Further Along with Mobile Devices
Working on a new portfolio, and today's the first time I've put all the pictures together and had a close look at them. The things I notice:
- I'm not sure I want to stay with mobile devices. I think I'll expand to the whole high tech category
- I need to shoot more. I noticed I keep trying to make more pictures via retouching, which has never really worked for me.
- Turns out completely revolutionizing the way mobile devices are shot is harder than you'd think.
Most of these are most of the way there, but none of them are all the way there. "There" being "finished".
Anyways. What do you think?
Galaxy Tab paper model.
This looks a lot better with a screen, but it still sits there funny. And I don't mean ha ha.
I think this looks better with an image on the screen, but I don't think that's the right image.
I think I can light these in a way that's more exciting. Kinda fun though.
I like this one quite a lot...
but this is my favorite.
Mobile Devices
Starting a new portfolio for hi tech stuff. Two I like so far, one I'm not sure about. HTC EVO 4G. I haven't fired it up, but the design of this phone is quite nice. The interior is all red, so expect to see some more of that soon. The back cover is thin and flexible though, and seems like it's about to pop off all the time.
Blackberry Torch. The finish on this phone let me work out this new lighting technique. The phone itself is very stylish, so that helps.
Samsung Galaxy Tab. This thing is a brick, essentially. Hard to find a way to spice it up, hence the weird background treatment. I think a screen would help, and maybe I'll shoot the backside, as that has a little more interest.
Helpful Ideas for Busy Dads
Following up on Creativity Stops and Starts, in addition to those two ideas, a ton of others came to me. For example:
- A knotted crib sheet dangling over the side of the crib
- A dog harnessed to a stroller
- Two bedtime stories clamped together
- A hospital-style call button in the crib
- iPhone baby rattle app
It's nice when you get so many ideas you have to create a chart to make sense of them.
I settled on a feeding theme, thus the Media Player Caddy.
The Feed-a-Whirl.
The Extended Stay.
The Eat N Clean.
In talking with Jackie about the photos, she said it would be a good Father's Day promo. FACEPALM. Of course, she's brilliant, so I got to work making up the promo. Stay tuned.
Wells Fargo Bank Archive
I recently shot a job for Wells Fargo Bank Historical Services. They're publishing a book to document their incredible archive of historical artifacts from the last 200 years or so. It was rapid-fire photography all day for five days, but the Wells Fargo people and my crew (well, Emily Polar) were really great, and we had a lot of fun. I managed to geek out on objects as much as their archivists did. Here's a selection of the 90 plus objects we photographed:
Back before there was a consistent national currency.
Emperor Norton money. I love Emperor Norton. That San Francisco not only accepted Norton, but let him print his own currency makes it my kind of town.
The original Articles of Incorporation for Wells Fargo, signed by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
After I shot this coin, I kind of wanted to redo it, so I asked if we could leave it in the library (we were shooting in the library in their building) overnight. They said "No." and returned it to the vault. Later I found out it's worth two million dollars.
I love this thing. It's a Fire Grenade. It's loaded with chemicals, and you were to keep a set of them outside your house. If it caught fire, you'd toss these inside and they'd hopefully starve out the flames. I wished I'd had an hour with this piece, instead of 20 minutes.
This. This is hard to describe, but that's uh, San Francisco. Apparently back then it was a hollow hill, with a beach. I think that might be a jet-black whale on the right. Somehow, this painting managed to creep into the future and inform that whole late 90's Mission School thing.
The archive contains a number of mascot costumes, from much more recent times. The shoes and gloves, that is. The shirt is mine.