Writer/Director Mark Palansky's thought provoking film Rememory is now available on Google Play and soon to hit the theaters. I am humbled and honored to be included in a small part of the film. A while back Set Designer Hank Mann reached out to me and asked if I'd be willing to provide some artwork for a scene in the film. I was very excited about the script and liked the idea of having a virtual gallery frozen in time yet always open so I gladly said yes. I was surprised and thrilled when I found out more about Mark and the cast and knew this was a great decision to participate in a small part of this great film. Later Mark reached out to me and asked if I'd be open to create some artwork to help promote the film. Honored, I jumped on the opportunity and I'm proud the final image ended up the official movie poster below.
photography
How Do You Hold the Thunder?
My son is currently two years old. I am fascinated by the way a two year olds mind works. One day, off in the distance, the clouds were growing dark and slowly intruding upon us. As they crept in they began to announce themselves like a slow rolling mallet on a loosely fastened base drum. My son looked to me suddenly with eyes big and wide and I calmly told him, "that's thunder buddy." He looked to me and inquisitively said "Ohhh, thunder, Hold it!" My son loves to hold things, insects, frogs, food, keys etc, anything you have especially if it's new but thunder was a new one. I believe I reacted in a quick laugh thinking to myself what a silly request and slowly thought about how creative that line of thinking is. I love the fact that to me it is such an abstract idea to hold the thunder and to him it was a simple request. I try to encourage this type of thinking in hopes that one day he will hold the thunder.
OMEGA - Recording Olympic Dreams - Rio 2016
I am very happy to share this incredible video that I was fortunate enough tag along with the crew in order to shoot my modest still portion of the campaign compared to the incredible creativity and ingenuity of the video production team. This 30 second artwork is the culmination of a year and a half of creative dreaming and design by the advertising geniuses at Trash Adv and the masterful magicians at the production company Cow&Boys who helped make their dreams a reality. Many thanks to all who were involved with this campaign and became our small family on the road especially the OMEGA family who let a few people dream up something grand and gave them the freedom to make it a reality, that is something truly spectacular.
A short tour of Las Vegas with the incredible Magician Justin Flom
I had the great pleasure to meet an extraordinary and incredible individual during my trip to Las Vegas. Justin Flom is not only an especially nice and approachable human being but he is a real life wizard defying the laws of physics, hiding as a magician. I have no doubt that he is destined for great things and will play a crucial role in the evolution of entertainment what we think is possible. He took me on a quick tour of Las Vegas in search of interesting locations that resulted in the photos shown here. If you aren't already familiar with him (Soldiers Deck of Cards) please check him out here.
A morning with The Mayor
in ThatJaxCrew
Sunrise at Jacksonville Beach Pier with friend and talented photographer Malc @malcjax.
A walk with "The Mayor" Malcolm Jackson (@malcjax)
As the saying goes, it's all about the journey. One could argue that the journey is merely a path to the connections you make along the way that give the journey meaning. Malcolm Jackson is one such person. Malc is a kind hearted and supremely talented young man, a true ambassador for our great city, Jacksonville, FL and for mankind. You can find more of his work on Tumblr and Instagram.
Double Exposures with the Fuji X100s - First Attempts
I’ve always been intrigued by double exposures. I find that they add an extra layer of storytelling to an image. I’ve learned over the past year that executing an idea with a double exposure is very tricky and is an art in itself. I began creating double exposures on an iPhone which gave me the luxury of taking two separate photographs from different times, places, locations etc. and storing them for later when I had the right image to layer it with. I really enjoyed the creative process but it wasn’t until I about 6 weeks after I started shooting with the Fuji X100s that I realized it had a double exposure setting. This setting emulates that of a film camera where you take one exposure directly on top of the other simultaneously. This adds a layer of complexity and forces creativity as you lose the luxury of choosing the images you want to layer from a previous photo shoot. Some more expensive cameras such as the Canon Mark III have the option to choose previously shot exposures (currently out of my price range). It is also possible to process these exposures from a DSLR or Mirrorless camera in Photoshop but in my efforts to stretch my creative process I chose not to use this option and test the X100s and myself to see what I could do with these Double Exposures shot simultaneously in the same setting.
The main thing I found in my first few attempts is that lighting is everything. That is true of all photography but especially with the double exposures as the camera underexposes each image so they will come out darker than they appear in your view finder. You can correct this in Lightroom by increasing the exposure but you want to avoid increasing it too much as it start to show distortion in the shadows. This leaves the option of creating the right lighting environment for the double exposures. I started with a single external flash shot through a simple white umbrella to soften the light. This simple setup provided a great basis of comparison. I look forward to adapting this technique to natural light (when time allows) and will share some more image when I get the chance to. Included here are a few of my first attempts at the double exposures shot with the X100s. All images were created solely in the X100s, simultaneously shot though some correcting has been made in Lightroom including exposure, shadows and VSCO film emulation.
Driftwood Beach, Mike Hill and VooDoo - Jekyll Island, Georgia
All photos - Brandon Kidwell with Fuji X100s
Reach
Elbow
The dancing tree
Interview with Kate Wesson from iPhone Photography School
in Interview
I'm deeply honored to have the opportunity to share some insights into my work on the incredible iPhone Photography School site. Big thanks to the talented Kate Wesson for this opportunity!
The Conceptual Brilliance of Photographer Cedric Blanchon
Read all about this article I shared about this incredible artist on the Huffington post.
Tutorial coming soon...
The daily grind
Together (Who I want to jump with)
This is my favorite photo from this weekend. This is our daughter and her cousin jumping off the ledge into the water holding hands. This didn't strike me as particularly important moment at the time but upon some reflection I realize how great it is. At the end of the day after we left the springs, arrived home and unpacked our vehicles we started to say our goodbyes for the day. It was then that I saw the cousins hugging and saying that they love each other. That's when I realized that through all the interactions in life the ones that really mean something are the ones who's hand you want to hold when jumping off the ledge.
iPhone5 | Oggle
This is a blend of a photo provided by Eric Rubens (@erubes1) for the current week of Mextures Collective edited by me. I used Union App to blend the double exposure as well as mask out the background outside of the clouds in the sky. I used VSCOCam for the soft tones and blended again in Union App to reduce the saturation in the sky by blending it with a black and white version of the same image to bring focus on the subject and the house.
Escape - an edit for the Mextures Collective
WeAreJuxt is now WeAreGRRYO
@WeAreJuxt is now @WeAreGRRYO
Grryo, renamed after the West African word "Griot" meaning storyteller, continues to showcase art from every corner of the world in the form of visual imagery with both still and moving pictures, interviews of amazing artists, tutorials and reviews for a community that is growing everyday.
Our aim is to support the artistic movement through storytelling and social photography while fostering community.
It will be exciting and we look forward to what the future may bring.
Welcome to GRRYO! Shoot Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives. Tell Your Story! You Are Grryo! Click the link on our profile to read our most recent articles and to see our new site!