John Early

New Blog URL

2011-01-31T13:16:00.001-08:00

This blog is out-of-date and no longer maintained. Please visit my new blog at http://blog.johnearly.com.

Joshua Tree Time Lapse Teaser

2010-05-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

OK so life keeps getting in the way of editing, so my Joshua Tree blog post is going to be delayed. Here's a little RAW teaser:

White Tank - Joshua Tree from John Early on Vimeo.

To see it bigger and better got straight to Vimeo

Joshua Tree Trip

2010-05-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

Man am I tired! Just spent three days out in Joshua Tree shooting stock and testing time lapse. I can hardly wait to start processing and editing! Right after I pay some bills and finish a couple estimates. Stay tuned for the story and pictures in the next couple days...

Acura MDX Shoot Results

2010-04-12T22:12:00.001-07:00

I've updated my website with my latest work for Acura. The shoot was a great team effort plus alot of fun and everyone including me is very pleased with the results.

Final hero image from Mammoth shoot. See it at Acura.com.

The final hero shot of the "family on the road" shot.

Timelapse Fun

2010-03-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I had posted this already, but I guess not. Have been experimenting lately with time lapse imagery. Here's a test I did of some wilting lettuce on spec for a local art buyer. This is a 9-day time lapse of a wilting head of Napa cabbage. Pretty cool. It's a big download so please be patient.

On Location in Mammoth Part 3

2010-03-18T18:54:00.001-07:00

We woke the morning of our prep day looking at 16" of fresh powder that fell the night before. The grip truck hadn't even made it to Mammoth. We told them to stay in Bishop overnight and they'd come up the next morning. Here we are arriving on location in Mammoth.

Warming by the fire was a treat to escape the 20 degree weather outside.

Prepping the driveway. The client wanted no snow on the driveway so guys had to chip away the snow and ice and melt it with huge propane blowtorches.

Serious icicles.

Joel, the lighting master, setting a strobe over the entryway.

Gilhooley, setting an on-camera fill flash, next to the H2.

Overview.

Gilhooley issuing commands.

Huge icicles

Time to wrap

Next stop after the shoot was a tasting session at the local Mammoth Brewing Company. Yummm. HIghway 395 double IPA was my fave!

On Location in Mammoth Part 2

2010-03-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

OK - So we recently hit the road to Mammoth. A fun six-hour one-way road trip with my producer, my assistant Tim and my agency client. I know what you're thinking...six hours in the car with your client! But this client is super-cool and fun to be with so the ride just blew by.

After a pit stop at In N Out in Lancaster we hit the open road leaving the babylon shitsdem of LA behind. Such a great feeling - even when in a car!

After about four hours we stopped in Bishop for jerky at the world famous smoked meats establishment.

$50 bucks in jerky later we were ready to trade the Buttermilks for Mammoth Mountain.

As we turned right on Minaret Road in Mammoth and rounded the corner past the Village here is what we saw.

Incredible! But hey I was worried since we needed no snow on our driveway for a snow shot of a car in front of a cabin. (yes that's right - legal team of manufacturer stated no snow in the driveway for safety reasons) And it was 23 degrees and dumping! I knew it would be OK though since we had a team of snow melter on standby for the morning to melt the snow and dry it off the driveway if need be.

Downtown Mammoth at 3:00pm.

Driving through near-blizzard conditions

we pulled in to the carport at the Mammoth Mountain Inn.

Damn it was cold. 19 degrees and blowing snow in my face at 25 mph! We hurriedly unloaded and retreated into the lodge.

....to be continued ...

On Location In Mammoth Part 1

2010-03-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

OK- spent last week on location in Mammoth. It was a car shoot where the client wanted snow but not too much snow. We were shooting a vehicle in front of a cabin. The scenario: two couples arrive in their upscale SUV to their upscale cabin. The odd thing, or so I thought, is that the manufacturer's legal team said "no" to any snow in the driveway. I know. Weird. But hey, they're the client and they're paying so they get what they want.

I'll start off with just a teaser shot of Mammoth Mountain until I can get more time to enter more into the blog.

This shot was taken early morning after a snowstorm dumped 16" the night before!

More to come in the next couple days.

On Location in Newport Beach

2010-02-25T08:55:00.001-08:00

The weather was beautiful last week and cooperated for our shoot nicely. We were in Newport Beach on Newport Coast Drive shooting some blurred background plates for a job we have in production now.

The art director and John discuss framing the shot.

John making sure everything is set to go.

