From where I can really see.
Today is one of those days where upon completion my initial response is to pat myself on the back for juggling so many projects and responsibilities. Bills paid (some not), invoices processed, expense reports detailed and post production begun along with a litany of other marketing, accounting and organization concerns which constitute running a business, but I find myself missing the pictures.
After two weeks on the road shooting and spending time with family I returned to start right up with long time client Cook Children’s Medical Center on a full day job and off to Houston tomorrow for HealthLeaders Magazine and yet on down/office days like these I miss my subjects and the raw energy of shooting.
From the New York Studio to the rocky mountain altitude all the way to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Medical Center I find myself experiencing great gratitude for the people who support my career.
New York was a powerfully productive trip both in the shooting and the visits. I can’t wait to share the images we produced for the Mac Group, both the crew and the models were sublime and made for an amazing shooting experience. Once our shooting wrapped I made it to see my NY support crew at the Getty Images and Spike TV offices. With both the new faces and familiar faces I left feeling recharged by what they are creating and where we are pushing my presence. The year is half over and so much to achieve.
The return to the mountains in Colorado was such a needed escape. I took my 13 month old on her first altitude hike and with her on my back and the crisp air blowing our hair it was amazing how clear my mind was above tree line. Like the mist and rain crawling across the Rocky Mountain National Forest the doom and gloom over our industry is palpable on a daily basis as we advertise for new clients and diversify our outlets in search of creative and monetary solace. Yet underneath all the rain there is so much stunning beauty filled with trails just waiting for us to walk down. Thinking of the amazing stories and lives I am blessed to visit and the endless creative outlets at my fingertips supported by the most consummate professionals left me buzzing with ideas. Hiking down the mountain with my baby girl asleep on my back I found myself charging down the trail ready to erupt over the edge.
At the half way point of 2009, and stopping to take a breath I can’t say I have created the body of work I want to remember 2009 by. Charged and challenged I step forward into the rest of this year hungry and lustful for more adventures, for more evocative imagery. I will get to the bills eventually but for now I really want to keep pushing the development of the vision up that steep climbing trail.
My accidental ode to Barbarella.
This is not generally the style of photography I shoot and yet for a test/favor I thought it would be a fun experiment. During the shoot while changing backgrounds and lights, looking for a shot, this very 60’s reminiscent image developed. Barbarella Lives On! This was another project created with students from the University of North Texas program and as always I truly enjoyed the experience. In fact there is an Senior Show at the Lakewood Theater this Saturday where all the graduating UNT seniors will have their portfolio work on display for alum and networking opportunities. I am excited to see how Juan, Carol, Becca, and Curtis are doing moments before they march out into their professions. Every collaboration with these students was a pleasure and I’m looking forward to the event and working with them in the future.
Play aside, things are busy around the studio. I recently joined the collective Wonderful Machine and already experiencing great feedback and momentum from their staff. I am also stepping out and joining the collection of photographers at Atedge and looking forward to seeing where both outlets will take me. It is time for new adventures and change is on the horizon. Tonight I am off to shoot the final party for Michael Irvin’s ”4th and Long” reality show and Sunday I fly to New York for a Mac Group project (more on this opportunity when I am allowed to talk about it). With two more Cook Children’s Medical Center shoots on the horizon and several tests on the calender I am enthusiastic about the next few months.
If your in New York and can get together for a beer shoot an email at me and lets make it happen! Looking forward to crashing the Getty assignment offices for a visit and catching up with the Eddie Adams Workshop crew for at least a couple epic nights. To the graduating seniors, Congrats! To the New York posse, see you soon.
For concepts and assignments feel free to call – 469.438.2711 or email – jensen@jensenwaker.com - jensenwalker.com
Smoke Grenandes and Gasoline
I worked most of the weekend as spring winds whipped across Dallas under crystal blue skies and glorious rays of sunshine. Cyclist rode the tour of Dallas, there was a Deep Ellum arts festival, a marathon, and Nascar was in town while I shot TCU football for Nike and started a branding project for friend and news anchor Kim Fischer. As the winds of change rolled through it was admittedly hard to focus as we prepared for our first open house, I scouted locations, went looking for smoke grenades and knew there was so much in town I would not get to photograph.
With so many balls in the air right now including three jobs this week, taxes and the ever-present stress over what is going to happen with the wife’s Air Force package it was just nice to eventually get out on Sunday and play. While it was technically work, it was one of those days where I openly proclaimed how much I love my job, “pop smoke Gavin. Harl, gasoline now… more… good! Kim, Go!” This image will eventually be part of marketing materials and a web site for Kim as she prepares to move markets and take her face national. I want to say thank you to my assistants (who needs hair on their hands anyway?) and to Kim, I love the fact that she is willing to push the concept and create more than a standard head shot.
As we head into the week make sure at some point you create art for yourself.
