festival – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: festival

Kudos To Miller’s Professional Imaging

I wanted to write a post just to share with you the work that I’m contributing to Kulture Klash 7, but I need to first share with you my account of the great service I received from Miller’s Professional Imaging (who are the people behind Zenfolio/MPIX which is who I use for all of my prints).

I’m quite the busy guy, with a family to support (I’m writing this post as I tend to my daughter who’s home sick from school today) and another business to run. Although I knew that this weekend’s KK7 Arts Festival was this coming up quickly, I failed to note that the artwork drop off date was today (April 5th)! I had ordered my prints over the weekend and when I got a reminder email from the organizers of the festival about the drop off date yesterday, I had a mini panic attack because I wouldn’t have my work ready in time. I quickly sent an email to Zenfolio’s support people and explained my screw-up and asked if I could bump up the shipping to overnight. Not only did they get back to me quickly, they rushed the processing of the prints and upgraded my shipping at no extra cost! I was prepared to pay whatever it takes and they just took care of me at their expense – In my opinion that is simply amazing customer service that goes above and beyond. I’m so proud to have them as my printing partner for JWNPhoto.

The work I’m showing at Kulture Klash was really not what I had originally planned on showing this time around. I had planned on keeping a musical theme with my photos and to have a relationship between them all. When the organizers announced that the theme of the festival for KK7 was going to be water, I threw out my original idea and started thinking about water themed photos. I have a lot of shoreline photos but I didn’t want to come off as kitschy, especially in this festival’s environment which tends to cater to a more underground art scene. Don’t get me wrong, I love a classic sunset photo and I truly love trying to differentiate myself from the crowd while still creating a photo of the same sand, water, and sky. I thought of some of the common traits in my favorite shoreline photos that I’ve created recently – bold color, portrait orientation, & negative space. I remembered that unlike a photo competition – there are no rules to an art show. I could present a triptych of three different images that share a common theme and make an even stronger presentation.

The images at the top of the post are three 20″x30″ prints arranged intentionally in order and placement by the time of day and horizon. The first image was made from the Pitt Street Bridge of the Charleston Peninsula at sunset. I love the crimson color of the sky and the two cranes that look almost like they’re worshiping the falling sun. I remember a seemingly intoxicated lady who walked by while I was making this shot and she commented that the sunset was not very nice. I guess that’s why they say opinions are like asses… everybody has one. The second photo was made at Shem Creek from the bridge. I zoomed in tightly to capture a very golden sky – I love the contrast of the blue shrimping boat and the reflections of the boardwalk lights in the water. This shot also has a diagonal line formed by the dock and boardwalk that is something I tend to look for in a lot of my landscape photos. Finally, the third photo is of the recent Supermoon. I wanted a simple and bold graphical image of the water and the color and shape of the unusually bright moon. It’s very interesting to note that local photographer Robert Donovan (and a host of other local photogs) were all in the same area taking pictures of the same moon, but with very different results. Robert’s image is very similar in composition, but his focus on the detail of the moon made for a completely different image! He’s exposure is very different, so the colors are radically different as well. It just goes to prove that there is a lot of artistic interpretation going on when you get behind the camera and develop the finished product.

Another piece that I’m showing is this diptych that I made for a Gizmodo.com photo challenge. I wanted to show a picture featuring a person, because I don’t want to be typecast as a landscape photographer. I love the feeling of this photo – The saturation and contrast are very expressive and the Elmo T-Shirt is begging for your eye’s attention, much like the subject’s (my daughter) body language is longing for the attention of the waitress.

I hope to see a lot of friends at the festival this weekend – don’t forget to get your tickets early and save a few bucks!

Brewvival 2011 Photo Essay

When I first arrived at the old Navy Base in North Charleston on Saturday for the second annual Brewvival, I felt a similar feeling as when I walked through the doors at CupcakeCamp. Elation. As a fan of real beer, not that swill most people pass off as beer at sports bars and chain restaurants, I was in heaven. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded by real honest-to-goodness beer!

After I pinched myself a few times, I remembered that I had a job to do. I had to captured the day in photos. Where to start? Well, there was the huge growing line of attendees awaiting for the 12 o’clock hour to strike so they could start the party. I walked to the front of the line and met this group of folks who had arrived an hour early to be the first to enjoy the heady goodness that was to be dispensed throughout the day.

I realized I had a few minutes to check out the grounds before they were filled with festival goers. I walked around taking in the sights of each booth.

Soon, the “gates” opened and some of the happiest people on earth were welcomed with a program and a beer glass as they entered the festival.

And so it began. People lined up at the booths and started sniffing, tasting, and in some cases, even licking their beer!

The organization of the festival was brilliant. Lines moved quickly, each brewer was organized in alphabetical order, and everyone had a list of what each brewer had to offer so there was little doubt as to where you could get the beer you wanted to try.

Soon after the gates opened, the rock began with the sounds of Gaslight Street (featured in the photo at the top of this post). Now I was getting into my groove – I love beer, photography, and rock n’ roll (not in any particular order).

I started to get into it and got in close on the instruments…

I decided to head back into the crowd for more shots of ~~beard~~ beer drinking!

It was lunch time, which I spent inside of Coast Brewery’s facility and enjoyed some amazing home-made food that was prepared for the vendors and brewers. While I was in there, I decided to take some shots of the inner workings of the brewery.

