I "shutter" at the thought...

Soooooo... I got a new camera!

It's a Nikon D300s professional DSLR. It's kinda different than my Nikon D80 that I've been using for quite some time now. The D300s doesn't have any automatic settings. It is all manual, so there are no shortcuts! haha

Probably the coolest thing about this camera is that is does HD video as well! Some might say, "Why don't you just get the D300 and then get a camcorder with HD?" Here's why: The D300s is only $200 more than the D300 and an HD camcorder would be over $1000 at the very least for a good one... PLUS, with the video on my D300s, I can change the ISO and shoot in really low light as well as using manual focus and zoom. This allows for more control with video. The only down side is that the built-in microphone doesn't record in the greatest quality, but they make a condenser mic that mounts where the flash would mount and plugs into a mic line-in port.

I am trying to line up a couple bands to shoot music videos for with my friend Chris. He has a DSLR that shoots HD video as well. We want to test em out and see what they can really do! I am also excited to be able to use my new camera for stuff at work! Not sure when/if I'll get another photo shoot for TMG, but you can bet that I'll be ready! haha

Also, I'm looking for opportunities to shoot some stock video for album trailers and possibly work on some HDR photos.

Here are some recent photos from my new camera!

No Diggity

Hello all! I created a blog! Which is evident I guess. haha.

It has been a while since I did anything like this, but I figure I'll just stick to what I know and talk about my life and the things going on with that. haha

Something cool that I've been working on: I have been designing some of my Tate Music Group CD covers using Adobe After Effects rather than just Photoshop and InDesign. I am the first at TMG to ever try this. A lot of people including the design professor at OCCC, who came to visit our office, said "I never would have thought of that." lol

Of course, there are others who might ask "Why?"

Well, I have learned a lot about After Effects and how to do some really cool things there with video. So, why not use the same effects such as creating in 3D space, setting up lights that allow cast shadows, adding depth of field by creating a camera and working with aperture.

This allows you to create a lot of covers with illusions of 3D elements. Also, you can do your text in there as well because After Effects renders images at 4 or 5 times the size that you need, so by shrinking them down to your InDesign template, you don't lose any quality.

Here are just a couple designs that I've been working on in After Effects this month: