Equilibrium at the Equinox

The changing of the seasons always makes me take stock of my life.  Analyzing my goals for the next few months, thinking of what I'm doing and where I'm going, things I've achieved over the past season.  Above all though, I think of my friends.

Here Michealene throws a frisbee for Prudence far down a windswept beach.

From Reels and Rewinds to Programs and Pixels

Digital and Analog.  Two completely different methods of relaying information - one from the days of film and tape and the other based on invisible 1's and 0's.  But when it comes to video creation that difference becomes amazingly blurred.

Dials, buttons, LED displays, tape reels - the appurtenances found on video editing machines twenty years ago - these are the machines we used in class.  Back then it would take me eight hours to edit a thirty second commercial.  I turned the dials, pushed the buttons, cohorted with my partner, and made good fun of it - all while sitting in a small room with a tiny tv screen above my head blinking my progress.

When the digital revolution hit things changed.  No more film developing, tape copying, clicking machines laying around.  Digital creation is easier, quicker, cheaper.  Videos can be created now more quickly and efficiently than ever before in their history.

But I'll be darned if still doesn't take me eight hours to edit a thirty second commercial.





Blue Water Health from Pettepiece Photography on Vimeo.
Olympia Videography

The Laws of Nature

Some people take beautiful landscape photographs - of a dramatic suns singing one last crescendo as they drop behind a stark mountain range or a crashing sea while sparkling off the pale blue water.  I'm not that photographer.  My interest lies in people.  Capturing expressions, emotions, life. 

That's not to say I don't like buildings.  They have a personality all their own and speak their own language.

Here the Washington capitol building in Olympia, the last capitol dome to be built in the US, stands monumentally over a stark fall campus - its orderly structure conflicting with nature's seemingly disorganized lines - one built to create law, one that heeds only its own. 

Who Says Commercial Photography Isn't Sexy

Just because we have souls doesn't mean our buildings don't.  The houses and structures under which we spend most of our lives can take on a personality of their own.

Their construction, consisting of merely wood and metal, doesn't necessarily preclude them from a symbiotic relationship with us.  Buildings enable us to live our lives comfortably and shelter us from the elements.  Buildings act as a homebase for our families and are a place to sow our financial success.  In their own way, buildings help us to achieve that which is important to us.

Here a new office building makes no apologies for it's lineal lines, egregious angles and stately stature.  Architecture can be a model all its own.  And is definitely sexy.

Cowboy Glam Rock

Bands have much in common with videographers. 

As a creative art, lighting, sound, image, and production value are ultra important for both of us and just a few of the things that we have in common.

For me, lighting and sound are everything.  From the live event to the recorded version, it's the attention to detail that makes the production; whether you're seeing it live or just listening at home.

But what do we have in common that matters most?

Personality.

This is Raven Marcus from San Francisco.

Here's Looking at You

I get asked often about my "other studio".  Managing two studios with completely different subject matter is no easy task.  Aside from my commercial studio, Pettepiece Photography, I also run Olydog! Studios Pet Photography in Olympia. 

Pets are one of life's great pleasures.  And I know they feel the same way about us.

This is a beautiful African grey parrot I photographed at a show we attended last weekend.  This is the only pet I've ever photographed that may actually be smarter than me.

Many thanks to Campbell and Campbell Events.

A Cappuccino and a Photograph

There's no accounting for taste.  This has always been true with art.  Whether you're a private collector of Italian Renaissance, a natural history museum curator or a Christie's auctioneer - one can have a hard time quantifying art.  And there will always be a myriad of voices with an opposing point of view.

The same can be said for coffee.  We all have our own tastes, born from experience and knowledge.  No one is going to convince us, short of showing us their International Coffee Barista Card (which does not exist to my knowledge) that we are wrong in our choice.  Whether it's a perfect cappuccino or a "triple vente, half-sweet, non-fat, chocolate macchiato", no one's going to tell us what we like.

With that I give you this.  Art.  Brewed in 180^th of a second.

The Value of Our Expressions

Part of the fun of my job is capturing candids.  We all have expressions, facial or otherwise that only come out when we're engaged in thought, either in conversation with someone directly or thinking about something in our own minds.  These expressions are one of the things make us uniquely human and the real reason why I choose to photograph people instead of objects or things.  As people we're all unique and I love capturing that individuality on-camera.

Art is Everywhere

I've always loved images of machines.  They are a product of art.  From their intellectual conception, their mechanical engineering and their industrial assembly, humans are intrinsically involved in their development.  After all of this they are then put to work in a setting that many would consider completely devoid of any kind of creativity.  I disagree.  As a commercial photographer it's truly a pleasure to turn these machines back into art.

Always the Spectator

It's nice to capture someone in the moment.  This was a recent shoot in a sensory deprivation tank.  The salinated water made our model so buoyant that a good portion of her body was out of the water.  I can only imagine the relaxation she was feeling while I struggled to hold the camera steady above her.

Floating peacefully in a quiet tank while being photographed... maybe I should have been a model.

Thanks to Olyfloat in Olympia.