The FANDom

Top Photos of 2021 - And Other Stuff I Guess

I always start these posts off with something like “Man, it’s been one hell of a year! It’s going to be so hard to pick just 5 photos– Blah Blah Blah”. But this year was different. Not for lack of trying but I hardly shot anything at all. Looking back at my blog posts for the year I have only made 5 updates in all of 2021.

In many ways this makes me feel kinda sad, and like I haven’t been living up to my potential. I’m not even going to try to argue this point otherwise.

I, like many others, look at Instagram and Twitter (I gave up Facebook at the end of 2020 and really haven’t looked back, but that’s a story for another time) and see hundreds of photos each day taken by peers and other creatives. I try not to, but most of the time I can’t help but ask myself “Why aren’t YOU putting new content into the world?” “Why isn’t X shooting with me” “Why aren’t you out there in the world more?”.

It’s extremely easy to get wrapped up in all of this and look past a lot of the great things that have been going on in my life that aren’t EXACTLY photo related. I hope I can share some of those things with you today (as well as a few photos in the process).

First thing I’d like to mention is that in the beginning of the year, I had a new job opportunity fall completely unexpectedly into my lap. That in itself was a big change that will play very heavily into some other EXTREME accomplishments that happened this year.

The most important of which is that I bought a house. That in itself is huge, but what this actually means is that I now have my own studio and workspace. Which for someone who has been a bit of a photo-nomad his entire career, I can’t say enough how stoked I am to not have to carry gear in the trunk of my vehicle all of the time.

Forgive the shitty iPhone panorama, but it’s hard to see everything in one photo.

If you are at all interested, here are some work in progress photos. It’s not at all finished, I still need at minimum a bunch of paint and some other equipment, but for now I have more than what I need to get things going.

Back in March I took a very sudden trip to Arizona to meet up with an old college friend, and in between sleeping almost an entire weekend i had the chance to meet up and shoot with Goddess Celeste DeVille which in some ways re-sparked some of the things I loved when I started shooting.

Due to the nature of her work I was only allowed to capture her from nose down, but we still had fun creating some wonderful images in the process.

Shortly after finishing phase one of the studio build out, I invited Karina Treance into the studio for some test images (and because I needed to familiarize myself with some new toys…which…happens a lot these days).

It’s weird to me that I’ve had that backdrop basically since my beginnings as a photographer, but never really use it anymore. But it was all I had until I got the paper roller system set up.

I’m fairly certain I have about a hundred more photos from this session that I haven’t even looked at because I learned the hard way that my almost decade old laptop just isn’t cut out to handle modern camera files pumping in 10 at a time.

I’ll get around to those one day I guess–

Last year I started a project I’ve been calling “The Cats who Live with my Friends” and while shooting some of those images, my local hair-witch reached out and asked me if I would be interested in capturing her cat Cinder.

I mean, of course I said yes. I’m nothing if consistently on brand.

for the last several years I’ve been having to cat-vicariously through my friends after the loss of my fluffy friend back in 2015. Since that happened I have had the attitude of “When it’s time for another cat to enter my life, then I will have another cat”.

Well, the universe called, and I answered:

It’s hard to believe that this little creature who was left in my care when she was less than a pound, has become the thing I have photographed the most this year.

Around the time I was re-learning how to become a cat-dad, I reached out to the always lovely CharLee Cherie. CharLee is great for a number of things, the least of which is answering positively when I asked my group of friends “So, do I have anyone who owns a ball gag?”.

By the way, I still have your robe here at the house. So next time you are out this way come get it.

Around this time Sig Sawyer of The Fandom Nerdlesque (no strangers to this blog, and of whom I sit on the board as media head…I guess? Which basically translates to me being a delightful pain in the ass about making sure everyone has great photos of themselves) reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to take a stab at some graphic design for a show poster.

I am a lot of things, but a graphic designer I am not.

I put together something that I thought was kinda interesting, and even though it never got used I don’t think it should live forever in cold storage.

As we got towards the end of the year, and the beginning of the “spooky season”, Brandie ended up in my studio wanting some particularly witchy photos.

…she brought her own props.

And that’s pretty much where the year ended for me. I’ve been taking on a lot of projects for my day job, and haven’t really been shooting all of that much for the second half of the year (or really the most of the year).

I’m hopeful for 2022. There are a bunch of upcoming projects that I’ll be spearheading for The Fandom, so keep an eye out for those. And through them as well I have reconnected with some of my earliest Atlanta friends which hopefully will lead to some new images as well.

