Chamber Images | Blog

Girls Who Rock Benefit Concert 2011

2011-07-22T10:00:00.005-04:00

It's been a year since the last Girls Who Rock video we put together, but on June 10th, it was finally that time again for us to rock out with Cynthia Hellen and She's the First's, Tammy Tibbetts! It was a full line up that evening, with performances by Kimberly Nicole, Eddy, Nikki Jean, Nina Sky and JoJo! The event's music was provided by DJ Kiss and was emceed by Touré (Fuse). There was also stand up comedy performed by Heather Knight and Data the Robot. John Wanda, co-founder of Arlington Academy of Hope, also took to the stage to deliver a special message to all of the supporters that night. Check out the video of this memorable event.

The goal of the event was to fund at least $20,000 to sponsor girls’ education at the Arlington Academy of Hope, where primary school education is $360 a year, and then students continue secondary school education nearby for $1,000 a year. AAH’s vision is to transform villages in rural Uganda into vibrant, self-sustaining communities through quality education and healthcare.

As usual, we had a great time working with Girls Who Rock and She's the First and really look forward to next years concert!

Garden of Light and Shadow Fashion Shoot

2011-02-19T01:51:00.007-05:00

This past summer, I brought together some of the most talented models and artists I've worked with for a fashion shoot in Gramercy. The theme of the shoot involved the contrast between light and shadows in a lush, beautiful garden. The models, Caaha Xaashi and Joo Young, wore beautiful garments and accessories pulled by wardrobe stylist, Carol Hong. Their hair and makeup was done by the amazing Amanda Forsyth. The location was especially picked out for it's gorgeous garden and it's bronze double doors. It will also be my future photo studio location. On that hot summer day, we put together some sizzling fashion.

Here's some behind the scenes of the shoot as it progressed.

Camera Settings: The garden photos were taken with both daylight and artificial lighting to give them a very commercial feel. I used both a canon speed light on an impact stand and an excalibur strobe with a westcott softbox. Because of the midday light, I turned down the ISO all the way to it's lowest setting and purposefully increased the amount of stops in order to control both exposure and to get every beautiful detail of the garden. The indoor photos were taken with a 1k rifa continuous light. All photos were taken with a 70-200mm Canon lens. You can see more photos on our website.

Cold Night on Canal Street

2011-01-21T18:49:00.005-05:00

Canal Street is a quick 3 minute short film I put together with actor Sean Hudock.

We initially had the idea of just walking around Chinatown and getting some pretty shots, more like a screen test than something with a narrative and a thought out visual language. But as Sean and I talked about the idea more, we got more interested in seeing what the most we could do was with the least amount of pre-production, equipment, and crew. Part of that had to do with situation in general, we didn't really have much time to plan anything. So we fleshed out a loose "plot" that basically consisted of a setup (walking around Canal street), a shift in mood and scenery (the restaurant), the only planned shot (close-up of the text message), and then a rough idea for a resolution (the CU of Sean on the phone at the end.) Otherwise, the short is more or less and example of impromptu film making and thinking about the edit as we looked for shots on the fly.

We constructed the ideas as we went, finding interesting spots as the night went on, and we overshot, getting more footage than I thought would be needed in the edit. Basically, we had a rough idea of the story we were trying to create, but I knew I was going to lock down the plot in editing, so we shot different interpretations of our loose storyline and hypothetical routes the narrative could take. I also took a lot of shots of things that I thought could be useful later in building up a system of symbols that could add depth and structure to the story--raw material for shaping context.

Camera Settings:

This was shot starting at around 8PM on a cold January night. It was roughly about 4 hours of shooting, including a sit down dinner that we integrated into the storyline. All the lighting is ambient, meaning it was just myself, Sean, and a 5D MKII on a tripod with no additional lighting equipment. Other than one shot, the entire piece was shot on a Canon 50mm F1.2 L-series prime. The CU of the text message was on a Canon 100mm F2.8 Macro. My intention was to keep the ISO low to control the noise and minimize grain. All the outdoor shots were ISO 320, and some of the indoor shots went up to ISO 1250. I wanted to keep my options open when it came to how dark the blacks were going to be, so I had the style setting at Standard, but with sharpness and contrast all the way down. I dropped saturation down a bit as well, but not too much because I didn't want to have to spend a lot of time later fixing flesh tones and trying to figure out the "correct" color of things.

