Yeah, so this is a very orange Porsche, a Carrera 906 to be exact. It was raced by the Dutch team a while back, bout all I know about it. You may be wondering about the title of the blog, I will enlighten you. Originally when I was doing a production or post production, my team and I would refer to the cars it by their make and model. However, we recently completed a project that involved many historical Porsche race cars, and so nicknames had to start coming into play as it was not enough to say “917, 962, 956” as there were multiples of each and so for that reason, this 906 became “Pumpkin”.

So for those that stayed around, here’s a little hint to what is coming…. Enjoy some Pumpkin and stay tuned to see the other historical race cars and even crazier jets that await.

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In racing (specifically Formula 1) the giant leaps are made as slight tweaks on an already incredible platform, the Nikon D5 is the photography equivalent.

While I could go on and on waxing poetic about the spec list, numbers really don’t do this thing justice. The Nikon D5 is a camera that has accomplished perfection in its files: where the Nikon D3 was the camera that showed us images that looked liked film, the D5 shows us images that look like what film would have become. We often hear people talk about the clarity filter, or as Photoshop sees it, a tweaked gamma curve. In essence it is trying to do what it states, clarify the image as if it were there and not existing only through a lens. In racing terms (sorry, but my mind has been stuck on them lately) the clarity filter is like adding after market air filters to a Honda Civic.

What is needed for precision and true translation to the eye is data, and the only way to get that is to have a sensor that takes it in faster and in more depth. The Nikon D5 is just that. It is a camera that speed created and it is one that has truly refined the pixel.

While some like me think of the opportunity to walk around at midnight hand-holding shots at ISO’s that are in the millions (yes, read m.i.l.l.i.o.n.s), others will look at the Nikon D5 as a way to show live sports sharper. I can still remember thinking I read a typo on the Nikon D3 press release when I first saw ISO 25,600 and thought, “that isn’t possible.” Now I am faced with the exact same disbelief, which raises more questions than answers, not the least of which being, “do we need to rethink the measurement of ISO as we know it?”

Time will tell the impact that the Nikon D5 has on the industry, but in the meantime, I am prepping for the first shoot with the production model… if only this rainy weather would let up…

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The Golden State Warriors won their first 24 games of the season. While there are stats that exist around this that could lead to the early stages of going cross-eyed, this blog is not about that. Today’s blog is the second to talk about Stephen Curry, the captain of the Warriors, and an all around incredibly good human being.

I have been lucky to work with Stephen on multiple occasions and there is not the slightest hint of ego in his demeanor. Of all the celebrities I’ve photographed, he is the one that would want nothing more than to sneak into the studio and blend in with the rest of the crew. Somewhat shy, but quite strong on camera, Curry seems to be in a complete surprise about even his own success.

There will always be those players that people want to win, not just because of their skill, but because their class… for me, that player is Stephen Curry.

Congrats man!

The post Stephen Curry appeared first on Blair Bunting.

I have the continued belief that doing things for a good reason or to help others always have a value that is not calculated monetarily, but by some other external influence that is not measurable by man. With the HIV campaign, we set out to try and save someone from a disease that could greatly impact their life. It wasn’t a shoot for any of our glory, or for money, it waste where at the end of the day we had a toast to those we might help. I was extremely happy with the end product, because I felt it carried the spirit of the concepts that the creative team had put together for me, and most of all, I found the images made me look twice.

There is no way to describe how much it meant to me, when I woke up and saw the article by AdWeek, to know that others felt the same way. We are in an industry that has the ability to help causes first hand. We have talents that carry with them the responsibility to make the lives of those around us better. The incredible part of this equation is that in doing so (helping others) we can have the enjoyment of created, a true win / win.

Again, I’d like to thank AdWeek for the kind words and everyone from Moses Inc. and my crew that stood alongside me to create this one.

The post AdWeek appeared first on Blair Bunting.