To concept and shoot feel free to call – 469.438.2711 or email – jensen@jensenwaker.com
4th and Long
The alarm went off yesterday at 5:00 a.m. to a day of cold, wind and pouring rain. While getting ready I kept hoping for the call of a shoot postponement, it never came. Layered down, we loaded the gear in the rain and headed to the Cotton Bowl in preparation for our shoot for SPIKE TV’s new reality show “4th and Long.” The shoot was actually a fairly quick one and we produced some nice images of the contestants and Hall of Fame honoree Michael Irvin. The film crew will be here in Dallas for the next 5 weeks and the contestants will be living in the locker rooms of the stadium as they compete for a spot on the Dallas Cowboy spring training roster. The contestants were a really nice group of guys from around the country and seemed pumped up if not a little deer in the headlights at the opportunity laid at their feet. I am looking forward to working with the team again this Sunday as they start shooting their episodic, should be fun and lets hope the weather clears up a bit.
This shot is from my good friend Tom Pennington whom I first met at the Eddie Adams Workshop when we were students back in 1998. Thank you again Tom, it was great to see you.
Slugpuppies
Here we are back to my ongoing practice with airborne paint sculptures. I spent all of Sunday in a dusty, filthy, awesome abandon facility creating images for the local band The Slugpuppies and their upcoming album Emo Therapy. This project was their brain child and yet serendipitously syncs with my testing for an upcoming paint project. As with all tests though, I learned a few things.
In the last test I realized the flash duration on my Profoto Pro7B and shutter speed on my Canon 1Ds Mark II were not truly suited to the concept in mind. Then one brisk day last fall at the Eddie Adams Workshop my good friend Cliff Hausner of Profoto introduced me to the new Pro8a Air. I won’t attempt to define the specs on this new pack you can check on them for yourself. However, to give you an idea I will share this with you, at the farm we photographed a subject on a trampoline with a Nikon D3 at 11 fps at f16 and the camera buffer filled before the pack ever missed a discharge. My inner dialogue shouted “This is the pack for me,” only to discover it is an 11k investment. Thus relegated to renting for now I went out with one on Sunday. To my enraged dismay I discovered that contrary to the rental houses assurance the Pro7b head does not work on the Pro8a Air pack and so returned to 1… 2… 3. GO. One action, one spray, one shot, all said and done though we created some nice frames.
The band showed up with paint shooters, 15 gallons of paint, suit jackets, even craft services and we spent the better part of the day going for it. I think their album and promotional art will look amazing and look forward to seeing them perform in those jackets. On the back side of the test I realized I am going to have to really take a long look at the lighting style and paint deployment to make the next one sing. For now I celebrate the joy of airborne color and simultaneously realize the images lack the sense of organic subtly I want out of the final project. Till next time.
The Three Reasons
A young man on the day he is preparing to leave the Hemotology/Oncology Unit at Cook Children's Medical Center
I spent this last weekend in a padded room, two foot by 8 foot, listening to their voices over and over again. In that room I stared at the same people in the eye for over 48 hrs, never engaging them. I sat in that room alone and slightly nervous, listening and watching and ultimately finding myself in a place of illustrious gratitude.
I have a very good friend who once told me there are only three good reasons to take a job: The Creative, The Money or The Relationship. Yet, as I edited content all weekend from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, and Deep Brain Stimulation surgery of Cook Children’s Medical Center, I can’t help wondering if there is not a fourth reason, The Heart.
Initially, I started my career in photography as a high school student who loved the adrenaline of the chase, the all access pass and the totally legitimate reason to go up to the hottest girl in the room and start making her picture. Quickly, however, those reasons gave way to the desire to connect with people, to tell their story, or to capture the expression uniquely theirs, in a moment written for them.
Somehow, somewhere along the line though, I discovered I had to pay an electric bill, and as much as I hated the idea of a phone, I was going to have to pay for one of those as well. So here I am 31, married, a father and paying the electric bill. With this epochal shift come the jobs that don’t always make the portfolio or imbue me with a sense of change or impact. That being said, for every quick in and out corporate portrait, I know I get to shoot for the medical center soon.
Cook Children’s and I have worked together for almost a year and half now and we are now starting to create new avenues for the content. However, during the multimedia editing this last weekend, it was not the video, audio or even the images that captured me; it was the people looking back at me.
The patients, the nurses, the doctors, the volunteers, even the security guard, who hugs me every time he sees me, have all opened their world in a way that says: we love these kids and if you love them too… come help. Families have granted me access to areas spanning from isolation rooms, brain surgeries, and bone marrow transplants, to playing on the floor with big foam blocks in the playrooms. The gift though, is the chance to connect with the kids, the families, and the health care professionals. It is so hard to measure the value of a mother hugging me after a surgery, or a child going through chemotherapy who lavishes the room in the most unabashedly childish giggles. These are the gifts that I cherish with this client.
I spent the weekend in that editing room visiting with families and medical center staff, watching and listening to joys, fears, challenges and triumphs and I would like to say thank you to all of them for giving me a privileged glimpse into their lives; it has and continues to be my honor.
Emotional Paint
This set of images is a test for a test. The idea is to shoot a series of images where the emotional apex is punctuated by sprays, shields, splatters and arcs of paint. I wanted to make sure I could capture what was in my mind and while there is some fine tunning to be made to the process I am overall pleased with the effect.
I envision the shoot in a house prior to demolition to eliminate the mess factor and I have thoughts on dancing, arguing, kissing, and handshakes but would love to hear other ideas for emotional apexes and or locations. My call to you is this, post any and all ideas and I look forward to adding them to the shot list, thanks!