Pennsylvania Dutch Country

Here’s a fun post for TBT… I spent some time exploring and shooting new personal work in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country a few years back while we were traveling the country shooting new photos and video work. Such a beautiful and unique area. Seeing the way the Amish farmers work and live their lives is always a great experience. In a way it feels like you have gone back in time.

Settling in Lancaster County in western Pennsylvania The Amish people are a group of traditional Christian church fellowships with Swiss German origins. This area is mostly farmland and you will frequently see The Amish farmers out tending their fields using teams of oxen or traveling the scenic roads in their traditional horse and buggies.

If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it. It was so peaceful shooting in the silence and hearing the click clop in the distance of approaching buggies off in the distance. A little known fact… The reason you rarely if ever see photos of The Amish people in person stems from their beliefs. The Amish hold humility as a cherished trait. To pose for photos can be viewed as calling attention to one’s self and as such most would prefer not to be photographed. I always try to respect this and go out of my way to not show them or be too blatant in the way I photograph. In most cases I actually avoid showing people in these photos in a way that they can be directly seen or recognized unless I specifically ask them and are given permission to do so.

Miami Cancer Institute Campaign Rolls Out first 2 of 8 Executions.

Well after a long wait and much anticipation the Miami Cancer Institute has finally begun to roll out it’s ad campaign shot by Pete Barrett last summer.   Shown here are the first two in a series of eight ads which Pete and his team created for MCI working in close collaboration with Republica Advertising and Cortez Brothers Productions.  All post production and retouching of the images was done by Pete Barrett.  Pete also worked closely in collaboration with Saddington & Baynes out of London to create and later incorporate the CGI letter “C” element that is a recurring prop in all of the ads.  

This was a great shoot that involved a fairly complex production, something that Pete is very well versed in.  Working closely with Cortez Brothers Productions (who was also producing a series of TV spots for the client),   Pete and his team of roughly 25-30 people shot 8 different executions of final images that involved combining lifestyle shots of people in an environment with a large 3 dimensional letter “C” also in the shot which would be created digitally in a CGI environment.  This required shooting many elements to be layered and retouched into the image in post as well as capturing lighting, shadowing and size & dimension measurement info that would later be used in the creation of the 3D – CGI letter “C” element made by Saddington and Baynes ensuring that it would look like it was actually physically there in the space.   Still to come are 6 more ads which we cannot disclose at this time as they have yet to be released to the public but as soon as they hit the streets we will post an update.   Stay tuned!!

Nascar for Dodge

We had the opportunity a while back to shoot some Nascar racing at the Homestead Motor Speedway for the Dodge Race Team.    If you’ve never had the opportunity to get right down in the hot zone on Pit Row,  I highly recommend it.    Super cool to see these crews at work.    They are a well oiled machine.   Everyone has their specific job and when that car rolls in, they jump to it and zip zap,  the car is jacked up, all 4 tires changed,  fully fueled,  windshield cleaned and water for the driver… all in a matter of seconds.     While he is out screaming around the track at over 200 mph,  the crew is hard at work, scraping the tires to analyze the rubber to see what the track condition is doing to the wheels and a team of guys watches on screens,  monitoring the car and keeping in constant contact with the driver.    It is awesome!

Also, there is nothing like Nascar Fans…  these folks are die hard,  hard core fans.   Everyone has their favorite and there is no telling them otherwise.   In their mind, that person is a king Sh*t racing legend and is GOING to win this time!   Nothing like a hot afternoon,  cold beer and fast cars.

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Suffolk

A while back we shot a little project for Bluefish for Suffolk Construction doing some corporate work for their advertising.    Suffolk is a rather large company which builds buildings across the country.   We were tasked with shooting portraits of their management and executives.  The original the job was produced as clean portraits on grey and I then gave it a twist and took it farther adding a bit of style & flare in post which you can see here.    In all we shot about 15 shots,  here are just a few.


Belgrade Reads – Pro Bono Project

One of the projects we kept busy with while in Maine this summer was to work on a Pro Bono community service project for the Belgrade Public Library.    This was part of an ongoing campaign call “Belgrade Reads”  where we shoot various people from town reading in varied environments.   Posters are created with the images and placed around town to raise awareness and get people to use the library.     Response has been strong,  library use is way up and they are plans are in the works to build a new larger library.

Here are 3 of the images shot this summer.

 

Fine Art- Summer in Maine

Just returned from an amazing trip to Maine for the summer.   In addition to spending much needed downtime bonding with the family,  I spent a great deal of time shooting for the books and shooting personal work for fine art projects.   Here is one of the first shots from a series of fine art prints.    I will post more as I finish them.

Traveler’s Takes the Scary out of Life.

ESPN Traveler's AdSo we recently had the opportunity to work with SapientNitro on a great job for Traveler’s Insurance. The job required shooting a guy from “the other team” pulling into a parking lot full of a sea of “home team” cars. Being the only person from “the other team” can be somewhat disconcerting to say the least. This tied in perfectly with Traveler’s tag line which is “Travelers takes the scary out of Life”.

Logistically this job was very complex. How do you get control and ability to prop an entire parking lot full of cars, fill it with fans and shoot a generic large stadium? Click more to read on… Continue reading

Regions Bank Finals

Here is the final work from the gig we did recently for Regions Bank. Fun shoot. Everyone was happy and we look forward to working with them again soon!

Thanks again to HG Producers for a great production and Scott Dorman of SmallDog Imageworks for doing a great job on retouching!
Production by HG Producers: www.hgproducers.com

Retouching by SmallDog Imageworks: www.smalldoggin.com

6 Flags Final Hero Shot

Well as promised here is the final hero shot from the 6 Flags shoot. Thanks again to a great crew. Worked with Producer Jess Dudley from Wonderful Machine in Philly running our production on this one. Thanks again Jess! Also big thanks go out to Scott Dorman from SmallDog Imageworks for going above and beyond the call of duty! Always a pleasure working with Scott. I recommend the experience if you have not yet had the pleasure!