Machotaildrop one night only in PDX!!!!
I know ive already blogged this video but it deserves one more….to get you amped for tonight!
Machotaildrop is playing one night only and that is tonight (friday July 9, 2010) at The Clinton Street Theater at 7pm then again at 9pm it will be awesome!
The Clinton Street Theater
2522 SE Clinton St., Portland, OR 97202
Events phone – 503.238.8899
ADMISSION PRICES:
$6 for Adults
$5 for Students w/ID
$4 for Seniors, Tuesdays / matinees
$3 kids 12 and under
WE ACCEPT CASH ONLY
Another tiny wonder…
Olivia Bee Photography has shot for Converse and has some magazine covers under her belt already, and she is only 15. (record scratches, back up, rewind) 15 FIFTEEN. Yep. Holy cow. I’m speechless.
Learning and working and Working and learning…
So, here I am trying to wrap my jobs from the previous week, spending a little time in front of the computer today. I decided to listen to my friend Connie Wohn’s interview on the newly launched w+k radio and the experience snowballed!
They have some great podcasts available with visiting and in house talent. I was listening to an interview with Renny Gleason Global Director of Digital Strategies, and he gushed about this conference, TED, that’s happening as we speak. I had heard about it, but never grasped the impact this particular conference holds. This led me to the TED website where there are a plethora of inspirational, educational, and in all other ways fantastic presentation videos available. And interestingly (and relevant time-wise), they have launched an iphone app with videos of their presentations (YES!!!!!! For a person who loves her iphone mostly because it has a public radio application, I am ecstatic!).
I began listening to the Jonathan Harris presentation and found myself mesmerized by a digital exploration of human emotions called, WE FEEL FINE (which, yes, I do realize I may be one of the last people on earth to have heard of this). Harris created a system that real time searches blogs for the occurrence of the phrases “I feel” or “I am feeling.” The result is an interactive experience that sorts and slices, by feeling, and or demographic. He talks about an emotional footprint that is left online. This footprint is not new, but maybe relevant because of the number of people it can track.
It’s like a global emotive meter. When I visited a few minutes ago, the above screen grab was the result. People in the world are 1st and foremost feeling like they are failures, and secondly, like the are lucky. It’s like an emotional reflection on the state of the economic global situation. It’s frightening, touching and somewhat consoling to know that there is a consensus.
The Gap Narrows…
The difference between the cinematographer and the photographer has narrowed even more. Photographer Richard Walch, traditionally a photographer who had never shot a movie, took out the EOS 5D Mark II to test drive its HD video capabilities at the annual freestyle.ch Zürich. He loved it.
One of the positive aspects of this transition that photographers are taking is the foresight to think about shooting stills in a narrative style. They are finding a way to tell a story better, whether in fashion or advertising.
Walch sees another plus, Richard explains: “For me the camera changed the way I work over night. When I presented the video ‘D-Style’ to a client I instantly got a job for a photo and video production for the car company Infiniti taking place in Paris. ”
Clients see the benefit of doubling up and finding a consistent storytelling style. Check out his video here…
An Art Retrospective by Nubby Twiglet @ StudioNemo
Nubby Twiglet Art Show @ Nemo Design from Austin Will on Vimeo.
On 10/3 StudioNemo was proud to host the fantastic work of Nemo Employee, Nubby Twiglet, AKA Shauna Haider. Nubby’s pop style art consists of stripes, shoes, and letterforms collaged on wood and ceramic, sealed in epoxy resin. The 30 pieces on display are compiled from three series and span over three years. We are ecstatic to have her work on our walls. Come in and check out Nubby’s art all month!!
Great First Thursday Show
Upper Playground is hosting Travis Millard and Mel Kadel for First Thursday this month. They’re work is incredible. This town is really stepping it up in terms of art! Check it out at 23 NW 5th Ave. tonight. Check out more about them on Fecal Face.
Untitled by Travis Millard
Foot Bath by Mel Kadel
Photo Diary…
Photographer Theodora Allen does interesting photo diaries of people she knows and places she visits. It’s a great way to document feelings and experiences beyond words. They’re quite beautiful. Enjoy!
Vice Photo Annual Review
So, I’ve been stewing over this Vice photo annual for a week or so. Not quite sure what to write. I was slightly disappointed to see the number of hyper-masculine images that graced the pages. I felt like there were an overwhelming number of McGinley nude hipster (no offense to McGinley’s beautiful work), meets American Apparel girls, meets the NRA. One exception that I really appreciated was the Mary Ellen Mark interview. Her work has always intrigued me. Her photo essays are poignant and full of emotion. Vice focused on Streetwise, her photos of homeless kids in Seattle, but I’m partial to her images from Ward 81. We are famous in Oregon for Ken Kesey’s book ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST and it’s portrayal of the Oregon State Asylum. In 1975, Mark was assigned by a magazine to do a story on the making of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, shot on location at the Oregon State Hospital, a mental institution. While there, she met, briefly, the women of Ward 81. She later made them the subjects of her 1979 book Ward 81, where she lived and documented female patients. The work is disturbing, moving and haunting.
Photos of students taking photos of riders in action @ HCSC
Here are a few photos of students of the HCSC Photo Workshop in action capturing the action!
