Chase Jarvis Blog

Help-Portrait Is A Good Thing

2009-11-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

I wrote about Jeremy Cowart's great idea for a collective "give back" holiday project earlier. Behind the scenes, Jeremy and a handful of fellow photogs have been doing some legwork. There's now a Help-Portrait site with more information and inspiration. We're all planning to help. Please consider getting involved. Tell us below that you plan on it too, and then begin to organize your efforts and/or efforts in your area now.

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The Blakes: Ramshackle Hearse [Video]

2009-11-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

This one has been a long time coming.

Today, I'm happy and proud to share with you my first foray into music videos. It's a video for The Blakes titled "Ramshackle Hearse." You may remember my love affair with the band. Ever since I put their track "Don't Bother Me" behind Chase Jarvis RAW: Advance Testing the Nikon D90, I've been enamored with their rough pop sound.

It's after midnight now, and I'm holed up in a small hotel room in L.A. Sort of in disbelief, really, that I'm actually--finally--writing this post. Reason? I concepted this music video about 18 months ago on a flight to NYC. We shot it in 2 days over 15 months ago with an amazing group of people, and then wrapped it together about 6 months ago. And we've been sitting on it for 6 months now hoping to time this post with The Blakes new record release. That day is finally here. Their new album, Souvenir, is on sale now via iTunes.

Hats off to my friends at Superfad. In addition to the honor of sharing the director's role with uber-creative Will Hyde (great collaboration) and also to my pal Rob Sanborn who originally got will and I working together, the Superfad took the lead on the digital effects for this gig. They put in talent, wisdom and huge hours. And they hit it outta the park. Dreamy to work with these guys.

Want the full story on how this sucker was made? Watch this video here... Chase Jarvis RAW: Making Ramshackle Hearse.

A few juicy bits for those of you who like backstory, after the jump...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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1. This ~~short film~~ music video was a collaborative personal project. There is no "client". There's no label. The fancy budget = 0. This was entirely funded by myself and Superfad. Why do we shoot elaborate productions like this with our own money? Cause it feels good to make stuff.

2. For the techies out there, we shot this piece on the Red ONE camera and the Phantom HD camera. Amazing pieces of machinery. Editing was done in Final Cut Pro, by the uber-editor, Josh Bodnar. Josh cut the intro titles to the Showtime series Dexter. You get the picture. The dude is awesome.

3. There are cameo appearances from a dozen or more Seattle bands. What a great community the Seattle music scene really is. We managed to pull bands together from every genre to support The Blakes. If you're a music junkie like me, look for Head Like a Kite, The Saturday Knights, Brent Amaker & The Rodeo, Natalie Portman Shaved Head, Disjointed Isotopes, Hazelwood Motel, and more.

4. We're chatting with MTV and some of the music channels, so you might see it in the mainstream loop. But you might not. I love the web. And this sucker feels right online. More TK.

5. I learned a TON on this project. Knowing how much I learned and knowing my love for music AND video, I'm already looking forward to doing some more of this.

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Podcastius Maximus

2009-11-02T08:58:00.000-08:00

I've had the good fortune of being invited to join distinguished hosts on a handful of photo industry podcasts recently. Here are a few links if you might be interested in hearing us yap. Many thanks to the gracious podcasters below.

Photo Focus
Listen to the podcast here.

This Week In Photography (TWIP)
Listen to the Podcast here.

Typical Shutterbug
Listen to the podcast here.

Camera Dojo
Listen to the Podcast here.

MACiLife/KZYK Radio
Listen to the podcast here.

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Chase Jarvis TECH: Strobed Photo Sequences

2009-10-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Of all the behind the scenes stuff we've showed in recent vids, the one techie thing that far-and-away led to the most questions from readers was the part in this video where I'm photographing X Games uber-skiers Simon Dumont, Colby James West, TJ Shiller, Peter Olenick, and Nick Heine in New Zealand using strobes at 8 frames per second. That's right. Rail slides and 100 foot airs. 8 frames per second. Strobed.

I know why you had questions.

To be honest, I too didn't think it was possible to shoot any pack at 8 fps for 40 or so frames straight, covering more than 100 feet of distance without frying something or something whimpering out. ...Which is why I tested the concept a number of ways before the shoot. The above video briefly chronicles those tests, the actual shoot, and the cool results.

More images, 2 lighting diagrams, a full gear list, and a couple more tech points after the jump...[click the 'continue reading' link below]

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Using this idea, we got results like this:

From the diagram below, you'll see that we've got one Broncolor Scoro A4s pack run off a Honda 3k generator. I've moved the heads so they're each front-lighting the rider. My VALs (voice activated light-stands...ie humans! - thx McNally for that term...) are in place and are pointing the Broncolor Unilite heads with Par reflectors at the subject (sorta like shooting a machine gun). The first of the two heads picks up the rider from takeoff to about mid-flight. The second head picks up the riders from about midway thru flight to landing, some 100 feet down the hill.

The other lighting diagram I sketched (below) outlines similar stuff to the one above. We've again got the Broncolor Scoro A4s pack, two heads with VALs, but this time we're running one of my time-tested "sandwich" techniques... a light on each side of the subject. Here, it's Simon.

And that gave me results like this:

Unreal, eh? We actually had to remove about 8 frames during the making of this composite since there was so much overlap...

For you techie's, here's a gear list:
Nikon D3
Nikkor 14-24mm lens
Nikkor 24-70mm lens
Broncolor Scoro A4s pack
Broncolor Unilite heads
Broncolor Par Reflector
SanDisk Extreme Pro card 32GB
Pocket Wizards
Aperture (to process)
Photoshop (to make layered file)
Honda 3.0k generator

Here's a link to B&H if you want to buy stuff.

