City Arts Seattle

By Brandon Hill   |  

Hey guys and gals. So I had a great time at the City Arts Song Show downtown at the Rendezvous Jewel Box. On the stage they featured folk artist Noah Gundersen, Fatal Lucciauno and the soulful balladeer Robert Deeble.

The classic theater as a 75-person limit and the performances were stripped down and unplugged. Between sets City Arts Editor-at-Large Mark Baumgarten interviewed each artist to find out what went behind the music and process. The show and interviews will be podcasted and once I have a link I’ll post it.

Read more about Seattle’s City Arts.

With Every Letter

By Brandon Hill   |  

Last month I was hired to photograph for a novel titled, With Every Letter, written by Sarah Sundin. The story involved a World War II flight nurse named Mellie. The shoot involved casting the right girl to play this Filipino character.

But even more difficult was finding an extremely rare flight nurse uniform that was worn at the very beginning of the war. The client needed every detail correct so the search went on for a while. Finally, we were able to reach the wardrobe supply store in Hollywood that provided uniforms for films such as Pearl Harbor. They had ONE uniform that fit this description. One. That’s how brief this was worn during the war.

Prior to the shoot, I was fortunate to hire Cristy Carner to provide fantastic hairstyling that matched the time and character description. Amy Hill finished her off with some amazing make-up. Once the details were in place the shoot was fairly direct. (All of those details makes a photographer look better at his job.) I lit her with two strobes, one through a softbox camera left and another bare behind her. I didn’t want a highly-intense lighting situation but enough to make her stand out and be versatile for the cover use. This portrait was my favorite out of the session.  I wanted a calm state of mind that showed determination and subtle anticipation.


The final cover design was completed by the skilled, Chris Gilbert at Studio Gearbox. As you can see below, this historical sketch was one of two references we had of how the uniform looked. And special thanks goes to Pat Odriscoll at Eastern Costume who was a huge help and a welcomed historical educator for this process. You can preorder the book on Amazon.

Elver turns 90

By Brandon Hill   |  

My grandfather, Elver just turned 90, and I’m very proud of him.

Elver  just visited Seattle this weekend so my family and I were able to celebrate this landmark year for him. I knew I wanted to capture his portrait.

I don’t remember a time when Grandpa Elver wasn’t in my life; he and my grandmother visited often from their Montana home. To me, he has the the gift of eternal youth because he’s just never changed while I just continue to get older.

As a child, he was different than my nurturing parents who were teachers for a living. He worked at a paper mill and was a farmer & mechanic in his off-time. I viewed him as rough and tough around the edges. If we were cotton he was worn leather. But it was always clear he loved spending time with us. We’ve played countless games of cards with him, and his enjoyment of making friendly-yet-consistent jokes at our expense never gets tiresome. His course, raspy laugh that is like no one else, and it always will proceed these one-liners. And we’ve always been able to joke back at him and he never minded. He’s never seemed to mind a lot of things and that has subtly taught me to not sweat the small stuff.

In 2010, I was honored but saddened to be with him during the passing of his wife, my grandmother Bonnie whom we loved. At her memorial my wife and I saw in his eyes the depth of love and commitment that a 60-year marriage brings. Through my tears, it made me so proud to know him and to be connected to him by blood. This mourning experience burrowed maturity in me and I came to closer gripes with my childhood being in my past. Yet this example of what life-long committment looks like soothed the loss.

Photographing Elver

Out of the portrait session it was pretty difficult to narrow down to one, (I’ve found this can happen a lot when you photograph someone personally close.) In one portrait I wanted to capture Elver’s smile through his age and wisdom. In the second I wanted to present his subtle curiosity and whimsy. He was an extremely subject to photograph.

And speaking of maturing, I feel that it’s appropriate that I’ve been in the midst of maturing as a photographer and now my grandfather is part of that process.

So I hope through my writing or photography, you have a closer picture of Elver; who he is and continues to be. And if you want to call him your Grandfather too, I’m sure he won’t mind.


Photography: Brandon Hill

The Great Outdoors

By Brandon Hill   |  

I can safely say that Washington is a beautiful state. As a recent transient from the Midwest (through raised in Idaho), I’m still getting used to the tall trees, year-round green, and Mt. Rainer staring back. This city’s landscape and backdrop just brings the outdoorsman out in everyone, and people just seem to be outside a lot more. It also creates an outdoor photographer itch that I’ve never had before. I’m far from the perfect professionals I know who take amazing outdoor work, but it’s allowed photography to take a new shade of hobby for me. Outdoor shooting makes me more patient, calm and gear-free. It’s freeing knowing I’m only shooting for myself, not my client, or even my portfolio (which is partly for myself but partly my business).

