dc chavez – the BLOG

I recently had the opportunity to head down to Santa Catarina, Brazil with the Rhys Millen Racing Team to document their RMR / Red Bull / Hyundai Genesis Coupe up an EPIC mountain Road called Serra Do Rio Do Rastro. This 156 turn 8 kilometer stretch of road is one of the most amazing driving roads I have ever seen. This is a teaser I put together for a full video debuting next week entitled, Climb Attack Brazil. I will document the whole trip in the next blog with the full video. I hope this clip shows quite how crazy the road is. -DC

I am proud to announce the unveiling of GT3 Climb- a video by Will Roegge in which I helped to capture some of the footage. This video is an account of Director / Photographer / Racer Jeff Zwart as he pilots a Porsche GT3 Cup car to the summit of Pikes Peak setting a new World Record.

This is the product of two people running up and down a mountain operating up to 8 cameras at once, great input from Jeff and lots of amazing editing by Will.

Crank the audio and enjoy!

Puma x Forza 3 Speedcat 2.9

So the other day I received an email from Forza Motorsport 3 and Turn 10 Studios. Wondering how these guys got my email address opened the attached PDF and was delighted to read:

Dear Automotive Photographer / Videographer,

You have been chosen to receive a pair of limited edition Puma x Forza Motorsport 3 shoes. We value your work and passion as an automotive photographer / videographer and would like to show our appreciation for your hard work on and off the track. Your talent has shown through the motorsports imagery you have captured and we would like to thank you for sharing your passion with us.

Please feel free to come check us out online at www.forzamotorsport.net.

Your friends at Turn 10 Studios.

Maybe I made an impression on someone when I shot photos at the Forza 3 Release party?

If you know me well, then you know that I love shoes. My closet is a collection of neatly lined up Pumas, Adidas, DVS and many other shoes. As my girlfriend describes it, “All 60+ pairs are standing at attention!” So you could imagine my delight when I found out they were shipping me FREE SHOES! Not only that, but after doing a little bit research, they are only going to produce 324 pairs of these guys. I think these will make a GRAND addition to the collection.

As Mr. Will Roegge so succinctly put it, “Can’t wait to heel toe in them.”

Thank you Forza Motorsports 3, Turn 10 Studios, ID Agency and my girls Natalie and Chrystina over at Edelman PR.

Crazy treads for intense heel-toe action on Forza Motorsports 3

Business in the front, party in the back!

Embroidered Forza Motorsports 3 Logo on the tongue

I am very happy to announce that I have created a new website for myself. It has been well over a year since I have updated my old site, and it was time to start 2010 off right. I used the Livebooks platform to develop a new site that showcases my photography and video work. Livebooks is essentially a plug and play system for photographers and creative professionals. This solution is currently used by some great photographers like Chase Jarvis and Joe McNally. I figured if they are using it, Livebooks is doing something right.

I am very happy with how easy it was to get up and running. I selected one of the pre-designed templates, signed up for a trial and was uploading content within minutes. The backend is easy enough for anyone to use, even without web design experience. The interface is very smart and makes it very easy to search engine optimize your site as you upload the content. The layout of the site is straight forward and is in a format that a lot of the art buyers are familiar with. There are some great features built in like slideshow options, PDF download and printing capabilities right from the gallery. The images are pre-formatted with all the appropriate contact info on the PDF.

I also like that even though the site is flash-based, Livebooks creates an HTML version of the site for search engine optimization. So if you go on my site with an iPhone, you will be directed to the HTML version so you can still see what it is that I do. The main template is very functional, and for a bit more money I can add modules that will further customize the site.

A big concern was being able to retain existing hosting, but redirect to my Livebooks portfolio. I have a lot of content on the internet that links back to certain directories, and if I had to move everything, it would have been awful. E-mail is the same, and still goes through my existing web host. Livebooks includes hosting with the $39 a month package, but in my case, I did not need it.

So far everything is great. Even their customer support has gotten back to me in a reasonable time to answer the many questions I had. Making a jump like this is not something to take lightly, and they were able to help me out. I will let you know how things go as the integrated Google Analytics start tallying up traffic statistics!

So about a month and a half ago I created the second educational blog post for Profoto.  This one is about the Magnum and Giant Reflector 180.  I have been lagging on getting it on my own blog- as we left to Europe the day after the blog went live on the Profoto Blog.

This was another fun project with some collaboration from some great people like our models Chrystal and Genette.  For this blog I had Will Roegge bring a video camera on over to film a bit of the behind the scenes- showing a bit of what it takes to put one of these posts together.  He has an amazing eye so it was great to have him onboard for this post.

Here is a video of what we put together as well as a few snaps from the blog posting.