What to do if this sort of equipment is outta your budget? Try renting stuff. Experiment. Use some of that birthday money from your mom and teach yourself how to use this stuff. And here's a secret: try pickup after 3 on Friday. Rent for Saturday. Most places are closed on Sunday, return gear Monday. 3 days for the price of 1. Don't tell them I told you.

And some tech details:
_Camera set to its maximum sync at 250th of a second (fastest base sync speed for camera)
_Camera set to its highest frame rate - this case 8fps
_Camera on a tripod (for ease in compositing frames later in post production...)
_Broncolor pack output scaled to about 60% or less of full power to keep up with 8fps. Your results must vary. But you should know this is an absolutely incredible statistic. A 3200 watt-second pack at 60% (roughly 2000 w/s) at 8fps for 40 frames or more until my camera buffer was filled.
_Remember from this vid, and the vid I did last friday it's the super short flash duration that's really stopping the action - not the shutter.
_For more on the shutter/flash duration thing, check out the kissing cousin to this vid here, the Chase Jarvis TECH: High Speed Photography vid.
_We're using Photoshop to create the layered file...shooting on a tripod, laying each frame of the jump on top of the other and masking away the unwanted parts of each frame to reveal just the rider on the background...

Lastly, hope this has been informative. I hadn't intended to do a video on this, but there were so many questions about it--plus I truly didn't think this was possible--so I just had to put something together. Lemme know what you think.
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Chase Jarvis CURRENT: SanDisk Q&A FollowUp

2009-10-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

I've been on the road almost non-stop since we shot the SanDisk campaign in NZ last month, but I'd promised that there was a bit more followup to come as we wrap up post production back at the studio. In this vid, for example (in the spirit of the oldie-but-still-relevant Chase Jarvis CURRENT: 32 Questions vid) I jam through a selection of about 30 questions I'd been asked via the online channels, from creative direction to shoot concept to tech specs to gear.

And a heads up. At your request, I'll be sprinkling in just couple more vids from NZ in the next couple weeks--at least a TECH about lighting and another RAW.

Lastly, lemme know what you think of this loose Q&A video format. If it sucks, tell me. If it you're able to tolerate me yammering on, I could streamline this video work on my end of things (add it to my podcast too), answer a heck of a lot more questions than I'm currently able to via email, and it would add a layer of discourse that's currently not there. Feedback please.

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Wanna Free Trip To Visit Us In Seattle?

2009-10-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

First, a huge thanks to those of you who have sent me photos of yourselves with my new book "The Best Camera Is The One That's With You". It's been fun and inspiring and great to see the book in far-off places like Japan and Paris. Lots of new faces and some familiar ones.

But more than that, you've got me fired up. I just stumbled across this link on my book's Amazon.com page (directly beneath the image of the book) that allows you to "share your own customer images". What? This could be fun. I'd love to see more of these images, and I'd love a place for you to see them...so call me crazy, but I thought we'd pull together a little game.

First, here's what you can win:
Every week from now till the end of the year (11 weeks) I'll pick my favorite photo of someone with my book, and I'll send that person a signed, limited edition print from the book. I'd love to see images of you with the book in fun, far off places or on your couch, in the Sarhara Desert, or heck, at the Apple store (on sale there too!). Think garden gnome. Anything fun/interesting. And then, at some point during the game, I'll pick one entry that's the most interesting or fun and I'll fly that person--all expenses paid, airfare, hotel, & meals--from anywhere in the world, to spend a day with us at the studio in Seattle. We'll do lunch. And probably some other fun stuff too. "Winners" announced via Twitter and Facebook.

Second, here's how you play:

[UPDATE: the rules below outline that you must post to both Amazon and Facebook. For those of you that can only post to FB because you're not an Amazon customer, don't sweat it. But keep two things in mind. 1) Don't think of this as a crazy "competition" I'll be looking at both places to find people to send prints to... If you can't post to Amazon, I'll understand and 2) this is as much as possible about having some fun over at Amazon.com... so keep that in mind. If you can post there, please do... now back to your regular programming...]

1. Buy the book if you can or want. (Amazon. B&N.)
2. Take a photo of yourself with your The Best Camera book (or a borrowed book if you can't swing one), or just the book if you're shy but extra points for people in there, and make it fun, interesting, creative, or simple.
3. Upload that image to my Amazon.com "share your own customer images" link.
4. 'Become a fan' on my Facebook fan page. And under the "wall" tab in the 'what's on your mind' window atop the page, write your name WHERE YOU'RE FROM and a url if you'd like. Click on the 'add photos' icon.

[Click 'continue reading' link below.]
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5. Based on geographic location, fun factor, interest level or anything else that catches my eye, I'll select one "signed print" winner every week from now till the end of the year and I'll announce that weekly winner on my Facebook fan page and via my Twitter.
6. And at some point during this whole mess, I'll host one person to come visit us in Seattle - all expenses paid.

It's that easy. And remember ANY CAMERA. It's not about the camera - it's about the fun pictures of you and my art book.

Enter as many times as you like. Entries should start immediately - the week has already begun.

As an aside, I've received tweets that the book has sold out from several places, but generally speaking...
_You can find the book online at Amazon, B&N, and Borders.
_You can find the book at your local bookstore.
_You can find the book at most Apple retail stores (stoked! how sweet/lucky is that!)
_And of course, if you don't find the book at a place you want to see it, request it. That always does the author some good.

And if you're liking what you're reading, I would always appreciate a rate/review of the book on Amazon. Thanks.

Please have fun with this. Spread the word. I'll love to see you getting clever with this little book (and clever with Amazon - has anybody ever done this?)

