The Wrap Cover

A late post, I did not get word that this went to press last December, but I worked on some images appearing in the December 2021 Issue of The Wrap (International Edition), including the cover.

I usually don’t get to see my stuff in print unless I run down to a newsstand, but who does that anymore? Luckily this was posted as a readable magazine via flipdocs.com. You can see the whole magazine and check out my images on the cover and on pages 14 & 15. Link is here!

You can also see other images I did on The Wrap’s page! Photos by Jeff Vespa.

D'Pharoah, Woon-A-Tai by Jeff Vespa

Worked on these great images of D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai by Jeff Vespa for NOW magazine. Check them out here!

Kylie Jefferson Images for Birks Jewelry

Got to work on these amazing images of Kylie Jefferson shot by Jeff Vespa. Jeff shot a video as well, and you can check it out below.

Website: https://www.maisonbirks.com/en_us/kylie-jefferson-birks-splash

The Great Mazinga....in 3D

When I was my daughter’s age, I was really into the Shogun warriors. I had several of them, though only one of the 24” figures. For my birthday, I got this amazing AMT Model of the Great Mazinga, and my dad built it for me. I still have it so I shot it in 3D, just for kicks!

That box was sure exciting back in ‘77!

COVID Sale ending

After about 2 years, I am ending my “covid sale” on retouching services. Nothing lasts forever, except maybe this silly pandemic!

Jan 31st is the last day for the sale.

Licorice Pizza

Just saw the new Paul Thomas Anderson picture, Licorice Pizza, and absolutely adored it. Matter of fact, I braved the pandemic and saw it twice, in 70mm no less.

I’m a huge fan of PT Andersons work, been a big fan since Boogie Nights, and love pretty much all of his flicks. The past several releases have been hard to catch in the theater due to myself becoming a father, but now that my girl is older, I can make more trips to the movies! Seeing PTA’s films on the big screen is a real treat, and the cinematography is mind blowing.

Soundtrack album looks like a pinball backglass!

Check out this amazing article about Michael Bauman, discussing his lighting on the film!

https://thefilmstage.com/michael-bauman-licorice-pizza-cinematography-paul-thomas-anderson/

Happy New Year

2021 was way better than 2020, lets see if we can’t make 2022 kick 2021’s ass!

Vasquez Rocks in 3D

With all this Star Trek stuff I have been posting about, I wanted to share some 3D images I took at Vasquez Rocks in Southern California. I’m sure everyone has seen the episodes of Star Trek famously shot at the beautiful Vasquez Rocks formation (at least 10). I shot these in winter months of 2007.

Amazing rock formation!

This was from my second trip there. I accidentally found myself in the area without my gear, but vowed to return again to get these images. Hope you enjoy them.

3D Images from Hawaii part 1

Here are a few images in 3D from Paradise. Loved visiting the big island, wish I could have stayed….

Hail King Kamehameha!

Many of these were shot hand held, so there may be a bit of a glitch to them, but I think they turned out all all things considered.

Exciting View Master Reels!

Holy Cow! King Kong on View Master!?!?

Yeah, ashamed to say I never knew this was a thing but my friend showed me her set of King Kong reels for the View-Master. Unfortunately she does not have the package or the booklet, but whatever. The package looked like this when it came out:

He looks like he has a hangover…

The Reels are a bit fades but it is super cool to see Kong in 3D!

quite faded, unfortunately!

Star Trek View-Master Reels!

My sister gave me this years ago but not having a View-Master to view them, they went into a cupboard for nearly a decade. Now I’ve been able to check it out!

SUPER AWSOME!

The images and story all come from the season 2 episode “The Omega Glory”. Not one of my favorite episodes, but anything from the original Star Trek is cool nonetheless.

Images were shot on set with a stereo camera. I wish they shot them all like this!

I read on Memory Alpha, the most comprehensive Star Trek Wiki, that View-Master actually had more sets for Star Trek, including a set from the animated series, and The Motion Picture, among others. Very excited for those other sets, and I need to keep my eyes peeled for them in the future!

Cosmic Telescope

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Captain Kirk got sent into space on the Blue Origin spacecraft. I mentioned that Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos could have done something else with his 5.5 billion dollar 10 minute vacation spending spree to help space exploration. Here is a great example of something he could have done. Funded the construction of a Cosmic Telescope.

I first learned about a cosmic telescope while watching Cosmos: Possible Worlds. Host Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the concept, using our Suns own gravity to bend light to see “…detailed images of mountains, oceans, glaciers, and who know maybe even the cites of these worlds.” Our own sun would become the lens of the cosmic telescope. “Galileo’s best telescope could magnify an image 30 times…”, “…our cosmic telescope could make things appear 10 billion times closer”. Wow! Think of that!

deGrasse Tyson continues: “…what I cannot understand is: why we haven’t built one. We already know how to do it. We have the technology right now. When would you like the future to begin?”.

Amazing show about science!

Hey Jeff, why not skip the 10 minute ride into space and build one of these? I’d gladly buy more products on Amazon if you did. You could even call it the AMAZON Telescope!

Happy Halloween!

This is by far my favorite holiday, and since I am now a father it gives me great pleasure every year when my daughter and I get together to make her costume.

Here are a couple of amazing Halloween store displays I encountered in Rialto California, along Route 66, back in 2006. I did not have my 3D rig with me, I had to shoot hand held, so they are a little imperfect.

