Self Portrait, New Year's Eve, 2009

'So Sumi, narrative'

Is there some special word for the medium of drawing in photoshop?

A southside Mexican restaurant mural

Monthaversary!

Since September 10, 1993 (our best guess at the year), the tenth of the month is a celebration.

Natacha Ramsay gives hope that eyebrows will return.

My first real music video gets nominated for a Grammy

"Splash" is Ponypak's shoe-gazing treatment of lost love set in a bildungsroman about the human potential for redemption.



Kidding!
It's a booty video with a great house track.
The shoot was such a party at Susan Aurinko's Flatfile Gallery that it took quite a while just to ferry all the food into the kitchen. I don't want to spoil the plot (there isn't one), but let me just say I'm still trying to get the milk spots off my camera.
The white guy who carries off the girl is Mike Beck, 6'10" demolition racer and stuntman from Joliet.

My thanks to every single person at the shoot for all the good vibes.
See it here. Turn it way up.

Inglourious Basterds, great looks.

WARNING: SPOILER.

Any one of these shots would have let me die happy if I had made them:
The scene at the farmhouse table, seemingly lit by the bright sun on the table.
The back of the screen, just catching fire from the bottom.
The giant face of jewish vengeance, projected on smoke.

That first one has a technique I use a lot, either with available light or my own lights. Motivated soft glows from visible surfaces. There's a wonderful bit of it in the projection booth scene with "Mimieux" and Zoller. The arc light that leaks out of the projector reflects off her red dress and gives a red glow. When I'm shooting with motivated bright stage lighting (lots of hip hop videos lately), I let it bounce off skin or cloth onto faces. It's a lifesaver for beautiful dark skin. Likewise, in a recent shoot lit by motorcycles, the headlights bounced off clothes and onto faces.