new blog

new blog can be found here: http://gravedanger.biz or http://gravy.myfotojournal.com

Blah blah...

Lunch? who needs lunch?

I shot this yesterday on my lunch break... cool eh?


Production & Styling: Tiffany Jackson inc.
Photography: Grave Danger Photography
Hair & Concept: Sarah @ Fluid Hair
Model: Robb Chalifoux
Outfit: Derk's
Shoes: Room 322

also was supposed to do a shoot (and be in a shoot) tonight for Shout Out Out Out Out, but that is now getting pushed back... I did manage to set up a few lights and mess around while I was waiting...


contest update: thanks for the submissions, but I think I'm going to stick it out for a bit with the grave danger name... maybe it's not so bad?

A Contest?!

WHAT?

A contest?!

yes.

A contest.

I've decided that I'm not sure if I like the name "gravedangerphotography". So, here's the deal. You send me name suggestions. I'd like it if the new name some how had 'gravy' involved, but it's not a requirement. If I like your suggestion, and end up using it, I'll give you a photo shoot, with makeup (if necessary), and a bunch of fully edited images for you to use however you like. Sound cool?

email your suggestions to: gravedangerphotography @ gmail.com (sorry, you'll have to copy and paste that)
Contest closes whenever I feel like it. haha

oh, here's a pretty photo that I shot the other day. This is Ms. Andrea, an extremely talented belly dancer. I'm pretty sure she performs around Edmonton a fair bit, and I think she's also teaching lessons if you're so inclined. Check out her blog for more info!



p.s. I'm back on the road now, so if you're interested in tour videos, check out the shout out out out out website for updates!

More METAL!

I'm thinking maybe I'll do a photo show of just shots of people rockin out at shows. good idea? maybe not...


Shot Megadeth and Testament last night... pretty good show.


Testament:





Megadeth:






Showing off 8 frames per second...

METAL!!

it's been a while since I've been to a metal show... it was actually not bad! Shooting Megadeth tomorrow night. 20th anniversary of 'Rust in Peace'. Great album.

shot this entirely with the 50mm 1.8. I love that lens. Super sharp and fast. Actually wide enough on the D700 for shows too. I read a great lil' thing on the internets about prime lenses the other day. Check it out if you're interested: http://photocritic.org/prime-lens/

anyway, I've submitted some of my shots to Vue, so here are a few that I liked, but didn't submit.

The Order of Chaos



Savannah


I'm even starting to copy my own work now... ha! Not as good as the Motley shot...

Photos Pt. 3

More photos from the shoot with Sarah and Randy... jeez, I'm on a roll here... editing one photo of each girl per night! maybe one of these nights I'll get CRAZY and do TWO photos of each! whoa!!!

Model: Randy
Hair: FluidHair
Makeup: JWoww
Photo: gravy


Model: Sarah
Hair: FluidHair
Makeup: JWoww
Photo: gravy



p.s. I love my ringflash. xoxo

Photos Pt. 2

Well, part 26 really, as this is a photo blog after all, and this would be entry #26... so I finally got around to editing a couple more of Sarah and Randy from Fluid (again, FluidHair.ca, go check it.) and figured I'd post a couple for the blog viewing folks.

I did these b/w conversions with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro plugin for CS4. Pretty cool stuff. Really easy to use, which I like.

more to come eventually...

Model: Randy
Hair: FluidHair
Makeup: JKowton
Photo: gravy


Model: Sarah
Hair: FluidHair
Makeup: JKowton
Photo: gravy


(yes, in case you're wondering, the photos are supposed to be dark... sheesh.)

Photos!

I don't really have anything to say (aside from get your hair did at Fluid! Fluidhair.ca ), so here's a few pictures. more to come.

Model: Randy
Makeup: JennK
Photo: gravy
Lighting: ABR800 on camera


Model: Sarah
Makeup: JennK
Photo: gravy
Lighting: B800 into umbrella @ cam right

Go Oil!

Yeah, that's right! Go Oilers! yeah, I know they really are terrible right now... but I still can't help but cheer for the guys. Oh well... worst case scenario is still pretty decent, considering the available draft choices this year. I still hope for the best...

