A great man once said..”Don’t waste your money on film school”…..and I didn’t! I’ve been surrounded by photographers for years, being infront of the camera, and have lots of great photographer friends that shoot for magazines, and own them.  I hadn’t thought to get on the other side of the camera until somewhat recently. And I must admit, I like it much better.  

Luke Leonard and Bill DeMichele have a lot to do with why/how I started.  I also am an assistant for Bill DeMichele, who photographs for International Tattoo Art Magazine, and a dear friend of mine. Sometimes we will do tattoo expo runs all over the country, and I help him run his and Lyle Tuttle’s Old School Tattoo Expo every year in Saint Louis, Missouri. Now Luke Leonard and myself own a production company together called Fetus Productions. The name has 2 meanings…..1.) Fetus is my chihuahua’s name, and 2.) Fetus-something to grow and prosper into something GREAT!

• Still/HD Camera: Canon 5D Mark II w/28mm to 135mm Lens, 70mm to 300mm lens.
• Also have Mamyia RZ67 Medium Format camera, w/110 Lens and 120 film back.
• Canon XL2 and wireless mics.

My BRAIN! hahaha but really…I can’t plug the Canon enough…the Canon 5D is the most important because it enables me to be able to shoot 21.1 mega pixel digital quality still photos and also enables me to shoot 1080P HD quality video at 24 & 30 frame rates to allow me to shoot everything from music videos to a feature film if need be while being able to utilize high end Canon lenses.  It’s just an awesome tool.

Well….Setup, and SHOOT! A lot of talking and working with the subject, making them feel comfortable, and you can always tell when I really get rolling, I tend to make a lot of “O”’s and “Ah!” Sounds.  I’ll Jump up on stuff, roll around like I’m in the military dodging bullets to get the right shot.

Just to get the right shot! The outcome is what inspires me before/during a shoot, looking into the future of what I’m shooting as I see it how it will be finished. And sometimes alcohol! Kidding…

I believe digital photography is a superior format in the industry right now and for myself as a photographer because of it’s ease of use, the ability to use photoshop to make quick adjustments while shooting and the options of shooting either RAW or large to small JPEG sizes make it the best shooting format per my needs.  

Although I know film to be a far superior format, the cost of shooting film will probably in my opinion keep it as an artsy option for those photographers that are going for a specific look in their photography.  That being said I believe that the low cost of shooting digital will continue to push that format as the industry standard far into the future.

I DO prefer people, I mean I do objects, but people are intense, so many different shapes of features, combinations of expressions, levels of intensities…..

It’s a little of both.  I mostly shoot my images as either RAW or Large JPEG files and from time to time I do work in Photoshop to do some final retouching.  I only retouch those pics that I think need it or if it will complement the final image. Little contrast here, little saturate there, BAM!

My favorites thus far, has to be the one of my nephew, and Kristina’s photo. He looks like a precious moments character, except REAL! And with Kristina’s photo, she has a lot of beauty and charisma to be captured. I saturated her eyes just a teeny tiny bit, but that was it.  I’m kinda sad that I didn’t get her tear in there, I had a big fan blowin in her eyes and they wouldn’t stop watering, it was so pretty!

We don’t just do a lot of behind the scenes work, we do it all.  We’re a fully working production company called Fetus Productions.  We just completed shooting a three day music video for my friends band called INFERNAEON.  The video is in the editing process right now and is slated for a August release.  We did shoot behind the scenes footage and stills of that shoot also.  We shot all the band photos for INFERNAEON’s  new album that will be released in August also.  Along with the promo pics for them.  

Right now we are in the process of doing preproduction for another music video for a band that is signed to METALBLADE RECORDS.  Sometimes I do still photography on other peoples sets, but while shooting with my company, I’m directing.  I love it, and I’m told I’m a blast to work with.  I keep things professional and lay the hammer down when needed, but other than that, I just want everybody to be comfortable and their needs met, whilst having fun. Oh, and we did a 30 second movie theater pre movie snipet for Oderus Urungus, the lead singer of GWAR, to be aired in theaters in Virginia, now HE was awesome to work with!! hahahaha..Things are really moving quickly right now and we’re looking forward too and are excited for a very busy Fall.

I love both, but, music videos are a lot of fun. We get to listen to really loud music, and always have a great crew of atleast 30 people, and pop a bottle of champagne at the end of the martini shot!:) Everybody works really hard, and does such a great job, our crew deserves it! Music videos are def a longer process than photography, but I enjoy working with a lot of talented people at once.

There you have it. If you happen to be in the Mount Dora or Central Florida area, and need some media work done….you can check out Pia and Fetus Productions.