Editing, Editing and more Editing

Hi everyone happy Sunday. I am releasing this blog post very late as I wasn't very functional for most of the day today. Jeannie and I got up at 4:30 am Saturday morning to drive to Charlotte for a shoot that she had that started at 8am. While we had an amazing shoot by the time we got home we were both wiped out and I crashed on my couch for a few hours and then went over to her place to crash some more. When I woke up this morning I was still feeling very tired so I got home and sat on the couch napping on and off for most of the day. It's 3pm now and I am feeling awake enough to get some work done.

So the topic for today's blog as said by the title is all about editing. If you read my blog post from two weeks ago I talked about how video work is taking over my business and the amount of video editing that needs to get done almost seems unending. I am getting close to completing the wedding video that I shot a few weeks ago. On Wednesday of this week I shot a corporate video that was an awards ceremony and i have to deliver that in a few days. That video is 98% complete as I am just awaiting a few clips from the client that I hope to have tomorrow and I can then finish up the video. On Friday I shot an EPK video (electronic press kit) for a photographer friend of mine to promote her business and I am now copying all of the data over for that as I type this.

Needles to say I have a lot of work ahead of me sitting at my computer in Adobe Premiere pouring through the footage from all of these events and putting them together to tell a good story. After I finish the wedding video I still need to make a 2nd video that will be a highlight reel about 10 to 15 minutes in length. The main video is almost two hours long.

So with that said I am going to end this blog post and get back to work even though there is a Star Wars marathon on TV and I would love to watch that instead but I need to get this workload decreased. Have a great week and I will see you next Sunday.

Painting with Light

For this weeks blog I wanted to share another one of my favorite photography pastimes, light painting. When I first heard of light painting photography it was using a flashlight to light up an object while taking a long exposure and I thought that it was very cool but then I met my friend Johnny and he showed me a whole new world of light painting photography.

I met Johnny at a gallery during First Friday here in Raleigh. I saw his images hanging on the wall and was just blown away. He had such detail in all of his images and i asked him to show me how to create the images that he was doing and he agreed.

The meeting space was a bike tunnel that had no lights inside so at night it was pitch black. I set up my tripod and turned it on bulb mode and watched him work. The first images he showed me was spinning steel wool orbs. Of course anything that involves fire I like.

At this point you could say I was hooked. He then pulled out his homemade light wand that you can program an image into and then fire it and it will paint line by line an image as you walk in front of the camera. This takes a lot of practice to get your pace right and a steady hand to get a nice smooth image.

Now it was time to start getting more intricate. Using another pattern and some more of his toys that emit light I stood in as a model while he made another image. Now I have to stay standing still for up to 10 minutes at a time to get these images is not easy but it was worth it.

I heard of a tool called the pixelstick that was like Johnny's but with more LED's and can be programable with any image that you can think of. Of course now that I was hooked on it I just had to buy one for myself. When it arrived I was like a little kid at Christmas. I called Johnny and said let's go play. Johnny sent me some images to load onto it and I was blown away by the detail that produces. 

Well now you can see why I am so addicted to this type of photography. When most people put the camera away at night we are just getting started. I want to give a big huge shoutout to Johnny for showing me how to create these images. Please go check out his site for more amazing images http://www.jedii.com/ Until next week. 

Is video taking over my photography?

HI everyone in this weeks blog I wanted to talk about how doing video is starting to take over the photography side of my business. Last year I got the opportunity to do the behind the scenes photography on two short films and I completely fell in love with the filmmaking process. I had been doing video for my YouTube channel up to that point but working on the set of those films really ignited a fire in me for filmmaking.

Fast forward to the last few months and I was put in charge of creating a YouTube channel for the camera store I work at Peace Camera and I put out a video every single week. So each week I need to come up with a topic to talk about then plan, shoot, edit and then publish that video which takes a lot of work but for me it's quite a lot of fun and I decided to add videography as part of my business plan.

My friend Steve recommended me to do the videography at a wedding that he was doing the photography for and the client hired me over the phone and I am currently in process of editing that video. I also will be shooting a EPK (electronic press kit) for another photographer friend of mine in a couple of weeks. A EPK is a commercial to promote yourself for those who were wondering and in today's age of social media I think this is a fantastic way of doing this.

While I still love still photography and it will always be my first love expanding into video is the right move for me. So if you think you would be interested in hiring me for any photography or videography work please feel free to contact me though the contact me page on my site or send me an e-mail at David@DavidSpectorPhotography.com

This is going to do it for this weeks blog. I am sorry it came out so late and that it is so short but I need to get back to work editing this wedding video. I will share the highlight video once it is done.