The other night at the Motley show, before the show started, my eyes were wandering... I looked up and there they were... I just had to snap a shot. ISO 8000, so it's grainy as all get-out, but whatever... still looks good on my desktop, so I figured it might look good on yours too... that is, of course, only if you haven't started cheering for the now-Phaneuf-less Flames. HAHA!


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I finally got around to going through the show photos... got a few keepers I suppose. It was pretty difficult shooting from the sound board, and being limited to two songs didn't help much either... excuses excuses. Oh well... I got some decent tight crop stuff. Check Vue this week to see the pics...

I did get to shoot Airbourne from the pit, which was pretty cool. They're a great band from Australia. AC/DC on yr playlist? check these dudes out.

my favorite shot, blurry as it may be...

Motley Crue

I don't think I'm allowed to post photos from the show tonight... and really, I haven't even had the chance to go through them all yet. I thought the show was decent... I think I'll have a review in Vue or at least on the website. Maybe I'll post a few pics that don't get used for that... I'm sure M.C. has better things to do than go searching on blogs for photos anyway...

Not every day you get to shoot your favorite drummer... I suppose aside from my genes, it's due to Tommy Lee that I play drums at all. I still remember sitting in my room when I was in 7th grade, learning how to twirl a metal bar, like he twirls drum sticks. That was when I played saxophone. Pretty hard to rock n roll with a saxophone, so I think I made the right choice. Wow. Look at me, getting all nostalgic... haha!

hmm. that time again...

yeah, I'm not very good at updating this here blog. oh well. I haven't really been shooting much, so there's really not much to update. My wide zoom is in the shop, getting a lil' warranty work, and until I get it back, I probably will continue to not do much. I have a lot of editing work to catch up on anyway, so it's probably a good thing that I don't have much booked.

I did manage to shoot The Monotonix last week when the Get Down played with them at New City. Just one for now, as these are being run on vueweekly. Pretty crazy show. I suppose I'd have to recommend checking out one of their shows. Things get pretty nutty.



And, I finally finished editing a shoot I did in November (or maybe it was December... I don't remember!) for Nyla Stormy. I really should have done all of the editing of these shots at once, because now I don't really like the ones that I did before as much as I like the ones I just did. Oh well. The tragic life of someone who edits photos, right? haha

Jenn did the makeup for this shoot, so many thanks to her as well.

Willie & Andrea!

Yay! it's always fun when pals get married! I suppose it's even more fun when you get to shoot their weddings... Weddings are always an interesting experience for me. I never know quite what I'm getting myself into. Luckily, I didn't screw these last two weddings up... might have made playing shows over the next while slightly awkward. ha! You all got to see a lil' sneak peek of Lyle & Kimmy in the last blog, so here's a lil' sneak peek of Wille & Andrea.



This shot was the result of having to set up and do family portraits really quickly. I was kind of wanting to do something a little bit different, so I decided to throw a SB800 on my magic arm, clamped to a railing on the other side of the room. Quick and easy backlight to go with the B800 and shoot through umbrella I had as a key light. Worked like a charm. So, then when I was done with the rest of the family, I decided to try shutting off the key light, and just using the backlight. I dig the look. Not something I'd do everyday, but for this shot it just sort of works!

a busy year in review...

wow. ok, so I suppose tomorrow is the end of the decade, eh? crazy. I guess it doesn't really feel any different than the end of any other year.

This really has been a busy year for me. Seems like just the other day I got my D300 and started shooting somewhat seriously, even though that was March of '08. I've shot so much stuff since then it's really hard to keep track of it all. A bunch of weddings with my pal Leah (please do check her blog, as there is some excellent stuff there!), a tonne of burlesque, and more bands than I could ever remember, live and otherwise. Oh yeah, and we did the calendar this year too!

Here are a few things that I shot over the past year that I don't think I've put on the ol' blog yet...

In no particular order:

Nik 7 Paronomasiac promos in my back alley...


Jenn in the office at home... it's nice having a model around whenever I need one to try out my (somewhat) silly ideas!


Makeup portfolio stuff for Karly P, who is now in London UK...


JZ with Misery Signals @ Starlite...


Lucky Lamour (who is also in the calendar, just sayin...) with Capital City Burlesque in December...


Portfolio stuff for Nyla Stormy...



