One of my favourite shows on HBO right now is True Blood. Here’s a hilarious apology from ‘Brian’ of the HBO marketing department, courtesy of Digital Kitchen, the agency responsible for the excellent opening credits sequence from the show.
True Blood Season 3 Campaign – “Awkward” viral video from DIGITALKITCHEN on Vimeo.
The Stanley Cup playoffs were great, and the NBA is ok but what I’ve been waiting all year for is the World Cup.
The ads have begun pouring out and all are pretty great. Nike’s much hyped ‘Write the Future’ is simply amazing and I watched it multiple times after seeing it, but after seeing this Puma ad I have to give it a second thought.
Obviously each ad is trying to accomplish different things but what resonates with me is how Puma captures the authentic emotion and feeling of football on a community level rather than just the standard angle of putting athletes on a pedestal.
A few weeks ago I had a post about the video shoot that myself and Caleb Beyers of Beyers Projects did for Westbeach Snowboard Apparel as a preview of their 2010/2011 line for the Telus Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler.
So here is the final product. Many thanks to Sugar Studios for their great shooting space.
Music is by DFA Recording artists YACHT
Some say that looking at the work of other photographers can be a double edged sword; it can either inspire you or drive you mad with self doubt. Personally, I love it and use it along with a range of other inspirations to drive me to create new and better work.
So this is my personal list of ten photographers which I feel are currently producing the work that I find most inspiring. It is an entirely subjective and bias list with no relation to awards won, exhibits shown or years spent shooting; just a bunch of people that I think do great work.
I am a little short on the Canadian side and I am sure I have forgotten some people so I would be interested to hear other people’s comments and additions.
Nadav Kander
Jeff Lipsky
Peggy Sirota
Jake Chessum
Laureen Greenfield
Derek Shapton
Sean Murphy
Ben Watts
Terry Richardson
So the latest book by Burnaby’s own Michael J. Fox is now on shelves and features one of my photos as its cover image. Although it has undergone some heavy Photoshop I find it pretty cool, especially since the movie Back to the Future was one of the main reasons I got into skateboarding back in the day.
I’m hoping that on top of my royalties I can negotiate a hover board as part of the deal.
This is a shot of my friend Brett stirrin’ the spey rod for some steelhead up in Port Renfrew. Which is how I plan to spend at least part of this upcoming long Easter weekend.
This is Angelo. He owns a small Italian food import store called Tosi & Company over on Main St, a few blocks away from my place. He has been at this spot for years and has managed to stay in business despite all the changes the area has seen in the last 30 years. I suspect it is because he sells great products at a very reasonable price; personally I try to buy all my pasta and pharmesan cheese there.
I remember the first time I walked into the store, I instantly knew I wanted to take a portrait; the shop is like stepping back in time and Angelo radiates such character. Unfortunately it seemed that every time I was stopping by I never had my camera with me. Until last Friday when I headed out for a stroll with my camera, determined to get out from behind the computer.
I admit the stroll was not really going that well, I wasn’t getting any interesting shots and was heading back when I walked by Angelo’s and remembered the portrait idea. Fortunately I was also in need of some more pharmesan and Angelo was a willing subject.
This shot has actually given me the idea to take some more portraits of my neighbours as I will be moving out of Gastown in the next month. Being adjacent to Vancouver’s downtown east side has definitely given the area a mixed reputation, though in my time here I have met some really interesting people that have challenged any preconceived ideas I may have had. This month is going to be crazy busy but I’ll try to shoot some more and post them here, perhaps make it into a series.
Oh yeah, Angelo the pasta was great!
I’ve started to collaborate with a videographer on some projects and offer it to clients as a full service image package, producing both stills and video content for web and print.
Here’s a behind the scenes shot of me shooting on a job we did last week for Westbeach Snowboard Apparel. Look for the full video to be posted towards the end of April.
This past week a friend and I shot a video/stop motion piece for a client and so I’ve spent the last week hunkered down in a dark room pushing clips around in Final Cut.
I will post that once it is released sometime next month but until then I wanted to share the animated work of Norman Mclaren. My friend turned me on to his work with Canada’s National Film Board in the early 1950s and I was blown away by not just the complexity of it but also how beautiful it is. Made all the more amazing consider that it is all analogue film based.
Here is one of my favourites, Begone Dull Care, in which Mclaren painted and scratched directly onto each frame of the negative; all in time to jazz pianist Oscar Peterson’s score. It is like a mini modern painting on each frame.
With all the interest from photographers lately in stop motion and film, I would say this is required viewing.
To read more on Norman Mclaren go to the National Film Board’s website