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[btw, if you're at all worried about what places like Amazon and Facebook can do with your images, then read the fine print. Would they ever use a quirky image of you with my book to "advertise" Facebook? God I'd hope so, but I'd bet my shooting finger that it would never happen in a million years. My hope is that you're not bothered by those things given the context...these are supposed to be fun snapshots of you with a quirky book ;)]

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Clean Your Room and Do the Dishes

2009-10-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or are we all a bit more creative when we have some distance between ourselves and our chaos?

Living life - be it adventure, struggle, conflict or resolution - gives us the bedrock of artistic inspiration. But if you're anything like me, actualizing that inspiration requires moments of calm.

Case in point: Just sitting here working my ass off in the studio, 10pm on a Friday night...the last few weeks have been a doozie. Crazy schedule, travel, media, Best Camera, assignments, work, deluge, family, not enough hours. Needing. Inspiration. Struggling. To come up with. Some creative inspiration for an upcoming project. Kept indulging, pushing. Longer hours. Nothing. Creatively parched.

So I went to my old college habit. The grown-up version of cleaning your room during finals before you begin to study...[click 'continue reading' link below]
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I temporarily dug outta my life's clutter. I cleaned out my inbox, cleared off my desktop, returned some voicemails, I made lists. It gave me a moment. A breath. I went for a walk in the rain, carefree for the first time in weeks. And sipped a glass of wine.

And it happened. 2 hours of calm is all it took, and whammo. Best ideas I've had in weeks.

It's often hard to see the forest through the trees, but the next time you're struggling creatively, go clean your room and do the dishes. Pay your bills and then take a walk. Get some distance from your mayhem, even if it's for an hour. I'll bet you 10 bucks you'll be better off--and more creative--because of it.

Have a great weekend. I know I will.
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Best Business Practices For Photographers, by John Harrington

2009-10-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

If chapter titles like...

_Working with Reps, Assistants, Employees, and Contractors: The Pitfalls and Benefits, or
_Transitioning to Freelance, or
_Licensing Your Work, or
_Setting Your Photographer’s Fees, or
_Releases: Model, Property, and Others

..don't get you to buy this book, perhaps my assessment of the book will:

I think Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition is essential reading for anyone even thinking about licensing an image, starting a business in photography, or dreaming of taking their photo game "pro".

Long time photographer, author, and blogger John Harrington today delivers his 2nd edition of this book in epic detail. The thought of creating this book makes my head explode because it's so loaded with details, facts, and examples. It's dry reading - but a lot of this stuff mission critical, or at least sets the stage for your understanding. John is a vocal advocate of photographer's rights. And while things in our industry are on the move, John's got a smart, conservative, and worthwhile voice for dotting your business i's and crossing your business t's. We should be thankful that he's done the work to assemble a strong reference guide. Consider thanking him and informing yourself by spending the $23 on Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition right now.

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Happy Friday: Some New Music + Fresh Visuals

2009-10-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

If you're a regular here, you'll know exactly want I mean when I say please enjoy some new SFEAD vids here on this lovely Friday, skip the next paragraph and head straight to the music.

If you've not been around for a while then you should know I'm passionate about music. And you'll want to know (or be reminded) that SFEAD stands for Song For Eating And Drinking, a project I created with my pal Michael Hebb, where we invite world class musicians to a huge dinner table in a remarkable setting, we feed them well, we encourage them to sing songs to one another, and then we record these songs--video, stills, and audio--to share them with you and the rest of the world online. It's about music, art, food and new media. See the most intimate side of some of your favorite musicians from huge bands like Pearl Jam and The Dandy Warhols and discover new music from emerging bands like Head Like a Kite, Blue Scholars, The Dutchess & The Duke and dozens more.

These tracks are from a recent SFEAD evening... above is from emerging artist the Pica Beats. Catch my stills from the recent evening, visit the SFEAD site, or after the jump catch 3 videos...Steve Turner from Mudhoney, John Roderick from The Long Winters, and Peter Holmstrom from The Dandy Warhols playing his side project Pete International Airport with Jason Adams [click the 'continue reading' link below...]

Related Posts:
[Brand New Songs For Eating and Drinking!]
[Songs for Eating and Drinking on the Boob Tube]
[Songs for Eating and Drinking #2.0 - Hip Hop]
[Songs for Eating and Drinking - Arthur & Yu]
[Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, Songs For Eating And Drinking]
[The official Songs for Eating and Drinking site]
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More Moving Magazines, This by Alexx Henry For Outside

2009-10-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

As more and more of us photogs co-mingle our still capture with motion capture, we're going to be seeing increasingly co-mingled media outlets increasingly more excited to increase their co-mingling of media.

You get my point.

Looks like Outside is along for the ride now, thus adding another solid print title to the short list of those that are doing more interesting things--either out of desperation or innovation--which is still up for debate. This cool vid from photographer Alexx Henry is his second such project if I'm not mistaken. He's got an "imagine the future..." sort of blog post that accompanies the vid here on his blog. Nice moves, Alexx.

Which brings me to my favorite thing about this sort of new media: in my experience (and I've heard here from Alexx's and many other friends out there too) the media outlets are actually interested in collaborating with their artists once again, rather than dictating to them as seemed to be the norm in the few years past.... That's a key word, collaboration. I think it yields far more interesting results. Hope this is more than a trend.

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Chase Jarvis TECH: Shooting Sequences

2009-09-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you were tuned in the previous coupla weeks to our play-by-play campaign shooting for SanDisk in New Zealand. Well, we're back in the states, digging out, editing and what not, and as promised, we've got more content from the trip to post. In this Chase Jarvis TECH, I'm responding to hordes of you who asked 1)why are you shooting so many frames? 2) why in the world are you shooting on a tripod? and/or 3)how do you create sequenced frames of the skier or snowboarder atop the stationary background?

