Tag: detroit

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Danger Time.

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Back in the day, when I first began my educational journey into photography, I met two people about a week apart.  Ashley Lawler and I became “significant others” and have remained that way for the better part of half a decade.  Carl Amyoni and I have remained very close friends and instigators of each others’ bad habits for a similar time frame.

Now – this is all nice and nostalgic, but personal relationships aside, we also make up a trio of photographic entertainment.

In the early stages of our acquaintance, we decided to start a series we initially called the “Canadian Olympics.”  It would consist of ham-hocked trials, regular risk of personal injury, and a lot of plaid.  In the end it will probably be a series of images of people doing incredibly stupid things.

As is the case with too may things these days, the concept fell through and all we were left with was a series of “promo shots” and one very elaborate and flame-filled take on the luge.

Recently, I have been wrapping up a series of time-sucking endeavors and can see a gleaming orb of free time rising on the eastern horizon.

Furthermore – I feel that if I stick this in the world-wide-web, it will prompt people to bother me about new pictures.

YES YOU!  I AM RELYING ON YOU TO PESTER ME FOR WORK.

In the meantime – enjoy this blast from the past with a special guest appearance by my cousin, Mike Strong.

– Jon

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I Know This Dude Who Tries To Build Everything Himself…

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My buddy, Carl Amyoni, has a particular set of skills… skills that make him a nightmare for people like IKEA.

Carl is one of those unique individuals that grew up not with The Rugrats or Inspector Gadget, but with the likes of Norm Abrams and Tolstoy – essentially the makings for a modern-day Renaissance Man.  However, instead of a hoity-toity Palisade, Carl found enlightenment in things like raw steel, hand carved mallets, and sandpaper of varied grits.

He was well on the way to a life of hand-crafted stuff.

One day, Carl became interested in photography.  (He still won’t tell me exactly what happened – it has something to do with Public Access Channels and a substantial quantity of artichoke and onion guacamole).

Anyway – after meeting him through a photography class, it became clear that Carl was more interested in building, himself, what could otherwise be purchased at any department store.

About 3 and a half years have passed and, as such, other friends and I discuss how it’s likely Carl, in the search of imagery-perfection, designed and forged his own camera.

I think it probably went something like this….

– Jon

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The Faces of Few Shades

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I’ve got an idea for a project I’m going to be starting in a week or so.

So much of my time is taken up with design or marketing or contracted work that it’s hard for me to get around to personal projects.  Also, as hardly a single recent job has involved portraits, I’ve got the itch to shoot some people (No-not like that.  What’s wrong with you?)

The new idea that I’ve got kickin’ around involves faces, a considerable amount of mess, and exquisite lighting.  If you haven’t already heard the deatils, then you’ll just have to wait and see the results (come on – I’ve gotta keep a few secrets.)

But to wet your whistle, I went back through my image library and picked out a selection from some of my favorite shoots.  But to mix things up, I ran a bit of black & white reprocessing.

Whataya think?
– Jon

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Get the Delorean Ready

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I try to be introspective on a regular basis. While I spend a respectable amount of time reviewing failures and successes I’ve had, it feels like I still critique outside situations more than I critique myself.

A few minutes ago Adam’s Facebook told me I need to go read his new post.  You should really read it, too.  Cash Cat is the bomb.

On a related note I have (sort of) a photographic memory – which would make sense.  When I tend to look back on prior experiences (even when something just happens that makes me think of previous endeavors) I have hardly an issue with bringing up a memory that directly pertains to my current situation.  Well, that’s not really true either.

More than consciously sorting through a lifetime of experiences, my brain takes the wheel and makes the decision about what’s important.  I guess it’s relate-able to a Google search.  When someone says “spill” my brain does a little sorting and settles on the time I left a clear glass of clear gelatin in the fridge.  Then it broke.

Side note: when cool liquid gelatin and shattered clear glass come in contact with the shelves of a fridge – that’s well below the solidification temperature of gelatin – it’s a bad thing.

But anyway… It’s sort of like my cerebellum processes a query, brings up the first page of results, and auto-picks what it feels is the most relevant.  My mouth sort of blurts out whatever it’s told.

So HERE’S where the photo stuff comes into play.