We shot with an Hasselblad H2 with a 35mm lens and the Phae One P45+ digital back supplied by Westside Digital.

Blocking traffic for some static shots.

Photos courtesy John Gilhooley

Latest Promo

2010-02-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

This is my latest e-promo sent out via Adbase last week. The image is a shot done for Acura on location in Orange County California at the new Performing Arts Center. The shoot was both stressful and a total blast for me all at the same time. I just love this big production stuff on location or studio. It's what excited me to get into the business and it's what I dream about shooting all the time. There are some behind the scenes images from this shoot on my website here.

Promoting

2010-02-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Starting to work on a new e-promo today. Should be out in a few days. In the meantime, I've posted a few new panoramas to my website. One is from a cool, dimly-lit restaurant in Hollywood called Comme Ca. Please take a moment to check it out.

It's Been A While

2009-12-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's really been too long since I updated my blog. Tsk Tsk.

Oh well. I guess that can be one of my New Year's resolutions.

In the meantime, just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season and best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010!

Peace and Love,

John

Self Promo Entry

2009-07-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

I Finally got around to entering PDN's 2008 Self Promo Contest. I entered the Overall Campaign Campaign category and also entered two of my unique promotions in the Unique Promotion Category. Here are those two entries:

On Set With a Top Secret Car

2009-06-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry but I can't show you what we're shooting...yet.

Yours truly..

My Work Featured on AgencyScoop.com

2009-05-12T20:09:00.001-07:00

Today my work was featured on AgencyScoop.com. Check it out!

I am Featured on Wonderful Machine's Blog

2009-02-11T11:41:00.001-08:00

I recently signed on with Wonderful Machine, which is akin to an online portal/PR service for a select group of photographers. This week I am being featured on their blog. Check it out please!

Starting 2009 Without a Rep

2009-02-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

I started off 2009 with a big change. I parted ways with Rich Hall who had been my rep of many years. Nothing precipitated this decision, I just felt like the time had come for change. We had a good, long run together and I wish him the best.

Since then I have been quite busy having to do all the promotion, and estimating that he had always handled. But it has been exciting and rewarding putting forward the energy with my producer to design and orchestrate the promos, portfolios and email campaigns...and see the results!

I recently did my first emailer campaign in Europe through Agency Access and had a 30.59% open rate and a 15.67% click-through rate which if you know email numbers are outstanding. My guess is that alot of people in Europe had never heard of me so they clicked through out of curiosity. Let's hope they take advantage of the weak dollar and come across the Pond to work with me.

Alot of people of people ask me if I am looking for a new rep right away. I've sought the counsel of several art buyers, a couple of which advised me I might not need a rep since I am a known entity. While I tend to agree to some extent, the right rep can bring alot to the table and elevate the photographer beyond the sum of their parts. But the wrong rep can act as an anchor or could even keep the photographer from getting some jobs. So the answer is yes I'm looking, but I'm in no hurry.

Some People Are So Lucky

2009-01-18T19:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not one to post videos or stuff I find on the web or gets forwarded to me, but this is an exception. This video shows some people and their extreme luck. Let's hope this good luck rubs off on all of us for 2009!

Location Portfolio

2008-12-23T22:15:00.001-08:00

My Location Portfolio is currently being featured on Slideshare. Check it out!

Location Portfolio

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Back to Reality

2008-12-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm just back from a grueling stock shooting trip to the Caribbean. This time I took my family along to mix a pleasure with business. After 10 days of 80 degree temps and tropical trade winds and days spent in shorts, Hawaiian shirt and flip flops it's hard to come back to reality in California. But hey, at least we got some much needed rain while I was gone!.

Here's an out-take from a stunningly beautiful beach in the Dominican Republic.

Here we are in Nassau, Bahamas.

Storm clouds at sunset in St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands.

A perfect sunset off Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands.

The Forest Re-Opens!!

2008-11-17T18:41:00.001-08:00

After a year of being closed due to the devastating Santiago Fire in October 2007, the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest is finally open. The official opening day was November 9th. Local mountain bikers celebrated and reclaimed the route with a morning and an afternoon ride.

My wife Kristine lead the morning ride with alot of Trail Angels present. They paused for a group photo at Cooks Corner before heading off on the ride.

The morning group posted a new trail register for trail users to write in at the Luge flagpole. I put a couple pictures in the front from just days after the fire was put out showing the charred destruction of the forest.

Kristine wrote down a fitting inspirational saying from John Muir.