Hope this answers all three questions and a little more. [Additional videos/links from behind the scenes in New Zealand after the jump...]

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Related videos + posts:
[Now You Know, Sandisk Extreme Pro]
[Photo Gear Mania]
[Behind The Curtain: Guts of a Commercial Shoot Video]
[Video Report From the Heliworks Barn]
[Video: Packing Quick 'n' Dirty]
[Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp]
[UPDATED behind-the-scenes snapshot gallery]

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Unlocked iPhone 3Gs Goes to Dan Marshall

2009-09-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

In the 5 short days it's been public, thousands and thousands of images have been shot, edited and uploaded with our new iPhone app, Best Camera. Watching the images roll by on the visualizer on the phone and the site have evaporated hours of my life, and made it better. Some really impressive imagery.

Of the those thousands of images, I'm awarding Dan Marshall the fully unlocked iPhone 3Gs for this lovely image of a little girl. I tend to like more abstract stuff with the iPhone, but perhaps that's why I'm attracted to this shot. It's different from my usual and there's a great story within this image. Seems that you all liked this image as well...it's seen thousands of views and has nearly 100 thumbs ups...so our tastes are somewhat in line here. I get the feeling it could be a snapshot, a fine art piece at Yossi Milo, or the anchor to a bigtime ad campaign. Wonderfully transcendent. Consider checking out Dan's photographer page of images uploaded with Best Camera in just a handful of days. Looks like he's been using just the 3G, so now he's got himself the suped-up 3Gs. Congrats Dan.

Check out other images voted "popular" by the community here.

We now return you to your regular programming. Dan, ping me offline to get your phone.

Shoot. Edit Share.
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The Best Camera Thanks You. Big Big Bigtime.

2009-09-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I slept 4 hours in a 65 hour stretch.

...that was in the couple days before and after launching The Best Camera ecosystem. But I loved it, because working hard to create stuff feels good. It’s not everyday that you get an opportunity to launch a book, or an iPhone app, or an online community, let alone all three. The experience has been exciting, humbling, scary and energizing all at once, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to you.

Thanks in large part to this community, in the first 24 hours after launch:
_Best Camera app debuted at #12 of all paid apps in the app store.
_The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You book, debuted at #172 of all titles on Amazon
_ www.thebestcamera.com saw 200,000 sets of eyes.

...And since that first 24 hours, it’s been getting better by the hour. Wow. I am humbled. And I Thank you thank you thank you.

Launch is fun, but it’s where we want to go with this thing now that’s important in the big picture.

Overall, I want to continue to celebrate pictures. I want to continue to grow thebestcamera.com and the visualizer in the app, into a seriously remarkable place for viewing pictures. I am blown away by what I see there everyday as you’ve been choosing www.thebestcamera.com in the sharing menu. There are currently hundreds of pictures being added there every hour. If you haven’t stared at that thing, and if you haven’t been voting from your phone (ie giving the thumb’s up) to images you like, the community has been missing your input. Give it a shot...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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For those of you who were rightly concerned about the Facebook captioning issue, apologies abound. It was an unintended hiccup that inserted a placeholder caption ‘uploaded with Chase Jarvis’ Best Camera’. We missed removing it during testing. You should know that we fixed it within 24 hours of launch and subsequently re-submitted the refreshed code to the app store for approval. Simple work arounds are listed in the FAQ’s.

For those who want to upload to Flickr: every Flickr account has an email addy for uploading. Send to that address from the share menu in the app. More elegant solutions soon ;)

Of course there are a million ways for us to improve what we’ve created, many of which we’re already aware. If you’ve got ideas or suggestions, I want them. I am listening. That said, please don’t put them in the comments below. We’re collecting your ideas via the submission form on the support page.

While we’re gathering feedback, I don’t want to look too far into the future or into the past. After all this ecosystem is still only 2.5 days old. What I’m really hoping for is that we focus on using this shiny new toy. Just like your mobile phone camera has one button and you can have lots of fun and discover what’s possible with that one button, I’d love for you to crank on our version 1.0 of Best Camera and see what you can make it do for you. Have fun with it.

For those in this community who have written me asking how you might help this app further succeed, the answer is pretty simple: 1. tell your friends online and in the real world; and 2. rank the app and write a (hopefully glowing ;) review in the iTunes app store. That’s in large part how other people in the world discover and buy apps.

And the same goes for the book....the initial rounds of The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You are beginning to arrive on your doorstep from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. For those of you who sent email and asked to further help out...just like the app, please tell your friends and rate/review on Amazon, B&N, Borders. Thank you thank you.

Lastly, wanted to remind you that on Monday, September 28, I’m choosing my favorite picture that’s been uploaded to www.thebestcamera.com and giving its creator a brand new, unlocked (yes unlocked) iPhone 3Gs loaded with the Best Camera app. I’ll ship it anywhere in the world. Hope to see your photos there this weekend.
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The Best Camera: iPhone App + Book + Community

2009-09-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

Today I’m really pumped to share with you the results of many months of hard work, a whole lotta fun, and--in many ways--a dream come true. It’s a trifecta of projects that I’ve just launched moments ago:

Introducing:

1. Best Camera = An iPhone photo app that allows you to shoot, add creative effects, and share your images more simply and powerfully than ever before. Virtually limitless creativity, and the ability to share photos directly from Best Camera to Facebook, Twitter, via email at a new iPhone photo sharing site, www.thebestcamera.com. I’ve poured all my experience into creating this app, and I’ve partnered with my ubersmart software developer friends, Ubermind, to bring you Best Camera. Read more and/or buy it from iTunes here.

