jonpaul's photography blog
I can’t wait until this brand is unleashed. My good pals at Maven have developed something really fantastic for this up and coming mixed martial arts company that they are itching to show off. Until the official release here is some behind the scenes footage from the Shosen photo shoot in Miami.
Wes and I were shooting a wedding a couple of weekends ago in Long Island. We had a day to mess around. We attempted to drive to the Hamptons, ended up turning around and taking the train into the city for a few hours. I shot some 35mm bw for kicks.
flight got canceled so my pal and I made a little airport video… inspired by “The Graduate” …this has no real concept I know… but the footage is pretty.
Spent a little over a week in Scotland with wes and chip. Lots of driving, hiking, sheep and sausage.
Ten days this month we were in Peru on the accelerated travel plan. By accelerated I mean little sleep and more planes, trains, buses, taxis, motorcycle taxis and boats. Apparently the way to get around in Peru is to take domestic flights to and from different regions. In doing this we ended up seeing a good bit of everything while keeping our trip rather short.
We started in the Amazon, which turned out to be the high point of the trip. We took boats everywhere since this is currently the wet season and the Amazon’s water levels are much higher. We met with a Yagua Indian tribe who showed us different rituals and hunting methods. The mosquitoes of the Amazon are probably the most dangerous foe even amongst the crocodiles, piranhas, anacondas and some fish that swims up your urethra.
Next we were off to Peru’s most prized possession… Machu Pichhu. This can’t really be described in words or images. It is something you have to see with your own eyes and I would suggest you do so. We arrived at the ruins around 5:30am and were met with rain and dampened spirits(ha). I ended up really enjoying the foggy conditions for photos and by mid afternoon the fog had lifted thus revealing distant views of the ruins. At the end of the day we took the only method of departure(train) out to continue our trip.
The last leg of our trip was the desert/ocean portion. After three films on a bus we arrived to what seemed like mile high sand dunes and a hotel in the middle of an actual oasis. This part of the trip was quite rushed so we didn’t get much time on the dunes and decided to seek witness to the “Galapagos” of Peru a.k.a. rock islands with tons of birds standing in tons of guano.
All in all it was a great experience and I have quickly trimmed down a photo selection from the trip. You will find a good assortment here as I was simply enjoying myself making a variety of photos whether it be landscape, nature, documentary, or a handful of very quick set ups. These are pretty much in the same order of the trip. I will post a link to many more later on for those who are interested…. MORE + video
Last Summer I had the great opportunity to shoot Kyle Korver of the Utah Jazz. If my blog wasn’t devoted to photography I could seriously go on a rant describing the admirable traits of Kyle… but I’ll just say he’s a terrific guy and I wish he played for the Magic. The main purpose of the shoot was to obtain media for Kyle’s website that the top professionals over at Maven creative were developing. The images were used on every page of Kyle’s “paper world” site as well as in the gallery. On the site you can also find a gallery from a trip I took a couple months later to Philadelphia to cover various events for the Kyle Korver Foundation. This has been one of the most rewarding projects I have had the pleasure to work on. I have met some of the most amazing people during the time spent capturing images for Kyle and his foundation. Thanks again to Maven and kudos on creating such a fresh and inventive site.
Here are some shots from the gallery, and a few others. I was going to post some form the Philly trip as well but plenty can be found here.
Last minute gig with the always fantastic Lionfish agency in Seattle. They flew us to New Orleans where for three days we shot Microsoft partners in preparation for a huge convention Microsoft is having in July. Most of the work was done on a blank back drop while I was able to capture subjects in different environments in the historic venue we were setup in. At the same time as the stills a hefty video production was going on as well as various business meetings the partners were having. This meant many times I had to be quiet while directing a subject… more times than one I’m sure I ruined the video crews take. While I had a set of strobes setup for portraits I was constantly moving portable strobes all over trying to work fast and find the best quick lighting solution for each area. Overall everything turned out great… especially since these are not professional models but real world business people.
Spent the weekend in atlanta with friends. I was invited by my pal Cole to the traveling Cirque du Soleil “Kooza” which was of course unbelievable. I received a new lens(135f2)right before we left so I shot with it most of the weekend. Wes, Kaylin and Andy showed us what a real park is supposed to look like. Here are some fun images from this and a trip just previous.