Profoto Blog- Magnum Reflector / Giant Reflector from DC CHAVEZ on Vimeo.

Click the link for the full version on the Profoto Blog.

Thanks again to the Profoto Team and Southbay Studios for helping out on this project.

I am proud to announce that I will soon be starting as a guest blogger for Profoto.

For those of you that do not know who/what Profoto is- they design and manufacture photographic flash equipment. Essentially, they are the Ferrari of lighting- top performing equipment. They are based in Sweden, and have been in business since 1968. I am VERY excited to get the opportunity to work with and be associated with such a great company.

A couple of months ago I went to an event where I got to demo the new Pro8 Air generator. I pitched the VP of the MAC Group on the idea of a new series of blogs. After a bit of dialogue, we worked out a schedule of shoots and educational blogs to demonstrate how some of their gear works.

Last week I went to Samys Camera and picked up some gear for this series of shoots. The guys over at Samys were a great help as usual in getting me the gear I need for this project. Some of the new goodies I have managed to get my hands on include:

Pocketwizard MiniTT1- the latest from Pocketwizard, a much smaller transmitter that when used with the new FlexTT5 can deliver ETT-L metering to a remote flash. I have also been told that this little guy can also bump the flash sync speed of the camera as well. Last but not least, it is MUCH smaller and lower profile than the original Plus II’s. I was shooting with it today and basically forgot it was even on the camera!

Pro-B2 1200R Generator- I have used this on many shoots before and this thing kills it… 1200ws of power with an 8 f-stop range, it recycles between .04-1.8s, asymmetrical or symmetrical distribution, up to 250w modeling light and ITS WIRELESS!!! Works flawlessly with the MiniTT1- have to test out the high-speed sync. When I used this kit I was able to get over 200 full power flashes before I needed to worry about changing the battery.

Pro Heads w/ new Zoom Reflectors- Solid lights with consistent color output. Pretty much the only lights I have ever and will ever use. These new reflectors are pretty cool- they are redesigned to provide a more even falloff, increased dynamic range and they also directly accept Profoto grids. This means no more grid holder or adapter. One less thing to carry and worry about.

Ok- my rant is over about how great all these products are. Pardon the jargon-filled rant, I am just excited about the new gear and the new project. This is going to be an amazing opportunity and I KNOW some incredible photos are going to come from all of this.

Thanks to Profoto for giving me the opportunity and for Samys for getting me the gear I need to make this happen. More to come…

Here is a recent project I did for Rhys Millen Racing- a promotional poster that would be signed and handed out at each race. I had two days to gather assets, create the poster and send to the printer so it could make it to the first race.

I ran down to Rhys’ shop and took some quick headshots to incorporate into the poster. I used a hero image of the car from the recent El Toro shoot. Coincidentally, it was the last frame shot of the day, after team photos as the car was about to be loaded onto the rig. The light kept getting better and better as time went on, but try explaining that to a crew of people that had been working on the car for at least 14 hours a day for a month straight. Yeah, they wanted to get home and fast… Combined all that together with an image of some of the burned up rubber on the runway to add some character and VIOLA- poster…

Lots of projects that have been going on, so I will make my best attempt to slowly sprinkle them onto the blog… New video in the works too! More to come..

So last night my buddy Ian, the owner of Learnaboutwine.com, invited me to an event hosted by Max Riedel. Max gave the most informative presentation on why using the proper Riedel wine glass is ESSENTIAL. Both my girlfriend, Nicole, and I were amazed at the way the wine completely changed from glass to glass.  We went from the proper varietal glass, to the wrong glass, to a plastic cup.  I could not believe how the aroma, the taste and everything about the wine changed from glass to glass.  

I am currently drinking Chardonnay out of this glass:  

They describe the glass as “Offering a larger volume, the Vinum Montrachet glass reveals the intensity and the wine’s layers of aroma. The size of the bowl enables the rich bouquet to develop its wonderfully diverse range of aromas, emphasizing the finesse, while minimizing the risk of it becoming over-concentrated.”  Very well said, and wow, the wine is good…  Want more info on all the glasses?  Go here…

Ian set me up with Max to shoot some photos, and here is the result. Nothing like having 5 minutes to set up and 3 minutes to shoot! All-in-all I think I got some decent shots considering…

 

 

 

Click here for the full gallery.  More to come…

So I have decided its time to step it up and enter the world of blogging.  This serves more as a professional blog that a personal one- a place where I can talk about what I have been up to lately.

Expect to see recent work, and what it took to get the project done from start to finish.  Sprinkle in some really cool sites and videos I find here and there.

Please keep all arms and feet inside while the ride is in motion..