Dennis Haysbert
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity
It has always been a dream of mine to photograph the President of The United States, and now I can cross that off my list of things to do. David Palmer is the first African American president in US history. Well, in TV history I should say. Dennis Haysbert played President David Palmer on Fox’s 24, and he talked about playing the president at our shoot, “A lot of people considered me to be the first black president - which is ridiculous, but that’s the power of TV.”
Speaking of the influence of TV. I am seriously considering switching my auto insurance to Allstate.
I photographed Dennis while he was in Seattle working on an upcoming movie called “The Details“. Toby Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, and Laura Linney are also in the film. It is being labeled as a dark comedy, and there are rumors that the plot revolves around a married couple dealing with a raccoon problem. That might just be a rumor though. Dennis said that you could get 30 different answers as to what the film is about depending on who you ask. We will see… (Here) is an interesting story about the home the movie is being filmed in. Sounds like the project hit some rough spots, but they are back on track now.
Conan recently ran a pretty funny sketch on The Tonight Show called Twitter Tracker. The sketch quoted several celebrity tweets in an attempt to convince viewers of the value of Twitter. The grand finale was a tweet by Dennis Haysbert. ”Just saw the new Star Trek movie. Wow, really good.” I was hoping to go to his Twitter page after our shoot and read about how he just worked with the most amazing photographer. It turns out the whole skit was made up, and Dennis doesn’t even use Twitter. Can you believe that? Conan, making stuff up?
Tags: 24, actor headshot, actor portrait, Allstate Insurance, Allstate spokesman, CBS, Celebrity, celebrity actor, celebrity headshot, celebrity photography, Celebrity Portrait, David Palmer, Dennis Haysbert, First African American President, Fox, Headshot, John Keatley, Keatley, movie, movie filmed in Seattle, President Palmer, Seattle movie, The Details, The Details movie, The Unit, The Wire, Toby Maguire
A Fanny Pack For Your Head
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Advertising
Say what now!? It’s not everyday that a product so life changing, and so amazing comes along. We live in a world where we are encouraged to consume as much as we want, and to take take take. That’s right, don’t worry about tomorrow, or where you will put all of your stuff. Just get more stuff! Well prepare to be sucker punched in the face, because this product is going to change the way you think and live. More importantly, it will change the way you store your stuff.
Cap-sac isn’t just a hat, it’s a fanny pack for your head. No joke.
Cap-sac launched this Spring, and they have been flying off the shelves. I know, I know. This is not your fathers fanny pack, but they have been getting a lot of good publicity, and that translates into a lot of good sales. I was hired to photograph the Cap-sac ad campaign and press photos this summer. Anytime I can work in shorts and a tee, in 90 degree weather, it’s a good shoot in my opinion. Since this was a fun one, I thought I would share a behind the scenes look at the shoot itself. Enjoy.
And since we are talking about fanny packs on your head, here is a little something extra for ya. This video contains language that may not be suitable for all audiences, and may not be safe for work. Unless you work on a ship, or a construction site. Then it’s probably not a problem.
* If you are using a blog reader, you may need to visit my actual blog post to see the slide show and video. Can anyone tell me why that is? I have been trying to figure this out for a long time, and nothing seems to work. Why won’t flash content show up in Google Reader? Ahh.
Tags: Ad campaign, ad picture, Advertising, Cap-sac, fanny pack, fanny pack for your head, group picture, press photos, press pictures, summer party
“How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?”
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Celebrity
As you may already know, last November I had the privilege of photographing one of the photography greats, Annie Leibovitz. (Here) is an earlier post about my experience photographing her. Then just a few months ago, I found out my portrait of Annie was selected for AP25 (American Photography 25 silver-anniversary competition) which is a selection of the best photographs from 2008. The selected photographs will be compiled in a book this coming November. Having already written about this, I don’t want to be too repetitive, but Annie Leibovitz is in the news again. This time, it was not because she offended someone, or got a celebrity to pose nude. New York Magazine came out with an article this week about Annie, and the hard times that she has come into. Not to make light of a difficult situation, but I am pleased that one of my portraits was licensed for this article. Here is a link to “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz? The $24 million question” written by Andrew Goldman for New York Magazine. It is a fantastic story, and definitely worth reading.
With all of the news flying around about Annie, I decided to take a look at my portraits of her again. This picture in particular has always pulled at me. I have thought about showing it in the past, but there was something that always seemed to make me leave it alone. Looking at it again now, in light of what is going on, it seemed to take on new life. This was one of those moments that came and went in a split second. I had shot several frames already, including the one I have been showing. There was a moment where she didn’t know what to do with her hands, and maybe felt a bit self conscious about being photographed. She quickly rubbed her eyes and pulled her hair back from her face and the moment was gone. I can’t say I captured this image because of some magic of my own. In all honesty, I’m sure it was an accident I caught this. But in this portrait, I see so much honesty and vulnerability. Something not easily captured, regardless of the subject. A good lesson for me: a great portrait isn’t always created by controlling my subject, but rather capturing an organic moment in a controlled setting.
