Jan and I recently spent a week on Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” We stayed just outside a wonderful little town called Apalachicola. We were there earlier this year and we swore we would go back and spend some serious time taking photographs of that whole area. We had originally planned a month, but unfortunately work and family commitments cut that stay down to ten days. Still, it was a magical ten days. We took our antique Airstream trailer up to the area and we stayed at a funky campground in Indian Pass. It was rustic, but we had a great location right on the beach looking out at the Apalachicola Bay with St Vincent Wildlife Refuge a stones throw away. We watched dolphins, manatees and a myriad of wildlife right from our Airstream. It was heavenly. Each day I would get up at 5.30 and explore the shoreline looking for the right shot. I have to say it’s hard going to an area and taking photographs site unseen. It usually takes years of living in an area to know just the right places and then go to them when the light is just right. I did get lucky though and I’m pretty sure I’ve added half a dozen images to my portfolio!

We are thrilled that Florida Gulf Coast University is using three of our Videage shows on it’s home page. We’ve been working on the project for a while now and to see the work online on FGCU’s website is a real thrill. Ken Schexnayder, Assistant Vice President for Community Relations and Marketing at FGCU, said “I wanted something different to get our message across, and the Videage did that for us. The subtle blend of stills and video gives a new and fresh look…perfect for a young and rapidly growing university”

We put together a compilation of all three shows so we could share on this blog.

We had the pleasure of photographing rising star Morgan Li recently during his recent visit to Florida. During the shoot he let us listen his song “Can Anybody Tell” I thought it would be cool to share the song with the best shots of the day!

This was an experiment with time lapse photography and slow mo video. I was playing around with both the Canon 5D and the 7D to find out their strengths and weakness’ Love the 5D for time lapse because of it’s full frame sensor and low light sensitivity. The 7D does great slow motion video.

We recently had the pleasure of working with a great bunch of guys at the Orange Glow Studios in Bonita Springs here in Florida. They have a Beatles Tribute band called The Nowhere Band and they are quite simply, amazing. Their harmonies and their dedication to every detail and Beatles nuance blew me away. If you ever get a chance to see them don’t hesitate. We saw them at the Stage in Bonita Springs. They did three sets, with costume change, and took us all on a Beatles musical journey! Great stuff…highly recommended.

Time lapse photography is usually done on a tripod or, more recently, a motorized rig. I thought it would be fun to try it on the fly while taking a quick walk down the Naples pier!

This is an example of the Videage Lite. Some of our clients have told us they love the full Videage, where we shoot video and stills and fuse them together to create a uniquely hand crafted production, but sometimes something that would be less of a production would be fine too, especially for clients who want multiple shows to hit the social media sites. We’re still blend video and stills together, but with more automation we’re able to keep the costs down…win win, I love it!

So we get a call late Tuesday afternoon. “can you help us with some promotional pictures of a rock star” Jan thought it was a hoax at first, mainly because the caller, Toni, had a very strong Swiss accent and it was very late in the day! It turned out he wasn’t joking, they were over at Orange Glow Recording Studios finishing up some mixes of Morgan Li‘s new song. They had recently hired a photographer to shoot some promotional material, but it didn’t turn out they way they had hoped… so now they were down to the wire. We had to shoot a number of outfits in the studio and on location all the following morning. We called make up diva Dani Taverna of Duality Artistry and she shifted some things around in her schedule and stepped up to the plate. Morgan was a dream to work with. He took direction, knew how to move and we nailed it! Huge team effort by everyone…I love my job!

So often beach photography can be a challenge. Apart from the salt and the sand being the absolute worst environment for your camera equipment (OK, I know, salt water is even worse!) bright sunlight can also be tough to work with when trying to create a beautiful portrait that is full of atmosphere. You’re often forced to use flash to balance out the harsh lighting, and that’s OK if you want to do fun colorful work or fashion, but if you want soft, gentle lighting  you often just have to wait for the right moment. We had one of those moments when we photographed Danielle. The light was perfect, Danielle was great and I think we ended up with something that looked different, but still a wonderful moment in time that captured Danielle’s spirit!

Wow! what a month July is turning out to be! First we had a story in the Naples Journal, now a story in the Naples Daily News about our hand colored photography. What a response we’ve had…we’re blown away! A huge thank you goes out to all those who called and emailed to wish us well.

A big thanks to Kelly Merritt for putting it all together. For those who missed the article you can view it online at the Naples Daily News website

The Economic Development Council of Collier County have chosen to use the “Videage” to spread the word about their series of strategic planning meetings and invite the public to their final meeting July 25th 2011 at the North Collier Regional Park Exhibit Hall, Room A at 6.00pm

We recently had the pleasure of photographing Alan James president of The Powerhouse Group. It was a great shoot and Alan is a very cool guy with a million stories from his time as Roy Orbison’s musical director and business manager. For those of us who attended the Naples International Film Festival’s opening Gala last year we can all remember how his band Powerhouse rocked the house all night long.