Here is Kristine coming down the Luge, a tight, twisty gem of a singletrack. Can you tell she's having fun?

Then later that afternoon the big boys rode and placed a new American flag at the top of the Luge.

Here is a Warriors Society member enjoying the new and improved trail.

Re-opening the forest has made many hiker, bikers and equestrians very happy! Now if we could just get some rain!

New Work For Acura TL

2008-10-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

New work I shot of the 2009 Acura TL is now live at Acura.com. Most of the photography fills out the award-winning Interactive Showroom. It's a very interactive environment where the user can learn quite alot about the car without setting foot in the dealership. If one went through the entire showroom, it's quite possible they'd know more about the TL than alot of the people selling it.

My Aquarium of the Pacific Panoramas Go Live

2008-10-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

I was informed today that the new virtual tour of the exhibit, "Ocean on the Edge" at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific went live today. It features one still shot and two panoramas I shot for the Aquarium.

The client loved it and I think the site looks really good showing the big panos. Maybe next time I can convince them to go full screen!

Please have a look at the exhibit virtual tour.

2008-10-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I did some work for the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. They have installed a new exhibit called "Oceans on the Edge" and wanted to have a virtual walk-through for the web. The exhibit displays man's effects on the world's oceans as the population of humans exponentially grows. I shot shot two cyclindrical panos that will probably be linked together once they are posted on the aquarium's website.

I have to say it was a refreshing change of pace to be working on something other than a car shoot. Hopefully the aquarium will like the work and follow my suggestion of doing a full linked tour for the entire facility, which I think would be very cool.

2008-09-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

Just a few short weeks after my new website launched it has been selected as one the Livebooks Site of The Week. Traffic on the site has been brisk since the launch, with big spikes in traffic corresponding to an email campaign my rep launched last week.

New Website johnearly.com Launched!

2008-09-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally launched the new version of my professional website, johnearly.com. After looking at several options I decided to go with Livebooks as the site designer/host for their dependability and easy-to-use Edit Suite where I can upload, update and tweak my site on my own without having to wait for a designer to get around to it.

Working with Livebooks designer Corrie Tse, and Flash designer Adam Royer, we came up with a nice clean design that I think reflects my style and approach to photography. The site showcases my traditional photographic automotive and product work as well as my "new media" work consisting of animations, CGI, video, and virtual reality. There's also a new section called "Placement" that shows where some of my work has been seen on the internet. In addition I have a behind-the-scenes area and links to my blog and my stock site.

I'm thrilled with how it turned out so please feel free to take a look!

Life is Like Riding a Sand Pit

2008-08-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know I spend lots of time riding my mountain bike. Most of my riding time is spent with groups of riders or at least one or two others. Not only is this safer in case you crash or break down, but it's more social. But I have always enjoyed solo rides for the peace and quiet and for being able to just ride at my own pace, whether it's fast, slow or medium that day. Those who also mountain bike may also know that one of the best qualities of mountain biking (on anything but pavement) is that it tends to free your mind of worries and extraneous thoughts and allows you to only focus on the here and now that is the trail in front of you (especially on downhills). Lose that focus and you will likely crash. Simple as that.

So suffice it to say when I am riding solo on anything remotely technical I'm not doing much deep-thinking...just concentrating on the flow of the trail and problem-solving my way up or down the hill. With all that being said, the other day I had a pretty deep thought while out on a solo ride.

It was mid-week, early morning in the newly re-opened Whiting Regional Park. Many know that name because it is where Mark Reynolds, a mountain biker, was killed by a mountain lion a few years ago. Last year it burned in a forest fire and was closed to the public until just a few weeks ago. The park was particularly empty and I had only seen one hiker on the way up Borrego Trail. Borrego meanders it's way along a mostly dry creek, slowly gaining elevation as the trail climbs the canyon. Before the fires this trail used to be a cakewalk to ride. Smooth, buff hard-packed trail, worn smooth by countless mountain bikers. After the fires and the rainy season Borrego Trail became a sand pit wherever the trail crossed the dry creek bed. What used to be smooth, easy trails were now in many places a 75-foot stretch of 6-10" deep sand. In case you've never ridden in sand like this, it is difficult to say the least to negotiate. Many bikers tossed out a slew of negative opinions about the sand and why couldn't it be removed. Apparently they were not able to negotiate it. I found it wasn't easy like it used to be, but hey look on the bright side..it's rideable and at least the park is open.

As I was crossing one of the sand pits on my morning ride, this deep metaphorical thought crossed my mind. These sandpits were like one's life journey in a several ways.

