#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 7, Rome/The Caforio Family continued...

The last stop on the #GoMoEuro 2015 trip was in Rome, Italy with the son in the Caforio family, Damiano. He's an incredibly smart man, who is always welcoming us and showing us a good time. This time was no exception! We got to see all the major landmarks in the city, but ours came with a personal, detailed history lesson to teach us dumb Americans a thing or two about world history. 

I think putting Rome last was perfect for my dad. He was super impressed with all of the architecture over in Europe, starting out in Germany visiting churches and castles going back 800-900 years. That amazed him, and he thought it couldn't get better. Then we would visit parts of Italy that go back farther than 900 years, and that would impress him too. Then in Rome, the amazement goes back even further, with structures that are even more amazing to imagine their construction. Rome was awesome! Rome is awesome!

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 6, Sava/The Caforio Family

By now we have made it through most of our trip. It had all gone by way too fast, but we were still eager for our last couple stops. We would be ending this trip visiting with the family that my sister stayed with for 6 months as an exchange student about 12 years ago! The Caforio family is amazing, and I've gone to Italy to visit them with a friend about 6 years ago... They are always welcoming us, so we finally took them up on it. This would be the first time the parents would be able to meet my dad, too!

They live in Sava, Italy, which is a town that gets virtually no tourism, but it's a place I like to call "home" in Southern Italy. In this gallery there will be photos from Sava, Lecce, the coast nearby Jonio (Yon'yo), and a few cities along the Eastern coast along the Adriatic Sea.

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 5, Venice

Next was a very quick overnight stay in Venice, Italy. When we were leaving the train station in Cinque Terre, I managed to throw out my back picking up my luggage. I was carrying a lot of luggage. MAJOR thanks to Scott and my dad for helping my get all of my things across Italy!

Despite a sore back, I still had to photograph Venice. And I love it. The city was so beautiful, and the weather was pretty much ideal for our quick stay. We had some cloud cover, and a bit of sun the next afternoon before our late departure. I managed to shoot a bunch of photos, and some of them I plan on printing large next week.

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 4, Cinque Terre

The next stop was along the coast in a place called Cinque Terre. Ask your parents about this place, they're probably looked into taking a vacation there. It's a total tourist destination, yet it feels slightly old-worldly. You can't mistake how the tourism provides for this community, but it seems like classic, typical small-town Italy. We spent a few days here, and they were nice and relaxing. I took some photos here that I really ended up loving.

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 3, Tuscany

Our next stop was in Tuscany, Italy. It was a truly amazing stop full of wine tasting, olive oil tasting, epic back roads, and scenery reminiscent of home. Lots of hills, trees, vineyards...the only obvious differences were the CASTLES on the hills, and the little cars on the roads. 

Besides getting sick in Tuscany, it was one of my favorite stops on the trip!

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 2, Florence, Italy

Our Second Country was Italy. First city, Fiorenza. We arrived and my sister had booked us an apartment in the HEART of the city. There was a huge street market going on when we arrived, and within an hour we were out wine tasting underneath the Duomo.

I really enjoyed Florence. There were so many beautiful things to photograph, and it was just so full of life. It was great. I could have done another day there, but I don't know how that would have worked out! We saw so much, and we all were all ready to go home by the end of it. 

Here are the photos from Florence, enjoy!

#GoMoEuro 2015: Part 1, Germany

I just got back from an epic vacation to Europe with my Dad Gary, Sister Kristin, and her Husband Scott. Our first stop, the whole premise for the trip, was for our old exchange student David's wedding. At nearly the same point in time 12 years ago, my sister was an exchange student in Italy. We still remain close contact with both families, so it was inevitable that we would have to make a stop in Italy. More on Italy later...

Germany. Leipzig to be exact. I've been here before, but that was 6 years ago. I was just picking up photography. I had waited for my return. It was awesome. Now I'm not much of a writer, so here are the photos to look at.

Karina's Grad Photos

Last week I shot college graduation announcement photos for a girl who I grew up being next door neighbors to... We didn't live next-door over from each other our entire life, but for probably a solid 10 or more years. She wanted to hire me to shoot these photos for her, and I knew that we'd get something great for her! She wanted to shoot in a local field right off of our bike trail, so it was going to be totally perfect for her. 

We shot for maybe half an hour, spending most of the time in an over-grown field with fair warning about the ticks that are in season right now. I definitely found 3 ticks on me as soon as we were done, yuck! Regardless of the pests, the shoot went great, and we even got her boyfriend in the shoot at the end! View the gallery below for my favorites from the shoot.

Parker's 2nd Birthday Party!

Today I shot my favorite little guy, Parker's 2nd birthday party. He is one of the smartest and happiest little kids I've ever met, and I've become really close with his family through the years. I knew today would be awesome, and the few photos I managed to snap are pretty adorable. He's a lot harder to shoot candids of these days! He's quick and he's smart! ...I'll be shooting him and his family again on Monday too, which should be an awesome little shoot.

ISM "Pony" Music Video Shoot

I had a totally new client hit me up from Oakland, CA saying he managed a younger up and coming rap group and he wanted me to shoot their music video. I think he said he saw another music video I've shot online, and he decided to give me a try. I talked to him on the phone and emailed back and forth a few times, and at first I was just going to be shooting the video, and not editing it. That sounded fine, I was just hoping the editor would be there to see the context of the shots, and make sense of everything the way we saw it when shooting. I was eventually hired to shoot and edit it, so I was excited to be able to show them what I can do A-Z. 

The shoot was on a Saturday in the Oakland Hills at a privately owned horse ranch. The song is called "Pony," so it naturally seemed appropriate. It wasn't my call, but I went along with it 100%. I got there a little bit early, and there was one person sitting on the ledge of the obvious apparent shooting location. I got out of my car and introduced myself. He didn't quite recognize me as the videographer for the shoot, but I had seen photos of him... Once the key players arrived, we had time to go over basic concepts while we waited for the extras to arrive. It seemed like that was taking longer than expected, so I was eager to get started shooting whatever we could with the duo starring in the video. Take one, scene 3 the solo takes of the song in an attic in something like a horse stable. 

I was contracted to be there for 6 hours, and by the 3 hour mark we still hadn't gotten much accomplished, getting a late start, and a slow beginning. There were still essential scenes we hadn't shot, and we needed more A & B roll. I think their manager gave them a little pep talk, but that's all they needed because the last 3 hours were extremely productive. I stayed maybe 30-45 minutes late, but I'm not sure how much of that was just friendly conversation...

Now the edit was a fun one. They had a basic concept for the opening scenes, but after that it was my call on the edits. We had shot at multiple sets at the ranch and they wanted particular parts of each, but it was very open ended. I learned something with this edit. I learned an awesome way to color correct footage... I came up with a completely absurd way that has probably never been thought of by any other person, but it'll stay my little secret. We kept it pretty subtle, but the possibilities are endless and amazing with my new technique. Videography, software, even my way of thinking has changed a lot since the time I first got into shooting videos, and I'm really impressed where things are at right now.

Check the video below & a few photos of the cast on set.

Photographing a Birth

It was Thursday, March 26th, and I had just gotten home from a long day of shooting a kid's surf camp and a horse riding ranch out in Bodega Bay, when I got a text message at 4:56PM that said, "Labor is starting wondering if you are available to come over for pictures?" I had been transferring the photos I had shot all day to my computer, so I just had to feed my dog and I was out the door in 10 minutes or less...

She only lives about 10 minutes away from me, so it wasn't long before I got to her house. On the way over, she had texted me to please just come in through the back door, so when I got there, I was able to get in the house and get right to shooting. When I entered the house, I could feel the energy, the tension. A few steps in, and I look to my left to discover Brittney in her bathroom looking as if she will be having a baby soon; maybe before the sun goes down. I quickly set my bag down, and joined the nurse(s) in the bathroom, but I stayed with the woman by the door so I wouldn't be intruding too much. I had a moment of hilarity in my head when I put my satchel down and joined the medics in the room with inferior privilege and authority. My job was nowhere near as crucial as theirs, so I wanted to stay out of their way, but I did feel wanted.

