Author: Bryan Elkus

Craig’s List Transaction

Success! First, I didn’t get jumped, and secondly, I got my money. After realizing the two canon flashes I had were not playing well with my Pocket Wizards (wireless recievers), It was time to get rid of them.

The first thought was that I would call up canon and have them take them back. Well that didn’t go over as I hoped. One of my co-workers suggested Craig’s List. I’ve never been a huge fan of those sites like ebay. However, I am now ok with Craig’s List. I posted up the info about the flashes like their condition, cost, and pictures of the flashes. The very next day I received three offers for the flashes. Evidently, I should have charged more.

So here is how the transaction went down, straight out of a movie. He emailed me his phone number and we came up with a meeting time and location. He wanted to meet at his bank to ge the rest of the cash. I had to be up in Norfolk anyways so it worked out well. I pulled in to the bank around 6:30pm as it was bitch black. He checked out the goods. Tested the flashes and gave me the cash. We then went our separate ways. It was a weird experience to say the least. But all in all it worked out to both of our benefits.

February 6, 2009
REAL Co-founders Portrait | Part 3

So, if you have not been keeping track of this shoot, or didnt know, we are now on day 3. The photoshoot went well tonight. The conditions were not the greatest, as it snowed all day today. The shoot actually got under way rather timely tonight. We were up and rolling as the sun passed the horizon. I wanted to let the ambient light die down a little to let the features and structure of the building to come through instead of just a silhouette.

The wardrobe, by Jason, called for a REAL classic T, jeans and barefeet/sandels. Yes, it was still 32 degrees and snowing this evening as well. While dodging cars in the street we got off 3 decent run of shots off. After about 45 minutes of shooting and dodging cars we headed inside to warm up and pick out the shot. The final shot will be posted up after it runs, stay tuned.

February 5, 2009
Slider Search

On a rather cold NW day, Jason and I headed out on a little road trip to Avon and Buxton. The mission was the search the land to come up with ideas for the REAL Slider Park. Jason wants to give the slider park a face-lift. On our adventure we stopped at the Buxton bowl for a skate session. We checked out the harbor and some of the subdivision for ideas and then cruised back up to Waves.

January 31, 2009
REAL Co-founder’s Portrait | Part 1

I was asked to shoot a shot of the Co founders of REAL Watersports for a magazine editorial. After seeing a recent post online, it gave me the idea to shoot them in front of the new REAL Flagship Store, each holding a kiteboard. Chris and I headed out to test out the lighting and the right time to take the shot.

The sunset blew up for us, unfortunately, the Co-founders were not available at that time for the shot. After some testing, I decided to go with a cross lighting setup. This will light most of the face and then there would be a rim light on the side of the face that is not light. The shots taken after the ones posted here felt much nicer. The light was a bit harsh this time, and a couple more changes for the actual shoot. More to come soon…

January 29, 2009
Ramp 23 Session, Kinda

Tommie, Eric and I pulled into Ramp 23 today at lunch. It was blowing 25 SSW and it was WARM! I Pumped up the kite and ran the lines, put my wetsuit and harness on. As I was walking to my lines, I look over to see my kite catch air and start flying down the beach. Great!

I booked it for about a half mile, before I couldn’t breath in my harness and wetsuit. Looked back waiting for one of the guys to grab a truck and floor it down the beach. It took them a bit to secure their own kites, but then Tommie came to my rescue. I grabbed the kite and later found there was an inch rip in the canopy so I called it a session and headed back to work (with a couple cool drinks for the after session relaxation).

January 29, 2009
Coke Donates $400,000 to MSU SOP

It seems that Coke has donated $400,000 to the Michigan State University School of Packaging. I’m very excited to see this as MSU School of Packaging use to be a leader in Packaging education. But in my opinion has really slipped over the last decade or so.

As the school has not adapted to the times, nor has found niches in the packaging world to focus its students. The grant is to build and develop a focus on sustainable packaging program. This will be great for both MSU and the world of packaging that will benefit from MSU’s research. Here is a small part of the MSU Press Release:

“The planned center, to be housed in the MSU School of Packaging, will serve as a think tank for packaging innovation and sustainability and a research and education hub to measure and reduce packaging’s environmental impact. The Coca-Cola grant represents the initiating gift in a campaign to establish the global center.”

January 28, 2009
Monkey

I haven’t really shot anything in the last few days. So i got the camera out and grabbed a shot of my roommate’s cat. The cat isn’t the most normal cat ever, but she loves it.

January 28, 2009
REAL’s Newsletter

This is a copy of REAL’s latest newsletter. It is the most recent version. We updated to the template of the newsletter to give the readers something more fresh and a different layout. I think this is my favorite to date. The graphics all lined up well.

January 26, 2009
Ads for Covers?

According to A Photo Editor Esquire is selling an Ad on their cover for the cover. At First, I thought that was crazy and then thought a little more into it and realize its really not all too different that what goes in some of the board sport magazines. Photos based on other qualifications rather than a good photograph.

January 26, 2009