Photography

This page will showcase recent photography I've done. Much of it will be of products which I'm either currently or have recently reviewed.

Everyday Shots

The following are shots I took during a vacation in Hawaii over New Years 2010:

 From the hotel room

 Walking around Waikiki, the lights on the trees looked phenomenal

 I stood on the balcony taking shots as the sun got closer and closer to setting

 A very colorful ship docked by our whale-watching tour boat

The ever-busy beach 

The lone sailboat in the vast, blue ocean

What the hell indeed

A Stingray off the side of a retired Navy vessel

A double rainbow. It's no optical illusion, there were actually two rainbows here

Sun shining through the dense rain clouds

A Lion up close. Only a 5" pane of glass between her and me

Twilight Moon

Lone Tree-light

Night shot of a poorly-lit plant

Red Night

Blood Sky

Hello Birdy

God of War Event: I was invited, after spotting a post on the official Playstation blog, about an event in Los Angeles where Sony was going to shoot part of the documentary for God of War: Ghost of Sparta. I wiggled my way in through my contacts, and took the opportunity to get some good shots in. Poor lighting and a slow lens really hindered my efforts, but I did come out with a few golden images. 

The above shot is great for two reasons: first, no one is moving too much. I have at least 100 where at least one of the talking heads above had motion blur. The second reason it's great is because this is before they went on camera and live (the documentary was shot in one [well, two] take[s], so there was a pre-shooting scramble to get everyone ready to answer properly), so the crew was much more relaxed. And, as I mentioned later on, Cory Barlog did his best to be funny. Good thing too, because I was getting bored listening to rehearsals.

Another shot where they all stood still, and but this time the developers made funny faces. Not intentionally, of course. Well, Barlog did on purpose...what everyone else's excuse was, I may never know. Unfortunately I didn't have the pleasure of meeting these fine gentlemen (I met Stig Asmussen back at GDC 2010, but he didn't recognize me...or was upset that I didn't change the score of God of War 3 up from 90%), because I didn't want to interrupt rehearsals and get tossed out by Sony, and because when everything finished up the few fans that actually showed up went ballistic for quotes and autographs.

The God of War 5...or maybe just Fab 5

E3 2011

Cliff Bleszinski on stage at the Microsoft E3 Press Conference with ICE-T, playing Gears of War 3.

Tim Schafer at Microsoft's press conference 

Cuddly Sesame Street announced at Microsoft's press conference. 

Casey Hudson discussing Mass Effect 3, showing off the large-scale environments 

 Some people are photogenic. John Riccitiello is not, nor does he ever not make a face

Dr. Greg Zeschuk discussing Star Wars: The Old Republic 

Curt Schilling, former MLB pitcher and World Series winner, at EA's press conference discussing his latest game 

Ubisoft intelligently skipped bad comedians and only included light humor, like how different things were 20 years ago.  

Product Shots

Sony DSC-TX9: The conditions were perfect: bright sun, great plan color, perfectly deep-blue ocean...and the camera's red body and bright lettering just made for a perfect shot with clear colors. 

Apple Macbook Air 13" (2011): The Macbook Air 13" was one of the best products I've had to photograph, and one of the more formidable ones as well. Because of its larger size than most gadgets I shoot, and of course the shape, having a good shot not on a table or on someone's lap seemed counter-intuitive. Because I'm not a wealthy aristocrat who hires models or gets friends away from their jobs midday to pose, I used my imagination.

Along with my sister, we tried to get a shot of the Air on a tree branch, with the wallpaper set as the part of the tree the screen would be blocking. Her idea (and a brilliant one), not mine. Unfortunately the webcam wasn't managing a good enough image, and the tree wasn't working. We walked around for a bit looking for a good spot, when the idea of wallpapers for pictures dawned on me.

These bushes - short, with a tree hanging overhead - has a great green that contrasts the silver, and the orange flowers that fell from the tree that contrast the green. The final piece to the puzzle was the flower wallpaper, which so perfectly worked that it made for an excellent headlining image.

This second shot (actually the first of the bunch) is my favorite, but the glare off the screen with purple hue couldn't be fixed without either turning the display too much or changing the frame too drastically. Once again it's the wallpaper that makes the image.

Nikon Coolpix P100: The beach is great for photography...under good weather conditions. The day I took this shot wasn't one of those days. Everything was wrong: cloudy, dull colors, windy with sand flying everywhere...a terrible hassle. I saw a blue lifeguard lookout, unused, and liked the difference in color between the black and sky-blue paint. It was my first shot, and I think that the seagull really makes the shot real. It flew away after that first shot.

Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom: Taken on my patio. I hooked the Nikon Coolpix P100, which I was reviewing, to the tripod, and wrapped it around an umbrella post. In the background is a garden, which I kept out of focus intentionally. The screen reflection was an unintentional bonus. Looking at the picture now, it would have benefited to remove the camera straps, but I have since sent the camera back.