I remember starting out with a hand-held flash and popped off maybe 20-30 photos before saying something to the effect of, "Hey Brittney, you're doing great!" We both laughed at how awkward and silly that statement was, as it was obvious she knew I was there, and the late introduction was the perfect ice breaker in true "Gary" fashion.

I was quick to ditch the flash as much as possible during the birth. Each time it went off, I felt bad thinking it might bother Brittney, and I have fast enough lenses paired with high ISO capabilities good enough to hopefully get away with natural light. I knew I might run into some motion blur, but I thought it could add to the true emotions that were in the room. I was mainly shooting with a Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.8D lens, a Nikkor 85mm ƒ1.4G, and a broken Nikkor 28-70mm ƒ2.8D lens. By broken I mean it no longer does anything electronic. No autofocus or electronic aperture control, so I have to stop the lens down manually. A huge pain, but I've been getting by with it this way for at least 6 months now. I cranked up the ISO, and lowered the shutter speed and had at it.

Baby Sawyer was born almost exactly 15 minutes after I got there and shot the first photo. Amazing! Now I have never personally witnessed a birth before, and I would be watching one first hand through a 35mm viewfinder and a couple different lenses, trying to focus clearly enough as to not blow capturing this miracle. I remember feeling under pressure, I remember sweating, I remember everyone sweating. It was intense! It was amazing! Brittney handled it surprisingly well, and Sawyer came out a very healthy baby! Everyone was in tears with joy. I was overwhelmed with happiness, but I must have missed the true intensity being distracted by exposure triangles and manually focusing a broken lense. It wasn't until I was editing the photos that I was truly overtaken with emotion. The photos came out beautifully in my eyes, and I hope theirs too. So far I've heard she loves some of them, so I'm happy! 

I came back to their house a week later and shot some more photos of Sawyer with a different approach. Instead of shooting candids of whatever I could, I brought a little lighting gear over, and we had a formal portrait session. One week old and he's already living that model life. I also shot Brittney's maternity photos  and blessing way, which I'm including a few of in the photo gallery.

Oh, and I forgot to say how this happened 2 days before the one year anniversary of quitting my "real" job and pursuing photography full time. In one year on my own, and I think I can finally say I've shot it all, haha!

New Filters

I bought a set of used ND filters off of Craigslist yesterday for $20. I'm not too sure how good they actually are, but for $20 I couldn't pass them up. I got a bunch of ND filters, a few Graduated ND filters, and a few colored filters as well. I am super excited about the Grad filters and the 10-stop ND filter the most, and I went out to the coast to try them out tonight.

It was super overcast out at the coast, so right away I realized I wouldn't get to play around with my filters as much as I'd hoped. I was going to be meeting a friend out at the coast, so I was still going to drive all the way out there. At first I just shot some video footage of seagulls, but I did manage to snap two photos that I like a little bit. I'm really looking forward to putting these little filters through some more tests, but I did enjoy myself tonight..

Pizza Brigade Clothing Release Party

It was Friday the 13th, and there was a clothing line release party to attend in San Francisco. My friend Garyth and I went down there early, and decided to get a little bottle of booze, and soak in some sights before the party even started... 

So by the time we got to DSF Clothing Company on Haight Street in SF, we were feeling pretty good about the night. The place was tight, there was free Beer (Lagunitas Beer), and the clothing was dope! I love pizza, so I knew I'd like anything with "Pizza Brigade" branded on it! My old school buddy started the brand, and I hope it does well! I can even see a collaboration in our future! Peep some of the funnier party photos in the gallery...

http://pizzabrigade.bigcartel.com

Redesigning my website...

I am writing this post before my new design is even live. I've been reworking all of my designs and figuring out what merchandise to put up for sale, and how to create the flow of the page overall... I spent a few hours on it, and I'm stoked to launch it! Stoked to have prints for sale finally, and stoked to have clothing for sale that I really like. I never thought I'd ever make clothing with my own name or brand on them. Life is funny like that.