"Real Rant" Music Video Shoot
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
This past Saturday was a busy day for me. It took over four hours to shoot Corvette Polo's "Real Rant" music video downtown in the hot sun. I was able to work with York of Quality Vision Films for the cinematography. We talked about each scene and how we wanted to capture it from each camera. It was great to speak with someone with the same technical mind and knowledge of capturing a vision on film. We mapped out our locations for each shot, the first being the alleyway covered in graffiti behind Market Square. Next, we headed to the top of the Locust Street garage; luckily, no one was up there at this time. We also shot just behind the Market Square stage by the water fountains. There was a play going on while we were shooting, but I think with all of our camera equipment, we were getting more attention than the play was. Look for the music video "Real Rant" coming soon. Here are a few images from the set...
Heather and PJ Engagement Shoot
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
I am so excited to share with you this Knoxville couple's engagement photos. Saturday, May 31st, I was able to photograph Heather and PJ for their engagement. Heather and PJ have been friends of mine for several years now, and I was excited by the opportunity to photograph them. They are such a great couple, and you can tell that they are so in love.
We decided to do their photo shoot at Volunteer Landing Marina in order to take some beautiful and unique shots at one of Knoxville's most interesting sites. By visiting the marina's bridges, docks, trails, and railroad tracks, we were able to capture some sweet moments.
Heather and PJ are to be wed this December in Cancun, Mexico, and I am looking forward to traveling with them to celebrate their special day.
Bonfire with Friends
Last night I had the chance to hang out with a few of my friends. We grilled out and made a bonfire. We cooked steak and BBQ chicken, but little did I know that after 2 hours on the grill the chicken was still under cooked. Good thing I didn't eat too much of it before realizing it was still raw. It was nice to get out of the house after being cooped up for the last month since the birth of baby Jaden. I took my camera (of course) and took some long exposure photography. Here are some of the pictures I took from last night.
Wedding Photography 2
The wedding day...I was pretty excited to be able to go to this wedding and see a beautiful couple get married. I also wanted to keep practicing my new found hobby and interest. I brought by 55-210mm lens with me this time to get those close intimate shots. I could really tell a difference in how much room I could see around my subjects. It was a lot closer and tighter shot, and I could really zoom in on faces and expressions. I wanted to be able to enjoy most of the evening and partake in the whole celebration, so I only took 175 shots which will probably come down to the best 50 or so maybe. I haven't finished editing all of the pictures yet so I will see what that number comes down to.
The day was pretty perfect for lighting and the weather couldn't have been better for a day in June. The venue: The Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major L.D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. [1] The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.[2]
The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.[1][2]
The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall. (wikipedia)
"These walls have history" as I would say. The venue was beautiful and the set up of the ceremony around a fountain made it all the more surreal.
This is a view of where the ceremony was held.
They had live strings to set the mood.
The ceremony was a traditional Christian wedding and the reception was lively and entertaining with a great local DJ.
I feel like a captured some pretty good moments during the wedding. I was towards the back of the seats, but with my 55-210mm lens I was able to still get those close intimate shots. It was really good practice for me. My next attempt will probably be nighttime and low light photography. Its pretty tough without a good flash or a tripod/mono-pod. I noticed toward the end of the night that the shots I was taking didn't come out too well in the dark, so I definitely want to practice on that.
All in all it was a good experience, had a great time with some amazing friends, and got a chance to practice on my craft.
Juicebeats
Wedding Photography
Some of you already know that I have recently added photography as a part of my production company. I have always had an interest in photography, but never had the tools and the time work on it. There is so much beauty that a picture can bring. The old saying, A picture is worth a 1000 words, is still very true. I enjoy the geometry, the science, and the artistic elements that go along with making a great photo. When I bought the Sony NEX 5, I didn't understand a bit about it and just knew from doing research on the computer that it was a good camera. If you are or were like me, when buying a camera we looked strictly at megapixels. Which camera has the highest? A professional photographer or even someone that knows a bit about photography will tell you that its not always the case. The sensor comes into play, the lens, shutter speeds, flash, etc. Over the past few months I have been learning these things and how they all work together to create a great shot. I am not a professional photographer by any means, but I think maybe one day I could be in a sense.
Last night I was able to practice a bit on some of my new learned photography skills at a wedding rehearsal. At first I was a bit shy in taking photos of some of the people I barely knew, mainly because I wasn't a hired photographer, but I knew that I needed to practice my skills and this would be a good test. I shot something like 200-300 pictures some bad some good. As I was taking pictures one of the brides relatives noticed what I was doing and we had a chat. He said that he did professional photography and he gave me a few pointers. If you know anything about lenses, I was using a 18-55mm lens last night to shoot pictures. He told me that for wedding photography you may need to use a bigger lens 55-210mm or 75-300mm. I asked, "Why?" He responded saying that the smaller lens will get you great wide shots with lots of surrounding room, but for wedding photography you really may want some tight close shots which is why you would use a bigger lens. I thought, wow that makes great sense. Most of the time when I see wedding photographers shooting they usually have a bigger lens on their cameras. It's great to know why now. The wedding is tonight, so I will definitely be bringing my bigger lens to take shots this time. Here is just a preview of last nights shots I took:
***Click the picture to view all photos***
Check out some of my other photos I have been working on at flickr.com/juicebeats
Juicebeats