I'm going to the bottom of a pool and I'm taking my Nikon D3 with me. If you're curious about taking your dSLR underwater, I assure you it's safer and easier than you might think. In this vid, I lightheartedly kick off a new series of pictures (a fun and growing project) AND I show you the gear we use to get it done.Bloody Marys optional. Watch the vid, details after the jump... [click... read more ›
535 reads
Dec
11
Dec
09
Meet the stars of my Nikon Festival video: Joshua Roman (cellist), Saba Mohajerjasbi (Sabzi playing the Beat Gorilla), and Ellie Sandstrom (choregrapher/performer), and check out how we made my 140-second film in just a day and a half.Reminder: there's still 6 days for YOU to enter your 140 second film into the Nikon Festival and let yours truly--along with Rainn Wilson (from 'The Office') and Justine Ezarik (iJustine) decide if your vid should capture... read more ›
444 reads
Nov
18
Creating a strong emotional connection with the viewer is without a doubt the most important criterion in a successful image. Nothing will ever supplant that. Beyond that, however, there's a whole bunch of second tier, more "mechanical" techniques that we creatives can cook up to elevate our images and create visual interest. One such technique is compositional in nature: creating cool angles and unique perspectives. It's what makes P.O.V. shots cool, it's the mojo... read more ›
1.5K reads
Nov
09
[Update: just got an email from Zeke at Trade Secret Cards. He wanted me to let you know he's already sold about 25% of his inventory in just 3 weeks. He's hoping to have unloaded the 5000 number by the end of the year... Let me put some of that money back into the photo industry... He's also posted a YouTube clip of a photo tip I gave him from the interview here.]I love it... read more ›
414 reads
Oct
27
Of all the behind the scenes stuff we've showed in recent vids, the one techie thing that far-and-away led to the most questions from readers was the part in this video where I'm photographing X Games uber-skiers Simon Dumont, Colby James West, TJ Shiller, Peter Olenick, and Nick Heine in New Zealand using strobes at 8 frames per second. That's right, all that stuff for the SanDisk campaign you remember reading about earlier. Rail... read more ›
8.2K reads
Oct
23
I've been on the road almost non-stop since we shot the SanDisk campaign in NZ last month, but I'd promised that there was a bit more followup to come as we wrap up post production back at the studio. In this vid, for example (in the spirit of the oldie-but-still-relevant Chase Jarvis CURRENT: 32 Questions vid) I jam through a selection of about 30 questions I'd been asked via the online channels, from creative direction... read more ›
186 reads
Oct
16
Is it just me, or are we all a bit more creative when we have some distance between ourselves and our chaos?Living life - be it adventure, struggle, conflict or resolution - gives us the bedrock of artistic inspiration. But if you're anything like me, actualizing that inspiration requires moments of calm.Case in point: Just sitting here working my ass off in the studio, 10pm on a Friday night...the last few weeks have been a... read more ›
333 reads
Oct
11
If chapter titles like..._Working with Reps, Assistants, Employees, and Contractors: The Pitfalls and Benefits, or_Transitioning to Freelance, or_Licensing Your Work, or_Setting Your Photographer’s Fees, or_Releases: Model, Property, and Others ..don't get you to buy this book, perhaps my assessment of the book will:I think Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition is essential reading for anyone even thinking about licensing an image, starting a business in photography, or dreaming of taking their photo game "pro".Long... read more ›
1.4K reads
Sep
29
Hopefully you were tuned in the previous coupla weeks to our play-by-play campaign shooting for SanDisk in New Zealand. Well, we're back in the states, digging out, editing and what not, and as promised, we've got more content from the trip to post. In this Chase Jarvis TECH, I'm responding to hordes of you who asked 1)why are you shooting so many frames? 2) why in the world are you shooting on a tripod?... read more ›
469 reads
Aug
17
WARNING: Nerdy tech content. If you're shooting a lot of video with all the video dSLRs and even the iPhone 3Gs, you've no doubt noticed the slight "wobble" when panning those cameras quickly. It usually translates visually into the slanting, or canting, of what are supposed to be vertical lines in image that you're recording. This phenomenon is the result of the digital rolling shutter, the mechanism by which these cameras write to their... read more ›
882 reads