story about a photo assistant that assisted world renowned Cleveland photographer Bob Bender. The assistant suggested to Bob and the client that the tin ceiling be a different color. The client agreed. Bob had to loose a day to paint the ceiling. After the photography was completed, they lost another day to paint the ceiling back to its original color. Needles to say, Bob never used the assistant again and the client ended up going with the original photo before the ceiling was painted. If you see something wrong in a photo, let the director or photographer know in a discreet way. An extra set of eyes and ears can be a good thing, but you don't know what the camera is seeing unless you are looking through the camera!

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Keeping Your Creativity Alive Weekly

As a creative professional I am constantly looking for avenues to expand my creative thinking and to learn and view work from other creatives. I am a member of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and our local chapter ASMP/ONC use to have a program entitled "Ideas and Images" This was a fantastic program that I would love to see brought back. The organizer would select 4-5 presentors and have them present anything they wished for 20 minutes. Such notable presenters were F. Eugene Smith who is an Architect who discussed beautifying our cities with signage and minimizing the ugliness-- through burying overhead electrical and telephone wires, etc. He showed some before and after slides that really made us think how much more creative and beautiful things would be if we really took the time to care and think about beautifying our environment. There was another presenter that discussed his interests in Tea Ceremonies.The program ran for about two hours and everyone loved the program. The programs ran for a number of years back in the olden days of the last century and utilized slide projectors before we all had Power Point or Keynote presentations. (editors note: I just came back from a conference in Dayton, OH and there was one presenter that used a slide projector. I can't remember the last time before this that I saw a slide projector being used in this century. Funny how times change!) This program was what first attracted me to ASMP and can be credited for having me join ASMP back in 1994.

I found a weekly substitute for this Ideas and Images program through Creativity. Creativity is a monthly magazine (in print form) that I subscribe to that has started to offer a weekly top 5 video synopsis (on their web site) of the top 5, or to quote Creativity: "a weekly video recap of the Creative you need to know." Creativity goes on to describe: "it's all here in a concentrated, 5-minute, 5-item video treat" You can visit the top 5 at Creativity-Online.com/top5


Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)