Recently I was able to spend a weekend south of Seattle near Yelm, Washington. The spot I stayed in had no wifi or cell service, which was freeing in a new, strange way as well. With my iPhone in-hand at all times, my temptation is to shoot and share, perfect later. But when I merely had a camera and the great outdoors (and no connection), i just went out to shoot.

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My glasses collect…

By Brandon Hill   |  


My unintentional eyeglasses collection keeps growing. (I have more in drawers). I don’t even have that bad of vision, does anyone else have this problem? My wife wants me to retire one or two.  But now the world of Warby Parker glasses has entered the race.  They’re a lot like Toms only for specs.  This could be a wire-framed nightmare.  What to do, what do do…

Speaking of Warby Parkers, here’s my brother with his new pair.  100 bucks and he was able to have options shipped to him.

Sledding in Seattle

By Brandon Hill   |  

We’re having a tropical heatwave in Seattle– no wait, it’s a snowpocolpyse that these parts haven’t seen since the 1940s.  My wife and I moved away from the Midwest to avoid seasons like this and our first winter in Seattle has struck like a mighty force.  Oh well, we decided to do some street sledding with Buster and my brother, Tyler. Meanwhile, the entire city is shutdown and productivity is at an all-time low.  Drive (and sled) safe Seattlites.




Me and my mighty mascot.

Sheila Houston’s Journey

By Brandon Hill   |  

 

SHEILA HOUSTON WAS 16 YEARS old when she began working as a prostitute. She was newly married with a baby, and her pimp was her husband. “If you really love me, this is what you’d do for us to make it,” he told her. His request didn’t seem right, but she did it anyway because she thought she loved him. And even though she took the baby and ran not long after, she spent 11 years in what she now calls “the life.” Years later, instead of burying her past, she shares it freely with the young sex workers she counsels as the director of outreach services for New Horizons Ministry. She hasn’t left the streets, but she has left the life. –Matthew Halverson, Seattle Met


Last month, Seattle Met Magazine assigned me to take a portrait of a very bold and strong woman, Sheila Houston. Seattle has the second-highest rate of human sex-trafficking in the nation. Sheila is leading the charge against this epidemic as she works at New Horizons Ministries. She comes with experience and empathetic understanding for these young victims that she works closely with as well as on the street for extremely young girls working as prostitutes. She’s recently been featured on CNN discussing the work that is being done at New Horizons.

For Shelia’s portrait I worked closely with Seattle Met’s creative director, Andre´ Mora. We knew we wanted to present her in a very simple environment and discussed having her swallowed by darkness. Andre´ had noticed my work on a previous portrait series for a 2009 Haiti art show I shot for and desired a similar mood. We wanted the highlights of the portrait to essentially be a metaphorical light in the darkness. I lit with a single strobe far camera-right shooting through a large soft box. Her clothes and hair and skin already had a nice cohesive tone so very little color adjusted was needed in post production.

The first thing you do is listen. A lot of people like to talk at these girls instead of listening to them. But they’re happy when someone just listens to them. Because everyone takes advantage of them already. –Sheila Houston

Success is getting to see a girl again. That means she didn’t die.–Sheila Houston

If you’re interested in Sheila and more about her work, I’d urge you to check out the article online or pick up the January issue of Seattle Met if you’re Washington resident.

Perseverance

By Brandon Hill   |  

If we’re not upfront with our convictions as people, how can we be honest as artists?

I’ve wanted to blog about this photo illustration for a while now. It’s titled, Perseverance. The hope is that the image and its title says it all. But in case you’re wondering, the narrative is about cutting through a barren desert. Metaphorically it represents a few things; survival through life’s trials, defining your artistic core, and a little dose of “the journey is the destination”. To prepare for it, I worked with painter and climber, Jeremy Collins, (also is featured in the piece at the front of the boat). Much of his life’s journey has existed with his friend David, the writer. So it’s a personal piece about their creative collaboration and friendship. It reflects the absolute necessity to persevere in their convictions, as artists and as people. We also really wanted it to be a dried up desert rather than an ocean, so the feeling of isolation and odyssey was heavy. Some of objects of significance included: Jeremy’s paintbrushes, David’s Louis L’Amour books, a typewriter, an old globe, climbing gear, cameras and suitcases.

No boat? No problem. The shoot must go on.

To prep for the shoot we put them into old world wardrobe, and rubbed dirt all over their faces. The only prop we couldn’t land in time — was the boat. Fortunately, I knew if we got everything in place, I could work the boat in during post production. We would have loved to shoot on-location but it wasn’t in the cards. So with boards we built an endoskeleton of the boat with all of the props, and shot in-studio.

