black and white

Unearthed bts from the past few years

December 18, 2023 in BTS, Filmmaking, Photo

Four images I shot while DP’ing a day with a camera car in Tennessee. The MotoCrane came from Shift Dynamics, and their team (precision driver and crane operator) were excellent collaborators. Also featured is director Brittany Reeber and my 1st AC for this project, Gabe Colvin.

Following that are 3 images taken by Felix Walworth from the two Tomberlin music videos that I shot (directed by Ryan Schnackenberg), and a bts pic by gaffer Gavin Cantrell on the set of a BetterVet commercial in Austin, TX.

Little Boxes Premiere & BTS

October 10, 2023 in Screening/Festival, Filmmaking, BTS

Little Boxes, a feature film that I shot in the summer of 2021 will be having it’s world premiere at the 16th Annual Bushwick Film Festival on Thursday, October 26 at Williamsburg Cinemas (tickets available here).

I can’t wait for people to see what we accomplished with this film in such a short shooting period and with a limited crew. Director Hannah Cullen and i crafted such a unique and (in my opinion) inventive visual language for this film - utilizing spherical and anamorphic lenses to repectively separate the character’s interior world’s from their reality. From a lighting standpoint I was able to mix traditional film lighting, interactive practicals built into the set, and stage lighting from the massive overhead grid available to us (as we shot on a theatrical stage). This sort of fluid lighting was only made possible through close collaboration with Lighting Designer Chris Thielking and Gaffer Ben Duff.

Some bts of our team that I was able to shoot between setups below:

B&W BTS Vol. 5

February 08, 2023 in BTS, Filmmaking, Photo

Shots from all over the place! A drag holiday special in 2020, units of HBO’s Mind Over Murder and Showtime’s Spector (i did stints as 2nd Unit DP and Additional Cinematographer on each respectively), shots from the I Poured Sugar In Your Shoes music video in Boston, a single shot from outside a studio in Seattle where I shot a commercial with a great team, and a few final shots of a corporate shoot in NYC.

All shot on my Minolta X-570 and Nikon FM with Illford HP5+ pushed to 1600iso - except the shot of Danny and Dave in the third row - which was off of my first roll of Agfaphoto APX 400. All processed by hand and scanned on my lightpad setup using Negative Lab Pro.

B&W BTS Vol. 4

May 05, 2022 in BTS, Filmmaking, Photo

A triumphant return to developing film! After spending the 2 years since the pandemic started shooting quite a bit - i’ve began processing the backlog of shot cannisters filling up my fridge. The first 6 of these images are from pre-pandemic shoots, followed by a series of shots taken in Texas on a branded doc project, and culminating in 3 images back in NYC on a product shoot. The majority of these (if not all) were shot on my Minolta X-570 with Illford HP5+ pushed to 1600iso. All processed by hand and scanned on my lightpad setup using Negative Lab Pro.

Winter 2020 In Black and White

April 24, 2020 in Photo

Some b&w’s from this winter. The first half are all taken in Ridgewood, Queens and Bedstuy, Brooklyn. The other half were taken in Washington and Oregon while traveling there for a doc shoot. These are from the first few rolls through my refurbished Minolta X-570 (fixed up by Garry’s Camera in Buffalo Grove, Illinois - i’d 100% recommend his shop if you have a 35mm camera in need of repair). I absolutely love this camera, it’s super lightweight and reliable. I believe all of these were taken with the Rokkor 35mm f1.8, which is stunningly sharp.

As usual, Illford Hp5+, pushed two stops - developed and scanned at home.

Summer 2019 In Black and White

December 07, 2019 in Photo

A few quick snapshots from over the summer.

B&W BTS Vol. 3

December 01, 2019 in BTS, Filmmaking, Photo

Whew, it’s been a long time since i’ve had a chance to develop and scan my black & white. This edition of B&W BTS spans from late spring to early fall. Only 5 shoots across the collection - there may be a need for a “Color BTS” post for the same timespan - but i’ve also just been a bit too busy behind the camera shooting these projects to break away and shoot my crew!

I believe all of these are from my Olympus OM-2, which has been my “weapon of choice” as of late. All shot with either the Zuiko 28mm or 35mm.

I’ll be posting some non-bts images from these rolls soon as well.

B&W BTS Vol. 2

May 30, 2019 in BTS, Photo

Another installment of b&w bts, this one ranging over quite a few months and an array of shoots. The last two rows were digitized using my new Lightpad/Negative Lab Pro scanning process (which I may make a separate post about). Very excited about the results i’m getting. The final three images are also from the first roll of 120 that i’ve developed myself.

The cameras used here are - Olympus OM-2n, Minolta XD11, Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80, Bronica Etrsi. All shot on Illford HP5+, with the exception of the final 3 medium format frames shot on Ultrafine Extreme 400. All pushed 2 stops.

Winter 2019 In Black and White

May 23, 2019 in Photo

Some select photos from this winter. I believe that these were all shot on my Olympus Stylus Epic. As usual, I used Illford Hp5+ pushed 2 stops, developed and scanned by hand.

B&W BTS Vol. 1

February 07, 2019 in BTS, Filmmaking, Photo

I keep at least one 35mm camera loaded with Illford HP5+ in my bag most of the time. So inevitably rolls end up with a few shots from the variety of sets I work on (when there happens to be a free minute to do so). It’s a nice reminder that one of the biggest benefits of my job is getting to work with so many great people. Here’s a collection of some of my favorites from roughly the last 9 months.

A wide range of cameras represented here - Olympus OM-2n, Minolta XD11 (rip/must replace), Fujifilm DL-290, and Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80.

Black and White Film in Mexico

January 25, 2019 in Photo

A few shots I managed to pop off on a trip to Mexico in December. We spent a few days traveling around the Yucatan Peninsula, and most of these shots (the four daytime ones) are from Tulum.

All on Illford Hp5+ pushed 2 stops, developed and scanned by myself. Shot with my Olympus OM-2n and 28mm f/2.8.

Fall 2018 In Black and White Pt. 2

January 09, 2019 in Photo

More from this fall. All on Illford Hp5+ pushed 2 stops, developed and scanned by myself.

The first eight images are from my Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80, which has some really interesting distortion and flaring. I was happily surprised by at the optical quality it delivers, considering that it’s a cheapo point-and-shoot. This was also my first roll of dx hacked film (the only way to get my preferred push-process on a point-and-shoot) and i can happily say it worked seamlessly.

The bottom row of images is from Thanksgiving at my parent’s house in NJ, shot on my Olympus OM-2n and 28mm f/2.8.

Fall 2018 In Black and White Pt. 1

December 26, 2018 in Photo

A series of images shot over the course of this fall. All on Illford Hp5+ pushed 2 stops, developed and scanned by myself. Final image (of me) shot by Phil Solokoff.