Click the jump for MORE!
Pillow Talk -Jeff Curtes
Jeff and his wife Jess recently move to Portland and in all honesty, the guy is on the road more than he is not. Hotel rooms, ski resorts and airports all start looking the same. It’s not a glamorious as it sounds being the number one documentarian of the Burton Snowboarding brand. To get more insight to the life and times of Jeff Curtes check out his blog, “THIS IS MY BED”. www.jeffcurtesphoto.blogspot.com.
Canon G9- In Review
I have never written a review about a piece of hardware, ever. This Camera has me stoked to shoot and has become an accessory to my persona. By no means is this a replacement for the big guns, but as the cliché goes: “the right tool for the job”. A point and shoot that saves Raw filesI like to call point and shoot cameras, the “drunk cam”. The idea being that some great personality shots, lifestyle, the real deal images happen while you are out there living life. Point and shoots are convienient cameras and non-intrusive means to capture these moments, however, the average 5meg jpeg leaves a lot to be desired for professional use. I am sure you have all been in that situation where something amazing has happened in front of you, a sunset, car crash, crazy lady at the bus stop, that warrants a shot and there you are without a camera. If you were going to shoot it, wouldn’t it make sense to shoot at a high enough resolution to be included in your quiver of professional work? 12.1 mega pixel RAW seems plenty for reproduction. ISO The 12.1 (why .1 I have no idea, marketing?) mega pixel RAW function of this camera made it interesting to me. As with many point and shoots it has its limitations on the ISO setting. The noise is fine at ISO 200 and less, but gets noisier as you roll up the dial, (the manual dial on the left side is killer). Nothing new here. I world argue that when locking down for a time exposure at night, it isn’t the worse quality image on the market. Add a little Noise Ninja and BAM, all better. I hope in the next evolution they increase the size of the sensor to help minimize the noise. For $500, it’s fine! 
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Events- Whitney Biennial 2008
Oregon artist MK Guth will exhibit at the Whitney Biennial 2008, beginning on March 6th. Guth uses a variety of media to display her work. Her latest project, “Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping,” joins an increasingly participatory trend in the art world. Using the multiplicity of meaning behind braids, Guth weaves strips of fabric with messages people like you and me write to her, answering the question, “what is worth protecting?” One of the most interesting things about this project is the “meaning making” behind it. The responses to her question can be social, local, political, personal, or all the above. Her project’s meaning takes different shape each time a strip of cloth answering her question is added to the braid. Guth’s projects over the past few years have taken many manifestations of the braid, including these photos of her performing with the braids as extensions. I love the idea of using braids, there are so many cultural meanings to draw from the plait.
HDRI: The experiment. pt.1
High Dynamic Range Imaging, I stumbled on this technique late last week on a random blog site. After looking at the stunning images and it all instantly clicked. Images I’ve seen in sports ads, fashion magazines, and even some recent movies all have used this technique to some degree. What high dynamic range imaging allows the photographer/filmer to do is really make use of all available light values and merge them into a single image.
Say your out on the beach, gorgeous scenery, got your babe or dude with you, and a beautiful fading sunset. Photo op! Problem is you only have your camera and tripod, no flash. There will be no way to properly expose to get your subject lit without blowing out the background. Bummer. That’s where HDRI comes in. Essentially you shoot for all exposures you think you will need to show up. Ex: your subject, the sky, the water, sand, etc… You take your images and run em through photoshop or any HDRI specific program, and after some toggling of values, gamma, highlights and shadows you come out with an amazing image of your sweetie pie, everything perfectly exposed in one image!
The fun thing about HDRI is you can take a would be crappy photo and take it to another world. You could use it as mellow or as crazy as you want. From getting the shot of your sweetheart at the beach, to taking your ugly boring backyard and making it look like a surreal nightmare dream-scape, which is exactly what I did for my little experiment in HDRI. (minus the babe at the beach, had to go for the backyard… sigh.)
(click image)
As you can see, looking pretty creepy. Mind you this was all solely for experimentation to see if would even work. I set up my camera took 3 exposures, quick and dirty, ran it through the software, toggled the values, and bam, a horrific moody backyard setting. This is only a taste of what I’ll post in the coming weeks.
Things like this always get me stoked on photography, it never gets old, there is always something new to learn. I get bored quite easily so taking something I love and giving it a fresh face, doesn’t get any better than that.
I’ll keep ya posted on more shots soon!
-Alex M.
American Gladiator -Monica Carlson
Life is a tangled web. A few years ago I had a shoot for Merrel shoes and had the pleasure of shooting with Portland Blazer cheerleader Moinca Carlson. She was kick ass and tons of fun to shoot. I saw her not so long ago at my sons school where she was dropping off her twin girls. Today I get a random text message about Amercian Gladiator and Monica.
“Monica Carlson is a 32-year-old mother of 8-year-old twins and a former Portland Trailblazer dancer. Growing up ‘American Gladiators’ was her favorite show. Her husband is a football coach and athletics plays a large part in the family. One of 11 kids growing up, Monica is in great shape and loves competition. She currently lives in Milwaukie, Oregon.”