After I was done inside Coast, I headed back outside to the festival with an idea for a shot. I wanted to get the darkest beer I could find and fill one of the Brewvival beer glasses and get a shot of the band behind it. I set the aperture as small as I could to get the most depth of field (and showcase the plethora of dirt on my camera’s sensor). I believe it captures the essence of the day. The shot up top is my favorite, and here is an alternate of the same shot in the key of G:

The beer I used was Palmetto Brewing’s Espresso Porter, which was amazing to say the least (I had to drink it because I wasn’t about to waste it). I also checked out some of the food vendors. We had D’Allesandro’s Pizza, Ted’s Butcher Block, Roti Rolls, as well as others on hand to keep the drinkers paced and satisfied.

Next up on the stage was the Garage Cuban Band, who played a trippy Latin-flavored soulful sound that was perfect for the occasion.

Phew – this is a long post, and I’m still going! After checking out a riveting game of bean-bag toss, I met up with some Twitter Friends.

It’s @JasonCZ & @SkimTheOcean

I tried to explain to Jason the art of being a creep with a camera at an event such as this. Sometimes the shot you want is of people off their guard, such as these:

When people know they are being photographed, the tend to step out of their natural character and when you combine that with beer, it may look something like this:

As the day went on, people came out of their shells and it was much easier to approach them for candid shots. Here are some of my favorites:

Let’s not forget the unsung heroes of the day. I’m talking about the designated drivers who, donning their straight-edge X’s on their hands, sacrificed partaking in the alcohol bevicide for the good of their fellow man.

Guess what time it is? It’s banjo picking, fiddle sticking, foot stomping time! Fire up the Dukes of Hazard car chase scene soundtrack and check out these shots of the SC Broadcasters!

Right about now, the people started to get the itch and some dancing ensued.

The day was winding down, and somebody with temporary tattoos on his head was getting his skull licked, so I took that as my cue to wrap up my photo shoot.

I had a blast, and I can’t wait until next year’s event. Until then, I raise my glass to the Brewvival crew and Coast Brewing for putting on a spectacular festival. Cheers! I leave you with this picture of this guy looking awesome.

Check out the whole set of 247 photos on my Flickr!

Recovery From The Klash

Last night was fantastic! Kulture Klash 6 was a huge success, and it was a ton of fun for my family & friends. I’d like to thank Jonathan Stout and Scott Debus for including me in this great event. Of course, I brought my camera with me, but I also had drink tickets so a lot of my shots were fuzzy due to Fat Tire. I spent most of today nursing a hangover, but it was well worth it (especially because I don’t have to actually work today).

During the daytime, Kulture Klash hosted a free art viewing. I brought my daughter Mackenzie along and we ate crepes and drank Japanese soda after looking at some really cool and unique art. It was really a good experience for her to see art like this on display. Kids don’t get a chance to check out alternative art at a professional level on a regular basis, and she ran around from piece to piece soaking it all in.

Here is a display with one of my prints on it. There is a painting on there that got a lot of people talking, as it is either brilliant or extremely tacky. Whichever you decide, it succeeds in creating a dialog which means it is a successful piece of work. It’s the painting on a panel of wood of Kurt Cobain with what appears to be blood and brains exploding out of the top and it’s entitled “Kurt Cobain’t”.

There was also a giant 3D piece that was very popular. The artist provided 3D glasses to view it and it was trippy to say the least. I love that it took advantage of the live setting as there really is no other way to take in this particular creation. I tried to take an artsy shot of the 3D glasses with part of the painting in the background, but the depth of field was really shallow when holding the glasses at arm’s length and this really doesn’t show the scope of the piece. I usually don’t agree with the sentiment “The picture doesn’t do it justice”, but this is one of those cases where it’s impossible to do it proper justice with a photo.

The Lowcountry Highrollers were on hand to skate around and eat lollipops. They also did some hula hooping, which made for some cool motion capture photos.

Another cool thing that Scott thought up was a series of carnival style character cut-outs that he invited artists to come in and paint. The theme was to make freaky circus sideshow characters and they looked fantastic.

Brian, Amy, & Mira In A Cut-Out Character

Charleston lifestyle photographer Jonathan Stout had a photo booth set up with a crime scene background and chainsaws, hammers, and axes as props. The man worked his butt off taking shots all night long, and they came out looking fantastic. Take a look at his website to see all of the awesomeness. There is also a shot of yours truly in there.

Here’s a shot of Jon hard at work:

There was also lots of different music from musicians and DJ’s. There were three stages, including an 18 & over burlesque show tent. I took this photo of one of the dancers in the tent, but decided to use an artistic saturation effect on it to create something new out of it. Here’s the original and saturated versions:

The shot at the top of this post is of a dancer who I asked to do some leaps and poses in front of a mural painted by the Mohawk sporting gentleman below. I think his name was Scott as well, but I’m terrible at remembering people’s names so I’m sorry if I screwed that up. You can view the other shots of the dancer as well as the rest of my photos from the event on my flickr set for it.

I hope Mr. Debus keeps this train rolling, because it was such an important event for our culture and it gives people like Robert Donovan and I (and most of the participants I’m sure), who do this for the love of it more than anything else, a place to celebrate our creations with other enthusiasts. I’m so happy to have been a part of this with such great company. Thanks again, and see you next time!