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I shot out of bed on Friday and decided that I wanted to ignore all of the duties of the day to walk around downtown Dallas and photograph random places. As I walked through the streets and back alleys looking for interesting subjects and hoping not to get mugged, I ended up outside a friends downtown condo. After a quick phone call to announce my presence, I was whisked upstairs to enjoy my first Mexican Mocha. (patented by Alberto) We enjoyed the coffee and chatted about photographers. I convinced Alberto to join me on my pilgrimage to the land of leisure. We took the train to Deep Ellum and ate at All Good Cafe, which is my new favorite spot to grab lunch. Extremely relaxing environment. We met up with Chad Windham who happened to be visiting the cafe to discuss business with a colleague. After a brief discussion it turns out that Chad was looking to share some studio space. (Which was exactly what I have been looking for!!) So there may be a great fit there. Alberto and I continued on our stroll around Dallas and I have to say (and this is a compliment) they should put alberto’s mouth in the circus!!! He is one hell of a tour guide. We would walk by a building and I would get the history of the place and he would point out which alley not to go down b/c it was haunted. The whole experience with alberto was fascinating. We ended up taking a break at the Amsterdam Bar to enjoy a beer and continue our chat about photography. I really enjoyed that place and would fiercely recommend it. I have been looking for a bar that reminds me of Austin and Amsterdam Bar is spot on. And the coolest part is the studio I was looking at is across the street. I ended the day by taking the train back to my place and having a relaxing evening. Friday was a perfect day.
Will Rutledge tackles the intricacies of photographing cars and planes Iphone style.
I got the call on Monday morning to grab my gear and head from Dallas Texas to Arkansas to for a multiple day, multiple location photo shoot. I made the trip that night and got into Little Rock at midnight. Hit the road the next morning to finish the drive and got to the first location on time and in good shape. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos of the photo shoot.
Race Cars are fun to photograph.
Behind-the-scenes of one of the set-ups used to photograph the car.
Low angle photograph showing how far the car is off from the ground.
After a couple of hours with the car… I got to play with the plane.
Cool Iphone shot of an Eclipse 500. Beautiful plane!!!
Tail shot of Eclipse 500. Photographed with my Iphone.
Photographer Will Rutledge works with his kick ass creative director to make some rugs look sexy
I got a call from a Lizzy Grojean, a freelance creative director, to come shoot a commercial assignment for Basil Scaljon. Basil is an exotic rug dealer that operates out of San Antonio, Texas and he wanted to run some regional ads for his main store. The graphic designer on the photo shoot was out of BBDO in Chicago. We spent the day photographing specific rugs and then I spent some time photographing some interiors for Basil because I liked him and wanted to help him out. Both Basil and Liz allowed me to take part in this experience and gave me complete freedom to ply my artistic insanity. (Within certain guildlines… of course.) Rugs certainly aren’t the most entertaining of subjects, but we had fun during the shoot and I made my assistant entertain us by dancing (in his own truly unique way) to the musings of Madonna and Depeche Mode. I think I even saw Basil shaking it a little when no one was watching… Good photo shoots start with a good crew of people… lesson has been learned.
Will Rutledge photographs exotic rugs for commercial photo shoot.
Here is a slide show of some arrangements I made… I thought I would jump into the studio and play for a bit. I have to give it to stylists, setting up flowers and such is a little harder than I thought it would be…hehehehe. It was a great experience though… The first photo I call “flower floating in orange juice”.