Watch the shoot setup and post-production process in this video below.

Watch the video Full Screen

Yes indeed, the final output took countless hours in Photoshop. This piece that has pushed me to my limits in post-production. Ultimately what helped me the most was:

a) Photographing with the perspective in mind prior to the photoshoot
b) Photographing as many props as I could since I knew the motion of objects flying and force was critical.
c) Making sure I got the intensity we needed from the subjects. If it didn’t say it in their faces, the final piece would never hold up emotively.

Even without the environment surrounding us, we worked through the narrative emotively and the process was extremely fun. These extremely creative guys were using their imagination to highest degree and they saw their surroundings in their minds.

After the boat portion of the shoot I decided to take some individual portraits. They did a phenomenal job of keeping that intensity alive. They really didn’t need any direction at all by this point, and to this day they’re two of my favorite portraits I’ve photographed. All in all it helps to photograph people with imaginations and creativity like theirs.

Historical Fiction Duo

By Brandon Hill   |  

Photography can be historical! Or at least historical in nature. Often I’m hired to produce period portraits for book covers and here are two recent completed shoots. These were both different genres of books for different publishers but both involved a heroine. One was set in the 1800s in the pacific northwest, and the other in the victorian age. Typically we always shoot in the studio for these but I was able to mix it up and shoot outdoors for a more natural look option. I worked with a great dress designer, Christine Hall who designed both looks, alongside my wardrobe stylist, Jenna Huffman. For the victorian shoot I was happy to involve Seattle makeup artist, Amy Hill and hair stylist, Cristy Carner who literally transformed our model into a character from that era.

Click to view the wider large version

Some Behind-the-scenes

Good look for her, huh? This opened up my mind to completely new possibilities.

Amy is a make-up master.

Our Willy Wonka has Passed

By Brandon Hill   |  

There isn’t much to be said that hasn’t already been written about regarding Mr. Steve Jobs’ passing. For the most part it’s just weird, sad, and a total bummer to lose a visionary guy at the young age of 56. I feel like I lost an uncle I never got to actually meet.

And I can accept that the mythology may outweigh the reality of this man, (especially on the outset of his death) but in that it’s evident that he’s brought creativity, leadership and vision to us through Apple and Pixar. If there’s any inspiration I can gather from this complicated guy, is how much one can accomplish in a short lifetime.

I first was drawn to the Macintosh world when it felt like the supreme underdog. (No, it wasn’t when I was a kid and played with an Apple II. I’m not that cool.) It started my college years around 1998 when I started studying graphic design. Until then I had only used DOS or Windows but I had professors in music and art who loved the Mac, even though they said they were worried Apple might not be around in a few years. So there was something about being the underdog that drew me in much more; maybe I identified with it like the other right-brainers. I liked that at that time, other students thought of us art majors as bizarre and peculiar for proclaiming Mac-allegiance. We all dug it.

After that I went to grad school and was of course surrounded by this niche club, and many of us had bought the new “iPod”. I remember people at the airport asking me what it was constantly. That’s really where that magic set in for me; holding something that wasn’t like any other product I had owned in design and functionality. If you asked my brother he could still tell you how protective I was of that 10 gig pod. The Mac allegiance only grew naturally, and really there wasn’t any reason to use anything but Apple.

Currently I’m finding the niche club has grown so large that the one of the things that kept me still content is that our visionary leader from the beginning was still running things. *It’s amazing how quickly someone who uses Mac can sound like a cult-member. Much has been written about this and Jobs’ ability to bring emotional following to his company; whether it’s in the past or during the height of its popularity and success.

I’m now reminded all over my house of the things Steve and his team invented. On one hand I really don’t wish for the legacy of Steve Jobs to cause worship of him as a person; I doubt he would like that at all. But if his legacy inspires people to create and persevere, then repeat — I’m all for it. Apple will continue, it won’t be the same, and I wish someone could fill his shoes. But I guess deep down, I wouldn’t want anyone to.

–The photo above is easily my favorite portrait of Jobs by photographer, Marco Grob.

Memories with Mac

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

-Steve Jobs

Grant Wish Album Shoot

By Brandon Hill   |  

Recently I shot the album photography for hip-hop artist, Grant Wish. Grant is a New Orleans-based musician who’s personal claim is “the studio is the couch, the mic is the therapist”. HypeLife Brands contracted the work to help create a narrative of his music visually; with each panel representing a track from the album.

