Two Equals One BTS

I had the pleasure of working on videos for Jimmy & Irene over at Two Equals one. Photos by Dorian Gray

MGM Bright Spot Commercial BTS

DIrected a Spot for MGM NATIONAL HARBOR. ( Unit stills Tremont Media )

Neighborhood Nature

I come from a sports background. What does that mean? It means that training has been ingrained in my mind and in order to succeed you must practice. I would spend hours at the court either working on a move or working on my jumpshot or even my handle. When I found was that the more I got in the gym the easier it was for me play. Moving into visual storyTelling created a need for the same framework. So I had to find things that I could do to train my eye and to sharpen my sword. What I came up with was just going out and shooting. I treated my camera like it was a basketball. I will go around my neighborhood and shoot plants. I would shoot plants as though they were people I would shoot plans as though I was filming a commercial but more importantly I was shooting plants to get reps. I find myself in the same position looking to build back that habit of exercising my eye. So I went out in my neighborhood and I filmed some trees, and it felt good. Really good! One thing I realized is that you have to continue to work and maintain what you have. So I find myself shooting things that I would never post or practicing things when no one's looking. I never lose sight of the blessing that I have and I'm grateful to be in this position I am in today. So anyone who finds themselves on this page and has a passion to do something make sure you get your reps no matter what level you're at. And last thing I want to thank my friend Brittany. I stop blogging for a while and it didn't really seem important but she reminded me that she looks at it and that other people look at it as well. So for that thank you Brittany and if you're reading this 😃.

WEBBY NOMINATION!

Mental health is something that is near and dear to my heart. Having been in therapy since 2014, I see the benefits of talking to a therapist and getting to know myself. I've seen so much change over the years through the realization of my shortcomings but also the discovery of my strengths. I am so grateful that my friend Trivell Miller brought me on this project. If you get a chance or have the time please watch it and let me know what you think. And if you or somebody you know find yourself thinking about going to therapy, I recommend taking the dive. You will not forget it. This project by Thrive Global x Creative Theory sponsored by Salesforce

If you would like to vote here is the Link

#YOUTUBEBLACK Creator Summit 2019

I had the amazing opportunity to shoot my second YouTube black creator summit. The most interesting part of this job is the amount of time I get with each creator and the dope images to come out of it. Last year when we shot the creative's we had a whole afternoon planned for just portraits. I was able to use one large soft box To give a very soft and even light across each creator. This time around was a little bit different, we did not have an 8 foot soft box available to us and we change the background depending on what the creators wanted. A beauty dish is a very soft yet hard light, so when you are adjusting you have to be very specific. In my case , we didnt Have much space to shoot the photographs so the subject had to be close to the background. This means that the main light will be casting a shadow on the background and I had to choose how I wanted that to look.

Lighting

2 x Profoto B1

1 x Beauty Dish

1 x Umbrella

YOUTUBE BLACK ‘18

LIGHTING WORKSHOP | NATIONAL UNION BUILDING , WASHINGTON D.C.

I led a workshop on photo and video lighting alongside the Kingdom Creatives Conference. I love talking about why I light and how to craft images. I find that the separator is not being able to create a good image but to create a good image 10,000 times under different circumstances. I always stress studying and practice and workshops are a good way to do so. I talked about 3 main ideas during the workshop: Soft light vs.hard light , what motivated light and shaping tools.

1. Hard light Vs. Soft Light

A hard light source is a source with a narrow beam angle, think of this as a flashlight or a strobe with a reflector. A soft light source has a wider beam, think cloudy day. Though I almost always create soft light I prefer to used hard light…Why? Hard light can be modified to to be soft but softlight cannot be hard…When in doubt use hard light.

2. Motivated lighting

when lighting a subject always ask yourself these questions:

• What story do I want to tell?

• Why am I using these lights?

• do they add or subtract from the vision?

I tend to have a preference of lighting I want to used but It doesn’t always make sense, these questions keep me on my toes.

3. Shaping Tools

• Softbox

• Beauty Dish

• Parabolic Umbrella

  Your homework is to look these up and see the difference…GO! 😊

Special shoutout to my good friend Gabby for being our amazing model 😊

SUBSCRIBE IF YOU WANT TO SIGN UP FOR THE NEXT WORKSHOP

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IMAGES FROM THE CLASS

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