Headshots: Courtney Sturm Part II

2011-01-01T06:26:00.002-05:00

Headshot of designer Rekha Krishnamurthi.

2010-12-26T19:01:00.005-05:00

Designer and entrepreneur Rekha Krishnamurthi of Divine dZigns.

The House of Light

2010-12-18T18:53:00.002-05:00

The House of Light is a music production team made up of Masud Semple, Jeremy Hassell, and Bobby Stofer.

R&B/Hip-Hop/Electro Singer O'Neal McKnight

2010-12-18T18:15:00.003-05:00

Some photos from our shoots with R&B/Hip-Hop/Electro singer and celebrity stylist O'Neal McKnight.

Who.A.U SoHo Store Grand Opening Party

2010-12-15T15:09:00.002-05:00

On December 3rd, Chamber Images was hired to cover a second party for Who.A.U, the Korean based, California-styled clothing store. The grand opening party for Who.A.U's SoHo Store was a RSVP-Only event complete with a red carpet treatment, a step and repeat, Who.A.U models and the California Grizzly Bear, the Who.A.U Mascot. DJ Kalkutta was there spinning and had all the shoppers dancing the whole night through. Those who RSVP'ed were treated with step and repeat photographs with the Who.A.U models and mascot, free food and drinks, and if they shopped around long enough, a special appearance by MTV Jersey Shore reality tv stars, Ronnie and Sammi. Everyone that stuck around were able to take photos with the two and received autographs from them at the end of the event.

It was the first time we've brought on a 3rd shooter to help take care of the step and repeat, while Chris and I took care of capturing coverage of the whole event. I would have to say, it went incredibly smoothly and it was an enjoyable experience. Check it out!

Here are some photos of the event:

If you were at the event and haven't seen your photos yet, check them out on WHO.A.U's facebook fan page album!

Camera settings: The step and repeat photos were taken by our assistant Rey, with a Nikon D200, using a shoot through umbrella and an Alien Bee. They were taken around f/8 and at about 1/100 shutter speed at 800 ISO. The video and other photos were taken with Canon 5D Mark II's. Despite how well lit the store was, I had to keep the aperture wide open for video and slow down the shutter so I could take ambient photos. It was too much trouble to use a speed light while I was switching between photos and shooting video as well. I used the quick camera settings (C1) to switch between shooting and capturing footage. It turned out to be useful for that situation.

How to Run like a Stand-up Comedian

2010-12-15T06:12:00.003-05:00

You can learn a thing or two from stand-up comedian and marathon runner Liz Miele about what it takes to be a hardcore endurance athlete. Check out this "interview" we shot with her!

Check out her website and Facebook fan page!

How to Make a Steadicam with a Chicken

2010-12-09T06:01:00.009-05:00

Awhile back a video came out showing that chickens have steadicams for heads:

In case you're wondering, the reason the chicken is able to do this is because of what's known as the Vestibulo-ocular reflex. Humans have this too, only it just doesn't look as funny.

YouTube user destinws2 actually went ahead and turned a chicken into a steadicam.

Living things as camera equipment? I'd love to show up to a shoot with that thing.

Anyway though, it's not nearly as creepy as these pinhole cameras made out of human skulls!

This one is a 150 year-old skull of a 13 year old girl:

And this bad boy is made out of silver, gold, mercury, gem stones and a blessed Tibetan monk skull! Talk about hardcore.

I'm thinking we should stick to metal and plastic.

Wedding: Nicole + Andrew Chan

2010-12-05T14:50:00.003-05:00

Some shots from Nicole and Andrew Chan's wedding! They flew me out to LA and we took some awesome shots out at Crystal Cove!

And here are a few more shots from their collection:

Liz Miele: Stand-up Comedian/Marathon Runner

2010-12-02T19:31:00.007-05:00

Check out Liz Miele's website!

Autumn Hawk New York Winter Collection

2010-12-01T18:02:00.002-05:00

Last month, we had the pleasure of compiling a catalog for Autumn Hawk New York's amazing winter collection of tops, dresses and accessories. From a small town in Massachusetts, Autumn Hawk started her professional career as a model but her passion for designing has brought her to where she is today. What makes her line different, is that the garments are made upon order, which makes the client a real V.I.P since they can make any special request for the garment they choose and they'll know it was tailored just for them. We were fortunate to have the modelling skills of both Autumn Hawk and her model, Kayla. It made the shoot extremely easy going and enjoyable. We were also lucky to have Cheyenne Hawk's wonderful hair and makeup and of course Mama Hawk's insight and conversation, she's a joy to be around! Autumn knew exactly what she wanted which made it simple to get the best shots, not to mention the outfits photograph superbly.