And of course, a couple of my best pals got married, and I got to shoot it! Congrats to poppa and kimmy!


ok. that's all for now. see y'all next year. if this year was any indication, things are only going to get busier........

xoxo gravy

Hindsight... 20/20?

yeah... hindsight is 20/20... a pretty popular saying, one my dad used to use a lot (it seemed) when I was growing up... True in life, and as I was cloning out stupid hay from photos tonight, true in photography!

had I known, or not been so lazy, or even really thought about what I was doing, I would have taken the time to sweep the studio floor. hey, it would have taken me all of two minutes. oh well. lesson learned I suppose.

here's a good example. 10 mins of cloning could have been saved by two minutes of sweeping.

(click it to see it bigger)


shot some promos for good pals (and great band) The James T Kirks. Some of the outtakes are probably my favorites...

Used a simple light setup for these... B800 w/shoot through umbrella for key, 2 SB800's backlighting the guys (back corners for the bottom shot, directly behind for the top shot). worked well... about as well as the broom would've worked on the floor.

Anyway, if ever there was a message (for myself!) in a blog that I've written... I suppose it is "hindsight really is 20/20". So think about what you're doing before you do it. It will save you some time and energy in the long run.

bussssssssssssssssssyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....

busy busy busy... I suppose it's that time of year though, right? I've got about ten minutes now before running out to do yet another photoshoot... then another tomorrow. then hopefully a break until at least after xmas. I've got a bunch of crap to show you, (all two of you haha, thank you both!) but it's going to have to wait.

until then, and I know this might be a little premature, but here's a little wallpaper for January. This is the image from the calendar, complete with a little extra design work from Jenn.



click and save.

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Out of Boredom...

I was bored tonight. Took my turn at photographing water drops. pretty boring stuff here folks. Took a bunch of tries to get the lighting where I wanted it, and then a bunch more to actually get the drops. Oh well. Here's one I edited because I thought it turned out kinda neat.


If you like it (like I do) and want to make it your desktop (like I did) then click one of the following links...

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On another, entirely more exciting and not boring note... we got the calendars back today, and they look pretty great! if you want one, make sure and let me know, and I can either get you one, or tell you where to go (to get one).

bye bye.

3 for 3...

Yeah, why not...Seems I've got the late night out-take ball rolling. A little less saturation on these, but hey, whatever. I like em...

First up, Ms. October, Lili DeVil


And Ms. February, Samantha Valentine

One of the more difficult shoots of the calendar! As much of a star Meiko the cat was, he was still a little on the fussy side when it came to sitting still. Can't say I blame the lil' guy. If I was shaved like a lion, I'd want to be out on the town too! For the actual Feb. image in the calendar, I went with a composite image of the best of both Samantha and Meiko. This one was lucky I guess, although dude looks like he's about to pounce!

again again!

Hey, I think we actually get the calendars tomorrow, so I figured, why not post another out-take...

here's Ms. June, Bella Bombshella


pretty much the same treatment as the last image, tweaked a lil' more... click on the image to view bigger why don't ya! I should mention that one of my flashes didn't go off on this shot... I like the lighting though. A little more dramatic than the other shots, but I still think it works. hmmm maybe I just just stick to one light from now on...

oh, hi blog...

it's been a while... sorry. I've been busy with the calendar, which is now done. Should have it in our hands on thursday. if you want one, be sure and let me know, and I'll tell you where to find one.

here's an outtake, that I did some messing with, courtesy of this here webpage. pretty nice lil' tutorial goin' on there. pretty much followed it step by step (oooh baby!) except the border part. I really dig stuff like this - the tutorial, not the vintage look, although I dig that too. I really appreciate the work that goes into something like that. so, for all of you people that actually put the time in to making a decent tutorial or blog or what-have-you... thanks!

Lucky Lamour - Ms. September!

Sneaksy Peaksy!

Shot a great client of the drum shop and his lovely lady the other day... Probably one of the most fun shoots I've done to date. Dan and Colleen are just so damn happy! They were willing to do everything I asked (hey, I'm not that demanding!) and the resulting shots turned out amazing.


Click and check it out large...


More coming soon... I'm about a quarter of the way through shooting the pin-up calendar Jenn and I are working on, and it's turning out pretty amazing. Really great models. Shot with a bike from After Dark customs... A little freaky shooting with a $65K bike, but hey...

Here's a lil' sneak peak of the bike... this shot doesn't really do it justice. oh well.