Whenever I give a talk or host a show, I've heard from this community time and again that one of the most valuable things is the Q&A wrap up. Straight up. You asking questions and me doing my best to answer them. And not just the "how'd you get started in photography" questions.... we're talking the hard questions, landing clients, hiring staff, working with challenging clients, legal questions, gear questions, portfolio questions, whatever you can... read more ›
Feb
07
Feb
03
----- [Want to know how we choose where to shoot our most important photo and video projects? Tune in! I'm Scott - Chase's right hand man - and this guest blog post is the first in a series of three where I'll be covering the steps I take in the role of Chase's lead assistant that pertain to scouting shoot locations. This first post will go over the process of selecting locations from the comfort... read more ›
Jan
12
I originally started traveling to New Zealand for commercial photo and video work. Visually, there are few place on earth that exude the beauty of that place AND it has the benefit of being opposite seasonally (opposite hemisphere) from most of the brands/agencies etc that I work for. Great 6 month lead time for campaign creation, media buying, etc. It's geographically very dense with variety as well. It's a home run for productions. As such... read more ›
Oct
18
People that have "done it" will be able to do it again. Whether it's shooting a successful commercial assignment, hanging in a museum, making a music video, or whatever. It may not be a de-facto truth, but that's what's believed on the open market. It's SAFER for the person hiring a creative if they can point to something that you've already done. One reason I get a lot of work is that I've done a... read more ›
Apr
29
Hey hey. Reminder that over at creativeLIVE.com, we're bringing in my good buddy Vincent Laforet for a FREE all-weekend-long workshop about making videos with the new breed of HDdSLR cameras. [update: we're LIVE now! check it out. And... you spoke, we listened. For those who couldn't catch it, every night there is a full FREE playback starting 8pm Seattle TIME (gmt -8)...still pay to download if you wanna keep it...] Starting tomorrow, from 9am to... read more ›
Dec
26
We used to require permission from others to put our work into the world with any sort of scale. That permission came in the form of getting hired to shoot a news story, a magazine feature, or an advertising campaign. "They" sat up in fancy corner offices and if you were good...no, scratch that, good AND lucky...'they' would say 'yes' and then you'd be permitted to share your work with the world.Not any more.It's the... read more ›
Dec
11
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