But don't take my word for it, see for yourself! http://www.autumnhawknewyork.com

Camera Settings: The following photos were taken with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens. We kept the shutter speed at 1/160 and the aperture was around f/9 for the majority of the shoot. We were shooting at half power on our Excalibur 3200 in a soft-box. We used 2 4-bank kinoflo's in the background to minimize the amount a shadows showing up on the backdrop sheet.

Dining at Tolani Wine Restaurant

2010-11-16T18:40:00.000-05:00

Last month, I kept busy by double booking some of my days. Chris and I started our day with capturing some footage for SHAPE magazine and Donna Kim, this time at Stuart Weitzman's Madison Avenue store. But after the review, I had to grab my bag and run through the rain with my assistant for the night, Rey, to hustle up to the Upper West Side for the opening of Tolani, a new wine restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. Josie Zohny of WeRoqq PR was there to greet us in from the rain and we were honored to be some of the first to taste the food on Tolani's menu. I think a general consensus between the group agree, you must try their meatball! They have many delectable dishes on their menu and of course, great vino (wine).

Here are some photos from their Opening Night.

To check out the rest of the photos from the night, visit their gallery or their facebook fan page album!

Camera settings: It was pretty dark, limited to candle light and dim lighting so I had my aperture wide open and ISO turned way up. I went as slow as possible with my shutter speed without causing a blurry shake effect since all my shots were not locked down. I used a combination of a f/1.2 50mm prime and a f/1.4 24mm prime for wider shots. I knew I would need all the stops I could get before I even got there (past experiences) and I was right. The down side of the aperture wide open was the extremely shallow depth of field. I would've preferred some of the shots to be much flatter without sacrificing angle or distance. I had a speed light on hand, but it really took away from the beauty the ambient lighting was providing. The only thing that could've improved the shots were longer exposures but things were happening quickly and the place was packed so to lock down the camera would've been out of the question.

Photos: MLS Playoffs - New York Red Bulls vs. San Jose Earthquake

2010-11-11T02:18:00.001-05:00

In the most disappointing fashion, the Red Bulls fell to the San Jose Earthquake 3-1 (3-2 aggregate goals). There will be no "star" over the teams shield this year, but there is always next year. Well, for most of the Red Bulls players. As for the team captain, Juan Pablo Angel, it was all that was left to accomplish. One last chance at glory, after two years ago, he was 90 minutes away from being a champion, in the most unlikely fashion too. But it was not meant to be...

Things were looking up going into this game, with RBNY leading 1-0 after the first game of a two leg playoff. But from the beginning it seemed like this was not meant to be. 6 minutes in, San Jose leveled the playing field. The Earthquake then went up a goal later in the second half. But just as all hope seemed lost, it finally happened. Finding a cross from Juan Agudelo, the 17 year old looking to replace the captain up top after this season and filling in for an injured Thierry Henry, Angel buries his first goal of the playoffs to break his scoreless streak and brought the crowd to its feet for the very last time of his tenure as captain. It was truly a magical moment, while for the minute it happened, it seemed like our captain wouldn't allow his team to go quietly, despite his future being in question. He made the stadium shake like it's never shook before. The nervously, quiet stadium awoke in jubilation and the Red Bulls had life.

Sadly, the new life literally lasted 3 minutes before the Earthquake struck back. But I'd rather not think about that, because the moment 3 minutes prior was so special. Angel went out like a champion. His team, not being unlike themselves, could not back up the message he was trying to send. But being the great leader he was, he'd never point a finger, place blame on his teammates or blame his coach for late substitutions. He takes it all in stride and leaves with his chin held high, grateful, not bitter. That, if nothing else, should garner some respect. So to Juan Pablo Angel, a truly great example of what a captain should be. A class act, a leader, and most of all, a winner. We thank you.

