Little Big.

The well known tech blog Gizmodo hosted a photo challenge in which the assignment was to take something small and make it look big. When I saw this, I knew I had to give it a shot. I figured with all the toys I had around, I could easily make this happen.

There's an old meat sign by my house that I've always wanted to photograph. I figured I would take one of my my food-themed toys and get a shot by said sign. I used a fisheye lens shooting at a low angle to make the character appear much larger than 8". I also took one image exposed for the toy and one exposed for the sky and merged them in Photoshop.

It didn't end up placing in the contest, but it did get me to go out and get a photo I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Check it out below.

Johnny Cupcakes Coffin Tour 2012

One of my buddies from work invited me to a shirt event in the city yesterday. I had heard of Johnny Cupcakes before, but had never done too much research on the guy. After a few google searches, I quickly learned why this guy and his company were so popular. Clever designs mixed with an impeccable attention to detail.

Daniel and his girlfriend Nisouri picked me up at my place and we headed up to the city. We were pretty hungry so we stopped at Tacolicious, a local favorite, for some grub. Beyond delicious.



After food, we headed over to Super 7 on Haight where the event was set to take place. We saw the line and quickly figured we should have come much earlier. We were easily 300-400 people back in the line.







As day turned into night, the line began to slowly creep towards the entrance of the store. Three hours had already passed, and we had only made it to the halfway mark. Battling the cold, tiredness, and carpel tunnel, we slowly trudged on.





At the four hour mark we were finally at the entrance of the store. It felt good. Inside they had five shirts to choose from as well as a nice assortment of other goodies. I ended up getting one of the shirts with all the different masks on it. They also threw in a lot of other cool things with my purchase. That was the least the could've done consider how long we waited.











After we paid, we wanted to meet the man in the flesh. Johnny was hanging out just outside the store meeting and chatting with his fans.



It was really cool to hear him talk. Very inspiring. He is also quite the comedian. Very quick on his feet to crack jokes.



It's awesome when you can actually meet the face of a brand. Johnny makes it a huge point to take the time and connect with his fans. All evidence why his brand and company are so popular. That along with the exclusivity of the shirts make Johnny and his shirts a hot commodity for the average consumer.

Yesterday I bought my first Johnny Cupcake shirt, but I can tell you it will not be my last.

Five.

I was due for an upgrade so I figured no time better than now to make the jump. iPhone 5 is a pretty awesome phone. I find myself just turning it on to swipe through my pages of apps and marvel at the design and craftsmanship (weird I know). I wasn't sure how I would feel about the longer screen, but it's pretty great. Unless your holding it next to it's predecessor it really doesn't feel that big. In short, I'm pretty excited.


So me being the video guy I am, I wanted to push this phone's camera. Sure there are a bunch of test videos online, but nothing that looked very cinematic. I talked to a few friends about my idea and we decided to do a test of our own.


We wound up at one of my favorite filming locations, Fort Ord. This place gets more awesome every time I visit. More garbage, more graffiti, and more character. We almost got the boot from a cop, but we were stealthy about getting in and out without being too obvious.


I mounted the iPhone on my camera slider to get those slow tracking shots we all see in the movies. All in all, we shot for an hour or so before calling it a day. We could have easily shot for another few hours, but we didn't want to risk it.

Here is the final product.

Shuttefly.

Funny how things happen sometimes.

Someone reached out to me on Instagram because they saw some of my work and were interested in collaborating. Turns out they work for Shutterfly and they live in the same condo complex as me. One thing led to another and I found myself pitching our production company to the PR people of Shutterfly.

We were set to do one marketing video and edit their upcoming quarter's "Sizzle Reel," a mix of print and video vignettes that featured the company. To say we were excited was an understatement. This was a huge opportunity for our small production company.

We had a lot of fun working with the team over at Shutterfly to create some awesome videos. We are in talks to work on a few more videos from them so stay tuned.

Here is the main page of their "Storytelling" section on their site with one of our images on it.


Check out the final video.

Inside and Out.

One of my buddies who works at Google was in charge of making a marketing video for a new service that Maps was rolling out. The video was set to feature a new tool that allowed users to have street view inside of a business. So if you wanted to scope out a store before actually going there, you know have the luxury of stepping inside and having a look around. Pretty neat if you ask me.

The coolest part of the video was that we had somewhat of a budget to play with. This meant we got to rent a steadicam with arm and vest mount. Not an easy tool to use, but a great way to get that organic handheld look (minus the rolling shutter issues DSLRs are notorious for).



After two days of shooting in SF and hours of editing and re-editing, we were done.

When the video was released on the Google Maps Blog, we really had no idea how people would respond to it. Within hours, we had made headlines on sites such as Techcrunch, DailyGeekShow, and even the Huffington Post. That was a pretty cool feeling.

Check out the video for yourself.

New Additions.

Lately, I've been reserved when it comes to acquiring new toys. My new rule states that if I want to purchase an art toy, I need to sell an existing one. Considering I have no shelf space left, I truly have nowhere to display any newly acquired figures.

KAWS, one of my all time favorite artists, announced a new toy this past month. It was one of those instant must haves. I've always been keeping my eye out for KAWS's companion figurines, but there's no way I could ever justify spending $1,000+ on one.



Word got out that the next release would be KAWS's classic companion figure in a sit down pose. News spread like wildfire, and all the collectors began foaming at the mouth. This was a big deal, especially considering the last few releases were a bit of a let down. I put my pre-order in early to guarantee a figure. I had to wait a bit, but it was well worth it.



The place I ordered it from actually hand delivered the item to my address. Talk about customer service! Big shout out to all the dudes over at Purist, one of the only official OrignalFake retailers in California.

As with all new toys, a photo shoot ensued...







While on the topic of toys, I also found a great deal on the sold out "Skullslinger" figure by artist Huck Gee. I was bummed that I wasn't able to order one online, but sure enough after the dust had settled, I was able to find it for below retail. Yet another great Huck piece to add to my collection.

Random Beat #3

Find beauty in the mundane.