30.. er... 10 minutes with Ford CEO, Alan Mullaly

so what do you do when you are given 30 minutes to make a portrait with a big exec?

1. bring help (thanks Ben)

2. prepare to really only have 10 minutes when they tell you you get 30. 

3. shoot the safe stuff first

4. stay calm

5. move quickly

6. hope for the best

that's pretty much how I was able to get 5 different shots of Alan Mullaly in about 10 minutes. I was told I would get 30 minutes (after the interview ran long I had about 20 minutes) and he gave me about 10 minutes. I literally shot 35 frames total and got 5 different settings. Albeit, not all of them are my best work, all things considered, I could have only done a little better if I had more time. The most important part was to come prepared, which meant having an assistant. My brother-in-law happened to have the day off class and since the budget didn't allow for a professional assistant, he would do. I had him stand in so I could find the shots i wanted and test the lights. After an hour of setting up and figuring out what I wanted to shoot, I was taken up to the big office on the top floor. I was able get one quick shot in there after the interview ended - no lights, just a quick shot - he let me snap about 5 frames before saying "ok, let's go do something else." Then off to the lobby where I was set up to do 3 more shots. The first two were the "safe" shots with the car in the background/foreground. Then he decided to get in the car with the reporter and said "hey, lets get a few in here.." I had not planned for this so I just guessed on the exposure and prayed. I got 2 out of 5 frames that worked. Then I was able to get him infront of the softbox I had set up to get a tight portrait on white. Not something that anyone asked me to get, but it may have future sales potential with the agency I was working for. It was all a whilwind. Ironically, i don't think the photos have even run yet. They were for the Guardian (UK). Alan seemed to be very genuine and down to earth - probably why he didn't love having his photo taken... All in all, a good day. Then I drove off in my Japanese car that had been egged while i was inside (just kidding).

first shot in his office - all ambient light - luckily he had big windows. Side note: that TV in the background was not a flat screen... I guess that is how Ford has avoided bankruptcy

safe shot#1 - I liked the Israeli flag behind him

safe shot #2

another tighter one - window light worked well

in the car - his idea

last shot.

pontiac...

...has seen better days - check out my photos from the Guardian here. See the full article here.

One Drink. Lit 3 ways

1

2

3

I was editing photos from a shoot for StyleLine the other day and I realized that I shot the same drink with 3 different lighting setups. The background was the same (ambient light from a panel lining the bar). Image 1 was shot with a flash high and behind from the left with the white balance on "flash" which made the background more purple. #2 was all ambient with a spotlight that was on the table lighting the drink from almost directly above - white balance "tungsten". #3 was similar to #1 but the flash was moved closer and gelled with CTO to balance the background and I set the white balance the "tungsten" to make the background blue again (which is how it looked in person). There was also a silver reflector bouncing light back on the right.

For those of you who aren't photographers, the lighting description above probably doesn't mean much, but I'm curious to find out what shot you like best. Feel free to comment.

photographer fashion

Just got one for my birthday!  Bracelets recycled from old camera lenses @ OYE Modern - check it out.

Why did it take this long?

To figure out that I can blog from my phone! Look forward to typos and
short posts.

Sent from my iPhone

lens baby

I treated myself to a new lens just for fun and have found myself using it on multiple occasions with great results. If you haven't picked up a lens baby you have to try one. it's not an effect that works well with every photo - but is very cool when used appropriately and does stuff you could never do in photoshop. I'm looking forward to using it tomorrow at a wedding!

so yeah...

i know, i know... it's been like forever since i last posted but i have a good excuse: 

for those of you who don't know - my daughter, Matilda Grace Mountain, was born on September 20th. She has her own blog if you want to find out more about her check it out. There are lots of photos there of her - she's my muse and is an amazing baby. She just started sleeping through the night (finally!) so now I have a little more energy to dedicate to this blog - look for more regular updates. My goal is at least one a week. 

Oh and since I last posted I settled on a logo with help from graphic designer Travis Buffington - here it is: 

i hope you like it cause it's too late to change it! I had new business cards made from moo.com - they are pretty sweet. I got the mini ones and the regular business cards printed on recycled paper. The cool thing is that you can put a different photo on the back of every card! 

more soon. i promise. 

i'm kind of a big deal

check it out this week

an oldie but a goodie

playing around with some new photoshop actions. this one is supposed to have the look of an old Polariod from the 70s so I dug out this photo from two summers ago. watch her dive!

I'm back... from NYC

sorry it's been a while... here's a shot from the recent SSTY trip to NYC. It was hand-held at 1/5th of a second (it was 9:15pm)! Played around with my new favorite program Lightroom. More to come soon hopefully.