Monthly Archives: February 2021

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

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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.

Tattoo – TaxAct

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Here’s another few images from a series of images I shot on the “Only at TaxAct” film shoot. Here we see our brave and loyal TaxAct Spokesperson getting branded with the company brand.

This was a super fun one to shoot in a great location with an amazing dedicated crew who worked into the wee hours of the morning. I think the results are worth it all the hard work that everyone put in. Can’t say enough about the people we work with. NONE of this would be possible without the hard work and expertise of these folks!

Stranded

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I recently had the opportunity to work on a really cool project shooting alongside a large production creating a spot for TaxAct called “Stranded”. Working on a large film production is always an amazing experience and this one was particularly great. There were a lot of logistics and moving parts to produce this story of a castaway who is stranded on a remote desert island.

The spot opens with a disheveled castaway spear fishing and complaining about how he has to do is taxes… Suddenly a down draft hits him from above and a ladder drops from the sky and down the ladder comes the TaxAct guy who proceeds to tell him all the things that Tax Act has to offer. Down the beach a TaxAct accountant is lowered with her whole office onto the beach and proceeds to help him with his taxes. The spot ultimately culminates with him calculating his return and money spitting out of the computer. It’s a fun tongue and cheek spot that took a ton of work to pull it off.

See the link below to see the final spot… But first, here are some behind the scenes images of what it took to make it all happen.

Lastly, Here is a link to the finished spot. Enjoy! http://youtu.be/S9_W3kUKrN8

Florida Blue Insurance

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It’s my pleasure to be able to share with you a two part assignment that I shot (pre-Covid) right here in South Florida for Florida Blue Insurance. It was a great project that required all sorts of problem solving.

For the first part I worked in tandem alongside a great motion team shooting the stills version of a TV spot of a woman jogging and thinking of affordable ways she could insure her employees for her business… a problem that many small businesses face. You see her jogging and being followed by a seemily endless group of other small business owners who also have similar insurance needs as she does. Florida Blue has programs that fit all sorts of businesses. To produce this we shot on a camera car with our hero talent and a good size group of various workers jogging behind us. We then shuffled the group and reshot them at various distances so we could composite the final shot you see here with people running all the way into the distance. 

The following day was raining so we moved the stills production in studio to shoot a bunch of our various small business owners individually. These images were lit so that they could be retouched by me later in post into various job specific backgrounds, (some backgrounds shot by me and others were stock backgrounds). 

All in all it was a great shoot! Many thanks to my amazing crew, without which none of these shoots would happen. Also to Mutt Films for working me seamlessly into their TV production. Always enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with film crews and directors to make the magic happen. Last but not least, thanks to Philipe and Rafael from Alma Advertising. Always great working with the folks at Alma as they are one of the top shops around!

See below a few of the shot laid into their final ad format: