Big Fun in a Little Town

After a couple months of some pretty heavy commercial photography I had started to really miss my roots. Luckily the folks at USA Today always come up with something great. This time they sent me to Barnsdall, Okla to tell their 1.9 million readers about Coach Joe Gilbert. He's been there for 50+ years and has coached 204 varsity seasons! It's nice to shoot photos of folks with such great faces. 

You can see the full audio slideshow here:  http://tinyurl.com/2fnjusb

New toy

Just a fun random photo from the new camera. The detail this camera can capture is really unbelievable. Look forward to using it on assignment for USA Today in the morning!

I Like To Win Bets

There are certain assignments I really enjoy for one reason or another. This was one of those. When I told my dad (a grocery industry exec) that I was shooting Doug McMillon, CEO of WalMart International, for the USA Today business section he thought that was pretty cool.

But when I told him the idea was to shoot him riding a bike through the store... he said he'd bet me $20 it wouldn't happen. I told him he maybe didn't quite understand the power of "Hi, I'm going to make your photo for the 1.9 million readers of USA Today, you know what would be fun?"

Fast forward a few days. Me, the media relations woman, my assistant and Doug McMillon are in the Bentonville, AR WalMart. I explained the situation and Doug looked me in the eye and deadpanned "So, what are you going to spend your $20 on?"

It turned out not to be my favorite photos, but the editors at USAT liked it enough to use it online. (the print version hits stands in the morning)

It's always the editorial goal to shoot executives in a way that doesn't look "executive" but it's really nice when you have a subject that is so willing to go along. Doug dodged shoppers, talked to the manager about customer complaints and rode the beach cruiser through the aisles of the store all at the same time. He gave us 45 minutes and we shot three setups with multiple lights and a few looks. Here are the three setups. Enjoy!

P.S. Pay up Dad. Shane needs a new pair of shoes.

You can see the online version here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/advice/2010-04-19-advice19_ST_N.htm and pickup a print version in Monday's USA Today.

Okie Photogs

Hey guys, check out my interview on Okie Creative. Big thanks to Jeremy Charles for putting this all together and featuring some pretty great photographers. Honored to be there. Click here or the photo above to get there.

Firepower

Both the lights and the talent were hitting hard on this shoot for an upstart tennis magazine. Shooting in complete darkness under light from a 2400ws pack with two heads. The client was looking for a high impact look to set his publication apart from the rest of the regional mags on the rack. Look for the first issue sometime soon!

My Helicopter Has Arrived!

Just a short little video of some of the sights and sounds of a recent fun-as-heck shoot for an upcoming St. Francis ad. Helicopters, radios and flour.... good recipe for good photos. 

Single Photo Assignment (kinda)

As a newspaper guy for more than a decade, coming back from an assignment with only one photo wasn't looked upon too kindly! But I am finding that more and more my clients are looking for one single stunning image. This week the Tulsa World called on me to do something that not just every photographer does. A 360 degree full panorama both for print and for the web. Above is the print version and here is the web version. 

When the editor there called me and asked me to do it, I knew there was only one moment that would really capture the iconic nature of Opening day at the new stellar Oneok Field in downtown Tulsa.

To over come the massive shade cast by the grandstands and not over expose downtown and the sky, I used a technique called HDR. I won't go into the technical aspect of the photo here, but I will say that the final image is well over 100mb and is the result of combining dozens of separate images taken using a special tripod head.

I thought the result was great and actually plan to have it printed full scale for sale in the Tulsa Mayfest Invitational Gallery.

Play with your food!

Did a fun little shoot a while back for the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. They wanted some fresh fun images to use for marketing and advertising, but weren't happy with the stock selections out there. So we sat down for a day and shot their people (volunteers, staff and clients) in a clean simple style with lots of color and plenty of fun. On a side note... it's all fun and games until the intern drops a watermelon on the seamless!