I think I’m going to end this update and the year of 2021 here. We are almost halfway to the end of December, and I don’t really have anything else on my dance card for the year. But if something ends up happening before then, I assure you that you dear reader, will be the first to know.

Postscript - I was cleaning out my phone and remembered that just last weekend that I took this photo:

I’m reminded that I have come so far. And even though I give myself a hard time for not shooting a whole lot this year, I have to remember that other people’s highlight reels are not their play by play. And that in the best of times “[I’d] rather be Nine peoples favorite thing Than a hundred peoples ninth favorite thing”.

I don’t think I say it enough, but for all of you out there who support me, who keep me around, who hang me on your wall, or who just “like-follow-subscribe”, Thank you. Thank you for keeping me going. Thank you for taking the time to look.

I create for me, but I post it for you.

The Fandom Nerdlesque: Infinitease Promo Photos - 2019

The time is finally here! For anyone who has been following me on Social Media the last few weeks you have probably heard me teasing these series of images. For you and those who may not have known alike you are all in for a treat.

I was contacted by my friends over at The Fandom Nerdlesque (who if you don’t know are an Atlanta based collective of nerd-themed burlesque performers from all across the country) asking if I wanted to be a part of the marketing push for their upcoming Marvel Themed Show (being performed at the time of this blog post on Friday and Saturday THIS WEEK..HINT HINT…TICKET LINK AT THE END OF THE POST…HINT HINT).

After some very brief talk of concept, we decided that the end goal was to emulate the famous Marvel MCU posters that have been coming out regularly. It wasn’t until we were on set going through photos that I thought about using some various forms of compositing to create artificial backdrops for each character.

Jet Spiegl - Matt “Daredevil” Murdock

Risky Sour - Domino

Jessica Nova - Hela

Red Kyber - Thor

Silver Kitsune - Hawkeye

Batsy Sinclair - Rogue

Sig Sawyer - Deadpool

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Final poster design by Evin from Apologue Media. He did a FANTASTIC job of throwing everything together into an amazing final product. Be sure to throw him some love as well!

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Additional poster design by Kali Fornication (You can see her link above under her Thanos photo).

Get your tickets here!

For a peek behind the curtain as to how the sausage was actually made, keep reading below.

I’ve done some experimenting with various forms of compositing over the last few years. For more of an expert’s view I would make sure to check out the work of Renee Robyn or Clinton Lofthouse. Anything I have learned was very much learned by watching both of these amazing artists at work.

The first part of the recipe was making sure that the subject of the photo was lit properly. In the case of these Marvel photos I needed 4 lights. A Key in a 3’ Octabox, a fill in the form of a 12” beauty dish, and two 3x5 softboxes as rear kickers.

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That setup lent itself to a photo like the below.

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by using content aware fill you get one of the following photos below.
One worked better than another:

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Spoiler alert, it was this one that worked much better.

Spoiler alert, it was this one that worked much better.

Afterwards I roughly followed this tutorial from DIY Photography to mask the image

Click the photo above to read an in depth article that I assure you is WAY less scary that it looks.

Click the photo above to read an in depth article that I assure you is WAY less scary that it looks.

After masking its then just a matter of sourcing an appropriate background, and then adding any needed tweaks to it to fit the image at hand, and then several hours of refinements…the process of which I don’t have photos of because I didn’t think to take them.

If you would like to see a more in-depth step by step, let me know. I’d be happy to work something together!

Top Photos of 2018 - An UNEXPhotography year in review!

So here we are, it’s that time again. Another year has almost come and passed. 2017 was a HUGE year of firsts for me (I mean, you can see that here if you like, just make sure you come back), and even if 2018 wasn’t as huge, I still accomplished several new things.

Unlike last year, I only averaged a shoot every 1.85 weeks this year, but I still was able to create some quality work and capture some quality times from my friends and clients.

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The year started almost immediately, I was at a company meeting for my day job and was challenged with a team of my peers to make a series of images. I’m not sure if I ever actually shared this with anyone since most of my work is portraits and not abstract works, but I still liked how this one turned out.

I was hired to shoot some photos for one of my cosplay clients, and after wrapping I just wasn’t done yet. I had built a very simple and basic lighting setup against a blank wall and asked Kat to step in for a few shots after she finished with a shoot of her own.

I still love how these turned out, and I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve ripped myself off with a similar lighting plan on several shoots after this one.

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It also just occurred to me that I never posted any of the final images from the shoot I was hired for. Unless one or two made it to Instagram.

The final images that were delivered to the client were drastically different than this one, mostly because their vision was something very specific (even if it wasn’t really my cup of tea in the end). But I’m still very thankful that I was allowed to experiment on some final images after we shot what was needed.