While shooting, we had a good amount of wardrobe changes and each panel was planned almost like a hip-hop comic strip. Even though there was a tight plan, Grant was intuitive and creative on the fly. We listened to the tracks during the shoot too keep mood flowing. Grant and Curt Cuscino from Hypelife were fantastic to work with and we accomplished a lot in a day. And check out Grant Wish’s album online iTunes or Spotify.

Artist: Grant Wish
Client: Hypelife Brands
Art Director: Curt Cuscino
Assistant: Jon Lemmon

From KC to Seattle

By Brandon Hill   |  

Moving is tough, it takes time, money and encouragement from friends and loved ones. Once the packing, consolidating and even selling of a few items was complete, my wife Kristin and I got to the fun part of the journey, the drive. It was by far the most pleasing roadtrip I think I’ve been on. We trucked our packed Outback XT through Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and then finally Washington. I tend to forget how beautiful the US is. Being urbanites has allowed us to forget about things like grass, mountains, big sky, and just space.

Naturally, I had my camera nearby in and found some good spots to pull over. Our move to Seattle has been in the process for quite some time. We’re sad to say goodbye to our fantastic Kansas City friends and the incredible barbeque that comes with that. But we’re thrilled to see what’s ahead in the Pacific Northwest.



Stuck in a Box!

By Brandon Hill   |  

Guilty as charged. I too have a problem and possible addiction. An addition to my smartphone and what comes with it, the connectivity, the seeking and finding of information, emails, and conversation that is possible in the tiny thing. It’s our device that connects us into the world but it doesn’t have to work hard to distract us from that same world that’s surrounding us. This is where the concept came from on this advertising shoot. The client’s target wasn’t solely “the phone” but also the temptation to isolate ourselves without truly seeking real connection to the beauty around us.

For preparing for the shoot I sought after a location, and time to shoot. I wanted the glow to blanket the model. I tried shooting from various point-of-views. Some of it I shot from a ladder, some from below. I wasn’t sure how to tell this narrative in one grand gesture the best, but I found a distance from straight-on that worked and still gave me the isolation I needed. Then afterwards I developed it more in post-production.

This was another vantage point I used, and the other prop we utilized was a book. But this said more “easy-going relaxed day at the park with my book” + box. The model was also facing the sun and that was a problem for the narrative. Usually, in illustration and narrative photography the back of a subject extremely mysterious and anonymously effective. But in this case I didn’t want the person to be facing the beauty, but turned away from it.

Pictured above is an alternate location we found. I thought maybe being surrounded by the beauty of trees would also have this effect but it proved to complex.

Client/AD: Acton Institute / Mark Russell
Model: Jenna Fugate
Assistant: Emily Rosner

The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club

By Brandon Hill   |  

Do you all like quilts? How about quilt clubs? Well if you know anything, you probably know more than me. This photo project for a book cover photo for fiction title about a group of people from all walks of life coming together in a community class. You could say it’s like “The Breakfast Club” meets Amish quilting.


The job was 7 characters, one cover. Vertical. A pretty daunting task from the outset, but fortunately the publisher had faith we could pull it off.

So much of the prep was casting, since each model represented a specific character in the book, from age, gender, ethnicity and style. My wardrobe stylist, Jenna Huffman did a fantastic job working with me and the project so we could have a nice random, yet coherent look.

The central character of the book is “Emma Yoder”, the Amish quilting teacher. While most of the models were from an agency, for her I cast a good friend of mine, Joyce Collins. Her spirit and personality was so much like that of the character description, it was almost alarming. “Has a way of helping them bring their problems out into the open. She is spunky and has a sense of humor, with a friendly smile. She’s very kind and understanding.” Overall, the detailed character descriptions did play into selecting the best models for the job.

The other key factor was the quilt. My client shipped the quilt they wanted to use, and at first I wasn’t sure how I could compose a photo with seven individuals and a quilt and not have it look insanely busy. But during the process I actually ended up expanding the quilt to the floor digitally. It seemed to be that bonding fabric (pun intended) for the ensemble of characters.

This sketched worked to prepare for the shoot, but it sure ain’t pretty. We needed something to give us an idea of where we wanted each character.  ”Emma” and the quilt were key, then everyone else was essentially supporting. I also shot portraits of each character separately as a backup plan just in case the group portrait didn’t work.

Great job to everyone involved who made this book cover work, including the creative director Ashley S. and the good people at Barbour Books.

