Our First Wedding.

No not mine, but a cute young couple local to the bay area.

Andrew Cichowski, one of our good friends, was asked by one of his colleagues to document their wedding. Because Andrew was hard at work in Med School over in Chicago and was no longer local to Santa Cruz, he was unable to photograph the wedding. He threw our names out there for her to consider as replacements, and after a few emails, we were hired!

I've filmed one wedding in the past, but have never photographed one. After some discussion, I turned the bride-to-be on to the idea of having a video done in addition to photographs. She loved the idea.

We met the couple for the first time back in June to talk and take some photos for their photo engagement. We decide upon Panther Beach as our location, and man was it beautiful! We ended up getting some great sunset, golden hour shots.











A month later, the big day came. We all had butterflies, but we knew what we had to do. Jenny, armed with a Canon 5D and a Nikon D80, was in charge of photos. A friend, Ben Bunch, and I were in charge of capturing video. We mapped out all our locations beforehand so we could reduce the risk of getting in each other's shots. All in all, a very stressful day that went very well. We came back with hundreds of great captures as well as some absolutely stunning HD video. I can't wait to show the happy couple our work!

Here are some of our favorite captures from the day.























We just finished making them a custom book and are still hard at work on the edit. I'll post the final edit of the day as soon it's done.

If you're interested in any wedding or event coverage please don't hesitate to contact us at info@athousandwordsandframes.com or check out our site at AThousandWordsAndFrames.com

Film Versus Digital.

As much as I love the ease of use of digital, there's just something about film that keeps me coming back for more. It could the fact that every picture costs money, which forces me to think about the picture I am composing. Or it could be the fact that film slows you down in an effort to check all your settings. Or it could possibly be the thrill of waiting weeks until receiving your pictures back and discovering past memories and events that you had documented prior. Whatever it is, I love film -- its look, its feel, its aesthetic, its method, its everything.

I still use my digital SLR in terms of metering and focus to copy over, but the results are always much more astounding on the film negative/positive when compared with its digital counterpart. There are a number of jobs where digital is the necessary tool of choice because of its immediacy, but if I have the time to slow down, I'd highly consider selecting film as my medium.

For reference, here's the image I took on my Canon 5D DSLR (large amount of post work done).


And here's the image I took on my girlfriend's Medium Format camera (no post work done except for removing dust).



My girlfriend is kind enough to let me use her beastly Mamiya RB67 camera so long as I buy film for it. FIlm is something I've been meaning to explore more and more of, and now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I have no excuses.

Derailer.

Yet another film I was fortunate enough to help out on. This one centers around an injured downhill mountain biker who doesn't let his handicap dictate his life. Simple story, great visuals, compelling storytelling... what else do you need? Director Eric Gillespie has a bright future ahead of him in terms of action sports filmmaking. Good luck my friend.

"Parallels" is a Wrap!

My screening for my thesis film I made while attending UC Santa Cruz was this past Friday. As stressful as it was, I think it was received very well. I was lucky to have worked with a great group of passionate people. I was also fortunate enough to have the privilege of filming in Saturn Cafe, the awesome vegetarian all night diner located in Santa Cruz, CA.

For those that don't know, my film was an attempt at portraying two seemingly unrelated stories on screen simultaneously. Using a mix of graphic matches, similar visuals, and juxtaposing elements I wanted to connect the two stories beyond the confines of their isolated frames.

The saying goes, "We are our own worse critic." This holds extremely true for this piece. I was on the fence about so much stuff. Because of the level of attention that had to paid to timing actions and image composition, I became extremely burned out. I'd wake up sick, sore feet, and back, but in the end, it was all worth it.

If I were to go back and do it again, I probably wouldn't have made a film like this. With that being said, I've have learned so much from this experience. So, if hypothetically I was to make another split screen film again, I'd be much better prepared.

Please enjoy!



Here are a few of my favorite still from the film

The Life of a Carrot Ain't Easy.

As a last minute project for a film class, I decided it was time for another stop frame. One of the topics for the project was food, so I decided to make a short that focused on the fictional life of a carrot. I worked in collaboration with an awesome stop-frame animator (Kip Radt) who dealt with all the modeling and animation for the film. The final production is comprised of over 3,500 images and took about 20+ hours to complete.



So without further adieu, please enjoy this dark comedy showcasing the life (and death) of a carrot.

Spontaneous Trip to the City.

To relieve the stress of school and bills, I headed up to San Francisco with a few friends and the pug. There was nothing in particular we went there for, but just needed an excuse to hang out in the city we all love.



While there, I mentioned that I wanted to get some shirts so my friend Shelby took us to The Hundreds store by Union Square. This place looked like the bat cave inside. The lights were dimmed and store appeared to be carved out of the inside of a rock. Props to them on the look and feel of the place. I definitely got the hater vibes from some of the employees because I wasn't decked out in Hundreds gear, but that's what expected in those high end clothing boutiques. I picked out a limited San Francisco Hundreds shirt, and we were off.



Eventually, we wound up on Haight Street again. We grabbed a bite at a place called Cha Cha Cha. The Fried Platanos (bananas) were delicious. Definitely a place I'd love to go back to. We peeked in a few of the other stores and I ended up getting another cool shirt featuring the Star Wars AT-AT walker with a dog cone on. Around 7pm, all the stores started closing so we figured it was a good time to head out.

