Franklin Mint Magazine

OK so it's been to LONG since my last post.  And I have much to show & talk about - but not here!  Just want to show you this job I finished for Franklin Mint Credit Union.  I shoot for their magazine.  It's always a lot of fun.  I get to shoot their clients for stories written about them.  I shot this woman & her horse and after I finished shooting the horse he decided he wanted to see the pictures too!  Then we shot this guy with his Smart car.  I got to drive it.  It was a blast!  They're a lot roomier then you think.  The first person in front of the car is my assistant Justin.  The second person is Peter the art director on the job.  The last is the person we were photographing.  I asked him if he could lift the car - it looks more like he's humping it!  NO this image wasn't used in the article!  

Caribbean

A few weeks back I spent some days on the French side of St. Martine.  Absolutely Paradise. Besides the water being clear blue and soft perfect sand the airport was fascinating.  The arriving planes come in about 50 feet off this beach on the Dutch side of the island.  People just lay on this beach all day while these jumbo jets appear to fall from the sky!  

Six String Shooting!

The "Bring People to Philadelphia" campaign moves on!  Here is another set of images from the series, all taken in Valley Forge National Park for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Office.  My assistants were slack in terms of taking all the "behind the scenes" type shots.  Actually I am being nice, they totally forgot and I was too busy fighting with pesky park rangers with guns as to why we couldn't hang a rope swing from a tree!  After all we had all the correct permits to shoot in the park but when we started putting the swing up I almost had a heart attack when the rangers pulled out their guns!  Well not exactly but their  aggressive attitude implied they would at any moment.  For some reason they were really pissed off!  

We shot two couples in different areas of the park.  Here are some of those images.  Including one of me strumming my six string while the talent were being made up and styled in the RV.   We rented a Vespa as a prop and it was a blast racing it through the park after the shoot!    

Philadelphia Tourism

It's been way to long since I've updated this blog.  I know all of you have been bombarded with news and videos of Peter's escapades out west.  Exciting they are and it would be great to be seeing all his travels first hand!  But alas we can only thank Peter for his fun stories and countless hours of video. I'm sure it has kept you entertained!  So while Peter has been traveling the world somebody, namely ME has stayed back and has kept the great machine - Lien/Nibauer Photography taking pictures & making money so Peter can go off to exotic locations and report from all around the globe!  These are exciting times!  

So i bring you a small snippet of a campaign I've been shooting for the city of brotherly love!  GPTMC Greater Philadelphia Tourism & Marketing asked me to create images to help bring tourist from around the country to come to Philly to vacation and spend countless dollars!  It's been a wonderful campaign to shoot.  My crew of Susan, Justin, Tom, Jason, Linda, Michelle, Meradith and Scooter have been fantastic in keeping things organized, staying on top of all technical issues, propping, wardrobe, makeup and just having fun as well as being true professionals! Great job all!!!  

Over the next week I'll post images from all the various shots I've done for this campaign and a small behind the scene view as to how these shots have come together.

The one you are viewing here is titled "Independence Hall" for obvious reasons.  We closed down Chestnut street between 5th & 6th in front of Independence Hall from 2am to 6:30am to create this shot.  We brought in a double-decker bus, an articulated scissor lift, a dozen or so talent/models, a cast of clients, police, park rangers and the occasional drunk!  That's what you get for being on the streets of Philly at 4 in the morning!  

  

WWW.LNPHOTO.COM

One of the projects I've been working on - for what seems like forever is my new website.  Drum roll please!!!  It's done!  

WWW.LNPHOTO.COM

Please check it out.  Let me know what you think.  Here's a picture of my dog Odie calling the studio.  He liked it!  

Production stills

There have been so many things going on in my life as of late.  Work wise I've been shooting a cookbook for the last month for Merck & Company.  They're using the images to help create a better nutritional balance & a healthy lifestyle for their clients.  On top of this I've been shooting for AtlantiCare still images for a new ad campaign and videos for Fox Chase cancer Center.  

The images here are production stills of me operating the GlideCam.  It's the little sister to the SteadyCam.  There's nothing "little" about it!

Fox Chase Videos

As of lately I have been shooting for many different hospitals.  Those of you who have been following this blog have seen some of my still images here.  But on top of taking still images I have been creating videos for patients and web use.  These videos have been used as informative pieces to help promote cancer prevention, cancer education as well as an introduction from the doctors to the patients.  Here is one I did recently for Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Texas Cowboys

One of my most favorite photographs was taken for Vanguard Investments.  They sent me out to Amarillo Texas to do a campaign surrounding cowboys on the ranch.  I've been to Texas many times on shoots but usually to the larger cities.  So this was my first time - on a shoot -going into the Texas "outback".  I spent a week in Palo Duro Canyon shooting cowboys - mostly riding & working in and near pickup trucks.  The shots were being used for a "feel good" campaign - ads & brochures all for the midwest.  Well as I was shooting these three cowboys in back of one of these pickups the youngest of the three started jumping through a rope.  I was really intrigued.  I asked the A.D. if she mind if I shot some of this kid jumping.  She was fine with it.  Shooting this wasn't in the schedule but it turned out to be the main image in the ad campaign.  

There are many times where I start shooting with a client with a preconceived idea as to what they/we want.  And as I'm shooting I see something that peeks an interest and I always try to find ways to capture it.   

