Fun shot from a recent Dead Bury Dead shoot I had the other week. Shot a short film that day as well, expect that within a month or two. Click the photo to view larger.
Ingredients -
One giant blanket acting as a cheap 4×8 flag.
Three lights
One smoke grenade (note – obtain more next time. They don’t last long)
Various mixed surplus war apparel.
Fake blood and soot
One killer cigar.
Mix well in an empty field area, bake at ISO 100 400 and pick the best shot for final promotional use. Season to taste.
They seem to be blowing up, I figured it would happen. Just today for example, I went and checked out a video review from gamespot.com on the game Borderlands and a Cage the Elephant song was playing throughout the entire review.
I did a shoot with Cage the Elephant earlier this year, was part of a Sony/Red Summer Music Guide/Mini AP magazine. I had one of the four covers, we did the shoot (stressfully!) at Bamboozle east. Had twenty minutes with the band to pull off two looks, and while it ended up being more like 1 1/2 looks, it came out well.
Here is my favorite photo from the shoot, it’s also posted on my website under the “music” section. They’re coming through Atlanta November 21st.
Cage the Elephant (www.keatonandrew.com)
Quick little update, did another shoot with The Boys of Summer on Monday during my visit to Ohio. Shot in the Temple Court area of Mansfield, one of the neatest areas to shoot I’ve come across over the years. When it comes to finding locations, the best ones are where you can get different looks in the same area. Free is always good, too.
both of these were lit with a single softbox and edited in both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I’ve been trending into simplicity with my work lately. I like the clean, simple look and that’s what I got with these. The first shot was shot with my Canon 50mm f1.4 lens and the second with the Canon 85mm f1.8. The 50 1.4 tends to have some issues on the left side when shot wide open, large amounts of blue chromatic aberration in particular. When I can afford it, the 50L is definitely next on my list.
The Boys of Summer
The Boys of Summer
Finally had a chance to shoot outdoors for the first time in a long time. This is Aaron Van Dike, also part of Five Giants Studio.
Sadly, it appears Safari 4 has broken the links section in wordpress for the moment, so I’ll have to provide links through text at the moment.
www.flickr.com/photos/aaronvandike to see aaron’s work
www.fivegiantsstudio.com to see what we’re about. There’s some crazyyyyy things happening we can’t tell you about yet 
A forewarning: this is not about photography, but instead one of the random thoughts that occasionally plagues my brain until I allow it an avenue of escape in the form of writing. If you desire something creative instead, take a look at the video I’ve been working on. Also keep in mind I didn’t really have an english education after my sophomore year in high school, so my writing ability may be lacking somewhat 
Dreams are one of the more interesting occurrences in the world we exist in. I say exist, because are we truly alive? I look at us in this existence, and I fail to see us as alive. If we were alive, we would embrace our surroundings in different ways. Existence, however, I shall leave for another post.
I rarely dream. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself. By dream, I speak of the world our minds fall into as we slumber. It’s something I rarely find myself in. Of course, this likely means that I usually simply forget my dreams as they happen. I have noted something in my dreams of late though, as I have been fortunate enough in remembering them: a common variable.
All of my dreams feature something missing, wrong, or out of place. And every single time, no one else notices. It ranges from something as simple as a basketball game being played on the court sideways instead of the normal way with one of the hoops over some of the seats to something such as black coal marks on everyones’ faces. The former was an actual recent dream, the latter was simply an example.
I, being more of a cynical, logical person, have never seen my dreams as having any true connection or meaning in my real life. (Many Christians have, I’m not saying they haven’t. I just don’t see it with me.) However, I do believe I have found a tie-in with this. We as human beings often ignore the most basic of things. We see the struggles in the world, and we hurt for those far away from us. We then walk right beside someone hurting just as bad and do nothing, see nothing, we do not care. It’s a blatant attempt to feel better about our position. “Surely that only happens to them. My world is perfect, I am happy” we say to ourselves. In the process, we blind ourselves to our friends, even to our family. We deem what we have as wonderful, when it is just as blemished as what’s out there.
Why do we focus on the suffering of those on the other side of the world when there’s suffering in our own homes, towns, streets? I don’t understand it. Perhaps thiscomes across slightly self-centered, but I disagree.
I’m afraid I just used up all of my inspiration, and I failed to completely finish my thoughts. Perhaps you could leave some of your own thoughts on this? I find it difficult to publish this, as I always do when I post something that includes an opinion of mine. I have a problem with assuming I’m usually wrong about things such as this.
A video promoting the studio I’m a part of in Canton, Ohio. Enjoy
All footage was shot and edited by Dave Shepherd with:
Canon 5d Mark ii
24-105mm f4
15mm f2.8
85mm f1.8
Occasionally using Alien Bee Modeling Lamps
5 Giants is:
Keaton Andrew (me!)
Dave Shepherd
Nick Brewer
Gino Locasico
Aaron Van Dike
Bands shown in the video:
By The Way
Attack Attack
Song:
Romeo A Go-Go by Every Time I Die
(and that’s me that falls crazily on the skateboard. haha. First time ever trying to skateboard!)
I needed a first post on this page. I decided I’d post a shot from a trip I made earlier this year, albeit after I ramble a little.
I will be using this blog for many things. I will talk about gear, I will talk about techniques (some, I’m not giving everything away!), how I do some things or thoughts and ideas about photography. I will occasionally talk about other photographers, things I am inspired by. I will sometimes talk about life and not even mention anything even distantly related to photography. I definitely plan on using this blog to post a lot of photos that are of a different style than what is typically in my portfolio.
Either way, you should use that “subscribe” link down on the bottom of the page and keep up to date with things I’m saying, because we all know how important my ramblings are
A month or two ago, I made a trip up to New England to do a few photo shoots. I did one in New Hampshire with a good group of guys in a band called Armor For The Broken, then I had to make the trek down to southern Massachusetts to shoot a band called The Miles Between. That trek involved me driving through Boston in the morning. I was doing what I often do when traveling, which is putting my 5D on aperture priority with my 24mm f2.8 lens and holding it at arms length while shooting some random shots. I came up upon the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge bridge and somehow was able to miraculously get two really good shots of it. I then managed to put a sneaky good lightroom edit on it that I liked, and I usually don’t like these weird edits, but I think it turned out good. If interested in buying this as a print or licensing usage, please get in touch with me. Anyway, here is that photo:
the Zakum Bridge in Boston