Before heading home, I took Jenny and Shelby up to a place that looks out over the city. The sun just so happened to be setting so I snapped a few images while there was still some light left. The image below is heavily photoshopped, but the sky was gorgeous.



While walking around trying to find the best angle for the city with my telephoto lens, I noticed my car was looking extremely photogenic. I snapped a few hundred photos or so of my car just hanging out on the side of the road with the wheels turned in. I think a few of them came out pretty cool.









Overall, had a great time with some great people. Hope to go back again soon!

Bazooka Lens.

I was a bit hesitant about loaning out a Canon battery to a friend this weekend, but once he said I could borrow his Canon 100-400mm L lens in return, I was sold. Needless to say, I spent a good amount fo time this weekend playing with the new glass.



At 400mm, the background is soft and creamy, giving the image an almost dream-like element. It was a bit tiresome to hold this beast of a lens up, but the trade-off was well worth the sore muscles. My only qualm is that the auto focusing mechanism was a bit slow. This could aslo be the result of my Canon 5D's measly number of AF points. My girlfriend and I took our pug to romp on the beach while I snapped some photos. Because of the slow autofocus, only about 10% of the images were in focus. After awhile, I gave up on the autofocus and just went straight manual. This was a little better, but it was still hard to tell if I was shooting at critical focus. I'm sure with some more training and use with the lens, I'd get the hang of it much quicker. Luckily, I was able to get some really awesome photos that I'm happy to walk away with.

Thanks Eric for letting me shoot on your beast of a lens!

Here are some of my favorite captures from the day, most of which were shot at 400mm.

A Filmmaker's Paradise.

There's always that location that we as filmmakers dream about shooting at. For me, it was always an old run-down building of some sort. About two weeks ago I found this location with the help of a few peers.

This past weekend, a few friends and I went down south for a good ol' fashioned photo/video adventure. Our destination was Fort Ord, an old abandoned military base located in Marina, California. This was only my second time here, but after the first trip, I really wanted to go back and make a short film.



This place is just eerie. From the random baby strollers, to the "666" graffiti on the walls, to the stray shoes that line the street, this place just reeks of creepiness. We started out filming in the pool area. The what once was an olympic sized pool was now just an emptied garbage pit filled with empty spray cans and broken furniture. The vastness of this location led for some really great shots on the Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens.

Next, we started exploring the many barracks on the property. Every time I would open a door or walk up a flight of stairs, I was almost certain something was going to pop out. It's not like this place was home to thousands of murderers, but one can't help but feeling like you're not quite alone.



For the short I made, I brought along my Canon 5D Mark II, Indifocus Indislider, and ProAM Crane. With the exception of three or four shots, almost every camera angle was on the slider. I'm a camera movement fanatic, so I try and implement the use of a slider or dolly wherever I can. I also wanted to attempt an epic crane shot that would track upwards as my lovely subject Jenny walked down the deserted street. The wind was not very kind to my crane, so you may notice some camera shake in the final product.

We were losing light fast, so I tried to work as quickly as I could. Ideally, I would've loved to shoot a few more timelapses here, but that will have to wait until another day. A special thanks to goes out to my friends Jennifer Kehl, Ben Bunch, Andrew Cichowski, and Ally Bobus for being patient with me while I got my shots. Also, a big thank you to Ben Bunch for taking the photographs you see above. Without further adieu, please enjoy my short entitled "Ghost Town."

I ♥ Tea

A few weeks back, Gizmodo had a "bokeh" photo challenge in which the assignment was to take a creative picture of out of focus light. Jenny and I had an awesome idea for a photo, but because of school and midterms, we were unable to put our idea into motion. Fast forward a few weeks, and we finally found the time to take our bokeh photo!

Jenny and I are both avid tea drinkers. We both have at least two cups of tea a day. Nothing beats that feeling of a nice hot cup of tea in the morning to warm the soul. With this idea in mind, we decided to take a photo that highlighted our love for tea.



To capture this image, we set up our Bodum mug and mini muffin on a dark wooden stool. A small desk lamp was used to spotlight the cup of tea from above. About three feet back, we hung up some old xmas lights in order to get our "bokeh effect". We strategically placed the lights, so that it looked as if the bokeh was coming out of the cup like steam. Finally, we poured the tea into the cup and began snapping away. As seen in the image above, we also played with paper cut-outs. If you cut a shape out of paper and hold it over your lens, you can manipulate the form of the bokeh. This proved to be a very cool effect in making the lights look like little mini hearts.

Because Jenny was ultimately the mastermind behind the initial idea, I acted as an assistant, and kind of let her do her thing. I tend to be a backseat photographer, so I really tried hard to just offer advice when called upon. Jenny also shot an exposure on her Mamiya RB67 MF film camera. Hopefully, when we get that back in a few weeks, it'll look just as good as the digital captures from that night.

When Jenny uploaded the picture to her Flickr, she wrote a sweet little poem to accompany the image.

"Every morning I wake up,
go to the kitchen,
make him tea,
wake him with a kiss,
and a nice warm mug
to start his day

this one's for you Doug
xoxoxo"

I don't know how I ever got so lucky. Thank you so much Jenny. The best part of my day is waking up next to you xoxo.