Working Again w/ Blackburst!

Had the pleasure of working another production again with Blackburst Entertainment. Today's shoot was a keynote speech on leadership given by Mark Michel, a former Naval intelligence officer. I helped set up by cleaning, organizing documents, setting up lighting, gaffing chords down, white balance, and help tear down after filming. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed listening to Mark's speech. He told us about his days on the frontline, to working directly with the President, to being an investment banker. Very inspiring and passionate person!

PA for Blackburst Entertainment

April 12-13th, I was hired on as a Production/Audio Assistant for the company Blackburst Entertainment. The production included gathering footage for a series of promotional and marketing videos for the latest Raymarine radar mapping systems. My responsibilities entailed assisting the Director of Photography with any audio, lighting, and camera (Canon C100), and camera equipment. The funnest part of this production was capturing a boat chase at high speeds. The most was difficult part was not taking dramamine the first day. :(! Nonetheless, the days had amazing weather and the production was a success!

Summer Photography

Summer is right around the corner and this week I'll be starting to freelance another year at a local photography studio. While I'm there part time, I'll be capturing scenic family photos, candid poolside, high action, and underwater photography. This is one of my photos from last year. One tip about action photography with water is to bump up your shutter speed so the water drops look like snow and not streaks for that high quality effect.

Headshots

For the past year I've been working at a photography studio as well as freelancing my own photography. Last week I was referred to take headshots and photos of a local inspiring Model and Actor. For this session I went with natural lighting over studio lighting because its perfect for actors wanting a more cinematic look. For headshots here are a few tips for actors/models and photographers.

-Have the model look at the camera
-Stay away from vanity shots like crazy poses or hand on head.
-Personality should reflect in the headshot. Ask what the actor/model is trying to focus on (film, comedies, high fashion modeling, commercials, etc). This will help you decide on lighting and how your face should look.
-DO NOT have crazy amounts of editing on the photos. If the model doesn't even look like them in real life that's bad!
-Try to keep the model in the middle of the frame.
- Use a shallow depth of field. I recommend staying at a 2.8 f-stop.

Here are a couple examples from the session.