Jun
05
2010Second and last full day of the Bellingham Film Festival. Two more workshops, more film showings, an awards ceremony, and of course, the party. The boys had there fun yesterday, today was the girls’ turn to do some workshops. You might recognize the moderators for these workshops. Improv comedians DK and Morgan, provided some well-timed laughs during the sessions and kept the mood light. The days’ guest speakers, Lisa Beach and Sara White, provided some much desired information for the audience, and of course, answered a ton of questions.
Same drill as the day before, spent some time with each guest on the white seamless, as well as a few shots with their moderators. DK and Morgan always make my job easy, hell, even I’m laughing and smiling while behind the camera. In the words of Morgan as he was getting makeup applied for the shoot, “I don’t know what this stuff is but it tastes delicious.”
May
28
2010The great people who put on the Bellingham Film Festival asked me to be the exclusive photographer for this year’s event. A huge thanks to Wilson Large, the main man behind the whole event, and the guy ensured I had everything I needed to capture the event. On top of this being a weekend for local film talent to show their stuff, there were four workshops held for the public to come listen in on. Four very well established individuals in the film industry were awesome enough to make the trek up to Bellingham from the film country and talk to the audience about what they do, how they made it, etc. Each evening was capped with a party. Funny thing about parties and being the photographer… the event host is always there to make sure you get a drink in your hand. Luckily these were some very laid back after parties, so who cares if my framing is a little crooked, right?… 
We held the workshops at the soon-to-be new Pickford Dream Space. It’ll be THEE place to come watch movies in Bellingham when it’s done. Right now it is under construction, which has a really cool look and very fitting place to hold this event. Lots of open space, which was perfect for my white seamless setup. Our four guest speakers: Brian Sipe – Makeup FX artist, Michael Blundell – Cinematographer, Lisa Beach – Casting director, and Sara White – Executive producer, all donated a few minutes before their workshop to do a quick photo shoot for some PR shots on the white seamless. Andrew Lahmann, of P-51 Pictures, was another great help at the festival, ensuring I had everything I needed to get the right shots, and who was also responsible for recruiting the excellent guests for the festival. We setup a little studio in the middle of the floor space, even built some gobos out of some plywood we found laying around. It was a great little impromptu set! The awesome people at Sonya’s Quality Furniture let us borrow a cool chair for use as a prop, worked out perfectly. I used to live in Bellingham for a number of years and loved it, I miss that place a lot. As a whole, the people are so nice, very pro small business, and there is an amazing amount of people willing to lend a hand to help out.
Mar
24
2010It was a busy last week for events. Shot everything from a floral presentation for Thomasi here in Tacoma to a memorial reception up in Bellingham. Looking at my portfolio, you wouldn’t think I worked many events or even at all. It is a whole different animal, event photography. I’m always looking at the world not just as a giant set of photo opportunities, but being a huge flash lighting guy, I’m always thinking of ways to put some extra spice and flavor into a photo by using creative lighting. In a sense, taking photography to the next level and creating my own environment with my light, the way I like it, regardless of the existing lighting environment. That is not how the event photography world works. And no… throwing a hot shoe flash onto my camera and blasting people is NOT proper event photography, I will argue that until the day I die. On-camera flash completely flattens an image, takes away the ambiance of the event and how people experienced it. Event photography is all about adapting to the environment, working with the existing lighting no matter how bad it may be. Yes, there will be times when an on-camera flash will be needed, but geez… it’s that last ditch effort when your environment is giving you next to nothing to work in. I see it too often, the “pro” working an event and blasting people with a flash when it is completely unnecessary. Doesn’t take but an amateur to know how those photos are going to turn out. I shake my head, resist the itch to ask them a completely rhetorical question, and keep walking.
Nov
05
2009Got an email from Helen McGovern, executive director of the EFN, checking my availability for their “Abundance” fundraiser. She had attended the Tacoma Community House fundraising event I worked a few weeks back, also saw the pictures I captured there, and asked if I could do the same for her organization. But of course!
That was a busy Saturday. I was (and still am) in the middle of shooting the Smokin’ Hot Espresso calendar. That day I had two months scheduled to shoot, and I threw this event right on top of that. Piece of cake, right? Maybe if I wasn’t still in the middle of a horse pasture wrapping my last calendar shoot for the day, an hour out of town, and needing to be present and clicking at the fundraiser 30 minutes from then! Let’s just say I had a “vision problem” and I couldn’t quite accurately make out the speed limit signs on the way back into town. Made the event just as things started to ramp up. phew!
Oct
08
2009
“Antique Quest & Wine Fest” was the event put on by the Tacoma Community House last Saturday at the Museum of Glass. Hana, a great gal who works for the organization, asked if I would come capture the event. Free booze and really old stuff?! Count me in!
Aug
04
2009A couple weeks ago I posted a blog about nurse camp, an event I covered at Tacoma General Hospital, along with a few pictures. As I mentioned in that post (click here to view it), I shot video as well. I mainly shot the video as a little afterthought, thinking it would be nice if the hospital staff would want some rough, stock video of the event. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up editing a video piece unexpectedly after I got the idea in my head. Working close with the nursing staff, I cut together a video in hopes that it will help promote the nurse camp and generate further interest for the hospital.
Jul
13
2009
Tacoma General Hospital put on Nurse Camp last week. An event where high school students get the rare opportunity to shadow working nurses in the hospital, as well as learn much of what nurses do and are responsible for at the facility. Hundreds of students applied and only one hundred were accepted after the selection process was all done. However, before even the selected were allowed to partake, they had to fill out gobs of paperwork, attend orientations, and get their immunizations up-to-date. Having to put in all that work before even getting to experience nurse camp lets you know that these students really wanted to be there, learn, and find out if nursing was a profession they’d be interested in pursuing.
The nursing crew, wanting some quality photos of the event, asked if I would be available to capture it for them. Granted I’m that last one who wants to be in a hospital and be reminded of sickness and death on a regular basis, not to mention I can’t watch a needle go into my own skin without passing out, I was relieved to find out that the event would just be exercises on dummies and pig parts.