2. The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You = A book of my iPhone photography from around the world. The first of its kind. It’s both a playful celebration of mobile photography and a serious artistic endeavor. It’s the production of my ideas and the way I see the world. It’s real and it’s RAW. I hope you dig it. Learn more and/or buy it here on preorder now - should be shipping this week.

3. www.thebestcamera.com = This is the hub of this ecosystem and a new photo community. It gives you the how-to videos for the app, the nuts and bolts of the book and is the support and feedback center. But most importantly, it’s a living, breathing feed of images from around the world created with Best Camera iPhone app. From within the app share your iPhone work here at the first photo community of its kind. Buy the app, login from your iPhone and join the revolution.

That’s right--you’re getting the picture--each of these elements is tied together with that goofy-but-strangely-sticky phrase I ~~inadvertently coined~~ rallied a while back, "The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You". This is the first ecosystem--app, book, community--of its kind, and I’ve put a heckuva lot of work into creating it. I’m dying to know what you think.

A complete video tour, some informative links and a free, unlocked iPhone 3Gs after the jump... [click the 'continue reading' link below]
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If you buy the app, book, or both and like what you see and experience, please consider doing the following things:

a. Tell your friends. Unlike my commercial photography, this is entirely a community-based endeavor and it depends on your patronage and good will to succeed. If you believe in this, please spread the word.

b. Rate the app and the book at iTunes and Amazon or wherever you purchase. Being in your favor is in large part an indicator of how good of a job I’ve done in creating this ecosystem, and it tells those who aren’t in your immediate network what you think. I want it to be fun and I want it to be good and I want it to evolve. Your feedback matters.

c. Participate in the community. Snapping photos everyday with my iPhone changed my life. I am more in touch creatively now than ever before. It’s contagious in the very best way, from professional artists to my 63-year-old mother. Take pictures and share them. It can change the world.

And here's some fun that might get your attention: On Monday Sept 28th, I’m choosing my favorite image that’s been created using Best Camera and posted to www.thebestcamera.com , and I’m giving away a brand new, unlocked iPhone 3Gs, loaded with the Best Camera app. That’s right. I look at your pictures, I like one, and then give you an unlocked iPhone 3Gs loaded with my app. Can’t wait to see your photos.

Here's a video tour of the iPhone app Best Camera:

Lastly, lots more details and behind the scenes to come this week. Until then, some helpful links:

[Buy Best Camera app via iTunes.]
[Buy The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.]
[Visit www.thebestcamera.com, the hub that tells you more about the app, the book, and the community.]
[Visit the new iPhone portfolio on my website, created entirely using Best Camera.]
[Big thanks to the gentlemen of Mad Rad for their track on the video. Buy their beats on iTunes here.]
[And of course a huge thank you to my development partner Ubermind, and my book publisher Pearson/Peachpit. You guys/gals rock.]

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Photo Gear-Mania + Shamwow

2009-09-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Dozens of you chimed in last week about wanting to see some of the gear we were using in New Zealand for the past 10 days, so here's the bounty. Might sound funny, but it's quite stripped down for us, based on the creative direction that you saw here.

Regardless, hope you get your fill here... and the Shamwow reference is just a funny pop-culture, infomercial joke. We like to soak up our spilled beers with Shamwow, but don't clean your lenses with it! More NZ wrap up still coming...

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Now You Know: SanDisk Extreme Pro

2009-09-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

If you've been following along here during my play-by-play for the past 9 days, you already know...

Who I've been shooting for: SanDisk
Who I've been shooting pictures of: a few of the world's best athletes
What I've been shooting: skiing and snowboarding
Where I've been shooting: Queenstown, New Zealand
When I've been shooting: dawn till dark
How I've been shooting: fast moving action, motor-driving, naturally lit and strobed

The only thing that's been missing has been the why. Until now. SanDisk has just today announced their new line of of flash memory cards, the SanDisk Extreme Pro. That's what these images have been about.

Atop this post is a super rough mockup of one of the campaign images I've been working on. Here, Colby James West does a Cork 900 Tailgrab. You can expect to see some more shots like this hit the media this autumn. I think the creative direction does a pretty clear job of illustrating the point, eh? Simple, clean, and an obvious story.

And I have to say, I've been working my butt off all week, but it's been interesting because, unlike shooting most other jobs like automotive, energy drinks, or running shoe gigs, I actually get to use the product as a part of my craft. I don't know much about speed tests and all that technical mumbo jumbo--that's best suited for labs in Silicon Valley and press releases, but what I do know is that I never waited on these cards, and I shot 25-frame RAW file sequences all day without running out of storage. For this sort of high-volume, high-energy environment, those are game changers. And I was only shooting the 32's...they're shipping 64GB cards as well.

Watch the video after the jump below, and you'll see how much fun it was working with these amazing athletes. You should also listen for my shutter, motor-driving, as it'll clearly demonstrate that shooting with these cards was sort of like shooting a machine gun that never ran out of ammo. Enjoy the vid, but there's still more to come. Lots of editing, more behind-the-scenes shots, outtakes, post production, and a few lingering videos from our work down under [click 'continue reading' below to see the video...]

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Thanks Common Market for the music in the vid. Check them out here on iTunes.

Related posts:
[Behind The Curtain: Guts of a Commercial Shoot Video]
[Video Report From the Heliworks Barn]
[Video: Packing Quick 'n' Dirty]
[Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp]
[UPDATED behind-the-scenes snapshot gallery]

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Chase Jarvis RAW: Freeskier Action NZ

2009-09-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

[Update: reposted the above vid in a refreshed post here since I had new work from the campaign to show and since SanDisk just made an announcement. But do check out the crew vid below - takes a village to make something like this come together....]

