January 30, 2009
So last night I shot my first music video for the band "
Abandon". Not only was it my first music video but it was my first vidoe anything. My only experience in video is editing clips of my kids running around the house in iMovie. On top of that I was shooting with the new Canon 5D MK II. Overall it was an incredibly fun and very educating experience. I quickly learned that video directing is all about time management. Can you accomplish your vision, your ideas and your shots all in 10 hours? Including load in and load out? Whew, tough task. I think we did it though. The camera performance remains to be seen until we have a final edit or at least get to the editing room. It was quite the challenge to keep things in focus in such low light but the song is very agressive so hopefully we got away with it. I'll also be curious as to how the grain translates in the end. I'm really looking forward to this new journey as a director. I certainly have plenty of ideas and vision for directing. Now I just have to get my technical know-how caught up to my creative know-how. Looking forward to it.
Oh and it didn't hurt that the whole video shoot wrapped with a breakdance-off between me and their drummer. You know it's a good day when...
January 28, 2009
My favorite shoots are always the run-n-gun shoots. I love getting together with the artist I'm working with and just heading out together to explore whatever city we're in. That was the case with Donald Miller (Author of Blue Like Jazz and several other great books). We spent 3 historic days in Washington D.C. last week attending the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball and the Inaugural Prayer Service. The whole experience is easily my favorite experience as a photographer thus far... cooler than shooting Sting or any big TV gig. It will be the story I tell when people say "So tell me some good photoshoot stories." I'm so thankful to Don for bringing me along the entire journey. Speaking of Don, he was kind enough to let me post some photos from his shoot on my blog. I rarely get to do that so I was excited when he gave me permission. This shoot is very different from the typical shoot. And that makes me happy. He also let me shoot him like people rarely allow... raw, tired, no hair or makeup team. Nothing you see here would be considered "flattering light". These photos are the real deal. It's cool when someone allows such transparency.
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January 16, 2009
Here are 5 Tools that seem to be changing my life lately...
Oh. And if you aren't using an
iPhone yet, you truly have no idea what you're missing.
All of these things seamlessly integrate with my iPhone, thus further changing my life.
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January 13, 2009
If you haven't seen my
Twitter Feed about this or
Don's Blog then you don't know about the upcoming epic photo battle between the 2 of us.
Don and I will be attending the
Presidential Inauguration together in DC next week. We'll be among 4 million other people watching Obama be sworn in as the 44th President of our country.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm super excited about attending this and witnessing history. But I'm more excited and equally nervous to go head to head with Don and his camera. Sure we all know him as the author of books such as
Blue Like Jazz or
To Own a Dragon or
Searching for God Knows What but what we DON'T know is that he's a genius with a camera. He's taken some sick self-portraits and has some ridiculous shots of his dog.
So I'm wondering. Do you have any tips for my training for this event? Should I start doing lifts with my shutter finger? Aka "Shinger"?
Nevertheless, be ready next week as we both send live updates via our Twitter accounts.
We'll be tweeting about all festivities from Don speaking at Georgetown, to the actual Inauguration, to the Mid-Atlantic Ball that evening, to the Prayer Breakfast the next morning which will be Obama's first event as our new President.
To get live text updates from Don text: "follow donmilleris" to 40404 or just go
here to follow Don on Twitter.
To get live text updates from me text: "follow jeremycowart" to 40404 or just go
here to follow me on Twitter.
Oh, and the last thing. We'll be posting our Top 5 photos each for you to vote on the winner next week!
Wish me luck.
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January 08, 2009
I'm curious. Is the economy affecting you? How so? What are you doing different to make it through 2009?
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