Photography – BEHIND THE SCENES

Here is a selection of articles that go behind the scenes on many of my photo jobs.  As I was a photojournalist for most of my career, most of these articles go behind the scenes on my various assignments.  As a result, I spend less time talking about gear (though I do share many of my shooting specs), and focus more of this writing on my technique and personal experiences at these events, and how the melding of those two produced my images.  Of course there are also some behind the scenes videos and articles on my various Aerial shoots, as well as a look at hybrid photo/video shoot. 

 

Empire State Building BTS - A quick little behind the scenes on my climb of the Empire State Building to create an image looking straight down from the top at two maintenance workers back in 2000.  The image ended up making the front page of the Times and its one of my crazier moments as a photojournalist.

NYC Sunrise to Sunset BTS – This post that goes behind the scenes on a sunrise to sunset helicopter shoot – specifically the editing process as I shot close to 6,000 frames for the client in less than 24 hours. At the time of the article I was reaching out the readers of the blog for a hand in editing the massive amount of photos – that window has obviously closed, but there is still some valuable information pertaining to editing your selects after a shoot. For a more in depth BTS on the actual shoot – check out Matt Buchanan’s Gizmodo article. 

Night Flight over NYC BTS (and other thoughts) - While this article mostly contains my thoughts on the shift that I’ve made from photography to filmmaking, it also contains a video BTS of flying up in the Helicopter of the Chrysler building and a portfolio of the images I shot that night.

 

USAA – DSLR Hybrid Shoot BTS - VSA partners asked me to produce an annual report for USAA that would live both in print and digitally on the web as both stills and video segments.  I though that readers might appreciate a slide show of images that show what such a production might entail in terms of gear.  You can also find out more by reading the original post.

 

NYMAG Helicopter Shoot BTS  – A behind the scenes look at another of my aerial shoots – this time the client was New York Magazine for their "Reasons To Love NYC" issue.  You can also read their article on the shoot HERE.

 

Olympics BTS – The following are a series of posts that I wrote while shooting the 2008 Beijing Olympics for Newsweek.  I had an amazing time at those games, and as a photographer, it such an interesting experience that I blogged about it so I could share it with others.  You can find 11 different articles below – and please check out the video in THIS ARTICLE.  I did this with such an old version of WordPress that I can no longer get the video to embed here – but it is a true "behind the scenes" look at what goes into photographing the Olympics.

2008 Olympics BTS I – Practicing during Preliminaries

2008 Olympics BTS II – Shooting the Pool and Gymnastics 

2008 Olympics BTS III – Introspection and Learning from Mistakes 

2008 Olympics BTS IV – Things Starting to Click 

2008 Olympics BTS V – Shooting From Above 

2008 Olympics BTS VI – Hurry Up… and Wait 

2008 Olympics BTS VII – Shooting While Exhausted 

2008 Olympics BTS VIII – Trying to Break Out of the Olympic "Bubble" 

2008 Olympics BTS IX – Shooting the First Ever Olympic BMX Event 

2008 Olympics BTS X – Shooting Portraits of the Men’s Diving Competition 

2008 Olympics BTS XI – How Much Did I Shoot in Beijing?

 

Preparing for the Biggest Organized Event of Them All: The Olympics - A behind the scenes look at my packing process for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.  

 

The Carrier – This is the text from my photo essay on the USS Abraham Lincoln that I did for the Times in 2003. Technically not a Behind The Scenes, but I tried my best to give a realistic portrayal of my experiences and thoughts on this job.  I hope you are able to find something educational in there.