Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Photo Shoot in Santa Cruz

One of my good friends Shelby Chen recently got a job at Photojojo! I'm pretty stoked for him considering he put a lot of effort in his application and resumé. It feels like a perfect fit.

Shelby had asked me about a week ago if I'd be down to do some headshot he could use for his online profile and on his website. I gladly accepted. I'm always down to help a friend with anything photo/video related.

Excited.

With My Back to the Wall.


We shot for about an hour by the boardwalk in Santa Cruz and around the neighboring streets. All in all, I was pretty happy with some of the final images. It's always a little weird taking portraits especially when people are constantly walking by, but I think we managed.

Once again, congrats Shelbs!

On the Right Track.

A Boy and His Camera.

Meet Shelby.


Insta Contest.

Any motivation to take photos is always a blessing. Through this motivation, we create our best work. WHen we know an audience is ready and waiting, we are inspired to create something... great.

This past weekend end, artist Huck Gee held another one of his Instagram contests. Before I go on, I forgot to write about his last contest on here, but that was a blast as well. I ended up placing and getting a set of awesome prints designed by Huck himself. Back to the story. Huck posted that he would have a contest where the only restriction was to shoot a photo of his "Gold Life" series dunnys. This wouldn't be too hard considering I had the entire set, minus a few of the rares.



I spent all of Sunday formulating some rough ideas. Nothing I was coming up really stood out as an entry that would have a good shot. Looking over my figures, I noticed one had a great little gold mask on. I though it might be cool if I incorporate a photo where it shows both personalities of the figure; a masked hero and a pensive commoner.

I set out sometime around golden hour (an hour before sunset). I borrowed my friend Eric's 100-400mm to get a great shallow focus shot with that cream smooth bokeh in the background and foreground. After finding my location, the final shot took maybe five minutes to shoot. The red/orange from the sunset really gave the image a nice warm look to it. For editing, I simply cut the reflection out of one and overlaid it on top of the other. Pretty happy with the final image!



Also here is the high quality version.

Reflections.


And here is the post on Huck's blog about the winners. I was stoked that I had one another one of his contests. I was worried he would rule me out because I won an earlier contest. The other plus was the grand prize was a $50 gift card to Moo.com a business card site. I've been meaning to get business cards made for awhile now, but winning this means I can't procrastinate any longer.

Huck Blog


Thursday, November 8, 2012

The End is Near.

Every time I buy a Dunny, I vow to myself it will be my last. But alas, some new series comes along that I can't resist splurging on. This time around KidRobot announced the "Dunny Apocalypse" series.



There were definitely some heavy hitters in this series, including Ron English, Joe Ledbetter, and Huck Gee. To be honest, there really wasn't one design that I didn't like. I called up my buddy Nick to see if he'd be game to tag along. He was more than down. It also turns out that artist Huck Gee was going to be in attendance at Kidrobot SF to sign his figure and a limited run of prints.

We decided to head up to the city early to beat the rush hour traffic. When we got there, we bought our case of Dunnys to secure a set. With a series like this in limited quantities, you can't take any chances.

Sunset in the City.


We headed over to one of my favorite creperies on Haight to grub and open our case up. Because we split a case of sixteen blind boxes, we basically opened one at a time picking boxes at random. I pulled a Huck Gee, Ryniac, Joe Ledbetter, JPK, Kronk, Jermaine Rogers, and Ron English. I ended up getting all the ones that I wanted.

We walked around for about an hour then headed back to KRSF to wait for Huck to arrive for the signing. Inside tons of people were opening up case after case searching for the rare figures and mystery variants in the series.

KRSF

Apocalypse.

Ron English.

Blind Boxes.

Around 5pm we headed outside to wait in line. I had brought along a few items I wanted to get signed by Huck including one of his newest pieces the "Skullslinger."

We waited close to an hour and a half before Huck finally drove past the store in his white Subaru STI hatchback. Because we were towards the front of the line, we were in the first group to head inside.

Waiting.

Inside, we patiently waited our turn to meet the creative genius whose work we admire so much. I've met Huck before, but for my buddy Nick, it was a whole new experience. It's such a cool feeling meeting the man behind the art. It just gives his pieces a more personal touch.

Inside.

Signing

Huck happily signed all the things we threw his way, including a 7" Munny Nick had picked up. We chatted about instagram, cars, and his next series of vinyl toys coming out. He's got some cool things in the works.

Huck

After we had said our goodbyes, we headed back out into the world smiling ear to ear. It sounds lame, but it's just so cool when artists reach out to meet and hang out with their fans. Huck is one of the coolest most down to earth dudes as well as an extremely talented artist to boot. All I can say is I can't wait for the next release.

Heading Home.