Photography & Digital Compositing – Brandon Hill
Wardrobe – Jenna Huffman
Models – Hoffman Agency
Filming – Logan Garrett
Editing – Brandon Hill
Video Music – Soggy Bottom Boys

Instagram and it’s Simple Wonders

By Brandon Hill   |  

There’s no real need to go into the depths and fun of Instagram for the iPhone. There’s been a lot written about it since it’s birth on October 6, 2010. And by and large, how can you not be impressed that a 4-person company acquired a user base of 4 million in less than a year? It’s name pays homage to the Polaroid and Kodak Instamatic cameras and reformats all photos shot and uploaded into a square shape. But I find that I really don’t want it to change from this point on. I’m fearful that it will keep growing into being less niche, more broad, and add more features. So my fingers are crossed. But positively speaking, I’ll just summarize why I (currently) love Instagram:

  1. Free / it’s the most fun I’ve ever had without paying a dime and it’s my preferred social network because of it’s simplicity.

  2. Square / Art professors will tell you this is the more difficult format for composition, thus it forces everyone to compose better.

  3. iPhone Only / no, not because iPhone users need to be more exclusive, but it narrows the field and everyone’s essentially shooting with the same equipment. Because of it there’s a tighter feeling of community.

  4. Inspiration Hit / Instead of getting a hit from cocaine or meth, you can get a creative hit instantly by seeing what other people upload. As a self-employed creative, there have been many times that just viewing my feed (of fantastic shooters I follow) has given me the inspiring jolt I needed for the day.

  5. Truth / It’s been said that the best camera is the one that’s with you.  Instagram champions this notion well.

Here’s some of my iphone instagram photography.
Find me on instagram as Brandon Hill, or view my instagram profile online here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun,eh? I’ve heard some artists/photographers criticize this app and similar ones like it, but they’re usually the same people who aren’t happy about the democratizing of photography and filmmaking. To them I say keep calm and carry on. For me personally I’ve made some friends and even a some paying clients from this social app. It’s easy to criticize something before knowing the full potential of it’s arrival. But what do you think? If I spoke with a critic who had used this extensively I’d be very interested to hear that point of view. Let me know in the comments.

Feature – The Wolf and the Medallion

By Brandon Hill   |  


My friend and collaborator, Jeremy Collins has something special for his local audience. You may just want to be there. Let me first tell you a little about him to start. As a world-traveling rock climber, Jeremy illustrates for various clients and a common theme is adventure. His films and artwork are essays that tell stories from Patagonia in South America, to the Lofoton Islands in the Arctic Circle. For me, he’s either bringing humor, introspection, whimsy and definitely personality to each of his pieces. I’ve been able to collaborate with him on a previous project as well as photograph his portrait seen pictured for Urban Climber magazine.

On July 23rd he’s giving his one time Kansas City premiere live performance art piece and film titled “The Wolf & the Medallion”. The presentation has live orchestration from local composer Andy Michael, and on-stage created art. This film won “Best Film of the Fest” at the Five Point Film Festival in Carbondale, Colorado.

The story “The Wolf and the Medallion” is inspired by Collins’ personal climbing adventure to the border of China and Mongolia, where rumors of a virgin canyon of granite led to a cultural and vertical experience like no other. After standing on the summit of a new climb, Jeremy wrote a letter to his son back in the States that has become the script to the film. The performance is a journey of fatherhood, brotherhood, and a life of adventure. The film concludes with 10 pieces of advice for his son, which are in turn pointed to the audience as an artists recipe for a fulfilled life.

I’m really excited to see Jeremy take on new media and live performance because I don’t know what to expect. His style is one-of-a-kind and as an illustrative photographer, I’m inspired to continue to refine mine just has he has done for himself. Jeremy owns and runs the studio “ThreeHouse” in the Crossroads district with the very talented artist/animators, Kevin and Kristen Howdenshell.


Andy Michael is another whom I’ve photographed who brings additional reason to experience this film. He is the man behind the music. His work combines synth and strings in ways that to me, reflect reminders of Blade Runner and Peter and the Wolf. He hails from England and has since made Kansas City his creative home. As you can see, we had a fantastical time in our photo shoot.

Review highlights of “The Wolf and the Medallion”:

“…camera footage of the journey recedes in the wake of a dramatic and truly extraordinary cartoon dream sequence.”

James Edward Mills, usatoday.com

“Collins offers himself up as guide, inspiration and model risk-taker.”