I have used the time aboard planes to teach myself new creature comforts, from buying new tech toys to finding things that I wanted to learn about, all while sitting next to the gentleman with a runny nose. I have also been trying to figure out how much vitamin C I can consume before turning into an orange. Perhaps most dangerous is that I recently downloaded the Amazon app and have been seeing if I could order packages with same day delivery and then beat them to my house when flying home. Fun game, but you will wind up with the most random things, from SD cards to garden gloves to new dog food containers.

Random observations I have had over the most recent travels:

– Try as hard as I can, I can’t drink without lifting my pinky

– Telling people that you sell books door to door is an even better way to be avoided than my good ole, “I’m an accountant” technique

– I believe that there are now 31 groups called before group 1 on American Airlines

– As much as I am trying to adapt to iOS, I still love Blackberry and find myself wishing that my Passport worked on Verizon.

– I no longer listen to Taylor Swift

– The counter on my computer says that I have no watch Independence Day 71 times

Still 40 minutes remain until I touch down in NY, so a little photo tips:

– Whenever in doubt, always underexpose

– Crank your kickers up early in a shoot and dial the key around them

– Never use the word “bokeh”… just don’t

– Always clean your lens caps, otherwise cleaning the lens is useless

– Starting buying magazines again… better photos and writers

– iPhone….. still not for photographers

– Learn the difference in process between creating a shoot and planning one

Here’s to a December that you can find times to relax next to a fire and have a drink, but also one where you can take advantage of the less directional light that we get this time of year.

The post Because December appeared first on Blair Bunting.

Back to the conversation at hand, Movember, mental health and Stuff You Should Know. Below are some of the shows in which Josh and Chuck have covered different type of mental disorders, everything from bipolar disorder to post traumatic stress disorder. Beyond giving you plenty of cocktail party fun facts, the shows may indeed help you do your job better.

As photographers, we will come across many people from many walks of life, and there is a good chance that you will meet someone that has one of these. For example, I have spent much time with military men and women, all great people, and some have indeed been affected by PTSD. I took it upon myself to try and learn about it in an effort to understand more of where they are coming from, because, like all mental disorders, it wasn’t their choice to have it.

So get out the iPhone, iPod, Android, Blackberry, Zune (who am I kidding, no one has a Zune) and have a listen.

– How Panic Attacks Works

– How Bipolar Disorder Works

– How Dissociative Identity Disorder Works

– How Schizophrenia Works

– How OCD Works

Here’s to a safe holiday for you and your families. Put down the phones and cameras alike and have a good conversation over a nice glass of wine, scotch or water. See you all in December, when I can talk about some crazy projects we have been working on…

– Cheers

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The moment you get onto the plane from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor, the idea that this is going to be a rough environment is immediately present. The other passengers on the plane look rough for wear and are most likely on one of the fishing boats that are about to depart into the unforgiving Bering Sea.

Only having been there for a couple of weeks total, I know that I have met my quota, but will always appreciate the times I had. It is for this reason that I was heartbroken when the hard drive with my Deadliest Catch images went missing many years ago. Of all the shooting I did, I was left to only the images I had on my site (four total) to represent my time on that frigid island…. or so I had thought.

In the process of moving into our new place, there were tons of people carrying boxes to the different rooms of the house. It is an effort of futility to get the stuff to the correct room, but it proved fruitful. Misplaced in the boxes for the master bathroom (yes, bathroom) was a SanDisk flash drive. If you have ever had the moment where you find a flash drive and are excited to see what treasures reside on it, you know the feeling I had.

This drive was the jackpot of lost drives for me…

You see, I have a process that goes into my photoshoots that extends beyond when I leave the set all the way to getting home from the flight. I backup the cards to my computer and then from there put them on an external drive that goes in the camera case. However, on photoshoots where my camera case might have to be checked, I also put the images on a flash drive and mail that drive to myself insured for $1,000 because this guarantees they will not lose it.

