BCGC Integrated campaign 2012

Intrinzic and Boys Club Girls Club came calling a couple of months ago and asked if I might be interested in making a couple of TV spots and print work for their 2012 marketing year.  Of course I would.  Todd Lipscomb and I hammered out the details from his concepts and put these together, along with some print work appearing on billboards and magazine media buys.  Many thanks to all those involved : Meg Pautke at Wise Productions, Monica Skrzelowski, Amy Cunningham, Russ Faust, Mike Dittiacur, Laurie Robinson, and Brian Ambs for helping me put them together.  Excellent work by Kearston and Brandon, with a special appearance from Chip, rounding out the cast.  Thanks for looking.

 

Duke Energy’s “Share the Warmth”

The availability of HDSLR has given me the opportunity to grow my interests and business in ways I could not do many years ago.  The result is being able to create motion pieces for those who want my sensitivities from still photography and apply them to motion.  Such is the case here for Wray Ward and Duke Energy.  Wray Ward was interested in my approach after seeing the trailers to the recently released  film  “Charlie Louvin-Rattlin’ the Devil’s Cage,”  where I was DP and AD.  Our direction: keep the imagery clean, and the interviews emotionally challenging.  The black and white makes it all the more engaging.  Many thanks to Joey Ritchie and Liz Ryan at Wray Ward for the opportunity, and Edit at Joe’s for making the edit so good.  Thanks for looking.

On the way….

Parkways, redux.

After working for several days for Parkways Foundation in Chicago this past summer, I thought that very successful project was finished.  I thought wrong.  1 more day.  Or one more night.  2 hours, to be exact.   They asked me to cover some youth boxing matches.  Awesome.  I had never watched a live boxing match before.  Not that this was a pay-per-view event.  This was much better.  Youth to adults, all learning how to box.  Not brawl.  3 rounds per match.  Different ages and sizes.  So I was pumped.  And I wasn’t disappointed.  Kids, teens, and adults all there, warming up, putting on Chicago Park District regulation gear, sparring, getting all serious, listening to last minute instructions, excited to compete.   Each kid representing different parks.  Very cool.  Sportsmanship, technical skill, fitness, quickness, and strategy all wrapped up into a few short minutes.  And interestingly enough, very patriotic.  I loved the grittiness of the decades old basketball/boxing/”insert-sport-here” gym, the fans pumped to watch sons (and a daughter), people stopping by to catch up while the matches were going on.  Very neighborhood.  And positive.  So, enjoy these photos that represent the best of youth athletics.  No million dollar purses, lots of healthy respect, pride, persistence, and of course, buckets of sweat.  A little blood.  But no tears.  And as always, thanks for looking.

Seeds and seedlings.

The Seeds.  And seedlings.  One long dose of reality, exploring a normal family on a regular day to reveal real moments, touching situations, and the joys and challenges of being a family.  Thanks to the Seeds’, Jonathan, Meredith, Lola, and Ruby, who let me past the veneer of pretty pictures to get to heart of the matter.  The heart.  www.briansteegephotography.com  Thanks for looking.

Country Road…

Todd Lipscomb and the Kentucky Struts have been working on a project for 2011 entitled “Year of the Horse.”  An album of 12 songs, the band has been releasing them via their website all year long, one at a time.  At years’ end, the whole album will be available together.  Definitely cool.  Included in the project are artists contributing monthly with equine imagery.  Somehow, I started workomg on one of the songs for a video, released earlier this year, “Country Road.”  Powerful song.  The combined efforts of myself, the Struts, and Keith Neltner will hopefully produce a video about the song, and the song is available at the Struts’ website.  Because of logistics, we started off shooting one bitter, cold, snowy morning near the end of the winter season because we needed some cold winter scenery.  Part of the video, you see.  But while there, I made some still images.  Portraits of Todd, shaking like a leaf under the moon, softly singing while playing guitar.  Haunting, and almost unreal.  Working with available light is so beautiful, but working with its’ reflection is even better.  Colors are different, shapes come to life, composition and content mean everything.  Eventually, the sun came up, and we had to end shooting, because, well, we didn’t need the sun.  Hopefully, I can show you a video near the end of the year, when everything has come full circle and the cycle of seasons brings us back to frosty cold winter mornings.  For the sake of Todd’s fingers, I hope we’ll be finished before then.

Snake + Cross = Shooter.

Keith Neltner, well, he just doesn’t like snakes.  So why he included one in an upcoming Shooter Jennings album jacket I will never know.  But, all things being equal, he asked me to photograph one wrapping around a cross. And of course, a skull had to be included.  But finding a snake was the tricky part.  Enter Nicole Wehrle.  She just so happened to have a pet bald python name Lowly that was more than happy to be in the photo.  And so, for an hour or two at the BLDG, we photographed snake, cross, and skull until we ended up with the photo below.  Something a bit out of the ordinary, so we all benefitted.  Lowly got out of the house, I made an active still-life, and Keith overcame his fear of at least one snake.  The album will be released some time later this year, and hopefully Keith will have fond memories of being on the set with a snake.  Thanks for looking.

Tender moments…

Creating tender moments are what I am supposed to do as a photographer, right?  Or nostalgia, or thoughtful portraits.  Or sometimes, all three.  And why not throw babies into the mix?  So, to answer the calling, I did a bit of testing on a recent afternoon to show quiet tender moments with mother and child.  Those quiet one-on-one moments, those modern Madonnaesque times that every mother remembers and loves. Many thanks to Kurt Strecker for assisting, and to Christina Edland, Leticia Martinez, Victoria Gazaway, Abby Printz, Jennifer Barklage, and Amanda Galiano, all from Heyman Talent, for helping to create those moments.  Don’t let them go.  And thanks for looking.

 

Molly Z. and the Shedd Aquarium

My longtime friend and former studio mate Molly Zakrajsek recently completed an installation piece for the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, entitled “The Polar Play Zone.”  A large project with multiple purposes and a variety of characters, Molly had her hands full for quite a few months, and upon completion, wanted to have her work documented.  So she asked if I wouldn’t mind making a video piece about the Play Zone. Knowing I had begun working on motion, we worked out a little storyboard, scheduled shoot days, and put together the piece you see here.  Lots more learning was accomplished, as well as something we both can use to show our skills in our respective fields. Molly, an excellent illustrator and designer, has worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies, as well as recently completing some murals for the city of Chicago, as well as being an excellent personal resource for discussing all kinds of ideas.  She will be doing a live mural illustration/demonstration this week at the HOW Design Live 2011 conference, as well as being an excellent personal resource for discussing all kinds of ideas.  Good luck this week Molly!  And thanks for looking.

St. Elizabeth campaign

A couple of months ago, St. Elizabeth and Intrinzic came calling to create some portrait imagery  illustrating multiple areas within St. Elizabeths’ hospital system, to be used on just about every available media outlet.  The portraits needed to have an emotional attachment, as well as couple with television spots, so that campaigns and media would hang together.  Working with Keith Neltner of Intrinzic, we were utilizing the same talent as the television crew to capture positive, clean imagery.  And without alot of time.  I have worked on multiple sets with television and movie crews, trying to utilize the same assets, and time is of the essence.  Here are three of the images created, using both strobe and available light.  I say this only to emphasize that lighting is a big deal, and I always try to make everything as real and natural as possible.  Stark white backgrounds are fine, but a bit of gradation always emphasizes space and interest, allowing the subject to be part of the space, and give the image some architecture.  Anyway, enough of the philosophizing.  Check out the portraits. Thanks for looking.