Tag Archives: The Huntington Botanical Garden

We did it! Bingo! Score!

Jul

2016

Excuse Me

I have to brag a bit about my success. It’s such a sweet feeling to achieve recognition in a crowded field.

Film Festivals

As I began my incredible journey directing and producing construction time-lapse films in 2011, I laid out several goals for myself: make a living, have fun, elevate the mundane, meet new people, learn new stuff and gain recognition for the work. I can now safely say that 100% of these goals have been achieved: two of my films have been recognized and accepted for inclusion in the premiere of the worldwide Los Angeles 2016 Time Lapse Film Festival.

Lingering Clouds Peak and Syncreon’s deliverables were well-defined by my clients. These two amazing people were guided by their instincts in commissioning me, they believed in my value proposition and trusted me to deliver results. The recognition of my work bears out their trust in me and I’m very happy and excited for all of us.

Trust

Because both films were photographed and produced under ideal circumstances for a commercial artist: 100% trust from the clients and just about as close as one can get to 100% creative freedom, we came up with winners by working towards common goals. That is one of my value propositions: that of a dedicated and thorough professional, who looks around corners you don’t even know exist. I am your eyes on a project. Deliver results, not excuses.

Thank you Jim and Marjorie.

Michael

Lingering Clouds Peak

Jan

2016

by Michael Stern | 0 Comments

Well it took awhile to finally get this film to a point where I can own the end result. An experiment in tone, color and softness, I have taken construction time-lapse work to a new place in the industry.

Enjoy!

Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 12.03.43 PM
Lingering Clouds Peak

It’s The Little Things…

Jan

2014

by Michael Stern | 0 Comments

Working with a professional photographer is a little like buying catastrophic insurance…you don’t really want to think about what could go wrong on a shoot but it’s nice to know you’ll be covered. For instance, it’s the little things that will stop a shoot completely: broken connector cables, dead batteries, failed media cards, missing quick release plate, etc. It’s like when the timing belt breaks on your car, it stops right there, there’s no nursing it to a mechanic, you’re stuck until a tow truck comes. Hello Auto Club…

The photography professional you select must be prepared for many contingencies, especially on location where a quick fix can be difficult to come by…

Decisions That Drive The Time Lapse Narrative Forward

Jan

2014

by Michael Stern | 0 Comments

Dynamic Perception Stage 0 Dolly and the eMotimo TB3 Black

What should be your guiding principal when planning shots, especially when it comes to motion control time lapse sequences? The four keywords I keep in mind are: education, documentation, preservation and entertainment. Every decision I make rides on the backs of these four words.

I jumped into time lapse photography in ’03 and have been hacking away at it ever since. During this time, I realized I was developing a new specialty: the commercial time lapse narrative. Now I offer a boutique experience to my market in that I shoot time lapse projects with the mindset of a movie director. I offer and provide multiple camera set ups daily, weekly and monthly. In addition to the usual fixed or static camera that records all that happens in front of it I also place what I call rover units throughout a site in order to tell the complete story, whatever it may be…thus the decisions that come with this approach.

Honoring People and Yourself

Mar

2012

by Michael Stern | 0 Comments

As my ten month time-lapse project begins to wind down, I’m satisfied with the way I’ve honored the contributions of the fine people who’ve been working at The Huntington on the rejuvenation of the Asian Garden. These workers do strenuous manual labor: digging, mulching, watering, planting, etc., in all kinds of weather and always starting first thing in the morning. Six days a week.

And as far as I’ve witnessed, they do it with pride, professionalism and camaraderie. I like hanging out with these guys because they are know a lot about gardening, are friendly and support what I’m doing with multiple cameras, sometimes set in places they have to work around to avoid jostling. I really appreciate their efforts on my behalf.

My gift to them are the portraits I’ve been making periodically. I made these yesterday. The lead image for this post was taken at 8am and the one below was made at 3pm.

This morning I handed out seven envelopes with these two prints inside. There were surprised and grateful. We shared a few laughs at how they appeared at both ends of a typical day for them: fresh in the morning and a bit bedraggled at the end. This is a rare experience for them and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to honor them this way.

Thanks for reading.