Our guide in the canyon was this 70ish year old Texan Cowboy.  He had broken his back years before and had a few of his vertebra fussed together.  At least that's what he told us.  He couldn't turn his head side to side but instead would move his whole body to peer left & right.  It made driving in & out of the canyon quite the experience!  Going down steep dirt roads with hairpin turns - no more then a foot of road between you and a 70 foot cliff made for a lot of thanking G-d and drinking at night!  It was a great trip!  Got to love Texas!  

Nurses

I find I've been shooting for many hospitals lately.  Last week Fox Chase Cancer Center, who I've been working with for over 20 years hired me to do a campaign about the nurses at the center.  The images will be used on billboards and banners to help recruit.  We travel around the hospital shooting nurses in a variety of different settings.  For some reason we are always fascinated with the O.R. area.  Maybe because we get to dress-up like docs!  We'll it use to be like that.  Now they give us these "bunny suits" to wear.  I liked it better when they just gave us scrubs.  

Orange County Choppers, Paul Teutul & Tony Stewart

I got a call from my rep Ken Leyden to go to Orange County Choppers head quarters and photograph Paul Teutul Sr & Jr. along with race car driver Tony Stewart.  The project was for 

GlaxoSmithKline and their new pain relief medicine called GOODY'S.  It's a powder you mix with liquid and drink.  GSK wanted a new ad campaign and hired an agency in North Jersey.  Which in turn saw my book -hence the job! 

We loaded up the car - well Justin loaded up the car - and Peter, myself & Justin set out on he journey.  I would be responsible for the "white-set shots" while Peter,  my business partner would shoot more journalistically out in the shop - where they make the choppers.  It was very exciting!  Truth is I never saw the show Orange County Choppers - not till after the shoot and I'm not a race car fan.  Sorry Tony.  But who's to say that can't change!  After 4ish hours of driving for an early morning shoot and four gallons of coffee between the three of us  we arrived in desperate need of the bathroom!  Thank G-d we were early!  

Everyone was great!  Paul Sr. has a sarcastic sense of humor but once in front of the camera puts on a persona as being tough as nails.  His son Paul Jr was constantly joking - on & off the set.  When Tony Stewart showed up I didn't know what to expect.  He is a very down to earth guy.  So what he just flew in on a private jet and had a small entourage he traveled with.  He was easy to get along with.  

The shoot lasted all day.  We had a good time dealing with all the designers & art directors and talent.  There also was a  video crew who was taping for an upcoming episode.  Who knows you might even see us on one of the shows!  

One clear day we made it snow!

When Tom McGivney Creative director from ABC Advertising asked me to produce a series of ads for NYU Hospital I was psyched to be part of the team!  One of the ads created an unusual challenge in that we needed a woman holding her arms out looking up into a snow storm.  My first thought was "here comes Aspen!"  But once it was made clear to me that it wasn't in the budget to fly my whole crew plus their crew (ad agency & clients) out to the snowy slopes of Colorado we had to come up with a different idea.  My first thought was putting it together in the computer combining a combination of shots - woman, background & snow.  Now shooting the woman in the studio and combining her with a background would be easy but adding snow would be very, very tricky.  It would be to time consuming seeing that snow is translucent and has a slight "blur" as it falls.  Then I turned my ideas on snow making machines.  I spoke with a couple of different film directors who have made snow in their movies and found out they use a combination of different types of machines and fake snow depending on the look they wanted. Renting snow machines could of been away to go but it was also very costly.  And though NYU Hospital is huge they still didn't want to put up the thousands of dollars for the machines.  So I turned my attention to the theater and looked into how they created a snow scene.  They won! Outside  suspended between two stands, about 20 feet apart we hung a few large plastic boxes with the bottoms cut away and chicken wire put in its place.  Filled them with fake plastic snow and I had two assistants shake the pole that supported the boxes slowly as I shot.  The model stood underneath.  I also had a third assistant in front throwing snow up in the air in front of the camera.  This helped create the depth of the snow.  Thus we turned a clear day in to a winter wonder land!  Way within budget!!!

Red Head Betty Takeout

I received a call from my friend Martin who is a creative director at Merck.  He asked me if I'd like to shoot a band called Red head Betty Takeout.  They have a sound like Barenaked Ladies but more soulful!  Turns out - Martin is a friend of the band and they were in need of a photographer.  They came to the studio where I shot them for their new CD cover.  Then they put on a little impromptu show - which was amazing!  Then I took them on a late-night subway ride throughout Philly - where I shot them some more.  

Make-up

One of the nicest people I've ever worked with!  Susan is a talented make-up artist!  When she's not touching up faces she's also a wonderful prop stylist.  She's been part of my photo team for at least 15 years. - Clients ask for her by name - that I should hire her as the stylist on the set.  

Tea Time

My assistant Justin enjoying a spot of tea from the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union shoot. 

My kids

Just being kids

Hats

My daughter & her friend wearing hats on South St.

Odie the wonder dog!

Odie is a mix breed.  Half Jack Russel and half Pug.  The "breed" is called a Jug!

My dog.

My daughter

My daughter - Love this girl!!!  Here she is with her brand new pink braces!

My Son

Here is my son riding the high-wire bike at the Franklin Institute - about 50 off the ground!

Personality

Shooting in an assisted living facility one day I came across these wonderful people!!!

Everything has personality - it just depends how you look at.

Personalities

Before I talk about my kids which might bore you.  I thought I'd show you a few images that I have been working on lately.  I love shooting "personalities" - People, food, animals...it doesn't matter - I love finding the laughter - the child in all of us!