*T-Shirt Wars - More Stop-Motion Animation

More really cool things photographers are doing!



McDonald's and Coke loved that video so much they asked the filmmakers to shoot a commercial for them. Here it is: (Am I delivering today or what?)

Milestone Image #3

Here is another significant image from my time in the Czech and Slovak Republics. It is my very first ah-ha moment about depth of field. It is a shot of a couple of kids shopping at a Christmas flea market in Prague. I didn't know that much about depth of field at the time and I didn't actually do this on purpose. It worked out because in such a complicated scene, shortening the dof brings the focus to the kids and minimizes the distractions. It gives the impression that the kids are looking at specific puppets as opposed to just browsing.
You'll see a consistent scratch running through all of these shots. I'm not sure where it came from but I actually think it came from the machine that scanned these here in the US as opposed to over there when they were originally developed. Hmmm.

A couple of other shots from the same era as well. The first is one of my favorite shots I've ever taken. Not incredibly significant but I love it. I have a thing for old statues. There's something about shooting a "portrait" of statues that I really enjoy. It's a lot like a person posing for the camera.

The second supplementary shot is a slice of life shot from our apartment in (I believe) Zilina, Slovakia. It's kind of fun.

Milestone Image #2

A time of great progression for me, both spiritually and photographically was when I was serving a mission in the Czech Republic, Prague Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had taken with me a standard point-and-shoot film camera that did a decent job. I don't remember the brand but it had an extra wide-angle lens which ended up being very handy and I remember it was on sale at Kmart. (After all, my sister left on a mission to Romania the week before I left so money wasn't exactly plentiful.) While I was serving in Zilina, Slovakia I bought a beautiful Russian Zenit 35mm slr. It weighed about 4 tons and its solid steel construction was basically indestructible so I hauled it around on all of our many adventures. (At' zije Hra Vlaku!) Being a poor servant of the Lord however, I didn't have tons of money for film. Cue a miracle in the form of a case of bargain basement out-of-date Russian b&w 800 iso film! I am hoping I kept a package from this film because I'd like to scan the box and post it--it lasted me about a year and a half of picture taking fun. You'll see that the skill with the fully-manualmatic auto-nothing camera was sadly lacking but the images are fun. They have so much character. Old emulsion, Soviet engineering and a complete lack of care by eastern European film developers left them with no contrast, oddly vignetted, scratched and spotted with dust. In short--I LOVE them. There are several which I consider influential images for myself so I'll be posting quite a few in the next little while.
The first is an old street performer on the amazing Charles Bridge in Prague. He looks haggard and a little bored as he plays the accordion in below-freezing temperatures. Everything from the stone bridge wall behind the musician to the people in the background paying him no attention made me realize how important the context is to me.. Even now I shoot with shorter lenses and smaller apertures because the location and context is so important to me and the style of the images I like to make.

To fit with the theme, here are a couple of other shots of Prague street performers on Charles Bridge from the same roll.

Milestone Images #1

I decided I would post a series of shots that I consider milestones. I anticipate this will be a fun process. I think I will just post one occasionally as they come to me. The first shot that comes to mind is a frame of film from back in the day. It's called "Forest for the Trees". I took it in Oregon on a family vacation probably in the early 1990s. I remember it being so beautiful and wishing I could capture it and keep it forever. It is that drive that pushes all photographers to want to capture a moment and immortalize it on film or in pixels or in whatever medium they work. It's the first time I remember wishing I could be a photographer for a career. (Honstly, I didn't think it was even possible to so something so fun for a living.) Even more so, the photo turned out wonderfully.
(A little plug, this image will be among those for sale on my website as soon as it is finished. I'll keep you informed.)