As promised, we've dug out from all the data and our primary function of actually shooting this SanDisk campaign enough to show you an initial look of the actual work. These video clips aren't deliverables for us, but rather they're cool, quick and dirty behind-the-scenes clips highlighting the scenarios from which our still image deliverables will come. Although the finals stills won't be selected for weeks--when we get back to the ranch and work that out with the client, AD's, etc--this stuff here should give you a wicked sneak peek, and we'll be sure to post some obvious outtake stills when we get another tiny breath in our schedule.

Given that one of your biggest questions is always "how do you get access to work with particular talent, whether it's a fashion model, a celebrity, or--in this case--a world class skier or snowboarder?", I thought I'd rope in my good friend Christopher Jerard to help introduce this clip. Why? Because the short answer is that models come from a variety of sources. Sometimes we work with modeling agencies--we like a look or a vibe, and we book 'em. Celebrity stuff often comes via assignment and thru a lot of publicist and media/client back and forth. But HERE, I've reached out to Jerard -- he runs both Freeskier and Snowboard Magazines. Christopher has been our liaison to the snowsports superstars: Simon Dumont, Peter Olenick, Colby West, TJ Shiller, and JP Auclair. Watch them in action in the above video, then learn more about them and the rest of our awesome crew for the SanDisk job in the video below: Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Crew. That's right, two RAW vids in one post. A two'fer if you will....

First, big Ups to my homies from Common Market for the music in the action vid above- they always crush it. Check them out here on iTunes.

And lastly, before diving into the crew vid: in response to all the inquiries pouring in via Facebook and Twitter, the video dSLR that we're using to pull most of this together is indeed the new Nikon D300s, shooting 720 HD video, complete with the 'auxiliary audio in' that we've been asking for...(and we're using this Rode Stereo Video Mic). We are fully digging this setup. Here's the B&H link for all y'all to oogle.

Thanks again to SanDisk for letting us share all this stuff. Mad props.
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Related posts:
[Behind The Curtain: Guts of a Commercial Shoot Video]
[Video Report From the Heliworks Barn]
[Video: Packing Quick 'n' Dirty]
[Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp]
[UPDATED behind-the-scenes snapshot gallery]

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Get exclusive content: Become a Fan on Facebook

Quick Video Report From NZ

2009-09-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

Here we are, already more than half way through our job here. Great stuff today, again working with some of the best skiers and snowboarders in the world. This little recap vid, shot at 9pm last night--just before heading back to the villa for some data wrangling--shows me pretty darn tired, but still kicking. I'm on camera with my friend Chris Jerard from Freeskier and Snowboard magazines. Chris is our subject matter expert and snowsports industry liaison.

I feel like we're finally dialing in our separate and additional workflow for sharing this stuff amidst all the other priorities we're balancing. So that should mean that we'll be able to roll some serious outtakes and a wave of more videos here tonight and tomorrow and the next day.

Planning to bust out a quick vid that answers a bunch of the questions you've been sending my way, so now's a good chance to shout 'em out if you have some--via comments or twitter, per usual.

If you can't see the vid, take a peek here at the vid link on my Facebook Fan page. For those requesting more youtube -- that's coming soon, I promise.
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Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp

2009-09-10T05:45:00.000-07:00

When we head off to location, our accommodations vary widely. Most often we stay in hotels, sometimes we rent large flats or houses, but in almost every case, we have a central, community area for gear, data crunching and collaboration. I thought it would be interesting to give you a spin thru that main area in our current "basecamp" to give you a feel for it. In this case, we're staying in a large 3 bedroom flat, or "villa". Check it out.

Note: Historically my Chase Jarvis RAW videos have been somewhat polished, but in true RAW spirit, we're re-writing the playbook on that a bit to accommodate the behind the scenes endeavors we're creating on the fly here in N Zed. Hope that flys with you.

I also decided to call out and answer some "featured" questions that came in from you yesterday. Those, plus a bunch more links to other behind the scenes content after the jump...[click 'continue reading' link below]
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Yesterday's featured questions:

Szabi: One question I have right away is if you post process the daily material on the spot (as in in the evening) or do you shoot and shoot and shoot and then come home to Seattle and post process here everything?

We usually do very little, if any, "final" post production while on location. We occasionally do mock ups, color tests, or quick sketches of how stuff might look using basic Aperture and Photoshop stuff, but all the heavy lifting happens back at the ranch.

M.S. Kirk: How do you keep your hands warm and shoot?!?!!? I have tried different gloves, fingerless mitten combos and even heavy gloves that I take off to shoot with and I do not like any of them. I see that you are in a cold climate similar to what I live in so….help!!!

Funny, I normally wouldn't think this was super relevant question, but lots of people asked it - another reason I love fielding your questions... Short answer, in all my years working in rugged environments, I've never been happy with my handwear options. I've reduced it to just pulling my hands out of the gloves for any shooting that requires details movements. If it's just a matter of squeezing the trigger at the right time (as in I'm pre-focused, etc), I'm not so worried and can leave my gloves on...

John Sturr: Was the site [location] chosen by you or the client? Who determined the budget for the shoot -- and how?

Location was selected collaboratively amongst the stakeholders, but initially it came as a recommendation from us. Re Budget: we estimate costs and then collaborate with client to scale to particular budgets. That's pretty standard.

Related posts:
Behind the Curtain: The Guts of A Commercial Shoot [video]
Packing Quick 'n' Dirty [video]
Play by Play Commercial Shoot for the Next 2 Weeks
Behind the scenes snapshots from this shoot on my Facebook Fan Page.