I would like to know what else I know, but don’t know I know it because my brain tells me I know other things.  Make sense?   Essentially, I want to think about a certain topic and (instead of settling on the first search result) dig a little deeper to see what else I can dredge up.

As a result, I’ll craft a picture or pictureS around whatever prior experience or previously learned knowledge I come up with.

Sound good?  Well, I need some help.  See – I can’t just think up a phrase or situation out of thin air.  My current situation (a laptop, white wall, air conditioner and a foot that fell asleep) are filling my dome with stimulus that will invariably lead to a certain thought.

So I need you to bring up topics or ideas.  They don’t even have to make sense.  Licorice puppies wearing glasses on Everest would be just fine, but now that I thought about it, the thought process won’t be unique.  You understand.

Fill my brain, people!

– Jon

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That’s some tasty layout

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I’ve been doing some photo, branding, design, organization – basically I’ve been acting as a marketing/ad agent for a local company.  These guys —–> Wonderland Lanes.

It’s a bowling center in Commerce, Michigan that’s about to relaunch their grille as a no-holds-barred rockin’ restaurant.

Maybe a couple months back, I dropped a sneek preview at some of the food photos.  Now, we’re in the midst of full-on advertisements.

Don’t drool on your keyboard – it’s bad for it.

– Jon

 

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A Good Old Fashioned Celebration

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It was a brisk fall day in northern Montana… OK – that’s a lie.  It was the last day of June in Detroit and it was HOT.  Like really, really hot.

But that’s all I really have to whine about.  The rest of the day was super awesome.

Based on this post, some of you may know that I don’t regularly shoot weddings.  It’s not so much because I don’t like them (’cause I do).  It’s more that shooting a wedding for someone you didn’t know until they hired you has some drawbacks:

– They aren’t your buddies and there’s a chance they may feel a bit uncomfortable with a camera pointed at them (regardless of how good you are).

– You don’t really know a lot about their personal lives, so striking up conversation/making them laugh is pretty much left to the stock commentary that gets used with every client.

– (This is my big one) – Their personal bubble is a LOT bigger.

Those are just a couple of reasons why I only shoot weddings for family and friends.  I can get closer, make them laugh more consistently, and – most importantly – it seems like less of a job and more like fun (which GREATLY improves image quality).

So anywho – a friend/former instructor of mine got hitched at the end of last month and I was there along with Ashley Lawler and Laura Raymond for picture takin’.

Here are some of the nifty shots we got.

– Jon

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Going Green… Decoratively.

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Due in no small part to a connection from a close friend, I’ve recently begun some business with a local/national herbalogically-minded, interior decoration-based company.  I suppose that’s a bit wordy, but it’s a pretty accurate description of what these folks do.

The company is BrightGreen and they craft “Living Walls.”     These guys —-> 

Basically, imagine a unit that allows plants to grow vertically on a wall instead of on the ground or in pots.  Also, because each unit can hold multiple small plants, you can essentially plant designs on the wall that match the decor and such.

Over the past coupe weeks, we began work creating imagery for the new product from the company, the “Grovert.”  It’s the plant-it, hang-it, grow-it yourself unit for sale at  plant nurseries in the Midwest.

Here’s a bit of of the project –  a few of my favorite shots.  What do you guys think?

– Jon

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Home Grown Ads.

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Hey y’all! Sorry it’s been a bit since the last post – Finals week sort of took up my time. But now I’m back and ready to rock out some new work!

Let’s start with a finish. Over the last few months there have been regular posts about a series of group adverting projects. We’ve seen hygene products, security systems, summer-y desserts… No we finish the series in the real estate industry.

Our task for this last project was to design a pair of single page ads, a 2-page spread, a billboard, and a commercial. The task was intended to focus on the service industry, so we chose the real estate sector (specifically residential real estate.

I’ll skip the long-drawn breakdown of why we did what we did – Enjoy!

Oh – and fair warning: the video is REALLY cheesy.

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High Tech Self-Promo

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This has been in the works for about 3 months now.

Since the start of term, I wanted to put together a booklet – kind of like a process book (showing clients how I get to the end of a project).  So, I did.

I won’t ramble about it, as it’s intended to be fairly self-explanatory.  I wouldn’t mind some thoughts and opinions, though.

Whadaya think?

– Jon