Stewart Oksenhorn The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado

Update! Photos from the Screening by Randy Braley


Related Links:
JerCollins.com
Three-house.com
My previous work with Jeremy

Honor’s Pledge

By Brandon Hill   |  


Often in publishing there is a need for romantic, youthful period characters to glisten the cover of a book. While many of these books take place in different time periods they still seem to remind me of watching syndicated episodes of “Little House on the Prairie” after school in the 90′s. The process can be fun because even if I’m not part of the target-market of the book. In “Honor’s Pledge” the art director provides me with the story, time period and wardrobe inspiration photos or paintings. I rely heavily on my period stylist, Jenna Huffman. And I mean heavily, she’s an expert of period wardrobe, she knows the history, what things are called, sub-cultures of that era, and can usually correct anyone on the accurate name for the time period. For the most part the layman knows “Shakesperean times”,  ”colonial times”, and maybe “the time of yore”.  She tells me there are more.

While Jenna worked on researching the wardrobe, I went about finding the young hot models for the cover.  Were people considered “hot” back then?  I find this part an interesting challenge.  I need to find attractive models, easy. But through this I must look through modern portfolios to find said attractive models that would also look authentic to the time period.  For the most part I’m more interested in authenticity but the publisher knows that the book needs to have pretty people on it, which I understand.  Other considerations that we have to deal with are age, hair color, eye color, which sometimes matter to the character descriptions more than others.  My personal goal is to shoot more of these period book covers on-location outdoors rather than in the studio.  We accomplished this with the Lily book cover shoot.

Both of my models for this shoot did an excellent job of giving us various options, poses, emotions, particularly since we didn’t know exactly how the final cover would end up.  The story involved a love-lorn (is that the term?) female character who had a snarky infatuation relationship with a campy trapper.  The story subtext involves their differences and upbringing and something I viewed to be a ‘rustic romantic comedy’.

Wardrobe Stylist – Jenna Huffman
Cover design – Chris Gilbert
Published by Barbour Books

 



Book design: Chris Gilbert, Stylist: Jenna Huffman, Models: Jenna Shae and Roman Bethel.

Published by Barbour Books.

Just got myself an Outback

By Brandon Hill   |  

My wife and I have wanted to be Subaru owners for a few years because of their incredible reputation and design. We just made the leap! So naturally it deserves a quick photo shoot. This Outback Limited drives extremely smooth, has a great turbo and fantastic storage for photo equipment and any other Northwest possibilities. I’m sure we’ll be in good company when our move to Seattle happens at the conclusion of this summer.


I’m the dork inside. Anyone else out there own a Subaru?

Tasting the Big Apple

By Brandon Hill   |  

So New York is quite stunning. But you probably already knew that. I knew it was time to take a photographic journey there, and my lovely wife and I trekked out there to meet up with friends, collaborators, and celebrate our 5th year anniversary. We’re moving to Seattle this summer so we knew it was time to make a trip before we were geographically a light year away from NYC.

A lot of the experience brought me back to my days in art school in San Francisco. Specifically, Walking.  And a lot of it.  I used to have the walking muscles and energy but it hasn’t been in use as much living in Kansas City. Even though we live in downtown Kansas City, there’s of course no comparison and people don’t need or chose to walk in our town. In New York you walk out of necessity, and I’m sure it gives many their needed daily exercise that the middle of the country can so easily neglect.

To say everything in New York is big should go without saying, but what I noticed more than any other world city I’ve visited is the Big Advertising.  In my time spent in LA, London and San Francisco, I saw this too.  But in New York it takes the cake.

“The average American is exposed to 247 commercial messages each day.” (in New York City, multiple that by 3).”

The moment you walk into your cab from the airport, you’re being advertised to in the TV monitor in the backseat.  Walking down just about any street or subway reminded me of the film, Minority Report where visual advertising is catered to each individual.  I suppose it’s only a matter of time.  Times Square, which has had a recent update from the city to make it “New York Disneyland” is a visceral experience.  And a lot of the advertising is beautiful design and video, and in many regards I can appreciate as a commercial artist.  But the scope of advertising is so non-stop I found my head needing to be drained.  By the end of the day, seeing a commercial on tv in my hotel room added a twinge of pain in the brain.

We also enjoyed a nice Fourth of July in Manhattan. I gotta say, New York does it right.  From a rooftop party we viewed probably the most impressive fireworks show I’ve seen, which was repeated 4 times simultaneously for maximum viewing.

One other notable memory is walking by an open elevator shaft at the top of the Empire State Building. Yes, and naturally I had to take a photo.  As you can see, there was a guard rail, but no elevator.  Thankfully, with full use of my camera neck strap, I was able to get a shot pointing directly down.

Other checklist experiences we had included, eating authentic Italian food in Greenwich Village, shopping in Soho, looking for Tina Fey at the NBC Studios, listening to the late night music at the Blue Note, viewing my favorite Andy Warhol and Chuck Close paintings, seeing Wicked (it’s the modern day ‘Cats‘, you gotta go) and trying to start a flashmob in Grand Central Station. I failed at that one.

