I was invited by Hydraulic Entertainment to come out and visit Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania for a day of filming the “Wanderer” video. I was asked to shoot stills that would be incorpated into the storyline. Our model, Alana, went on a whirlwind one hour shoot with me around town. We needed to do several wardrobe changes in that timeframe. Special thanks to all of the shop owners and residents for being so accommodating.
Model: Alana Andersen
Acessories: The Gem Shop
Portraits with Kieran Tintle kicked off with a drop cloth background in my living room. As we waited for the rain to taper off, we ran off a few shots. I made use of the tan wall to bounce light back onto him. Artificial tan. Since we had a relaxed schedule, I shot both digital and film. The look of film still has a lot of appeal to me and I say that it keeps me sharp. You can’t run off 100 shots on a roll of 120 film. The particular camera I use produces 15 shots per roll and every shot must be carefully thought out.
Our locations included my living room, Old Queen’s College (Rutgers), Harris Steel and a playground. Kieran was a very good sport because the rain picked up at times and it wasn’t exactly warm out.
Last night I was enjoying a rum cake, listening to NIM VIND and working on artwork for the “Astronomicon” single. This is a combination of photography and illustrations. Less of a literal outer space theme and more of an invasion theme. Dave McKean is an inspiration to me when it comes to combining photography and illustrations. You might know him from the “Sandman” covers.
Anyway, NIM VIND churns out some pretty great music. If you love MISFITS, Danzig, 1950s horror pop…you get the point.
Download the image or order a print
LISTEN TO NIM VIND NOW OR ELSE!
12/20/2010 UPDATE: The results are in for the contest and I took home the big burrito on this one. That means I won. What a great day!
GIZMODO ran a pretty cool “Shooting Challenge” called “Steal”. Recreate a well-known photograph. I love this sorta stuff! When the “Steal” contest was announced, I thought of a few pop culture photographs that have both a commercial value as well as artistic merit.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this entry, results are in for the Shooting Challenge. Very happy with the results. Such cool submissions!)
The original composition I stole from was the “Born in the U.S.A.” album cover (photographed by Annie Leibovitz) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A.
The artwork for “Born in the U.S.A.” has always stuck out in my mind. I am a huge fan of Annie Leibovitz. Especially her more simple compositions. The message behind the album title (and title track) should be noted as a remembrance of the men and women who have served the United States in both popular and unpopular wars. My dad served in the Vietnam War and I thought this would be a great iconic photograph to emulate.
The American flag was clamped to a fence (You can get an idea of the setup by taking a look at the photo to the right.) Since my remote for the camera was dead, I had to get creative with focusing the lens. The 
trash can in the backyard was placed approximately 2 feet in front of the fence. Then I focused on the trash can. Then I removed the trash can from the scene and replaced it with Ralph’s chew toy. A little rubber doughnut to be specific. The doughnut was my standing marker. After pressing the shutter, a 10 second timer would give me just enough time to get into position.
The project would have been a lot easier with another person helping me. Oh well!
Shooting information
Post-processing
I made it a goal to strictly limit the post-processing techniques to those of a photographer back in the mid-1980s. Photoshop did not exist. Although I shot digitally, I used an extensive amount of dodge/burn techniques to emulate the methods of that era.
This update features something that inspires me. Music! I cannot properly work on photography or design without music. For the lovely Lindsay’s birthday, I wanted to play a couple songs from the 1980s with our friends in Beer Goggles. Boogs and I love music from the 1980s and she’s never seen me play with a band. It’s healthy to scream from time to time!