Now, as has always been the case, my camera and hard drive return home safely and I work off them for the edits. However, with the Deadliest Catch campaign, I sent the hard drive home with the good people from Discovery. I used the files I had from the CF cards themselves, and then reformatted them for another campaign…. forgetting to back them up to the computer.

For years I could picture the images in my mind, but could not show you what we created on the crab boats of Dutch Harbor…. until now.

In that serendipitous moment of misplaced moving items sat a flash drive… the flash drive. It was the one I had mailed to myself from Anchorage before getting on my flight home, only to misplace it when prepping to fly out for another photoshoot.

So here are them images I wanted to show you for so many years, I hope they were worth the wait.

Most importantly, I found the original image I shot of Phil, a good friend that always held my seat at the table and a good man.

The post Deadliest Catch: The Lost Files appeared first on Blair Bunting.

ASU’s advertising campaign is one that I have now shot for 10 years. It is one that I always use to push the logistical boundaries that I had previously been inflexible towards, for the sake of art and knowledge. Photographing it is a practice in embracing the unknown and evaluating previously conceived notions of what is possible and what is not.

This year’s photoshoot existed well within the impossible…..

For example, I usually shoot the ASU advertising campaign the last week of May and deliver the images on deadline… August 1st. This way the designers at ASU can create layouts and posters, billboards and ticket stubs and all that’s in between in the the two weeks before press deadline (Aug 14th).

However, this year was different, for ASU was in the midst of changing from Nike uniforms to Adidas. We knew going into April that this shoot could be a bit tighter on the deadline than usual. As May began, I already had laid out the images for the campaign and had my crew on stand-by on a moments notice if we needed to be at the studio. However, the new uniforms were not ready and so we found ourselves waiting….

and then came June… and then went June.

It was looking like an impossible deadline at this point, for where I normally have 60 days for production, I would now have half.

AND THEN WENT JULY.

There comes a moment, at which one must release true control of a situation, and this was it. Any ideas that I had of a production schedule had to be let go. In a sense, if this advertising campaign happened at all, it would be a very visceral knowledge of the process that would take over and one that only experience could teach.

August 1st: The deadline of the many campaigns of year’s past had arrived and passed. For me, it was a simple glass of scotch that evening and a comfort that only a purchase of a time machine (found on eBay) would make this one possible.

August 15th: The call arrived saying that we would shoot in three days (yeah, August 18th), and we might be limited on the jerseys for the guys to wear (oh the understatement). However, if there is one thing that I have learned about ASU, it is that their athletes are incredible and even the toughest challenges are easier with how much they help out on set.

August 18th: The first day of the shoot had arrived and the crew that had been on standby for most of the summer for this one were ready. Even though we were months behind schedule, everyone was happy, for we knew what we had to do and knew that it could be a good time as well.

As the guys showed up to the studio, the wardrobe arrived as well. We had 10 athletes to photograph and 1…. one….. yes one, pair of pants. Now we had that one pair in maroon and black, so technically thats two. However, you may say, “Blair, I thought ASU wears gold pants on occasion” and you would be correct.

Worry not, we had a pair of gold pants as well, with one minor caveat. You see, the only pair of Adidas football pants that existed in gold belonged to the ASU mascot Sparky. For those of you that don’t know him, he is a devil that runs around the field and does push ups. The big issue is that Sparky has a tail. Some of you have figured out where this is going, and yes, the only pair of gold pants we had had a hole in the ass for his tail.

Remember, photoshoots will always make you stronger and more resourceful for the next one.

So we shot for two days on set and had final images being delivered even when we showed up for day two. The reason it all happened is quite simple, incredible people. From crew to client to talent to retouching, everyone involved on this project didn’t worry about deadline, they just worried about doing their best and staying positive.

As much as being an advertising photographer is about being in control of a production, the true talent of one is measured when control is given up.

The post Beyond the Deadline appeared first on Blair Bunting.