OH MY JOSH Music Video Release at Splash Bar

2010-11-06T13:13:00.009-04:00

I'm still reeling from last night. I went to two birthday parties at bars, one of which was for our good friend Donna Kim of POSHGLAM who just turned 23 (woohoo!), before I finally made it to Splash Bar for the release of Oh My Josh debut music video "Out My Face (wah wah wah)" (Produced by Joshuah Michael & Chamber Images; Directed by Andrew Makadsi). There was lots of great music, drinks, a live performance by Oh My Josh and of course, the music video premiere to the public. We were wowed by Josh's performance, he has great stage presence and really knew how to work the crowd. It was night filled with fire, confetti and lots of buff male dancers. Sorry, there aren't any stills to go with this story but we were guests of honor that night and left our cameras at home. I know you're anxious to witness what I'm talking about, but it's an experience well worth having in person. You may even get felt up by an inebriated club-goer or two before the nights over! No, but seriously, check it out sometime.

Well, here it is, what you have all been waiting for. The first of many music videos for Oh My Josh and Chamber Images!

Unit Stills: The Drums - Forever and Ever Amen

2010-11-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

Some behind the scenes photos I took during the filming of The Drums' music video "Forever and Ever Amen" -C

Unit Stills: Freelance Whales - Hannah

2010-11-04T23:34:00.001-04:00

Check out these unit stills I shot recently during the filming of Freelance Whales' music video "Hannah" -C

Photos: New York Red Bulls vs. NE Revolution

2010-11-01T15:17:00.009-04:00

In epic fashion, the New York Red Bulls finished the regular season as the first place team in the East in the last game of the season. It was a tense game with a lot of physicality, but once Dane Richards hit the game winning goal from that spot he's shot and scored from many times this season, we knew we had it. We really just had to be sure in order to start celebrating though, and that's when Joel Lindpere came through as he's done all season, scoring the last goal to put the nail in the coffin. It seems fitting that the one who scored to open the stadium and start the regular season, would also get the last. The Red Bulls are already one leg deep into the playoffs leading 1-0 thanks to Lindpere as well, so here's to the beast from the east as he continues to be the teams MVP this season.

Let's also take this moment to also reflect on one of the best Metro captains we've ever had, as Juan Pablo Angel finishes his last regular season in a Red Bull uniform.

I'd now like to take you back to the good old days (2007 for everyone else), Angel's first season as a Red Bull.

Finally, here are some photos from the last game of the season.

When You Have Robots, You Don't Need Photoshop

2010-10-28T14:30:00.000-04:00

With all the recent controversy over Rachel Leigh Cook speaking out against the manipulation of images, I was surprised to find this recent video of an extremely realistic robot:

As a former 3D animator, I can tell you that there is an immense amount of science involved in trying to recreate human movement and facial expression. I remember studying how to animate eye saccades to make more realistic facial animation, learning about the structure of facial muscle and how it produces facial expressions, and a few things about the science of facial expression recognition. From that perspective I can really appreciate the work that went into making this robot move and express more realistically while effectively (at least I think so) overcoming the Uncanny Valley problem.

But from the point of view of an image maker, it got me thinking about what kind of media controversies the future might hold. Will models ever have to compete against robots like this? What happens when you have mannequins that can move and walks realistically? How will that affect the commercial industry? How will that affect our perception of attractive body image? Will Elite, Ford and Wilhelmina have robot divisions in the future?

I know it sounds crazy (and incredibly nerdy), but consider how much science and technology already goes into making people look pretty. That's not even getting into things like makeup, surgery, dieting, and all the other ways in which tech and the body come together in front of a camera.

But the robot invasion probably isn't going to happen any time soon. In the meantime, I'll settle for good old fashion computer graphics when it comes to distorting my perception of reality.

Time Traveler Caught on Film

2010-10-28T00:58:00.000-04:00

You may have heard of it by now, there's this supposed time traveler in a Charlie Chaplin movie called "The Circus". Belfast filmmaker George Clarke, a collector of Charlie Chaplin memorabilia, made the discovery. In the movie, there seems to be a woman, though most people say it looks like a man, seemingly talking on a cell phone. Take a look at the video and make your own decisions.

I'm hesitant to believe any "time traveler" theories since it's just plain silly, but I attempted to do my best at making a still, trying some enhancing in photoshop, which is nearly impossible. Problem is, it was really old footage, taken from a distance, and the focus was on a statue of a zebra and not the subject so much. So what I have is a blurry blob of a face since the the harsh shadows of the midday sun hide a lot of detail, especially because the subject has a hat on. There is also some motion blur due to the cameras frame rate. Can't say I didn't try.

