"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey

As the sun was coming up, we positioned our talent into place for the first phase of the boxing workout we had envisioned several weeks earlier. The morning air was cool and fresh as our boxer began his ritual; breaking down the silence with a speed driven whir of the rope as it met with the rhythmic taps of his feet on gravel. It was a great scene and a nice way to start capturing both the stills and video we set out for.

After this initial idea we moved on to another scene based on shadow boxing. The talent demonstrated various moves and then as we starting rolling video, put them all together to form a seamless moment of classic combinations. The scene was reminiscent of a Rocky Balboa type character training for an upcoming title bout. All we needed was the the old grizzled trainer pushing him to the next level with gravelly words of encouragement.

Towards the end of our time with the boxer, we realized how fit he really was. There seemed to be an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm for whatever ideas we could throw at him. In conversation we found out his real daily workout consists of 3 hours of training each day to maintain his current level of fitness--now that's dedication.

As the year closes out and the winter months move in, it's nice to see a finished project that takes us back to the warmer days of summer...

In the latter part of June we went on the road to Seattle, Washington shooting the first of three "Member Stories," for United Healthcare and AARP. Our subject on this first leg of travel was 81 year old Marilyn Ward, long-time social activist, appreciator of art, book lover, and world traveler. Marilyn proved to be nothing less than amazing, and gave us a real window into her life over the course of the two days we worked with her. We went through a process of capturing video, stills and audio for the final piece, featured above, which will live on a micro-site within the UHC / AARP web space.

Through the collaboration and combined efforts of the Invoko team including: audio designer Dave Schroeder of Pilotvibe and Graphic Designer Nathan Strandberg of EightHourDay. This was the first of many projects we've worked on for United Healthcare / AARP that we spent more time focusing on video capture than gathering still images. The editing was put in the hands of Adam Duguay of Elemental Motion Media who has certainly become a regular part of this past year's motion based projects.

A big thanks to Marilyn for all the time she spent and her patience with our multiple takes and our numerous "can you do that one more time," requests.

Thought I'd share the e-mailer that will be hitting email inboxes this week. Keep an eye out and be sure to take look at new work + recent additions to the "archive" section of the JCP site.

It's there in every one of us; a duality that speaks to the impossible recesses of the mind that blurs the line of what is real and what isn't. It's the part of life often lived in the shadows, walking side by side with the everyday crowd.

At a certain point of the year when the leaves start to lose their grip, those involved with the brotherhood find a secluded place to meet up simply known as "Frank's House" where they are able to take one day, let the guard down and relax a little. Although this one day is a time to unwind, it's difficult to draw the line between business and pleasure; it's a fine line constantly traversed -- why would a day off be any different?

Just over one month back the JC|P Motion piece "Let's Go Fly" debuted. We now have a completed edit, a "behind the scenes" follow up, which offers a glimpse into how things came together on the day of production this past June.

Thanks again to Elemental Motion Media for cutting this together and as always, making everything look stellar.

Enjoy a little perspective from the production side of the project...

About forty minutes southwest of St. Louis lies the town of Gray Summit, home to Purina Farms; one of the most innovative and design conscious arenas in the country for showing top breed dogs.

As we made our way to the main entrance, we were greeted by the well manicured, larger than life, canine topiary. The air was electric with four legged champion hopefuls and their handlers whisking off to the next round of showings or heading back to the grooming area for a quick touch-up. Our main goal was to capture the essence of dog and handler / owner relationships for the next round of ad campaigns for Purina's Pro-Plan and Selects high end dog food via the creative minds at Colle+McVoy.

We spent the better part of a Saturday moving all about the various showing arenas and grooming areas capturing the nature of what it means to be at this level for dog and owner; a rapport that is a manifestation of the endless hours of training and care between them. It never ceases to amaze me how dedicated all participants are to becoming the best in show.

Off to Dallas later this week to guest speak at the "Still 2 Motion" talk put on by the Dallas chapter of ASMP. If you're in the area, please drop by. It should be an interesting evening...

A perfect autumn afternoon led us to the halls of a local theater in St. Paul, MN where we met up with members of the newly formed folk band Po' Boy Local 151. Lead vocalist and guitar player Chris Jones, gave us free reign to approach and create a unique look that would launch the new band.

In addition to photographing the band we took in a string of impromptu songs as we worked amid the varied indoor and outdoor locations.

Check out their site for more information on the band and upcoming performances.

A while back I was invited by Jason Janik, VP of the ASMP Dallas Chapter, to speak at a seminar featuring a couple of photographers who have begun working in the world of video / motion. I believe the call came through as a result of the McDonald's "Work & Play" project we had shot and received a write up on in PDN. The idea of speaking on this subject is timely and appropriate in terms of the increasing amount of motion projects I've been working on for clients in addition to my still photography. I am excited to note that just last week we received confirmation of an upcoming project for Boeing which will be almost entirely motion based.

On November 4th I will be presenting my still and motion work alongside veteran photographer / director Stewart Cohen. I'm very pleased to be speaking with such great company and will no doubt learn a lot from the experience. If you happen to be in the Dallas area on the 4th of November please stop by the Angelika Film Center Theater at 7:00 PM for the "Still 2 Motion" seminar. Until then check out some of the recent projects on the JC|P Motion section of my site.

Up to this point, the blog has been a venue to highlight finished still + video projects; however, for this installment we thought it would be great to add a behind the scenes look at the Bauer Hockey Athletic Camp 2010 via Olson.

Each of the nine players we photographed were suspended on an 8'x 5' sheet of 1.25" Plexiglas set into a custom iron frame sourced by producer Jim Graham of Power Plant Productions. The force exerted by the blades upon the surface of the Plexi turned out to be 100psi per hockey skate blade. With a professional NHL player above, I needed to ensure that he wouldn't come crashing through, which explains the need for the robust dimensions of the Plexiglas.

In addition to the still photos, composited by retoucher Brad Palm, take a moment to view the time-lapse sequence, compiled by Elemental Motion Media, of the crew and the NHL players that converged in Atlantic City to produce the still images.