Portrait Palooza 2017

Every year for the past couple of years I participated in an event put on by the Wedding and Portrait Society called Portrait Palooza. This event is a contest in where you have 10 minutes to shoot a bride in as many locations around the facility as you can and then you have 48 hours to edit and submit two photos.

The first year I participated I went all out and brought two monolights with softboxes with me and when it was my turn we ran to the location I wanted to shoot and and spent half the time troubleshooting my lights as something decided not to work with the triggers that I had and I was only able to get one shot.

While I was happy with the one image I got I knew that I didn't have a winning image. I was determined that I was going to do better next year.

For last years event I showed up early so I could scout the location and pick out where I wanted to shoot. For lights I decided to bring only one light an Alienbee 800 and a beauty dish. I tested my lights to make sure they worked about 10 times before it was my turn to go. I met my model that I was going to be working with and we started shooting. Since i only got one look last year this year I wanted to get three looks. Since I went through this before I was much calmer this time around and was able to get 4 looks within the 10 minute time limit. This time I was quite happy with the two photos I got and I thought I had a fighting chance at winning or getting an honorable mention.

While I did not win I felt a lot better about the contest and had high hopes going into this years event. 

For lighting I decided to go with just a speedlight with a PLM to make it really simple so I could do the most with the ten minute time limit. I was in the 2nd group to go out and I had my three locations all scouted out. I met my bride and we went out to shoot. We got through the three looks that I wanted but I was not happy with the results. I was missing a lot of things that I should have seen when I normally shoot but since I only had ten minutes I missed most of the posing mistakes that I would normally catch if I had all the time in the world to shoot. The next day I submitted the edited images and waited to hear the results. I found out that my friend Maria had the winning image and I am extremely happy for her as she is an amazing photographer and the image was spectacular. As far as my images I will post them below. I will see you next week.

Beauty and Decay with Amira

Time for another throwback for this weeks blog post. I know I promised some new material for this week but I wont be able to release the images until next week so I should have it up for next Sunday.

A few weeks ago I shared my most recent shoot from my Beauty and Decay series and today I wanted to share one of my earlier shoots. Amira and I met a few years ago at the NC State Fair and we instantly became friends. I knew that I wanted to shoot her for my series and I had the perfect location to shoot.

Right across the highway from South of the Border was an abandoned hotel. If you are unfamiliar with South of the Border it is a highway rest stop on the NC and SC line off of interstate 95. It is well known for all of the billboards that advertise it for hundreds of miles in each direction. When I was a kid and we would take our family trips to Florida I remember bugging my dad to stop there.

Ok let's get back on track. Amira and I drove down there early in the morning and spent a few minutes walking around looking for spots to shoot and then we got to shooting.

One of the neat things that I loved about this location was that the front wall of the hotel was gone and all the rooms were exposed and it gave so much more of a decayed look. 

There was some interesting graffiti in some of the rooms.

We then moved on to what was left of the playground. There used to be a huge spaceship playground on the property but I think most of it was stolen over the years but there was still a spinning carousel setup there and I asked Amira to ride on it and get a few pictures

Of course she wanted to spin on it too and have some fun.

Amira has an amazing tattoo that covers her entire back and I wanted to get a shot to feature it. I had her sit in the grass and I got the image below. This was a my favorite image from the entire shoot.

Next it was time for an outfit change and we moved over to the pool area although there was some very nasty water in the pool Amira was a trooper and went in and stayed in the dry area and we got some shots.

It was just about time to wrap up the shoot and we decided to get one last look. We pulled out a table and char from one of the rooms and took a few shots.

We had so much fun shooting at this location and I would love to go back there again but I found out through an urban explorer friend of mine that there was a fire and it destroyed what was left of the buildings. At least I was able to capture some amazing shots from this place. 

Well that's it for this week. I really hope that you are enjoying the blog posts every week and I promise to post some new material for next week as I should finally be able to share my images from the Portrait Pallozza event. 

My first model shoot ever

For this weeks blog post we are going to go back to 2012. I had been doing photography for a couple of years but I was only shooting landscapes and nature shots. For me shooting people was not a thought as I had no idea on how to pose people and I was still just trying to learn photography and I wanted to feel more comfortable with what I was doing. 

I belong to a few meetup groups for photography and I got an invite to do a model shoot with a burlesque dancer named porcelain. So I figured why not step out of my comfort zone and try to learn something new. We met at the studio and spent the first half hour doing introductions and getting to know everyone. When it came for my turn to shoot I explained to her that I had no idea how to pose people and she told me that she will go through a range of poses and I can just fire away.