Nikon Coolpix S1100pj: Taken on the beach on a section of PCH between Malibu and Pacific Palisades. One strip has several semi-grassy areas, which I love using for photos. This particular angle creeped up on me when I wanted to cover up the sticker on the bottom left of the camera (but didn't want to remove), while also  showing off the finer aspects of the camera with some good color contrast. The bright, sunny green worked perfectly, and the slight bright ground and grey-blue water complete the perfect picture. At least for me.

Dell Inspiron Duo: I struggled with the Dell Duo, for two reasons. First, I wasn't fond of the product. Second, there were so many shooting opportunities with it that I really wasn't sure which was the best. However, I realized that my first problem was more important, and wanted to show off the Duo as I felt it expressed itself, but through the shot. That's why I chose this shot, taken on the beach on a cloudy day in Malibu.

Razer Ferox: The Ferox turned out to be an interesting product from a visual perspective, and I wanted to show that in a way that differed from my first look. So I put them on my wooden work table and set my camera to focus heavily on the front speaker, which enabled the light from the second to appear far too saturated when I increased the vibrance in Photoshop. Taking such a quick picture also limited the cables in the back, which are required for the Ferox speakers to produce light (they have to be plugged in). The blue is a good contrast on the dark, almost red-brown, and the reflections off the top ring of the speakers is almost perfect. It would be if I could eliminate the camera's reflection.

Mad Catz RAT 9: The Rat 9 was an interesting picture I struggled with. As a wireless mouse that's quite expensive at $150, I didn't really know of a great way to show it off without it being under someone's hand, which of course defeats the purpose. It's impossible to show off the customization in a single picture while also making the mouse look good, so I did that with later product shots. Instead, I carried the Rat 9 around after I'd completed testing and, after shooting the Samsung Focus (below), I realized I could actually put the Rat 9 on the sand without damaging it and while making a relatively clean shot. The sand was just right - firm enough to hold the mouse but not wet - and the light was dark enough to not overwhelm the image with tight shadows. Shot on the beach in Malibu.

Samsung Focus: Without sounding proud, this is one of my favorite product shots. I had the hardest time finding a good way to show off the first major Windows Phone 7 device, and because of how good of a device it is, I was having real trouble doing just that. I went around for at least two weeks with the phone on me just for taking the perfect picture. Finally, I stopped at the beach with several products, watched the sunset, and pulled out the phone. The thought hit me, and I looked for somewhere to put the phone, and the rock you see above had a perfectly shaped crevice to act as a stand. The contrast of darkening background and the very bright and wonderfully detailed main menu of the phone, and even the just-bright-enough AT&T and Samsung logos made this photo come out as perfectly as it did.

HTC Wildfire: The Wildfire was a weird phone to shoot. On the one hand it's a relatively weak device, but on the other hand it's a great starter smartphone. I found this spot by the Santa Monica Pier (which is in the background) and played with the shooting speeds to see what looked the best. Ultimately I went with an image that had the background out of focus just enough so that it's easy to see what it is, but still lacking in definition. Like the phone for a pro-user.

Thrustmaster Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition: After testing this wheel for too long, I had trouble finding a good review headlining photo because, well, it's racing wheel. It's too big to take out of the house, and too imposing to use serious light/color contrast. The best thing I could do was wait for something to pop out at me, and that's exactly what happened. Thanks to the PS3's utterly awful system of updates and Gran Turismo's forever load times, I saw the following picture. Taken in my house.

Sony Dash: I had plenty of good ideas for the Sony Dash headlining photo, but none that I could do alone or without a better remote-shooting apparatus. So, on a whim, I played around with some shots while the Dash booted up after moving it to my office from my bedroom, and as it was loading, I realized the irony in such a shot. The Dash is slow, and boot time takes forever, and suddenly I had my shot. But I wasn't pleased with a standard, clean and crisp shot. I moved around trying to find a better angle, and shot while moving accidentally, and the image blurred slightly. So I set manual focus for a certain position, stepped back, and moved forward to where I approximated I set the focus and shot. The picture above is that shot.

Samsung Focus: I'd just received the Focus and needed a quick post on initial impressions, along with a headlining image. Getting a shot of a product that I haven't used for more than an hour is difficult. It takes much longer to get a sense of it, especially a cellphone with a brand-new UI. So instead I focused on two things: surroundings and reflection. I knew the screen was AMOLED, which today means extremely reflective. I walked around my property and found one plant that looked sturdy. After a few minutes of fiddling around, I managed to get the Focus set on top, and snapped the photo. A side bonus was how crisp the Samsung and Windows logos came out.

Samsung Fascinate: The Fascinate was a difficult shot. I wanted to contrast the colors, but it just wasn't happening. So I took my younger brother for a ride on the weekend and shot everywhere, but came up short every time. Then I found this weird tree with red berries. Bright red, almost unnaturally red. I knew I could do something with that red, but ironically came up short with the overall image and had to work some photoshop magic to make the picture more vibrant and colorful. And my brother sat funny on something with his hand, because it left an odd crease.

PDP Tron Controllers: For the first look, I wanted to show off how cool these two controllers looked in the dark. They look great. As I learned later on, these pictures got tossed around the internet. The top is the PS3 controller, which came out mostly clean, though I was shooting with the Nikon D40x at the time and was having the hardest time shooting properly because of the low-light and no wireless shutter release. The PS3 controller also needed to be plugged into a PS3 to light up, so I had to unplug it from my media center and move it over to my photo surface for the shot.

This second shot isn't as crisp, but the Wii remote was giving me hell because I couldn't move the Wii, and my photo table is two rooms over. Every time I'd leave the remote alone for 15 seconds it would lose the Bluetooth connection and turn the light off. I literally had to turn it on, run into the room, close the door, set it up for the shot, and activate the shutter release within 10 seconds and not shake the camera at all so it could collect enough light to have the picture come out. It took many tries, to say the least. This was the best I could muster in one afternoon with the D40x.

Steelseries Spectrum 5XB: This was an interesting shot because of the green highlights, and of course the Xbox 360 design. The 5XB is designed specifically for the Xbox 360, so two thoughts came to mind: have Xbox in the picture, and minimize the headphones in place of the Xbox. The problem is neither the newer nor older Xbox 360 consoles (slim vs original) looked good in photographs with the 5XB. I set it on my TV when it wasn't in use, and as I walked back into the room later on, realized it made a great shot. The Kinect on the top right is just enough "Xbox" for the picture, the Steelseries logo is just barely visible, and the green still highlights the image. An added bonus was taking the picture at the perfect angle, where I'm not visible in the reflection.

Apple iPod Touch 4G: The first shot I had headline my iPod Touch 4G review turned out to be a great idea, but a weak image. It was the iPod held up to the sun, with the iPod almost-but-not-quite blocking the sun. The problem is that the iPod screen isn't bright enough to outshine the sun, nor did it really express anything about the product. The review went live on Thursday, and the next day I took my sister around and looked for a spot to reshoot. I asked her to sit on the sidewalk, and play something, and she picked Plants vs Zombies. I saw the color, and saw how it matched but was even more vibrant than the grass, and took the shot. Her zebra-striped shirt and the dull-but-detailed concrete, plus the dew on the grass, added so much detail the the shot that there was literally no better shot. This is one of my favorites.

iPod Nano 6G: The iPod Nano was unique, so I needed a unique shot. I took my brother around the property and there was an old concrete table (don't ask, long story) with blue tile. I sat him down on it, gave him the headphones, and turned on the radio (one of the more significant features on the device. The radio didn't actually work in the area). I stood behind him about five feet and used a zoom lens, then upped the contrast and clarity in photoshop. The rest was in the image already. His hands perfectly contrast the table and iPod, and the cable is subtle on both the iPod and out of focus in his ear. This is the sort of shot I try to replicate.

Motorola Droid 2: This of course is not a real image. I made the mistake of not shooting in RAW and only realized it after the shoot. The shot came out fine as it was, but I wasn't happy enough with it to use it as a headlining shot. So, as I always do with non-RAW files, I opened it up in Paint.net to resize and thought 'why not play around with it?' I did, and turned up the contrast until the above image came out. Unrealistic photo? Absolutely. Artsy-fartsy? You bet your ass. But a good shot. Heck yes.

Guitar Hero 6 Guitar: I always liked this shot because of how clean it is. The guitar itself is nothing special, nor is the fountain it's leaning on, but I stepped back and used a zoom lens and the image just came out as clear and crisp as could be.

Alienware M11xR2: This was really the first product that I took seriously for product shots. Before the M11xR2, which I reviewed for Gizmodo, I took more general shots which weren't artistic in any way. They showed off the product plainly. When Giz said they'd publish the review, I knew I needed to step up my game, so I went around looking for a good way and place to shoot. I sent them all of my shots, but here are the best four.

The above shot is taken on a glass table where the background is exceptionally out of focus. At the time, I only understood focus in the simplest way, and didn't realize that images could have focus on multiple levels. I was very fortunate for these shots, especially the above. That glass table was also falling apart, and nearly tipped over twice during shooting. The laptop of course needed to be returned, so that would have been a big no-no.

After the glass table was deemed too dangerous to continue shooting on, I scavenged and found this vase base. It worked perfectly. The blue and brown-wood colors contrast each other, and the light-black and dark-black (reflecting and non-reflecting) frame match it quite well. I also made sure to shoot with more colors in the background, which is why there are plenty of greens and even some reds, as in the flowers to the left. In the upper background is Malibu west proper.

Much like the image above, except this shot was taken using the maximum 200mm zoom lens I had, and took 15 minutes to get. At the time I was shooting with the Nikon D40x and had two lenses, one of which had a nasty gash in the glass. That distance, about 20' away, was the only way I could get the shot. A pool stood in my way.

Even though I didn't understand focus well when shooting the M11xR2, I knew I wanted only part of the keyboard in focus, which was my aim. I had to shoot at a very sharp angle to get the proper background.