The Proposal

What do you do on the coolest day of the year?

You ask a girl to marry you on a mountain top in western PA . Throw in a snowman, wine and a film crew and you got yourself on the fast track to her saying yes.

Engagement Film

You got to see a bit from Ceci &; Joe’s E-Session Part Deux and I know you remember their feature on Style Me Pretty for their E-Session Part Une, which included a fun little film.

Well here is the film for the 2nd part of their E-Session.

Make sure you view it to the end…we had a little fun with it. Enjoy.

Cinematography & Others Random Whatnots

Rough cut, and it's my first.

Started working on a promotional film for the wife (see here) and this is my starting place.  Not too shabby, don’t you think?

Lesson learned: Pre-planning is not conversation over coffee.  Sketch it out. You can never have too much footage, especially of close ups. Racking focus takes practice.  If you have ever listened to me talk to a group of up and coming photographers I preach "never practice on game day."  Same goes for cinematography.  Licensing music can get expensive, fast.

Other random whatnots about my life:

I will be having my second show sometime in late 2013 or early 2014.  I will be having a meeting with the gallery owner next week. I have previously written about displaying my work directly to the people and bypassing the gallery route, but having a gallery owner call and offer to hold a show for me….sounds like too much fun to pass up.

Also on the gallery front, I went to Panza gallery (not the gallery that contacted me, but here's to hoping) to an exhibition titled "PLAY". If you are in PGH check it out, extremely good work...

Lastly, I have recently become addicted to vinyl albums. Quick history lesson: a vinyl album is what came after music that could only be heard if performed live but before the reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette tape, cd, dat tap, MP3, streaming music and all other devices that have destroyed the sound quality of recorded music.  Cons of my vinyl addiction: the cost.  The pros: better sound quality and the paying off of my digital karma sins of the past 30 years.

Enjoy the show…...

Visual Artis

One of my favorite things about keeping this blog is that I get to dream out loud. Now, at this particular time, I should be in bed dreaming quietly in my head, but, not for nothing it’s 3am and I am on my second peanut butter and jelly sandwich, trying my best not to drip jelly on the keyboard.  So, I thought this would be a good time to share with you.  Also late night writing in my journal is simply too hard; I am getting old and the eyes don’t work so well and without spell check at 3am my handwriting is even indecipherable to me.

You may have noticed that I have posted a few videos here on the blog.  Short clips of me playing guitar with a mix of photos.  This style of video is called “Fusion”. For the record I hate this term, unfortunately I am left without a better phrase. However in my serious guitar playing days I was drawn to a style of music that would later become known as fusion (a blend of rock, jazz, funk). So be it.

This is it, my next creative venture into the world of cinematic imagination. The dream is to become a visual artist...still images and moving pictures; a blending of the skills.

I am discovering that constructing a video is the polar opposite of how I produce a photo.  In photography my approach is re-active….this is the light, that is the subject….let it unfold and what arises is captured into my black box. For video it is all about pre-production.  The composition junkie inside of me loves this.  Think of a story, outline the how’s and what’s, set the scene, press the record button and capture it all in my black box.

I am at the beginning of this grand experiment and I am still building my video editing chops.  This is where I will have to do some serious woodshedding. That is what I love about being a working artist; it’s all about creating something new, daily. Not a bad way to earn a living. It is also what I love about this blog and sharing with you. Truth be told this is not a blog (this should be a different post). It’s a working portfolio.

Coming soon to a blog screen near you: “Create | Connect | Grow”. The video series documenting my endless search for the original whatever.   A jambalaya of random stuff with a dash of the divine, suitable for all ages.

Will it be art?

Photo Fusion Project

Fusion Photo Project #2

Fusion Photo