Digitally enhancing photos is no easy task either. To give you a better idea of the serious attention to detail you need and the sophisticated technical know how, watch the following video. It pretty much sums it up in a nutshell.

POSHGLAM review of Fig & Olive

2010-10-27T15:45:00.001-04:00

This month, we went to the meat packing district with Donna Kim of POSHGLAM.com to interview William Sears, manager of NYC's Fig & Olive. In the interview, he talks about a few new delicious items on their menu. Check out the interview below!

Here are some stills of their beautiful restaurant, located on 13th street between 9th Avenue and Washington Street.

Camera Settings: We shot the interview using the 24-105mm zoom at f/8, 1/50 shutter, ISO 1250 using a tripod as a monopod. We also used the 100mm macro prime for some of the food footage. We turned down the ISO for the outdoor shots and again used the 24mm zoom. All of the shots were taken with a tripod converted into a monopod or the tripod completely locked down.

American Apothecary eCommerce Launch Event

2010-10-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

This years New York Fashion Week was packed with so many things to do. We covered an event by our friends at American Apothecary on September 15th, 2010. They held a New York Fashion Week E-Commerce Launch Event at HK Lounge in New York City. Guests enjoyed the evenings complementary drink the "Placebo Mojito" courtesy of Given Liqueur, and instant take home photos in front of the Step & Repeat with friends.

Camera Settings: It was extremely dark in the HK Lounge, so without ruining the ambient of the event, we had to pump the ISO to astronomical numbers and open apertures all the way. Luckily, we had primes that open up all the way to f/1.2, and since we were shooting at 24p, the lowest we could go with shutter speed was 1/50. I'd say it came out decent for the given venue lighting. We also used the Tiffen Merlin Steadicam for a few shots and also did a few moves with a fluid head tripod converted to a monopod to get the desired effects.

Photoshop Tutorial: Halloween Digital Manipulation

2010-10-25T21:49:00.001-04:00

Just in time for Halloween, the most terrifying photoshop tutorial that isn't all that impossible to do. It comes courtesy of photoshoptutorials.ws site, an excellent photoshop tutorial site.

Here's the link: http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-manipulation/terrifying-horror-photo-manipulation.html

Check it out if you'd like to learn how to make stunningly horrific images like this:

I'll try and have mine up by Halloween. This tutorial has me inspired for a little compositing.

Rachael Leigh Cook fights Photoshop

2010-10-25T04:50:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of Edelman Public Relations

Rachael Leigh Cook, the actress known for her role in the movie "She's All That", has joined Geena Davis in a summit held in D.C. by the Creative Coalition and the Girl Scouts of America to raise awareness about the impact that airbrushed images in the media have on youth. She spoke about her experiences growing up, having her own body image issues..

“I did not grow up getting told about how manipulated the images we see of women and girls out there are, and I think it's an absolute travesty that young women are seeing what the media is feeding them.. It breaks my heart to be part of an industry and part of a machine that really pushes out these images and propagates these really terrible standards that are false.”

Recently, we put up an article of how post production in film has been getting even more advanced and doing some of the things we already do with still photographs, Unreal Future. It seems the problem they're trying to tackle just expanded into areas they're not even aware of. Cook also goes on to say,

via Wikipedia"Nothing that you see is real, even if you look at what looks like a candid photo of someone, anything can be done. It is false advertising and false advertising is a crime so why isn't this a crime? I'm just up in arms about it,” Cook added. “People need to know that there are actual lenses that are put on cameras that make people stretched out. If you saw these actors in person, you wouldn't even recognize them as the people you see on TV. It's just all a complete illusion and maybe it should be viewed as art, the way that art isn't real. The way that a picture of a rose can be beautiful, but it's not a real rose.”

Awareness is probably the best thing that can be done for the youth seeing these images, it really can't be made illegal like false advertising. While cosmetic companies, fashion magazines and workout videos benefit from these images causing a low self image in people,it's the people who ultimately decide if they'll allow the images they see change their own perception of themselves. Children are not only ones susceptible to being deceived by an altered photo. Anyone without an untrained eye could easily miss a professional retouchers handiwork.

It still comes down to the individual and if they will to allow themselves to be manipulated into changing how they perceive themselves. Awareness is important, but it's about all that can be done. Airbrushing techniques are just going to get more and more advanced and it shows no sign of stopping. It's only a bad thing if you allow it to be, because beauty is still in the eye of the beholder. After all, it's just in the name of art, right?