Professional Underground Ping-Pong

By Brandon Hill   |  

Pong-Love

Ping Pong is not the term they use, they call it Table Tennis because it sounds more legitimate. Or is it?  For the pros, I understand this because I think they realize that it may in fact be the most competitive sport in the history of the human race.

For me personally, I find it fits into the same category as bowling. I begin with great anticipation and end with severe hatred.  These are lifetime casual sports but what comes with it is this assumption, ”I should be naturally good at this. It’s so simple”.  But that assumption is clearly put to rest the moment  you miss that serve “ponged” to you, or your first gutter ball in the lanes.  Then, your opponent is instantly superior because he or she may think, “i AM naturally good at this.”  This may or may not be reality.

In summation, Wii sports has ruined it all for me.  I personally am not good at what I think I am good at.  So i wanted to capture the humor and drive of that competition in this photos.

 

These guys don’t mess around.

Let there be Summer Food (& Drink)

By Brandon Hill   |  

So you may not know this about me, but I love food. It’s a big deal, and probably a problem. My love for flavor grows while my youthful metabolism does not. And in my 31 years I’ve continued to expand my pallette. It’s just hard to control when to stop, you know, eating. So this post I will dedicate to summer food and drink I’m enjoying with friends and family. It shall be regularly updated.

Call me a food photo journalist. And when I eat something gorgeous for the tastebuds I can’t help but take a shot to freeze the moment in time. I’m sure other shooters out there have this obsession habit. Perhaps this is related to my love for the show, Top Chef.


Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

Making Mr. Spade

By Brandon Hill   |  


While the self-made, Mr. Spade has very little super powers, he doesn’t often reveal his true identity. Though, much like Clark Kent, his disguise is minimal. So I decided with this photo illustration, I’d be a little more forthright than him and reveal how I created this image.

Altogether this was created in less-planned, more haphazard way than I usually suggest for digital illustration. But that’s what personal pieces are for, so one can break out of the more tested structures, right?

For personal photography projects, I’m regularly drawn to the quirky and humorous and enjoy subjects that are off-kilter whether it’s by nature or my design. This one was a little of both.  I had recently taken a set of portraits of my friend JR, leaping in a small corporate office. He created this idea of being a bearded super hero and I dug it.  For lighting I used a single strobe through a softbox, and shot at a 1/200 shutterspeed to make sure he was frozen in the air for each shot. The costume was extremely makeshift, naturally.  A red blanket, sunglasses, and work-out pants.  Like I said, self-made.

Consequently I knew I needed some kind of background or envirornment–- this is what I’m referring to as the haphazard planning.  Whenever I create a digital composite, I would typically recommend to have your background planned or even photographed already if you can, prior to shooting your subject. I say this because it’s a lot easier to make your subject position how you need them to after the fact.  But in this case, I photographed an environment after the subject shooting. I found this great building next door that had the exact “old downtown charm” I was looking for.  The building is an abandoned Hostess factory and it has all of it’s original architecture and great fantastic details. I shot many, and overall it was vital that I photographed it at the right perspective.

So once I had the central photographic pieces together, I started the composite digitally; merging the hero with the background and making it as convincing as possible with lighting, color, and a few other tricks. After the composite I had the subject flying out from the crazy edge of the building and then I knew it needed one more prop element. What would this self-made superhero use to scare criminals from the shadows? What would be his weapon of intrigue? Something that literally did no damage to anyone, just mostly annoyed and distracted them and could only be used once before having to pick them up again.

That’s where these came in. A deck of cards is something anyone can access and for this super hero, these would become his trademark.

For the last part of the photographic part I didn’t have an assistant nearby so I had to shoot remotely and do the card-handling myself in the studio. (Always, get an assistant, it just makes your life easier) My problem is that once I get the idea in my head, and I know the execution will be a success, I stop at nothing to get it done.

Again, I knew I needed these cards crisp and rather than shoot them hanging from a string or merely holding them at different angles I quickly realized my best bet was to throw them as many times as I could to get the motion options I needed. Basically, I played 52-Card Pickup over and over with myself. I loved that some of them stuck together, created shadows on top of each other, and never flew the same way twice. (Chaos theory, right?)  I tried different throwing methods for variety. It was a long process because I never like leaving a shoot until I know I have way more than I need.

So there you have it, Mr. Spade: revealed. Special thanks to JR Caines for being a great subject and actor. Isn’t that beard marvelous?