Here are some photos of Melissa and Bart Lane’s child that I photographed… (see pregnant photo post from last month) Welcome Von Lane… Melissa and Bart are both models and I can only imagine how good looking this kid will be… Hopefully he will invite me to all of his high school parties when I go through my “extremely successful photographer” stage and then turn into to “creepy old guy photographer” Total joke.. Besides… he would never invite me to the parties unless I bought all the alcohol and only then would I get relegated to the corner… Stupid popular kids in high school… hehehe
I forced myself to take a vacation so I packed up the vehicle with camera gear and my flip flops and made a one day drive from Dallas to Destin Florida. I am staying at Bobby Bowden’s beach house (if you don’t know who that is then I can’t help you…sighhh hehe) I have found that an interesting side effect of a vacation is that I have been getting up before dawn to run and/or take sun rise photos… (I normally get up at 9am and drink diet coke)
The photo above is a pre dawn shot I took… I was slightly unprepared for the weather and got pummeled by intense chilly wind. I left my flip flops at the entrance to the beach and hoofed it through the dunes for a while to get to this spot…
I have learned three things on this trip so far..
1. Sand can get really cold in the morning… really cold! 2. I DO NOT want to be a truck driver… 3. I am an interesting person to talk to on a road trip for 9 hours and then I run out of things to say to myself… (which sucks when you are on a 12 hour drive… hehehe)
I photographed El Chaperral, a Mexican restaurant, for SP Partners in San Antonio. It turned out to be an overnight shoot as we couldn’t photograph while the restaurant was open. There were some intricate lighting setups used to achieve the look the art director was looking for but everything worked out according the plan and everyone was happy. (I was happy when the margaritas came out.)
I was recently contracted to photograph some architecture in San Antonio by SP Partnership, a local architecture firm that concentrates on Green energy buildings. The first job was for the Paul Mitchell training salon. I loved the open space, steel supports, and huge windows that allowed incredible amounts of beautiful light. I accented the natural light with a couple Profoto packs and concentrated on photographing the space of the structure. SP Partnership wanted to market the openness of the property for future clients.
Here is a slideshow of Paul Mitchell’s training salon…
Yikes!!!! My apologies for not posting anything sooner… I have had a lot to write about but was neglectful to get my thoughts on paper (or blog).
I thought I would do one big entry to catch up. Here goes…
This is a book on architecture that was made (not published) in 1716. It has spent 100 years of its life in a museum before being giving to a interior designer as a gift. It is worth more than the place I was in and that is saying something. I am fascinated by books and this one combines my love of architecture and old musty book smell. I didn’t want to go near it for fear of touching it, it falls apart and then I am responsible for the inadvertent destruction of this treasure. It is an amazing piece of history.
Next…
Started working with Sports Illustrated again… Here comes football, and lots of basketball… hooray!!!! (No photos to share unfortunately)
Next…
This was a set up for an ad shoot for Kawasaki. Can someone say PROFOTO!?! I love those lights. I think I was the only one on the shoot that didn’t have a tattoo. I have to go get one or something… I have noticed that tatoos are used as conversation starters and can bridge commonality between people… too bad I am phobic of needles… hehehe no ink for this guy…Shoot was great and the five bloody mary’s afterward was even better… I got to see some friends that flew in from Kansas City and NY for the shoot so that was cool. I even found out that one of the girls there went to the World Series of Poker and was sponsored by Maxim… that was such a crazy story.
Next… Yes…. umm…. I was pretending to be a german shepard b/c it was easier than trying to get the dog to sit for the portrait. The best part isn’t me being an idiot… but the look on the face of the producer/stylist when I did it… She “says” she enjoys working with me but maybe not after this… hehehehehhe
I have some more to share when I get the photos finished… that is all for right this moment…
I was strolling through downtown Dallas because the weather is fantastic right now and I came across Glen the security guard. It was the way he waved hello to me that made me have to ask the sometimes awkward favor to let me photograph him. He was a humble individual and was gracious to indulge me even though we both knew he had better things to do. He had a quiet grace and a magnificent spirit. I asked him so many questions about himself that I think I embarrassed him. (or maybe I embarrassed myself?) There is a compelling story with Glen and I only got to hear a tidbit of it. I hope I run into him again.
umm yes… there is a GREAT reason why I hate self portraits… Thank goodness I have a winning personality right??? hahahhahaha
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