The Fandom Nerdlesque - Send Noobs: Leveled Up Promo Shoot - 2022.

October 10, 2022

This shoot has easily been two years in the making. It’s funny how a global pandemic can just up and shut down an entire entertainment industry for a while. But let’s start at the beginning and work forwards.

The Fandom Nerdlesque is one of my favorite clients. Even though I still cringe when producer, Sig Sawyer, calls me (his words not mine) “The best cosplay photographer in Atlanta”. Back in 2018 I was invited to shoot some high speed video during the promotional shoot for the first scripted video game themed show “S3ND NOOBZ”, and I was excited to be invited back to create the promotional materials for it’s sequel show which debuts at Anime Weekend Atlanta later this year.

A lot of this material came from me teaching myself Affinity Designer sometime in mid-2020. I had just recently finished up a batch of comic book covers for The Fandom (Which mark my words, one day will see the light of day) for another show that ended up being canceled. In a fit of sadness I designed what would become the Gameboy assets that I got to use for this series.

To make things even better and several orders of magnitude harder, I decided to shoot part of this campaign on actual Gameboy Camera hardware, resulting in the some of the most thought out, lowest resolution images I have ever created.

Click for larger

Magenta Marie as “Player 1”

Dillon Darling as “Donkey Kong”

Desire Evoquer as “Jinx”

Titan Moon as “Naked Snake”

Sasha Sindragosa as “Springtrap”

Kil La Queenie as “Spyro”

Pixie Twixt as “Navi”

Violin Hips as “Anika”

At the time of this blog post, I’m fairly certain that tickets to Anime Weekend Atlanta still are available. And as far as I know that is all you need to see these nerds take their clothes off on Friday night of the convention.

State of the Union - COVID-19 Edition

May 21, 2020

Hi everyone.

Let’s see if I can get through this update with as few Coronavirus tropes as possible. I’m going to do my best to limit any and all references to “these trying times” and the overwhelming feelings of uncertainty that are floating around everywhere these days. I’m fairly certain none of you have been living under various rocks or without any sort of connection to the world at large. It’s pretty clear shit is thoroughly fucked right now.

First and foremost, my loved ones and myself are all pretty good to go. The family is all pretty much doing their thing in the South, and I’m doing my best to stay safe here in Atlanta. I miss my friends, I miss my clients, I miss doing work that I enjoy…but we are all finding ways to keep safe and (mostly) sane.

Looking back at my last posts it becomes very clear to me that for a Photographer I sure haven’t picked up my camera for several months now. Sure, I totally could have shot some cool macro stuff, I could probably safely take a walk in the local nature preserve, hell…I probably could have shot various “Porch Sessions” or “FaceTime Sessions”, but honestly none of that stuff really does it for me. Nothing against anyone doing any of these things…it just doesn’t feel like me.

So I guess that leads into what I have been doing. Pretty early into all of this Serif graciously opened their arms and offered 90 day free trials to their suite of softwares (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) and offered them all at 50% off. I already had my copy of Photo for iOS that I had briefly played with back when I first bought the 2018 iPad Pro (more on this soon) and earlier this year made the jump to Photo for Desktop for all of my retouching.

So I figured it would be a good time to start teaching myself some other graphic design tools. After some time messing around, I think that I have developed some talents when it comes to making logos and other text based items.

I also drew a bird:

I also broke down and have been making some other assets for an upcoming project that I don’t want to let all of the air of yet. But let’s say that it involves comic books (and directly correlates to me re-making logos inside of vector art programs). I’m sure if you keep up to date with regular clients you can probably guess what is going on, but I’d rather not share too much until it’s time.

I’ve also been experimenting with the Gameboy Camera again, and have purchased the tools I need to print it’s photos onto large thermal paper (or at least larger than what the old Gameboy Printer used to do). It’s going to require some additional assembly before I can really play around with it…and I still may buy a doo-dad to physically rip files off the cart itself, but be on the lookout for some more of that type of content coming soon.

Editor’s note: Everything after this text box has been re-typed from memory after it was lost in an unfortunate accident while having multiple windows open at the same time. This incident really made me screaming mad after losing hours of work during troubleshooting.

Speaking of possible poor usage of funds, I bought an iPad Pro…again.

