"Real Rant" Music Video Shoot
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
This past Saturday was a busy day for me. It took over four hours to shoot Corvette Polo's "Real Rant" music video downtown in the hot sun. I was able to work with York of Quality Vision Films for the cinematography. We talked about each scene and how we wanted to capture it from each camera. It was great to speak with someone with the same technical mind and knowledge of capturing a vision on film. We mapped out our locations for each shot, the first being the alleyway covered in graffiti behind Market Square. Next, we headed to the top of the Locust Street garage; luckily, no one was up there at this time. We also shot just behind the Market Square stage by the water fountains. There was a play going on while we were shooting, but I think with all of our camera equipment, we were getting more attention than the play was. Look for the music video "Real Rant" coming soon. Here are a few images from the set...
Kids by The Cove
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the Witmer & Davis kids at "The Cove" off Northshore in Farragut. The kids all wore white shirts and blue jeans to match. One of the challenges of the photo session was making sure all the kids expressions fit what I wanted to capture. Everything may appear great at first, but I noticed that sometimes when everyone else was smiling perfectly, one kid might have an eye half closed or be looking in a different direction. Despite all the challenges of getting 5 children to cooperate at the same time, it was a fun session with all of the trees and the lake in the background. This scenery created some beautiful and colorful backdrops for the photos.
Great session with some really great kids!
Juicebeats
Downtown Knoxville
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
Saturday morning I was on a mission to take some artistic photography in downtown Knoxville. I met up with fellow photographer, Lev Gross-Comstock of Comstock Photography. We grabbed our Starbucks' coffee and headed to start shooting in Market Square. I've been downtown many times, but I've never really stopped long enough to see the area through an artistic perspective. We both had our 50mm lenses and started shooting in Market Square. My first few shots weren't of any buildings; I actually saw a bed of flowers that caught my eye. Since it is spring, I thought it was only fitting to take a couple snaps.
After getting a few different shots in Market Square, we headed down the street toward old Gay Street. We caught a couple of early risers walking down the street.
We also stopped to shoot a few cool things in the window of a production company.
Next, we headed over to the bridge overlooking the train tracks. I know that a lot of photographers have shot on this same bridge, but I wanted to try and get a new perspective and maybe achieve something new. I decided to capture a few high dynamic range images (HDR), which is taking a few of the same images with different exposures and putting them together to create a photo with a lot of detail. Here are a few examples.
They may almost look like paintings or drawn pictures, but they contain all the detail from the pictures I took. I set my camera up for the shot and took a normal exposure photo first; then, I took two more shots with the exposure compensation at -1 and +1, then to more at -2 and +2. This captured all the highlight and shadow detail that the original shot could not pick up. I edited the original photo in Lightroom as I would normally and synced all the same edits to the other four photos and exported to Photoshop. Finally, I combined all the images together in Photoshop and exported back into Lightroom where I finished the editing. Several steps were required to create these images, but I think they turned out pretty well.
After taking those shots on the bridge, we headed down to the tracks to take a couple shots.
I love how taking a shot on the railroad tracks with a wide angle lens makes them look like they go on forever. I had a lot of fun walking around and looking for things that I normally wouldn't pay attention to when I go downtown in the Old City.
Lev and I ended up walking around all over downtown from Market Square, to Gay Street, the Old City, and back up through the other part of Gay Street. We got some good exercise and took some great photos. It was a great learning experience for me and fun to capture some of the art of downtown Knoxville.
All of these photos in the blog and few others are available for purchase. Just click the slide show below. You can also download copies as screensavers or backgrounds.
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Right now I am offering a $50 print credit with an individual or couple portrait session and $75 for a family session. Contact juicebeats1@gmail.com for more information.
Juicebeats
The Big 3-0 Evan's 30th Birthday
Evan Turned 30!!!
Evan getting ready to blow out the candles
Surprise... Evan had his 30th surprise birthday party this weekend hosted by Madeline, Caroline, and Ashley (his "sisters"). The set up was his "sisters" had planned to make him dinner for his birthday. As we waited for him to show, I actually text him just before and asked, "What you up to tonight?" He replied, "Wanna drive to New Orleans?" I told him, "Let's go!"
We saw his car pull up the road, and then, we all piled into the living room as he walked in. He was ready to eat homemade pizza that his "sisters" prepared. As he walked through the kitchen and saw the cake on the table, he looked over to his right and was completely caught off guard by a big "SURPRISE!" He had no idea.
Evan's surprise face
We all had a blast, and it was good to get out with great friends for a while.
Here are some of the photos from the night...
Juicebeats Updates
It's been a little while since I have been able to write a blog entry. I am sorry to my loyal fans that haven't heard from me recently. If you haven't seen some of the updates from my facebook, my wife and I are expecting our first child. Jaden's due date is March 11.
In the past few months, I have been working on new music from Jonny D, Quentin Turner, and Coach Stowers.
I have also been doing a lot of photography: portraits, landscapes, and lifestyle.
I recently finished a new music video by Coach Stowers "Extra Chances," a promotional video for Petrone Training, various highlight reels for high school athletes, acting reels for up and coming actors, and short films about my life and other special events.
I also produced a radio commercial that will be played during the first few weeks of February for the rapper K Camp coming to Knoxville for a concert on February 14th. Whewww... I know it's a lot along with my full time job. I keep myself busy, so I guess you can see why it's been hard for me to write as much as I was last year. I am also still working on my documentary of my grandparents story from the Holocaust. I am currently looking for any pictures from the war that I can add to my film. If you would like to donate any copies of pictures from that time please contact me at
or you can got to my contact page and submit through there.
Wedding Photography 2
The wedding day...I was pretty excited to be able to go to this wedding and see a beautiful couple get married. I also wanted to keep practicing my new found hobby and interest. I brought by 55-210mm lens with me this time to get those close intimate shots. I could really tell a difference in how much room I could see around my subjects. It was a lot closer and tighter shot, and I could really zoom in on faces and expressions. I wanted to be able to enjoy most of the evening and partake in the whole celebration, so I only took 175 shots which will probably come down to the best 50 or so maybe. I haven't finished editing all of the pictures yet so I will see what that number comes down to.
The day was pretty perfect for lighting and the weather couldn't have been better for a day in June. The venue: The Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major L.D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. [1] The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.[2]
The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.[1][2]
The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall. (wikipedia)
"These walls have history" as I would say. The venue was beautiful and the set up of the ceremony around a fountain made it all the more surreal.
This is a view of where the ceremony was held.
They had live strings to set the mood.
The ceremony was a traditional Christian wedding and the reception was lively and entertaining with a great local DJ.
I feel like a captured some pretty good moments during the wedding. I was towards the back of the seats, but with my 55-210mm lens I was able to still get those close intimate shots. It was really good practice for me. My next attempt will probably be nighttime and low light photography. Its pretty tough without a good flash or a tripod/mono-pod. I noticed toward the end of the night that the shots I was taking didn't come out too well in the dark, so I definitely want to practice on that.
All in all it was a good experience, had a great time with some amazing friends, and got a chance to practice on my craft.
Juicebeats