Life can be hard at times, but not impossible: Just like the sand pit. Riding in sand is difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible to traverse. But with enough steady effort and the right balance, the sand is easily travelled.
Have a plan: Allow your front tire to wander from the straight line in the sand and you will either crash or be delayed and you will exert extra effort to exit the sand pit. Just as in life, without a plan to steer straight on, one might wander through life,get sidetracked and either never achieve one's potential or a least will require or expend additional unnecessary effort to achieve one's goals.
Everything in moderation: Enter the sandpit too fast and even the slightest steering mistake will send you flying. Enter too slow and you will bog down not able to ride through the sand and having to walk. Same goes for life...live it too fast and hard and a mistake could send you crashing to rock bottom. Live life too slowly and carefully and you might miss out on many of the best things in life.

And then just about the time I completed that deep thought, I realized I wasn't concentrating on the trail enough and I should stop thinking and just ride!

Pirate Ride

2008-08-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Kristine and I participated in a cool ride called The Pirate Ride. This is a semi-underground ride where a large group of mountain bikers get together, dress up like pirates (and wenches of course) and ride. Well there's a little drinking thrown in also to spice things up. After all it wouldn't be a pirate ride without some rum! Arrghhh!

This year the event was so popular it was covered by the Orange County Register. The ride, and the party was alot of fun. But the fun was marred by two crashes when we headed down the hills back to the cars. Our friend Brenda dislocated her elbow and we had to take her to the hospital. Another friend, Vickie, crashed and ended up getting a black eye.

Check out the thread on SoCalTrailRiders.org for lots of awesome pictures and words.

Gnarls Barkley at the Hollywood Bowl

2008-07-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

My wife and I had a nice date on Sunday. We ventured up to LA-LA land to see Gnarls Barkley at the Hollywood Bowl. We had great box seats 14 rows back in the center. Here's some Youtube content someone else shot of the concert. We were lucky to be much closer than this. If I get a chance I'll upload some of the video and stills I shot.

The opening bands were Deerhoof and then Fallou Dieng. Deerhoof can best be described as a four-piece super-electic San Franciso band experimenting in wildly varying rock timelines and beats with high-pitched vocals from their asian female vocalist. I don't think the crowd liked them much but I kind of liked a couple songs because they reminded me of The Flaming Lips in their earlier, more raw formative years.

Fallou Dieng is a great Senegalese nine-piece band with a great rhythmic African sound. They were tapped at the last minute to replace Youssou N'Dour who could not make the gig for some reason.

Gnarls Barkley was awesome as expected and really rocked the bowl. They played alot of their best songs as well as a cover of "Reckoner" by Radiohead for their encore. Alot of people don't know Gnarls Barkley isn't some actual person, but it's just a name. The lead talent is Danger Mouse who played piano and Cee-lo Green who is the vocalist. Of course they "had" to play "Crazy" as they were "contractually obligated" as they put it.

Here's a great article that goes into more depth about the concert.

My Portfolio Makes Photoserve's Top 10 of the Month!

2008-07-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Got an email yesterday telling me that I had been selected for the Portfolio of the Month at Photoserve.com. Check it out!

Trail Work...Time to Give Back

2008-07-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I spent most of my Saturday doing some trail work on The Luge up the Santa Anas. The Warriors Society had a work event to repair a section of failing trail. This trail took alot of damage in the fires last fall. Even though this area of the forest is still closed, our group has permission to access the forest to patrol and perform trail work. Here's a link to the write-up on Socal Trail Riders.

Acura MDX CGI Photo Shoot

2008-07-21T07:47:00.001-07:00

Just wrapped up a CGI shoot with Acura last week for the 2009 MDX. We shot background plates and HDRI dome down at The PIke in Long Beach, CA. The shoot went really smooth since we had a really great crew for the shoot.

We used the Biax dolly from Move-n-Shoot which worked out really well. The dolly moves on two axes to simulate the motion that we would get if we had a camera rig on a car. I prefer this more organic method of blurring the background instead of trying to reproduce it in post.

Look for the shot on the model landing page of Acura.com in a couple months.

Time to Ride

2008-07-18T11:00:00.001-07:00

The shoot wrapped early enough last night to get a ride in with some friends. Summer is a great time to ride in the evening around Rancho.

This is a view looking toward Saddleback Peak in the Santa Anas.

The Blog is born.

2008-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Been meaning to get this rolling for some time now...the blog is finally born.