Halloween was here and I remember the excitement of trick-or-treating as a kid. The costumes, the decorations and most importantly, the candy! I had a simple idea for a new video, two kids fighting over candy after a long night of trick-or-treating Halloween night. I sketched out a storyboard and was ready to go. I was able to use a cool new (to me) camera, the Sony NEX-FS700. This camera was instrumental in getting the slow motion shots we needed. I was very lucky to work with great actors, John Carrasco and Syn. Syn is a professional wrestler from the organization Big Time Wrestling at www.btwrestling.com. They made my storyboard come to life and I couldn’t be happier with the result. Enjoy!

Here is a little teaser about an upcoming video about candy, Halloween and how to play nice! View high resolution

Here is a little teaser about an upcoming video about candy, Halloween and how to play nice!

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”   When it comes to food, that saying won’t steer you wrong anywhere in Italy you happen to visit and enjoy a meal.

This past August I went to see the in-laws in northern Italy with my wife. We spent a week in the Alps eating, hiking and eating some more. I am a big proponent of eating home cooked meals and locally grown food and I am happy to report there was no shortage of either on my trip.

A mile up the road from my in-laws summerhouse, close to the town of Oltre il Colle, is an abandoned ski resort where a handful of cows graze at the granite peaked base of Monte Alben for the summer months. These cows belong to a local herder, Tobia. Tobia and his brother have lived amongst these mountains their whole lives. Things are much simpler than my current urban city life and it was good to see the old methods of doing things were just the present day routine for people in the surrounding villages.

We met Tobia and his brother as they were milking their cows. Sonoyo, my sister-in-law, gets her milk products from Tobia and thinks nothing of the daily errand that I found to be such a luxury. Tobia didn’t have any fancy milking machine, no weird tools or suction devices.  A bucket and an old wooden stool to sit on was all that was required, go figure.  

After a few introductions and a brief conversation about weather, health, family and how two of his cows will be turned into Bresaola this fall, Tobia took his bucket full of fresh milk and filled up Sonoyo’s liter bottle.

A few days later we went to Tobia’s house to buy cheese. The first thing I noticed was the breathtaking view surrounding his home. Lush green rolling hills as far as the eye can see, mountains upon mountains towering over on all sides. And the garden! He had a rich array of so many different kinds of vegetables, it was quiet a sight and put my town’s community garden to shame.

There was a separate room devoted to storing and aging Tobia’s home made cheese. He had some that was days old to a couple years and he wanted us to taste them all. We had our tasting and made some hard choices of what to schlep back to the states. We walked away with about a two month supply.

It was refreshing to see things done old school style with little fuss producing such high quality product. Tobia has been doing things the same way his father and his father’s father and so on and so forth. Generations not obsessed with doing better but instead knowing what works is sometimes the best way to do it.

I look at food as a still life challenge, asking myself how I would represent it in a way that stimulates the senses beyond the predictable “mmm, delicious”.   How might I evoke an emotional, rather than salivary, response?
The gummy bear imagery emerged after toying with ideas for a holiday card a couple of years ago, where I explored the after-effects of destroying candy (mostly by smashing them to bits).  Experimentally melting some pieces, I saw how beautiful they looked as their sugars liquified.  That led to the microwaving of gummy bears, which then led to my seeking a more precise way of melting: the hair dryer.  As I strategically melted the gummy bears for my still shots, I noticed how beautifully the thick liquid flowed.  The dynamics were so compelling, I had to film them, not just melting to their demise, but in a way that celebrates the creation of the beloved candy.

Ice Cream and I have had a long love affair. I remember my dad piling us kids into his big chevy wagon after some little league type event and taking us to the popular east coast ice cream shop, Carvel.  In addition to the incredible amount of sugar, I was drawn to the velvety texture of the ice cream and that draw kept me a dedicated and loyal fan to Carvel throughout my childhood.  It wasn’t till my mid 20’s, while assisting on a shoot on Long Island, that I realized there was a whole big world of really good, if not gourmet, ice cream out there. Cream of the Hamptons was my introduction to extraordinary ice cream.  This was not the simple ice cream of my childhood, it was creamer, richer, had more interesting flavors, and seemed to made with happiness. From that moment I became a searcher and seeker for truly wonderful ice cream. Cream of the Hamptons was a real game changer and that experience cemented my love affair with not just ice cream but exceptional happiness which seems to be the new commodity with specialty ice cream makers these days.

Here we take a little break from the dog days of summer for a couple of interviews with people talking about ice cream. While experimenting with the color during the editing process I couldn’t help but be a little influenced by the memory of those Carvel TV ads from the 70’s & 80’s
 
Thanks to the following people who helped me with creating this video:
DP: Marc Virata,
Camera Operator: Steven Powell
Sound: Kevin Crawford
Editing: Pete Fleming
Assistants: Alex Sammak & Ross McKnight.
Special Thanks to the local San Francisco ice cream company Three Twins for supplying the ice cream.

Ice Cream!  Drug of Choice.

Are the sculptors of the ancient Greek Olympians rolling over in their grave?

With the storm of criticism over the portraits of the 2012 USA Olympic
athletes (click here for story) , I had to stand back for a moment and wonder who it was in theOlympic Committee that approves the creative direction and final imagery. Was is headed up by someone so green as to have had no idea how to go about producing a cohesive collection of beautiful photographs?  Was the committee looking to find ways to cut budget numbers or time constraints?

One of the most important factors in successfully producing a cohesive set of images is consistency. Right from the start, the decision to use multiple photographers created a consistency-management issue that was clearly not addressed by the Olympic committee.  Success would have required combining clear creative direction, a great producer, and the right photographers and crew.

Still within all of the chaos of trying to capture portraits at a Media Summit , the image of Wallace Spearmon by Victoria Will shines.

http://www.victoriawill.com/

Along with giving the website a face lift, we have a sampling of images from a recent project.

In April, I went down to LA to shoot a paper sculpture, 16’ in diameter, build by Jeff Nishinaka, an incredibly talented, world-renown artist. It took 8 months to build, days to construct and shoot but only minutes to burn.

Bulwark is a company that makes flame-resistant apparel and the metaphor was simple. This beautiful structure, made only of paper, is no less fragile than life.

“Because people aren’t fireproof.”


It was a glorious site watching the structure crumble under the flames and I had a great time hanging with the artist and all the wonderful people from Bulwark and Fitzgerald + CO.


Circadian Rhythms: The Timekeepers Within
Was gifted with working with Nissa Quanstrom on this shoot for Proto Magazine about sleep, metabolism and night owls. As always, Nissa pulled through and was able to locate these wonderful parts and gears under a very tight deadline. Thanks again Nissa!

Photographing a Pelican for Fuse book cover - behind the scenes.

A few captures with the iPhone by Dan & Alex while shooting Neptune, the pelican, for the cover art of Julianna Baggott’s Novel, Fuse