Curtis Johnson and the Creatives

Recently Curtis Johnson and Nadine Kalmes were in Chicago meeting with Creatives and Art Buyers.

Here's a couple shots of Curtis showing his portfolio:

 

Curtis Johnson at AbelsonTaylor discussing his imagery. 

 

Curtis chatting at Energy BBDO (above and below)

Showcasing new video work on the iPad

You can view Curtis Johnson's newest video series too!  Just click play below and go to "motion". 

Steve Bonini shoots Major League Baseball

Steve just finished a really cool job shooting Major League Baseball players in Las Vegas for Nike.

Matt Holiday of the Saint Louis Cardinals. (above and below)

"I thought it would be a really good idea to bring in a coach to assist me in getting the players fired up, so I hired a great guy who played in the majors for 13 years.  We had each player for about 45 minutes to an hour, so it was important to get right to business."

"We had a quick pow wow with the players where I told them what I wanted to achieve, then after that, I'd have a quick talk with the coach.  Pretty much, he spoke to them in 'baseball talk' and then they started pretend playing.  You really know you're shooting a pro when they get right into character.  Doesn't matter if it's bottom of the ninth with bases loaded, or against a seamless in studio.  Impressive, and the shots show it!"

Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays. (above)

Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants, 2010 World Series winners. (above and below)

And a few production stills:

You can't even tell these were shot on white seamless in the final images.

(left to right) Steve Bonini, Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, and Creative Director, Jeff Dooley, looking over the images of Troy on a tethered iPad.

CGI Nissan Murano by ALTER

Some of the newest CGI work by ALTER.

David Mitchell from ALTER was the CGI artist on this project.
We asked him a few questions about the creation of the image.

What were the challenges with this project, and how were they overcome?
David: The lighting style needed to fit a specific look to match the campaign. It is always easier to create a lighting scheme than to match one.

What elements went into making the Nissan Murano?
David: Lighting the car in 3D allowed us to get closer to the look than with photography. Retouching was also required to take the render to final quality.

How do you get it to look so real? I’m ready to drive off in this baby.
David: We use render engines that correctly bounce light for excellent realism. We use real world lighting methods and elbow grease.

Anything else you’d like to share about it?
David: The 3D models that were provided needed a lot of cleanup work to be usable, so I guess it involved a bit if grinding, welding and polishing.
This was a quick turnaround job and required long hours to meet the deadline but it was still a fun project. I'm looking forward to doing more.....perhaps with a little more time.

Home Team Sport Fans by Steve Bonini

A couple of weeks ago, Steve Bonini helped his friends at Citrus create a series of spontaneous, high energy images to be used during a presentation at Nike.

"The presentation was all about "talking" to college age people who are big home team sports fans, so it needed to convey the drama and passion you'd see during rival team games.

We decided that the best way to get our "real talent" amped up was to create a party like atmosphere, so we brought in food, drink and a kick ass sound system and cranked up the volume.

You never really can anticipate how someone will respond once there's a camera in your face, but these guys were amazing, and without inhibition. We got way more that we had hoped for!

In the end, my voice was hoarse from screaming, and my ears were ringing, and it was one of those perfect shoot experiences."

^^27 second video of shoot in progress^^

Underwater Reef by ATLER

Dive-In by ALTER

(click the image to see it bigger)

Here's what the Art Director had to say about it:

"The art looks fantastic and worked out really well production-wise...And the client LOVES the art. Everyone here loves it as well. The start/stop/GO! GO! GO! dynamic of pharma advertising can sometimes be a challenge, but we really appreciate your team's responsiveness and excellent work - and patience."

Nissan Infiniti by Rick Chou

A sneak peak of Rick Chou's studio on his most recent Nissan - Infiniti shoot:

And a few of the final images:

Nissan Infiniti Rogue

Nissan Infiniti Murano

Nissan Infiniti Cube

Steve Bonini Shooting Golfers

Steve recently shot with his client Taylormade Adidas Golf in Chicago.
As always, when he's shooting the world's greatest golfers, he lays down (or stands) in the line of fire while 100+ m.p.h. balls whizz by, just to get the perfect shot.

As the client once said to him ...."Bonini, don't worry, these are the best golfers on the planet."
So, nothing to worry about, right?
But as one of the worlds best golfers said to him, "Hey, I could make a mistake."
Think about it - a golf ball going that fast, hitting your head... OUCH!