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This week we’re blogging as we go, traveling and shooting throughout the western United States. Chris is on a seven day editorial project and we’re going to take you deep behind the scenes and share what it’s like to live life on the road, before during and after the shoot. All content posted from previous day.

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

6/17/13 – Mondays are always tough. I’m on the road quite a bit and when a get chance to spend time at home, I like to shut off work as much as possible. Being that this past weekend included Father’s Day, transitioning back to work was particularly unfriendly. Couple that with a 6:00 AM call time trip to the airport, and I just had to take a deep breath and shuffle along.

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

We travel so much now that we’ve developed a system for every part of the process. We have to pack the right numbers of bags right up to the 50 pound limit as to not get hit with one of the big over the top fees that the airlines would love to charge you. We know the area of the parking lot to head to in order increase our chances of finding our car in a week. There are a few other things that aren’t worth mentioning, but you probably get the idea. We take pride in making the airport transfer process a smooth ride. (For a bit more technical approach to how we travel, you may want to take a look at our blog post on the subject.)

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

In our time of unlimited wireless connectivity, I still have a very hard time keeping up with my email. If I’m shooting more than 3 days a week, it is impossible to keep my inbox at zero. The flights are usually my best opportunity to get caught up and also keep my mind organized for what lies ahead of us. However, unending shooting also creates a backlog of other work processes to keep up with.

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

Today’s flight was an editing day, a mental prep day for this week’s shoots, and then a chunk of time being spent on overseeing the post production coming out of our studio right now. That said, if anyone reading this was expecting an email from me, I’ll advise you to email Robert this week if you need something quickly. (He’s not kidding. studio@crismanphoto.com is always available for emails).

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

This is one of those weeks that I feel more like a trucker/traveling salesman/wifi hotspot and less like a photographer. We’re going to hit 5 states in a week and most days we won’t have time to sit down and have a meal with the unique people we’re going to meet. There is a certain pace to things these days that is just what you have to do to make it all work.

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

This post may sound like I’m complaining, but don’t be fooled.  I am grateful to be here, and there, and everywhere, doing exactly what I’m doing.

Questions? Comments? Let us know below or @crismanphoto or /Crismanphoto on facebook. Cheers!

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We’re excited to be kicking off a new project on the blog this week – something we’ve never quite done before. We’re going to take you deep behind the scenes and share what it’s like to live life on the road, before during and after the shoot.

To accomplish this, the Crisman team is dividing and conquering for the next week. Chris and photo assistant David Ohl will be traveling and shooting all week on and editorial project while I’m staying back in Philadelphia to hold down the fort – and of course, post their updates as they get relayed back to home base.

chris crisman behind the scenes west adventure

As we’re posting this, Chris and David are 30,000 feet up in the air, on their way to Phoenix, Arizona to start an adventure that will take them from the scorching deserts of the southwest, through the grand natural beauty of Yellowstone, and up north to the big sky country of Idaho before returning to the east coast. Until next Monday they have two airports, eight cities, dozens of energy drinks, thousands of miles and a ton of photos to look forward to. Stay tuned as their week unfolds, delivered to you daily here on the blog, @crismanphoto or on our Facebook page.

 

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chris crisman photographer tech post laptop upgrade

When it comes to upgrading a core piece of technology for the studio, we have two essential criteria we need to think about. First, we shoot a helluva lot of photos. Second, we’re on the road most of the year. With these key factors in mind, we need a laptop that can handle whatever we throw at it. Our macbooks need to be both processing powerhouses and jam packed with as much storage as we can fit.

Monday we might be shooting tethered in studio in NYC and Tuesday we’ll be out in the deserts of New Mexico – we never really know what shoot scenarios to expect so we have to plan for anything. Our newest piece of technology looks like a standard Macbook Pro on the outside, but under the hood is where things get a bit different. Keep reading for the breakdown of our new, ridiculously fast laptop…

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cc2013008 - Shane's Confectionaries for Smithsonian Magazine

You know it’s going to be a good day on set when Smithsonian Magazine calls and asks us to shoot in a candy store. To further sweeten the deal (no pun intended), we were tasked to make portraits of the Berley brothers – dapper proprietors of Shane Confectionery, the oldest candy shop in the country. Famous for their zealous attention to authenticity and  incredible confectionery creations, we spent the good part of a day with Eric and Ryan, taking pictures and making candy.  Keep reading for the rest of our story…

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In the fall of 2012 we took on an exciting campaign, shooting still photography and directing video. Working for RTC Agency and AARP Services, Inc. – Chris took a seat in the directors chair to produce five 15 second spots as well as five matching print ads. The results? We couldn’t be more excited to debut them today.

chris crisman advertising director aarp commercial

Each of the five commercial spots has a matching print ad – our still crew worked in tandem with the video production to match the mood and feel of the motion in a single image.

chris crisman advertising director aarp commercial

As you can see from the commercials and the print ads, each still shot reflects that one crucial moment from the video when our hero subject realizes their mistake. We shot and directed the video spots first, quickly transitioning our strobes and octabanks in to replace the HMI lighting from the video crew.

chris crisman advertising director aarp commercial

Our shoot lasted three days over five different locations in and around New York City. We were up well before the sun on all of our shoot days, making the most of daylight in order to get this massive project shot.

chris crisman advertising director aarp commercial

Thanks to tons of planning and incredibly precise pre-production, we were able to make it all happen. It’s certainly no easy task to coordinate full scale photo and video production across multiple locations.

chris crisman advertising director aarp commercial

We owe a big thanks to our video crew for the shoot. They may have different and sometimes strange names for all of their grip, but they sure as hell can rig, light, and shoot in any location. It’s impressive.

Last but certainly not least, we captured behind the scenes footage of the entire experience and cut it to some awesome punk rock music. Directing and shooting real deal commercial video is a massive undertaking and this behind the scenes video barely scratches the surface of what we learned working with the film crew over those few days.

Questions? Comments? Let us know below or @crismanphoto!

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chris crisman PECO ogres advertising photography

For the last few years, we have worked with the Tierney agency on a campaign for PECO Energy. For all of you Philadelphians out there, I’m sure you’ve seen the TV commercials and billboards all over our fine city that feature the “PECO Ogres,” urging you to conserve energy in a variety of different ways. for everyone not from our area, well you’re just missing out on some quality advertising. From dishwashers to light-bulbs, air conditioners to fuse boxes, we have been fortunate enough to create the still images for this multi-year advertising campaign.

chris crisman PECO ogres advertising photography

Every year that we work on the campaign, it has provided us with new and interesting inatimate subjects to work with – each with their own unique set of challenges. In the summer of 2012 we spent the day making portraits of this years latest Ogres. Keep reading to find out  how these images came together and see a handful of behind the scenes from the shoot…

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chris crisman weekly wrap up editorial advertising editorial tra

What day is it? Seriously – it’s kinda hard to keep track at this point. I think it’s Friday and therefore we should probably write a wrap-up and bring you all up to speed on the craziness that has been the last few weeks. We’ve been down in San Antonio Texas, shooting pieces for the monster project that has us busy all month long. From Seaworld to the zoo, the golf-course to Texas Hill country, it feels like we’re slowly working our way through every single piece of the city – meeting new faces, having unique experiences, and of course making photos all along the way. We’ve got a ton more to share from the past week, keep reading to see what we’ve been up to…

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