She made me feel so comfortable and relaxed that after a few minutes of shooting I was throwing out idea's that I had.

She was lying down on this beautiful piece of furniture and I got behind her and asked her to look back to me and I got this shot.

This was my favorite shot of the day and I even had it printed and framed and it is still hanging on my wall at home to this day. Overall I went into this shoot so nervous to shoot people and came out of the shoot feeling so comfortable that I decided to focus more on shooting people.

Well thats going to do it for this weeks post. I hope to release some new work for next weeks post as I took part in a bridal shoot competition and I can't release the images until the judging has been completed. See you all next week.  

My obsession with all things abandoned

For todays blog post I wanted to do another throwback and talk a little more about my love for all things abandoned. A few years ago I got the opportunity to visit and spend the day exploring the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. I went with my friends Sterling and Harry and we met up with a couple of Sterling's friends up in WV. 

Since this was a 5 to 6 hour drive away we decided to make a vacation out of it. We drove up a couple of days before and decided to explore the state and see what we could find. West Virginia is a beautiful state with a ton of abandoned places to explore. We just drove around going down back roads to see what we could find and we found some goldmines. 

After driving down this back road with many twists we came upon this old house and when I say old I mean that there was no bathrooms inside this house old. I took some video and posted it to YouTube.

The next day it was finally time. The 5 of us met at the asylum in the very early morning and we met our guide for the day. While abandoned this place is open to the public. The ghost hunters have filmed episodes for the TV show here and they lead group tours but for today the 5 of us had the whole place to ourselves.

Our guide had mentioned that the place is haunted and that there is a ghost of a 9 year old girl that roams the halls. People leave toys for her throughout the facility. The first part of the asylum we toured was an area that was restored.

The one restored section of the hospital. 

Yea it's nice and all but I want to see decay. The main hospital was 4 floors and was a huge facility. We got a tour of each floor and then we had an hour to photograph it and then we would move on to the next floor. Below are some of my favorite images from the main building. 

Looking into the cafateria 

I love long hallways

Some of the many toys left for the ghost.

Is this creepy enough for you?

This was the only ghost I saw that day. Do you see the face?

My favorite shot of the day.

After we got done touring the main building we got to explore some of the outer buildings. There was the women's center and the building for the criminally insane. These buildings were the most decayed and were the most fun to explore. Since there was only 5 of us we were free to explore these buildings on our own and we were by ourselves for a good portion of the afternoon. It really made me think about what went on in these buildings. The guide had mentioned that a lot of lobotomy's were performed in this facility and it must of been hell for a lot of the patients. 

Another hallway. This was in the women's center.

I dont know what it is about bathrooms in abandoned buildings that I love so much.

And another hallway. 

Found the morgue. The guide said that people like to get their picture taken on the slab.

An old coffin. 

I hope to come back here again someday. Maybe when I start filming my movie I can make this one of my stops. Thanks for reading my blogs every week I really hope that you enjoy them. I promise to have some more new images soon. 

Playing around with IR

Hello everyone another Sunday is here and today I want to talk about infrared camera's. I picked up a Nikon D40x from my friend Steve that was converted to IR and started to play around with it. At first I was just shooting landscapes as I thought that is what it would be most suited for. For it's first outing I went out to Umstead park which is only 10 minutes away from me on a beautiful day and decided to for for a hike along the trails and I took these shots.

I really loved the way the images gave off that post apocalyptic feel. I knew now that I was hooked on IR. For my next outing with the camera I decided to bring ti with me on an outing with my local camera club to a train museum and see how shooting objects would turn out.

To say I was pumped about how the images turned out would be an understatement. Now i really want to experiment with it and see how portraits would turn out. I had a shoot scheduled with my friend Emily and we went back to Umstead park and while I shot most of the shoot with my normal camera I pulled out the IR camera and fired off a few portraits of her to see what it would look like.

Too my surprise it turned her brown hair blue and gave the pictures a fairy tale look to them. Another thing that I discovered was that it really smooths out the skin and removes all blemishes so there is really no retouching that is needed. 

Next I am going to show some images from one of my recent shoots with my friend Kristen. Her hair was already dyed blue so i was curious to see what color her hair would turn too. I was surprised to see that it turned her hair white.

Well that is going to do it for this weeks blog. I hope that you enjoyed the images as much as I do. I am going to start a whole series of portraiture in IR and I will share more of them on all of my social media pages. Until next week.