New York Magazine “How Could This Happen to Annie Leibovitz?” http://nymag.com/fashion/09/fall/58346/
*Side Note* Thank you to everyone who has written me about the comments not showing up properly in Safari and Firefox. It looks like the issue has been resolved, and I apologize if you felt that I was ignoring your questions. I may have actually responded, but the comment just didn’t show up properly. It turns out that white text on a white background can be hard to read.
Tags: Annie Leibovitz, Annie Leibovitz finance, Annie Leibovitz financial problems, Annie Leibovitz portrait, Annie Leibovitz trouble, celebrity photographer, Celebrity Portrait, dramatic portrait, famous photographer, great photographer, John Keatley, Portrait of Annie Leibovitz, portrait photographer, Seattle photographer, Seattle Portrait Photographer
About Personal Work
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Personal Work
This is a personal shoot I recently put together. Many of the ideas and sketches I have been putting in my journal lately are set in outdoor locations at night. I seem to go through cycles of being inspired by different things in my personal work. For example, there was a time last year, when all of my ideas were studio shots. After spending more time than usual in the studio, I began to find inspiration in other things. I am a very curious photographer, and I enjoy changing the situations and people I work with so I am always experiencing something new. Each time I explore my curiosity through personal work, I not only fulfill my curiosity, but I also grow as a photographer, and learn things that will stay with me. There is something inside of me that is constantly pushing me to try something different, and create something new.
What I have begun to notice this summer through my personal work is that each phase that I go through, it is becoming less about a technical aspect, such as a specific light, or studio vs. outdoor, and more about my vision or the story I want to tell. Each phase I have gone through has really been more about exploration and my own curiosity than the actual technical detail I was focused on. Through these periods of different inspirations I have learned a lot, and I hope I will always be learning something new about light, and photography, no matter how long I work at it. But now I am able to focus more on my vision and less on the tools required to make it happen. Not that the tools aren’t important. They are! But the more you practice, the more you will understand the tools, and the more they become ingrained in you so you don’t have to spend as much time and effort thinking about them.
This picture is the first in a series I am working on in my spare time. I felt excitement when I made this image, and it was a good reminder for me of how much I love photography. Thanks for taking a look.
Tags: Becoming a Photographer, dead summer grass, Environmental Portrait, John Keatley, John Keatley personal work, John Keatley portrait, Keatley personal work, Keatley Photo, Learn Photography, outdoor portrait, Personal Work, Photography Theory, photography thought process
Wexley School For Girls
Posted by John Keatley | Filed under Advertising, Editorial
Behold. The Wexley School For Girls. What!? An all girls school run by these guys? Yes. Wexley is a very exclusive all-girls school (Ad Agency) run by these two guys. Cal and Ian. And one of the highlights of my job is working with these fine people.
When I first met Cal and Ian, they didn’t know anything about advertising. They were a lounge singer duo in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. I was hired by BusinessWeek to photograph them for a story about the resurgence of lounge singers in Metropolitan areas. That is how the sexy lounge singer portrait came about. At some point during the shoot, I said, ”This should be great advertising for your act.” And Ian said, “What the hell is advertising?” I laughed, but he wasn’t joking. He had no idea. I told him to look it up, which is exactly what he did. They read everything they could find about advertising, and before long they decided to open up their own ad agency.
The next time I photographed them, they were no longer singing Elton John, but they were making ads. And good ones at that.
In the last year, I have photographed Cal and Ian a few more times, as well as worked with them on a handful of ad campaigns. It’s not every day that an assignment or ad campaign comes around that allows you to work with such creative people who are willing to experiment and have fun. You might look at the quirky Wexley office, and think that it’s all fun and games. But they take what they do very seriously, and they are dang good at it too. Just look at the success the Seattle Sounders FC (a client of Wexley) have enjoyed.
I have a couple of earlier posts about ad campaigns that I have shot with Wexley. (Here) is the post about the Seattle Sounders FC billboard I shot earlier this year, and (here) is the post about the Human Wrecking Balls print campaign from late last year. In just a few short weeks, I will have some new Wexley related content and videos that I will be able to share. In the meantime, (here) is a hilarious video called “Winner Take Steve” written by Wexley, and directed by Jared Hess.
Tags: ad agency, ad agency headshots, Ad campaign, Cal McAllister, funny portraits, Headshots, Ian Cohen, Portraits, school for girls, Seattle ad agency, Seattle advertising, Sounders FC picture, Wexley, Wexley ad, Wexley advertising, Wexley office, Wexley pictures, Wexley School For Girls