Lily + Film

By Brandon Hill   |  

Recently I photographed a location shoot for a fiction book title, ‘Lily’. The project included model casting, wardrobe and location scouting.  The setting for this book was 1850′s steamboat era.  Fortunately, here in Kansas City I was able to locate a great location on the Missouri River that was actually an authentic port stop for steamboats, ala Mark Twain era.  I was excited to photograph on location since a lot of these book covers are shot in studio.

Additionally I pulled in a team and we filmed a book trailer for the title. There is a fantastic benefit of shooting the photography and film simultaneously during the shoot. We wanted absolute harmony with the cover and trailer. Often this is a problem when the photography and filming is farmed out to separate creative teams. Special thanks to all who were involved, you guys rule.

Creative Director /Photographer – Brandon Hill
Filming – Andy Bean
Editing – Jon Lemmon and Andy Bean
Music – Brandon Hill
Lily – Scarlette O’Shea
Wardrobe Stylist – Jenna Huffman
Cover design – David Carlson
Published by Barbour Books

Purchase the book, Lily in stores or online here.

Tilt-Shift Distractions

By Brandon Hill   |  

I have a childhood love for legos and tinkertoys, so to pass the time I can’t help but create tilt-shifts miniatures whenever I travel across the country. Some are photographed from my plane as it’s about to land, others from high building locations. Can you guess where these were taken? If so, let me know in the comments below….. View Large

 

 

Nerdbots!

By Brandon Hill   |  

This was a collaborative project with the Nerdbot team and fellow photographer, Chad Jackson. These models didn’t talk back too much but they were always working. Chad and I spent an afternoon getting the the bot in position, forming the perfect pile and shot this without strobes but hot lights. We wanted the envirornment of the Nerdbot workshop to be seen, but not take away from the main action. We had to hang our bot’s arms with fishing wire and then added additional bot pieces in post production. Each bot had it’s own personality and they have made so many it was hard to chose.

The Nerdbot staff was a ton of fun to work with, they have a passion for bots, design, narrative, and nerds.

The nerdier the bots, the better. Adopt your own Nerdbot here

 

First Date Shoot + Film

By Brandon Hill   |  

Here’s a sneak peek at last week’s shoot of five different looks for an upcoming book cover. Just think prom meets Bachelor. Special thanks to my models, Katie Taylor, Stuart Weeks, my stylist Jenna Huffman, my assistant and videographer, Logan Smith, and art director Connie Gabbert.

Katie and Stu were great models and extremely professional. Definitely hope to work with them again.

Whoops, Wrong Ocean

By Brandon Hill   |  

Who’s in love with vintage scuba gear? Everyone.
How many costume shops in the midwest carry vintage scuba gear? Zero.

At least from what I could find after a day of phone calls. So this was an opportunity to utilize the challenge of compositing and retouching using three images; (two studio shots in Kansas City, one outdoor image shot in Florida) and creating the single illustration. The scuba prop is a 6-inch-tall decorative item and when I told my model, Jason that I was going to put his head in it, he gave me a brief look of terror.

Icon City

By Brandon Hill   |  


I had the privilege of working with Delve Films on this non-profit documentary film for Icon City as a Director of Photography; including designing the lighting and shooting film and still photography. It was an incredible time getting to know the director, Nate Salciccioli, the team, and the organization. During the filming there was a few moments I had to strain to keep it together. It was shocking to see the level of depravity that was happening on in a very upscale and tourism-driven city in Oregon.

Icon City is an organization aimed to help economically-starved youth in central Oregon, through financial and creative means. Please check out the film if you’re interested as well as Delve Films. See the entire film below.

Video Stills:

Shoot Photos:



See more film projects by Delve.

Barefoot Training with Joe

By Brandon Hill   |  

Joe Smiling
It was spring and who doesn’t want to shoot outside? We have an incredible public here in Kansas City that all should visit and enjoy (and surprisingly not everyone knows about) called Loose Park. For this brochure shoot for Barefoot Training I needed a strapping young guy who was highly active and had a great smile. Themes such as renewal, energy, excitment were macro terms that the client provided. We also wanted rain with the sun so to pull off some of the shots I made sure we shot as the sun was coming down (the famous golden hour) and I supplied my own water. Drenching, tossing, splashing, you name it, we tried it just to get the water ‘action’ we needed. I shot at an extremely high shutter speed to capture it while using a 50 mm at a fairly open aperture. No strobes were needed when you have the sun.

Joe was a fantastic model to work with. For being a former Navy Seal and current arena football player, he was one of the friendliest guys I’ve met.