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Behind The Curtain: The Guts Of A Commercial Shoot

2009-09-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

Whew. If you've tuned in at all in the past few days, you're aware of what I've got cooking. To my knowledge this is one of the first (perhaps THE first?) global, multi-week-long, play-by-play commercial shoot to have its behind-the-scenes life chronicled and broadcast almost in real time via blog, Facebook, and Twitter. This will be the deepest look into the black box of photography that I've been able to share to date. By a country mile.

So two things coming at ya here in this post. One, the overview of what I'm doing. Two, the why I think its cool.

First, the overview:
1. I'm working on the south island of New Zealand--and it's winter down here in the southern hemisphere.

2. The campaign I'm shooting is for SanDisk, the company that invented flash memory and is the maker of most of our industry's memory cards.

3. The subject matter is skiing and snowboarding. Some helicopter access, some terrain park, some half pipe.

4. The athletes I'm working with are some of the best in the world. Guys like X-Games gold medalists Simon Dumont and TJ Schiller. Epic.

5. My contractual deliverables for the project are quite specific, but you know me - I'm shooting a ton of formats. Everything from the Nikons and the Hassie's to video to the iPhone, so you'll see all sorts.

6. Since daylight is short in winter, since there are often weather holds, and since we're here for a couple weeks, I'm really making an effort to paint the largest picture possible. I'll dive into the creative process, art direction, interviews with the crew and talent, a little gear talk, hell, even production details that normally give me the willies to think about.

7. As I said in my quick intro vid a couple days ago- the content I'll push your way will be largely unpolished. It's a choice I've been forced to make between putting out polished behind the scenes stuff or putting out volumes of behind the scenes stuff. I chose the latter based on feedback from lots of you from this community. The video you see above is the most polished thing I'll put out. And we only had the chance to do that because today was day 1 of shooting and the weather crapped out on us.

8. There may be things you think are sucky or boring. But everything I'll post will be relevant to questions I've received or things I'm passionate about. It won't be candy coated, but I tend to have an overtly positive attitude, sometimes to a fault. I won't brood or linger when stuff goes sideways, but content will run the gamut of our experiences here in the trenches.

9. I want this to be as interactive as possible. For it to be a collective success, please send in your questions, comments, ideas. I'll do my best.

So that's the what I'm doing. The why I think this sort of thing is cool is after the jump... [Click the 'continue reading' link below...]

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Now the why I think this is cool. Generally I think it's cool because it represents a shift in several things:

1. The technology to be able to do this wasn't ripe until just recently. Now, that technology is right at our fingertips. Let's use it.

2. Taking on such an endeavor is a substantial workload add-on to the normal campaign effort - which tends to be all encompassing as it is. Posting images, videos and words while on breaks and/or in the evening after really long days can be rough when you're so deeply immersed in the primary task at had - making great pictures for a client who is paying real bucks. My crew is so effing hard working and wants to do more for the community; and SanDisk actually gets it - that sharing is cool. Those two things are sorta game changers.

3. Today almost everything in high-end advertising still lives under the tightest of wraps until well after the campaign has come out - or even longer - like forever. No one gets to share, disclose, or discuss much of anything, really. Historically speaking--for a myriad of reasons, some legit, others flimsy, spurious, and unjustly fear based--nobody wanted to be first in shedding light on the gritty details of how stuff really got done...the "making of the sausage" if you will. Regardless of the industry. But this--and other things like it--are signs that times are changing. Sure 90% of the commercial work that we pros do is still kept under wraps. And of the 10% that's even remotely "transparent", there are still many elements of those gigs that are kept under strict confidence and non-disclosure. But I love that its all evolving.

Lastly, like a woodworker loves a mortise and tenon joint, or a biochemist loves the cells in a rat's liver, I love what I do, in case you can't tell... and I hope you enjoy following along.

Mucho content on the way.
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Packing Quick 'n' Dirty

2009-09-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

Scott uploaded this vid to my Facebook page from the Karl Strauss brewery at LAX and it quickly got over 100 comments/likes in about 15 hours. Since questions poured in from there and twitter, I thought I'd chuck the vid up here and scramble to answer some of those questions over a wimpy cappuccino here in the Air New Zealand lounge before running to our next legs to Christchurch and onto Queenstown.

Some of your questions in/around packing:

Any special luggage arrangement w/ United?
Insurance coverage of photo gear?
What if one bag's missing at arrival?

_No special arrangements. That's what I was trying to get across in the video. Normally we use a shipping expeditor or ship gear as freight, but we were on too short a timeline to do either. Hence, the pain in the ass "gangster method" (hoping not to offend any gangsters who have tuned in...). In this method our goal is to...[click the 'continue reading' link below...for more answers and a few snapshots]
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trim down our gear to as few bags as we can and put all our camera bags and cases inside duffel cases so they don't look like nice camera gear, and instead pass as beat up luggage. What we can't get to our location via this method, we will have our NZ producer rent it. Monitors, lighting, extra glass, etc.

Since Scott, Kate and I all have elite status on United, we can each take 3 bags up to 70lbs. One back of clothes each, leaves us with the capacity to carry 2 bags packed with gear, or about 450lbs of gear total without extra charge. We use pelican cases or just the LowePro bags l to house the gear and then drop that into duffels lined with shoes and jackets for extra protection. Not ideal, but reasonably effective.

_Insurance. As the Executive Producer, Kate handles the insurance. She's off at a ticket counter right now, but my understanding is that we have worldwide insurance that protects our gear and rented/borrowed gear against loss, theft, or damage. I think our insurance goes thru Taylor and Taylor in LA. Tell them I sent you. We also occasionally have insurance for specific jobs, but since Kate's away, I can't ask her on that one now... I know our people insurance is thru our corporate policy and our NZ production company, The Search.