A short time later I had the chance to shoot New York Burlesque Royalty Nina La Voix while on a business trip. I was happy that she took the time to respond, and actually took a chance to meet up with me in my hotel room for a shoot. We captured a couple of different set-ups that day, but I still love how this image came out.

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Zachary reached out to me again to document some photos for what would become the second of his Talon’s Grasp series. We shot this book cover almost exactly one year to the day that we shot his last cover in 2017.

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And of course it wouldn’t be a shoot that involves Zak without some out of context snaps that actually end up looking pretty good.

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Where would I be without Dom inviting me to shoot concerts that he books when they come through town. I didn’t get to be at as many as I would have liked to this year, but I still love the photo of JD from Grendel as well as the below photos of Ghostfeeder’s guitar player (I never did catch his name) and Peter Turns Pirate frontman Neil.

I need to partner with Dom and make sure I can schedule my time around more of his shows. They are always a good time.

Around this same time I was given the chance to work with Tru Facade and take some of her first burlesque performer photos. She has grown so much over this last year, and I am so happy that I was able to be there at the literal beginning.

In a first in a LONG time I was invited to be a part of a few different art shows. Kate AKA Artetak did a great job at stoking my ego by actually wanting me to be a part of some of the great shows she has held this year.

But of course where would I be without my subjects. Big shout out to Roux for playing ghost in my entry to the “Occult” themed show, and Kali Fornication for being willing to be tied up by a bunch of random cables for my “Sci-Fi” entry.

Put on your best “monster truck voice” because, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. I met Sunday when she came along for a birthday brunch of mine this year, and knew that at some point we had to work together. Sunday has a great look, and I’m so happy of the work we made together. Can’t wait to shoot more.

I’d be completely lost if I didn’t mention my local Atlanta burlesque family, I didn’t do as much work for them this year as I would have liked to, but that doesn’t mean that 2019 won’t be different. I’m working on a few special things…so stay tuned.

I spent a week in Germany this year for Photokina. This is the second time I’ve been out of the country, but I am already seeing a trend. When in a place where I don’t speak the language I seem to let street art speak to me on behalf of the people who live there.

Sometime I’d love to spend a period of time in Europe just walking around taking photos of stickers and spray paint. Maybe the occasional bicycle as well.

I had one of my blog posts picked up by two international photography blogs (so you don’t have to). I’m still riding the waves of this since it hit me basically out of nowhere. I’m so entirely thankful that two publications thought so highly of me, and I hope that I can leverage some of the contacts I made during this process to get the opportunity to try and review more products next year.

Also (and I’m sure I’ll be posting about it later) keep your ears open to hear my goofy voice on a podcast in early January.

For Halloween I partnered with Courtney from Courtney Walters Makeup to turn her partner Taylor into a spooky skeleton. I loved this shoot, it was so simple yet so expressive. And of course I love how excited people get when I turn their living room into a makeshift studio.

Courtney and I will be collaborating on a few different projects in 2019, so please stay tuned for that.

Keep your eyes peeled for a stand-alone blog post of this gentleman right here. LA Comedian and Podcast host Rivers Langley.

We squeaked in this shoot on the friday before Christmas and I was able to finalize everything while I had some downtime at home. I should be getting that post up pretty soon, so I’ll save my comments for then.

And of course, where would I be without my friends who love the work I do so much that they ask me to be a key part of their special moments:

Jessica and Thomas

Erin and Preston

Jesse and Rachel

I want to make sure that I give a big Thank You to everyone I have worked with or have talked about working with this year. And also a huge thank you to all of you who follow this blog (or at the very least catch updates as they come through your social media feeds).

I don’t want to put the cart before the horse but I’d like to say that big things are coming in 2019 one way or another, and as always I’d love to see you all there for the ride.

From me to all of you and yours, Happy Holidays and a beautiful new year!

The FanDom Nerdlesque - 120FPS Video B-Roll Test

This is a bit of a departure from the regular content normally found in my Blog posts. Many who have talked with me about my background know that I started in video before finding my "calling" in photo. 

I just so happened to be at a birthday party for one of my regular clients, and heard that The FanDom was going to be shooting some promo photos and video for their upcoming show. After finding out that my day was open they invited me to come by and hang out for the day. I expected to maybe do some consulting work and a fair bit of networking. Little did I know I would end up running sound, and then in a stroke of genius decided to pull out my camera and record a little super-slow-mo video B-roll for their project.

Its not perfect by any means, but it was a nice little sizzle reel to remind myself that I still know a thing or two about video. 

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