Can I help you find anything sir?

Ship of the dead. Died of sugar overdose….

Awesome King Kong Movie Book!

I recently found this awesome King Kong 1976 book about the making of the movie. I’ll probably never find the time to read it, but it is awesome to have. Lots of pictures of the production, unfortunately small images in black and white. Would really love a large book with full color photos, but I’m not holding my breath.

A thrilling story indeed!

I love finding things like this book, but I really love finding a “bonus”, like when you buy a coat at a thrift store for 10 bucks and find a Jackson in the pocket! This one had a movie ticket as a book mark!

$3.50 for a movie? Damn, I hope it was worth it!

One of the images in the book had this rad t-shirt for the crew. I wish I could find a higher resolution of this shirt. It needs to be remade!

Remember View-Master?

While exploring a neighborhood thrift shop with my daughter we found an old View-Master viewer. She thought it was binoculars. Having one as a kid I splurged the buck fifty cost on the item (I did already have some old reals in my possession). Bringing it home and trying it out reminded me that his was really my first exposure to 3D, something I have equated to the original “virtual reality”. Its a simple principle, basically same as an old stereo viewer but looking through transparency lit by a diffused opening in the back.

Daddy, are these binoculars?

This got me thinking, would it be possible to create 3D anaglyph images from View-Master reels? I’ll explore that later, but I just want to mention that View Master is or actually was a local company. They were manufactured here in Portland, and later in Beaverton for decades. I looked back into the dusty cobwebs of my mind to try to remember the View-Master factory. They had a water tower, and if I recall correctly it was by Washington Square Mall. I only found this one picture of the tower on the internet:

Childhood hero heads into space!

I gotta admit that when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went into space my response was: meh, who cares?

It was worse when he returned and “thanked” Amazon employees and customers for making it possible for a super rich man to go on the most expensive 10 minute vacation ever. As an Amazon customer, I was kind of insulted, like maybe if you charged less for products perhaps you could have not gone on $5.5 billion trip. Or even better, maybe spent that to help with scientific research (if he wanted to help space exploration).

But seeing my childhood hero, Captain James T. Kirk go into space, well that’s something else!

Actual image of William Shatner looking out the window of the Blue Origin Spacecraft

Upon returning Shatner stated: "What you have given me is the most profound experience, I am so filled with emotion, just extraordinary, I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now." Shatner is now the oldest person to enter space (except for the abductees of course), at 90 years old. Boldly going, where no 90 year old has gone before!

The WORST Kong knock-off ever!

So if you read my blog at all, you may have seen my posts about all the King Kong knock offs that happened in the late 70s. Some of them good, some bad. But now you get to see my idea of the worst. Queen Kong was produced in the United Kingdom to capitalize on the De Laurentiis King Kong of 1976. It is very clearly a spoof, and it is horrible to watch.

I purchased this film on DVD sometime in the early 2000s, mostly because I knew it was banned from being shown in the UK (due to legal action by De Laurentiis). I do not know if it was shown here in the US. I loved the DVD cover tagline: “She’s in one of her moods again!”.

The movie is a silly, stupid gender reversal film where the main antagonist is a female gorilla on a rampage in love with a male, in London, spoofing not only Kong movies but Jaws too:

Jaws? Where are your teeth lady? Looks more like Gums to me…

Now I know some of you out there really enjoy bad movies, and I count myself to be one of them, but seriously this one just sucks so bad. I’d avoid it. Special effects are far from special, and the script….well lets just say a monkey could write something much better.

Looks convincing to me….

Camping!

Got to go camping again, for the 4th time this year. It’s been rough with the pandemic. First we were told not to go to the State Parks because people flocked there, and due to personal issues last year I did not get out once in the entire summer.

The inside of a tent can be a lonely place…

I camped at Silver Falls State park, and though it is only about an hour and a half drive, traffic was heavy and I did not get there until about an hour before sundown. I decided I wanted to do a small hike to the falls, and a nice ranger told me the darkness there comes quickly, and I should be carful. He was not wrong, the terrain made what would usually be a transition to dusk from dark very sudden. I found myself in darkness I did not anticipate. I got lost trying to find my way back to the trail that led to the campground and had to walk along highway 213 to get back.

It had just rained that day and the air was moist. My flashlight was barely adequate, and I must admit I as having trouble seeing in the dark. My glasses fogged up and I had a Blair Witch moment when my light showed several pairs of eyes looking at me in the darkness. I creeped up, curious who was looking at me, and I saw 3 deer just chilling out under a tree. I wish I had a lens on my camera fast enough to capture the sight!

Marlee Matlin Image on People Magazine

Last image from the batch of files I did for Jeff Vespa of Academy Award winning Marlee Matlin. This was one of 2 images I did for People Magazine. Not sure if the other image ended up in the printed mag or not. Maybe I’ll look next time I’m stuck in line at a grocery store….

Anyways, you can see it here on People’s web site.

Always great to see your work in print….

3D image of the week La Brea Tar pits

Took these images of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

For the image above I used a Lensbaby 3G, which I believe, is no longer in production. It allowed me to to alter the focal plane and lock it in place for both exposures. Though it is not apparent here, this allowed the blur to have dimension as well. You may see that on other shots I have where the subject is closer to the camera.

Lens flare was not present in both images unfortunately. If I could have captured it the effect would have been cool.

This one works very well. Enjoy!