_If a bag is missing? Our tough luck. But in reality, it's often easier to recover a missing bag thru your airline than it is dealing with shipping expeditors via customs. ATA Carnets aside, shipping lots of gear (eg. if we shipped full kits + lighing + stands, etc, all in big cases etc, can sometimes cause headaches on the receiving end - especially if you're short on time. Which is why we chose to do it this way on this gig...we had no time in advance. The job cleared in less than 7 days before we shipped out (down payment check came at 9am Saturday morning and we flew out at 6pm that night) so we didn't have the luxury of time that we often have. Also, regarding missing backs, we make sure to distribute gear intelligently between bags so that if we lose one or even two, we have enough gear to make happen what we need to make happen. Also, recall that Scott and I each carried on a Nikon D3/D3x and a lens + batteries, cards and charger, to protect against worst case scenario. We're not going to the middle of the wilderness, but we're not exactly flying to NYC either, so our strategy is based on that stuff too...

Will you show us workflow from click of shutter to delivery to client?

_That's a tall order but we'll do the best we can. We're a little understaffed since we have a lot of stuff going on around the clock back at the studio in Seattle while we're away, but we'll try to lay it out best we can from location. There will be more followup posts on return mid September as well.

Sorry, I know there are dozens of questions I'm not getting to here, but I'm outta time on this layover. I will address as many as possible throughout the course of this job.

Which brings me to a good point: please ask questions. If you don't ask, I'm left guessing at what interests you most.

I'll give a general overview of the job with as many details as I can when we get to our destination in Queenstown. In the meantime, I'm off to my next plane. Kate and Scott say hey.

[Previous Chase Jarvis TECH: Packing Photography Gear video here. Check it for the more thorough version of packing...]

Crappy-ass salad and a double margarita at LAX:

Moonrise over the Pacific:

Flight attendant catching some down time:

more soon. thx for tuning in...
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Play-By-Play Commercial Shoot for the Next Two Weeks

2009-09-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you that like the behind the scenes content, prepare for a deluge.

I'm off to New Zealand to shoot a campaign literally this minute, and for the next two weeks I'll be giving you the absolute best play-by-play that I can here via the blog, on facebook, and on twitter. It's a huge challenge while I'm working the super long shoot days to pull this off, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

I've been informally surveying many readers for the past 6 months about what kind of content you want, and how you want it served up, and what I heard loud and clear was that amidst all the talk on creativity, the advertising industry, and general photography/pop culture musings, you still want as much of the core that this blog was founded on: the best behind the scenes look I can give. I asked if you preferred that I polished the content for easy digestion, and you told me that--if it was between getting it polished in 6 months, or getting is raw right away--you'd take the latter any day. So that's what this will be.

I'm off to the airport. Lots more details and a whole lotta stuff to come...I'm now late for my flight - Kate, Scott and Dartanyon are looking at me like I'm nuts...

QUICK UPDATE FROM LAX:
1. Send in questions via comments below, facebook, or twitter and I'll try to get to as many as I can in followup posts, vids, etc.
2. I'm pulling this together on the fly, but the plan is to have just the overview stuff happening on the blog, with the gory details via Twitter and Fbook...

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Jeremy Cowart: Help-Portrait

2009-08-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

Public Service Announcement. I meant to get this up last week, but was buried. Great idea pulled together by fellow photog, Jeremy Cowart, that he ran with first over at Scott Kelby's blog and then followed at Help-Portrait.com.

We don't need to know the details here, but if you are planning to help, say so here. It will inspire others to do the same. I plan to help. Will you?
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Dodging the Red-Hot Poker

2009-08-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

One fine day a creative director in a big corner office downtown kindly agreed for me to come show him my work. Hooray! So I came to his office and showed him my work. Frankly, the work was bloody awful. All of it. Imagine the worst, cheesiest...crap. Only far worse than that. The creative director was a nice guy. You could tell he didn't think much of my work, though he was far too polite to blurt it out. Finally he quietly confessed that it wasn't doing much for him.

"Well, the target market is..." I was rambling, "...quite conservative, so I thought I'd better tone it down..."

"You can tone it down once you've gotten the job and once the client comes after your ass with a red-hot poker and tells you to tone it down," he laughed. "Till then, show me the toned up version."

The entirety of the above is an excerpt from one of my favorite books of late called "Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity" by Hugh MacLeod. Read it. And join me in dodging that red-hot poker...
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Coffee and Donuts With Scobleizer and Friends

2009-08-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

[UPDATE: I dunno why Facebook has relegated me to this still image here above, when it's really a video. In many cases, when we've posted a video that's been flooded with traffic, they've stopped serving the video to ease up on their servers. In any case, I'm not sure what's going on, but if you click 'continue reading' below, you will get to see the vid...]

Posted this to Facebook yesterday, but thought it should go here too... Photography lover/tech guru Robert Scoble and I decided to get together during his visit to Seattle for an early morning wander with our cameras last Friday. We both dropped a quick tweet to see if anybody wanted to join us. Results? Met some great people from as far away as Michigan, Portland, and Vancouver.

As a followup, I'm creating another free photo community meetup--this time providing pro gear, models and location, kinda like this but a little different--on the evening of Monday, August 31. Space will be limited and you'll need to follow me on Twitter to get a slot/find out details.

My fav couple of images that last Friday's photo walkers posted to my Facebook site, plus a prize, after the jump.

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Link to my fav submitted image (because I haven't got permission to post it here and it's 5am right now...)by Katie Ford here. Lots of personality to this portrait she snapped. I heard thru the grapevine that Katie likes wine, so for her effort I'll kick over a de-lish bottle of Brunello that I carted all the way back from Italy myself.

Link to my second fav image from Friday, this one by Bruce Hemingway, here. Love the dreamy and abstract feeling of this one. Nice job, Bruce.
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