Religulous

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a religious person. Sure, it's probably due to my mom never sending me to church as a kid, and you know what, God bless her because I'm happy to not have faith. And to those who do, and to those who can't understand why anyone wouldn't, I can't point to you a more adequate summation of my feelings on the topic than this film. I scored some advance screening tickets from Aint It Cool News to see this last night in downtown Chicago, and when I left all I could think were 2 things: 1) Everyone should see this movie and 2)no one who needs to see this movie will actually see it. To be honest, I don't really like Bill Maher. Had I not landed free tickets, I probably would have gone to Eagle Eye or something. Love that Shia. But even though Maher comes across as an irreverrant, self-righteous bully at times, his message is totally spot on. Like me, like a small but growing 14% of the country, he is very concerned about the place religion has in an ever-intellectualized world and the stagnating (and more importantly destructive) effect it has on human society. I'm not going to laud it for being a very tight, well structured poignant documentary that is the must see movie of our times, but it's pretty damn close. Bill Maher has questions, the same questions I have, and he's out there getting some important people to try to answer them. Sadly, the answers are simply not good enough. I don't want to say much more. Definitely go see it. Even if you have faith, if you have an IQ above 100 you'll probably have some questions yourself.

Jel.Ani

I'm really behind keeping up with this blog, and I wanted to get this posted last Sat. I finally had my first Chicago shoot with local musician named Jelani Walker. Jelani's dropping his first record in February '09 and is a pretty amazing talent. Definitely check out his music on his MySpace page.The shoot was a lot of fun, Jelani was very cool to work with, and Kate was an awesome assistant. I really like some of the images I got and I hope to work with Jelani some more in the future because he's got great presence in front of the camera. Jelani and I hooked up through Craigslist believe it or not, so I've got to give some thumbs up for advertising on CL. I have more people interested in doing some shoots, so I'll post them as they come. It's coming slow and steady, but work is work right?

iReal

We got to shoot this thing today for the Wired magazine sponsored Nextfest happening in Chicago this next week (promotional photo shown). After a super early morning setup at the Bean in Millenium Park, Jimmy and I were greeted by team Toyota and the inventor of the iRide who proceeded to totally blow us away by how awesome this new car/segway/awesome rascal performs. The inventor was having so much fun racing around in his pimped ride I felt kind of bad we had to stop him to take his photo. It's super easy to use, you just toggle two joysticks in the cockpit and it goes. Fast. The thing has two different positions, upright for slower, pedestrian travel, and low/wide for up to 30km/hr speed. It's tricked out with a titanium skeleton, ergonomic seat, and a really cool active lcd display on the back. This was clearly transported from some crazy futuristic Japanese world we Americans are not ready for. Most cities in the US have outlawed Segways on streets and sidewalks, so there's no way we're going to have something this cool available anytime soon. Still, I'm officially putting it on my X-mas list. Jimmy's photos will be published in Dec. issue of Wired magazine.

Assistant Extraordinare

Here is a shot of me modeling for Jimmy Fishbein for what was supposed to be a shoot of NBA #1 draft pick Derrick Rose to run in an article for a local magazine. After a back and forth with his PR agent, having the shoot canceled, then on, then canceled, we were finally scheduled to shoot between 4:30-4:32 yesterday. 2 mins was all we had to get the shot. As the awesome assistant I am (as verified by the notebook and requisite light meter in pocket) I didn't hesitate to show off my amazing modeling talents so Jimmy could pre-viz the final shot. The setup was simple, a single bare profoto light with power pack on a c-stand and boom, fired wirelessly by a pocketwizard. Jimmy uses a canon 5D and yes, even as a Nikon shooter, I am insanely jealous of that camera (as I write, the new 5D mark II has just been announced and utterly destroys any Nikon camera available while costing less. Le sigh...). Sadly, after all the headache of setting up, posing like a rockstar in front of the camera, hiring extra muscle and cops to make sure we didnt get mugged while shooting in Sketchville, Chicago, Mr. Rose couldn't find the 2 mins in his schedule to get himself some free publicity. Oh well, I don't think he'll be in any short supply of that once the season starts anyway.

Apparently I have new neighbors. As I came home from work tonight around 11pm, they had just finished unloading the last of their stuff out of the truck. It had been raining for the past 36 hours - flooding in a lot of the county, so I don't envy the work they had to do in the torrent. They were just shuting down the truck and I talked them into letting me take some photos. Like the idiot that I am, I didnt even bother to introduce myself or anything, I was so wrapped up in getting a photo and letting them be. I need to work on that in the future.

Will work for film

I started work this week assisting a local photographer named Jimmy Fishbein. He's a cool guy, works non-stop, and I hope to learn quite a bit from him. Click on the photo to check out his work.

The Wheels on the Bus

Public transportation! Huzzah! It's so nice to be able to get around this town without having to drive everywhere. Yesterday Kate and I went downtown, hoping to go to the live outdoor taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. And even though they did indeed decide to record in front of a live audience of only a few hundred brave souls who could wait out the torrential rainstorm that pummeled Chicago, we decided to take a pass. We went to the museum instead, and ended up taking a late bus back home. It seems that every time we go downtown we are reminded of the excruciating reality that we live incredibly far from downtown.We like to cheer ourselves up by timing our trips. "That didn't take too long, right?" Kate will ask. "Only 35 mins. Not bad," I'll reply. Of course that's before the 10-15min walk home from the bus stop. It's mental how long it takes to travel 7 miles in this town. Having passed out from the gental lulling of the bus, I woke up to find almost no one left onboard, so I took this photo of the only person in Chicago who apparently has to commute farther than we do.

Summer Doldrums

It's been a while since I last posted, and I feel like I haven't really had much to say lately because day-to-day stuff has become a little bit routine. But really, I guess if I think about it, nothing in Chicago has become routine yet. I'm working at REI Northbrook right now and adjusting well, but really I'm trying to get photo work with talent around town. I've been applying and interviewing for jobs like crazy, and it just never seems to end. Routine: check craigslist in the morning, sift through tons of crap to find one good listing. Send cover letter and resume. Wait. Check emails for replies. No new replies. Wait. Check emails one last time before going to bed- nothing. Wake up, see a new batch of craigslist postings...send out cover letter and resume...rinse and repeat. I've finally snagged a few good interviews with photographers who have all been mostly positive, but I'm not sure I'm a good fit with some of them. My most promising one yet offered me a job as a photo assistant, but technically it's a freelance position, so it could fall out whenever they're out of work. I think I'm going to take it though, since it offers not only the best money of all the jobs, but this is a big agency with an 80,000sq ft studio, lots of clients, and tons of chances to gain experience. Fingers crossed, I could move up fast into a shooting position.

Tomorrow is my day to rest and go find some more photos to shoot. The top is one I started last week and just completed tonight. Not sure what it means...but I'm sure I'll find an excuse to make more like it.