I know. I should have learned my lesson last time. But they hooked me again and this time for the better. iPad-os is now much more of a fully functional OS. The USB-C port on the tablet can now be used to manage files on an external drive, and the file system has been beefed up to handle that management. I’ve even been able to find an FTP program that allows me to connect to my NAS when I’m not on my local network, and with some kludging I can even drop RAW files from my camera straight to it.

And I can even edit this very website from it (mostly).

I’ll spare you my full review because we’ve already gone down that road. I mean, long story short, I love it. And now that I can actually use its power for editing photos and designing, this becomes a much more worthwhile purchase. I can see myself being able to travel with this in my bag and be able to crank out quality work without needing to have a laptop around.

On a non-photographic note I’ve also been teaching myself how to make pickles. What started as a craving for pickled carrots and hummus has turned into an adventure that fills the bottom half of my fridge. I am now well on my way to being the pickle-king of the South East. There is a joke here about surviving the apocalypse here somewhere, but I’ll just come right out and say it. No, you can’t have any of my pickles.

Unless you ask nicely.

Thanks, everyone for keeping tabs on me, I hope that soon I’ll be able to safely travel and be around other people again. I have a ton of ideas rolling around the old brain box and I’m so ready to get them out. But, until then, I encourage everyone to stay as safe and as sane as possible, keep washing your hands, stay away from people you don’t live with, and most importantly…be nice to one another.

We’ll all get through this together and I don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon. <3

Gideon Hodge - 2020.

March 08, 2020

The Clown Prince of Cabaret, Gideon Hodge, has been terrorizing stages around the country for nearly 20 years. Known for his boisterous, zany characters and his dynamic movement and acrobatic style, Gideon brings his circus and theatrical background to the stage in his various personas and creative endeavors.

Gideon and I last worked together in June of last year when he commissioned me for some new headshots for what I thought would be a book jacket photo. I thought we got some very usable images, but unfortunately, they weren’t quite what was needed for the job.

I wanted the chance to make things right, and Gid wanted to capture something more closely resembling the work I’ve been doing in my home studio. So, of course, I invited him right over, and with the help of Courtney from Courtney Walters Makeup, it was off to the races.

Bonus outtake GIF!

Gideon also pursues his own writing with sitcom Pros and Cons, web series 20 Something, novel Lilith’s Redemption and other projects. For updates, please follow up on Instagram @gidjinn or at gideonhodge.com He can also be found at his podcast A Strange, Strange World on Spotify, Anchor and other platforms.

He profusely thanks all of you for putting up with him for all these years, and looks forward to many adventures to come. He is available for contact for bookings and appearances at gideonhodge@gmail.com

Jack Calico - 2020.

February 24, 2020

"Jack Calico is an Atlanta-based burlesque performer, variety entertainer, and possibly your new stepfather.
Whether he's mesmerizing old ladies with his rhythmic dancing from his years as a professional salsa instructor, or he's charming even older ladies with his gruff baritone singing voice honed over decades of drunken karaoke, it suffices to say that old ladies will be involved.
So wash your ears, and remove your eye patch for Atlanta's Lovable Tramp, Jack Calico. “

I’ve known Jack since my early days in the Atlanta Burlesque community. But to be fair, if you spend any time in the same room as him, you’ll soon know Jack too.

I’m surprised its taken this long for the two of us to link up and do some work. After a burlesque sabbatical, Jack is currently taking the steps to warm back up to the stage and answered my call to action when I was looking for some new talent to work with.

So hide your mother, and lock your doors. Jack Calico is back baby!

Nina La Voix - 2020.

February 16, 2020

So one thing about my new day job is I am traveling much more these days.

I found myself in New York earlier this week (which just so also happened to be my birthday) and was excited to hear that my first NY client, Nina La Voix, was open and wanted to spend some time shooting.

Nina and I first met a few years ago when I found myself traveling to NY. The last time we worked together we turned a small hotel room into some vintage goodness, and this time was no different.

Believe it or not, we shot these in her apartment, with some simple blackout curtains lending themselves as a background (It’s almost like I know what I’m doing sometimes).

If you ever find yourself in The Big Apple, make sure you track down Nina and show her all of the love she deserves. Her schedule can be found on her website (conveniently located at the bottom of this post).

See more of Nina live in New York City or at her website www.ninalavoix.com