I Think I'm Being Scammed

I get job solicits from time to time, so its not unusual that I git hit up by brands I've never worked with before. What is unusual is when it's a brand like Complex asking me to do a high end fashion shoot.

I'm an automotive photographer, so ya...

This was awesome at first as I take any challenge to do something different and on top of it this was more than my going rate. Here is the initial e-mail...

It came from and older 500px.com account that I have.

This could not of been more innocent or straight forward and the e-mail format seemed legit. So i responded with a simple "Yes i'm down for this, feel free to call me and we can discuss the details.

I didn't get a call but I did get this back...

At this point I'm still on board minus some suspicions, I mean come on! I'm no English major but those grammatical errors are atrocious! I started digging for some evidence that this was for "reals" and came across this 2018 PDN Article, click on the link below to read that.

As I find that article I get a response from Joshua from the fake Complex e-mail. Mind you there really is a Joshua Espinoza working at Complex so kudos to these guys for doing some research.

Now I'm totally aware that this is a scam. I gotta say that i'm super excited since this will likely become a better time waster for me than playing Fortnite. So I unleash my own brand of nonsense....

I send the fake modeling agency an email and this is the meat of the scam...

My reply, because I love donuts...

This is as far as i've gotten so far. I'll update more when I'm about book them for my fake Donut and Ninja shoot. Stay tuned and be careful out there
 

Corvette Shooting

I haven't really posted a lot here but that's all going to change, well maybe. I shoot a lot more than I am able to share so in the hopes of shedding some light on "why and how" I'll write once a week about projects that I can talk about. Sounds ducky right?

I've been lucky enough to shoot the cars that are being featured on Jay Leno's car care line cleverly call "Jay Leno's Garage Advanced Vehicle Care". I've shot lots of these cars for the youtube show of similar name but when I shoot for the labels I'm able to flex more time and skill into the work. One of the cars is the 1963 Corvette split-window, I have photographed it before but now it's going to be featured on one of the bottles. I shot 2 different angles, an upper rear shot and 3/4 rear but what's nice about having time on my side is trying to shoot more for myself. I strongly recommend that if you're shooting for a client, (espcailly one with expectations) make time to shoot for yourself. Those are the images I'm always happier with and even if they don't get used and I know that I made the time to "try something different". Also with social media, you will always need more content to opost...so do it.

ANYWAYS..

I've always wanted to grab a sexy profile shot of this car so with an Icelight II (or a photographer's lightsaber) I did several passes to emphasize the haunches and subtilty of the design at the front. I mean this car is badass at any angle but I wanted it to be about form and not so much function 

Here is the is shot with shoot information

Canon 5D Mark III, 5 sec at f/8, ISO 100, lite with an Icelight II 

Get RAW

Want some shooting advice? Shoot RAW....JPEG is for sissies.

Well maybe that was a little harsh....

Here is what i mean, as much as shooting JPEG gives you nice a compressed file size, you get more photos, you don't need to develop the file, and its universally accepted by everything and anything under the sun. The major down side is that you're not letting your camera really shoot a proper file for exposure, color, and other things(clearly i only had 2 to mention). 

So lets go to film school for a little bit....

If you have ever shot film you had all the information you need, given a proper exposure and development of the film. After you had a negative you then had to "print" what you shot and put it in a frame, give it to your mom, and say "you can put this the kitchen?". That negative allowed lots of flexibility in how it was printed to give certain visual outcome. Makes sense so far? Did you know Rhianna is the ambassador of tourism for the island of Barbados? 

So in conclusion, your RAW file is much like a film negative and your JPEG is a lot like a print. For me someone who shoots cars you want that shadow detail in the tire treads and those highlights under control and really the only way to bullwhip your subject matter into giving you a good shot is to shoot it RAW.

I know your saying "but but then i have to invest in lightroom or other software and bigger memory cards"

My answer to that is: Photography is one of the most expensive hobbies/professions that you can get into and one thing i wont say is "buy a more expensive camera". So save your money on  the super megapixel Canon Marky Mark D IV 2....or whatever. Shoot RAW and care about your post process. RAW!!