Home of director and photographer, Daniel Finley dannyjive.com

Ok, that happened faster than I expected. New photo gallery is up!

I’m sure some bugs will pop up, but so far so good.

I’m working on a new photo gallery which I’m excited to present. I want to create a better user experience as well as images you can download. I’m hoping to have it up in about a week.

Also shooting a few music groups in the next few weeks as well as more fashion projects on the slate. Keep an eye out!

I’m really bothered by doing self portraits. There’s something about retouching one’s own face that is really reeks of narcissism. But I’m realizing that I’m getting older and I don’t have a lot of photos of myself. Time moves so fast. Maybe it’s time to start doing these on a regular basis.

The print in the background I found.. I think I found in a magazine when I first moved back to Chicago in 2008. It really jumped out at me and the next day I ran to the artist’s shop and picked it up. It was my plan to have my portrait taken in front of it and here it is 2 years later! They had a version with old cameras too, but back then I wasn’t doing photography.

I think I’ll use this image for my new Bio pic. Does it make me look too mean?

I was prowling through the nearby Aldi when I saw it… Staring right at me. My first thought was, ‘No way..’, but yes way, they named a candy bar after me! Well… almost. Check it out, a candy bar named Jive! What is it you ask? It’s a Twix knock-off but the biscuit inside is a little heavier, maybe even better. Too funny.

In an even completely unrelated, I was at the local Borders book store picking up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I didn’t have my Borders card on me so they looked up my account by email which is dannyjive. The cashier behind the counter was an older African-American lady. She looked at me and said “Jive? What’s that mean to you?” I just shrugged and said it was a part of my business name. She went on to tell me that when she was a kid that word meant a lot to people. “I ain’t jivin’ you man”, she mimicked. “That word used to have a lot of weight. Nobody uses it anymore though.”

I thought it was great that the word actually meant something other than what I had intended. (Not that there was any ‘intent’ behind it when I made it). Kind of cool to see it have an effect on an older person. You could see that the word really brought her back to some old memories.

Now I’m gonna go run and get me a box of Jive!

Sorry for the infrequent posts. My internet has been in and out for the past few weeks. I gotta admit though, it’s kind of nice to get away from the web for a while. I’m getting caught up on a lot of work and preparing some new projects. I might have some exciting news by the end of the week so stay tuned!

Here’s a few images from a couple weeks back. I had an awesome opportunity to test out a Lensbaby Composer for the day. I’ve been thinking about picking one up for a while now so when I saw an opportunity to test it out I jumped on it. The lens works on a ball joint that you can rotate with your hand. The idea is that there is a small diameter that stays in focus and everything outside it goes out of focus. Now, a lot of people say “Hey I can do this in Photoshop and it is non destructive to the original image”. That’s true, but to get the exact same effect takes a little more work than you’d think. What I’d REALLY like to see is how this looks while capturing DSLR video. You might get an effect similar to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (trailer).

I did find some issues with exposure. When you put this lens on your camera you can’t trust your camera’s light meter. I would suggest using an external light meter instead.

Check out what it can do:

This is a photo from a shoot I did for Hush Chicago Magazine back in February of 2010. I think it appeared in their May issue but I’m just getting to posting it now.

I remember being under a lot of stress that day. We had six setups planned and an hour and a half into the shoot I was told that the model had to leave in forty-five minutes. We scrambled as best we could, changing the plan to accommodate the new time restrictions. We were only able to shoot three setups which I think was pretty good considering the surprises and this is one of the stronger images we got.

Funny thing is, there was a behind the scenes photo taken of me and the model as I shot this setup. Now you get that rare peek into how I look when I work (crazy) and what I’m actually seeing through the lens:

Photo & Edit: Dan Finley (dannyjive.com)
Designer: Bryan K Osburn
Designer Asst: Sue Yan
Hair: Ogi Merzier
Makeup: Gosia Gorniak -Matkovich
Special Thanks to Bee Li for letting us use this space.

Lord Xodus and I met at a magazine launch party. He was looking for photos that could represent him and his multiple talents. He wasn’t just a musician but also a model, an actor, an artist, and a poet. His official name was Lord Xodus “The Wild Onion” because he felt a tie between the multiple layers of an onion and his own creative sensibilities. He wanted this represented in the photo and it created an incredible challenge for me.

How do you represent the multiple layers of an artist and an onion without hitting it on the nose?

I have to admit, it took me time to wrap my head around a concept. It wasn’t until I threw out the idea of an onion began to think about emotions and color that image came together for me.

I pitched the image to the artist and he loved it. We decided to move forward and shot the basic images on my back patio with a sheet of foam core behind him hung from a c-stand. During the shoot I captured a few surprise images that I consider “bonus” images. They don’t address the challenge but struck me as great images worth keeping.

Bonus Images:

I have wanted to show these images for a while. We shot this back on February but finally got the ok for release. This was a personal project where we tackled the idea of a period piece but in modern times.

Crew:
Model: Domonique Brown
Hair: Jocelyn Powell
Makeup: Gosia Gorniak –Matkovich
Wardrobe: Maggie SanFilippo
Wardrobe Asst: Sophie Mussell
Photo & Edit: Dan Finley

The images I shot for the May issue of Me: In Focus magazine are out! This is the issue with Ms. Illinois USA and may be my first “official” celebrity. The spread is on pages 30-37.