Time for another throwback

Hello everyone! It's Sunday and that means it's time for another blog post. This post is coming out later then usual as I normally write these on Saturday and then post them on Sunday morning but last night Jeannie and I went out to celebrate a friends birthday and it was also daylight savings time so that is my excuse. Ok on with the blog

For this week I wanted to do a throwback to a cool place that my friend Nita and I explored. She had told me about this old leaning barn that was in the middle of nowhere in southern Virginia. My friend and urban exploring buddy Sterling had shot the barn and the pictures were amazing and I decided that I needed to see this place for myself. 

We hit the road very early in the morning as we wanted to get to the location for sunrise and it was about a 90 minute drive to get there. After a couple of wrong turns we made it just as the sun was coming up. Got out my camera and got this shot.

I fell in love with this shot. The contrails from the planes and the road all led up to the barn. After this shot the sun was really starting to come up so it was time to try to get some different angles of this amazing barn.

The crazy in me decided to go inside to see if there was anything of interest in the barn. I felt that is was stable enough and I made sure to stay by the door so I could jump out quickly if I needed too. All that I really saw inside was a bunch of empty bottles of DDT.

As I was finishing up taking my photos I decided to get one last shot and I shot this HDR photo which turned out to be my favorite shot of the day. This is 5 shot HDR.

After i processed these i decided to make prints out of the first picture I shoed and this last one. The first one I had printed on canvas and the HDR I had printed on metal. When I got the metal print back i was floored on the amount of detail in the photo and how much it popped. I have hung both of these at the gallery and have sold a few prints of each. Every first Friday I get so many nice comments on this photo and I also get asked if I photoshopped the lean into the barn. I have to tell them that I am not anywhere near the skill level to do something like this in post. 

Now for the sad news. About a month after I shared these pictures another friend of mine made the drive up to photograph the barn and all he found was a pile of rubble. I am not sure what made the barn finally fall but it made me sad as I wanted to go back again and photograph it in different lighting conditions.

Well thats going to do it for this weeks post. If you would like to see these images in person please come see me at the gallery on the first Friday of every month. I am at 311 Gallery located at 311 W. Martin St. in downtown Raleigh. I will see you next Sunday for another post. 

The start of a very big project

Hi everyone! For this weeks blog I wanted to talk about a project that I have been wanting to do for quite a long time but I have been putting it on the back burner as I took care of other things but i figured it was time to see if I can actually pull it off.

As many of you know I love to photograph abandoned buildings. There is something in the decay of these old structures that just draws me to it like a moth to a light bulb. i have also been falling in love with shooting video and filmmaking and I have been studying filmmaking and honing my editing skills while running my own YouTube channel and the Peace Camera YouTube channel. Now that I feel that my skills are getting better I think I am ready to take the big leap on this idea.

So what the idea Dave? Just spit it out already. Ok so here it is. I want to make a documentary film all about abandoned places. I want to start out by filming some of the local places that I have been to already as well as meet up with other urban explorers like myself and interview them on what fascinates them with abandoned buildings.

I would like to travel around the country visiting a lot of abandoned spots that are high on my list of places to visit. This includes abandoned malls, schools, hospitals, factories and amusement parks. If possible I would even like to hit certain places around the world. One place I definitely want to visit and is the number one place on my bucket list of places to go would be Chernobyl in the Ukraine.  For years I have dreamed about visiting there. Yes I know it is the site of the worst nuclear accident in history but It has been over 30 years ago and it is now relatively safe to visit and they now lead tours through there. But it is an entire city that has been abandoned so I have to go if I get the chance.

So how am i going to do this you ask? Good question. I am hoping to do this with some help. I am starting to work up the numbers on the expense that this undertaking will be. Once I get all of that figured out I am going to record a trailer and place it on Kickstarter or Go fund me and try to raise the funds for this. I also need to figure out what my backers will get in return. One of this things I would also like to come out of this project would be a book documenting all the places I have visited and maybe offer limited edition prints as well. I want to make sure that I do this right and put out a product that I can be proud of and stand behind. 

Yes I know that this is a big undertaking. I will be bringing in help as needed and if I need to figure out a timetable for completing this project. I am estimating that this would take two years to complete. This would give me a year plus to travel to these locations and film and then about 6 months or longer to edit. Once it is done I would be submitting to film festivals to try to gain exposure and then I would hope to get it out on the mainstream media.

So yes this has been what I have been thinking about for quite a long time. I cant wait to get this started. I am working up the numbers and starting to cut a trailer that i hope to release within the next month or two. I hope that you will support me in this adventure. I will keep everyone up to date here on my blog and on my other social media accounts.

Until next week I will leave you with a few of the videos I have done in the past of abandoned places.