This year should be especially interesting as I am to be in a wedding looking my best, and to be honest, a mustache makes me look… well… like a pedophile. However, unflattering facial hair aside, this is a month I have been planning for quite some time as I want to take the opportunity to launch some appropriate blogs over the next 30 days.

When I sat down and did the photoshoot of Adam Garone (the Movember CEO), we talked in depth about the causes that it stood for. At the time, all I could think about was fighting prostate cancer, for my father had just been diagnosed. Fortunately, since then he has made a complete recovery and has won that battle.

For this year, I wanted to address a cause that I have talked about in the past and still hear a ton about in private conversations both on and off set…. Mental Health. More specifically the mental health of my friends in this industry that we call advertising. Photographers, Illustrators, Copywriters, Art Directors and Creative Directors alike, we most likely know someone that has gone through it, or go through it ourselves. It is the token that we pay to be able to create environments and concepts that don’t really exist. Blessing and curse often dance intertwined through the music of talent.

So for this reason, I put together some blogs to talk about people that have had great success, even through struggles in their head. Be it actors, comic book writers, musicians… artists, we are a family and a lucky one at that. So go get growing your craziest mustache and support the cause that is Movember. But more importantly, use this next month as the excuse to talk to someone in the agency, in the studio or on set about mental health. Maybe none of you have had any issues with it and for that I say congratulations. More likely though, one if not all of you have gone through something, and this conversation will be one of the most relieving ones you will ever have…. nothing helps more than knowing you’re not alone.

The post Movember Begins appeared first on Blair Bunting.

It wasn’t that I had made so much money that I didn’t need it, it was because the idea that someone else’s life was better because of what I did meant so much to me. Perhaps it is the progression that is a photographic career, but my portfolio seemed less important than my legacy. In a way, I felt in debt to the world, because I love this job almost as much as I love the people I have met through it and those (like you) that have supported me by reading the blog.

Not long ago, I was contacted by an agency in town that said they had a shoot in mind for me, but were worried the budget wasn’t enough. It was at that point that they said this advertising campaign was to help save people for contracting HIV. In essence we were going to do a shoot that could help prevent someone from making a minor bad decision that would drastically impact the rest of their life.

I told them I didn’t care what the budget was, that if they had a concept that could really help, I would shoot it no questions asked. It was then that they presented the concept that HIV is like an accidental obstacle that catches you off guard and those that contract it can never go back. The tagline was direct, “It’s only dangerous if you don’t know it’s there.”

Then they laid out the creative for me and it was an advertising photographer’s dream. Hugely impactful and shocking images that had the tagline and no other copy. I signed on right away and started laying out how I would execute the images without injuring the models. After all, a photoshoot is only fun when there is no followup lawsuit.

I went back to the Deadliest Catch advertising campaign that I had done many years back for the idea and technique that I used to do it. We would create force in motion that didn’t exist. Through makeup, wind and pressing against acrylic, the idea that a collision had just occurred would show on camera.

The imagery consisted of a jogger that had just collided with a pole from a street sign and was watching as the rest of life carried on in the form of his headphones and even the jacket he wore, yet his life as he knew it was stuck behind the pole.

The second image was a young businessman that was walking to work doing a deal on the phone and had missed the open manhole cover that he was stepping into. For his motivation I wanted to convey that everything as he knew it was a split second from collapse and that the cup of coffee that was feeling the gravity would be his last enjoyment.

The final image was a female that was out shopping for the day and was walking into a store. She could see everything in front of her, but had missed the door, leading to an incredible crash into the glass crushing the drink in her hand and her face alike.

The impact of the images serves to shock the viewer into investigating a little bit further into the cause, and hopefully making them think twice in a situation that could lead to transmission of the disease. There are no awards of budgets that could mean more than knowing that you helped to save someone from a fate that would impact their life in such a dramatic way.

We made a short behind the scenes video of the first two images, so go have a watch:

The post A Campaign to Save Others appeared first on Blair Bunting.