Home of director and photographer, Daniel Finley dannyjive.com

Whew! Has it been a month already? Where did the posts go? I know it looks like I have been slacking but I haven’t. Things have gotten a little busy in a good way, but that’s the typical excuse. Isn’t it? So here’s a few breadcrumbs until I can post some new work:

I just shot an album cover for musician Obi Soulstar. The shoot was amazing and I’m really really excited about the final images. His album will be released in late October so we’re close to showing some images. Obi was just featured in the Red Eye about two weeks ago so he might look familiar to you.

Two weeks back I shot a new and upcoming hip hop group called Cache City. Check them out when you get a chance. I’m still working on their images so they should be posted in a few weeks.

This past Sunday, which was a VERY hot Sunday, I had two photo shoots. One was assisting a friend of mine and the other was shooting an album cover for The Sometimes Family. They’ve got a great vintage soul sound. For that shoot we went to that funky pavilion over by the Lincoln Park Zoo as well as Margie’s Candies. While I was there I had one of their root beer floats which was amazing! I’m still editing the photos for these too.

So I’m not slacking, I promise! I know I have been shooting a lot of bands lately, but I’m about to start up another fashion run. Looking for models, wardrobe stylists, hair, makeup, and assistant team right now. So if you’re interested or know someone who might be interested, shoot me an email.

The Plastic Boots came to me with a couple tracks and a concept. Like all music groups I shoot, I ask what they are “about”. Immediately they said they were rock n’ roll with a country blend. They explained how they weren’t about heavy eye makeup, ironed hair or the latest fashion; they just wanted to rock on stage and leave everyone with a great time. Cool, I thought, I can work with this.

I tried to brainstorm some imagery that would complement their sound. One of the words that came up in our conversations was ‘raw’, as in, not over produced. This stuck in my head and led me to thinking about Holga style photography, or Lomography.

For those who don’t know, Holgas are a Russian made, medium format, plastic cameras that hit the market in the eighties. It has made a comeback for its DIY modifications, color shifts, and light leaks which adds a raw feel to the image. It was this raw element that I wanted to bring to the band’s pictures to match their sound.

We secured a forklift junkyard for the shoot which had a great urban feel to it. As soon as we arrived, there was a different owner behind the counter and he wouldn’t let us shoot there despite the previous agreement. The junkyard was out. This is the way it goes when you’re doing creative work; plans change in a minute. It was ok though, I had set up two back up locations just in case. I always try to prepare for worst case scenarios which is why my shoots go more smoothly than others.

We had some time before our next location opened up and we decided to drive around the neighborhood for another location that had interesting character. We drove for two hours and it wasn’t looking good. There were only brick walls and railroad tracks available, all totally cliché. Right as we were about to turn around and head back we found it, a… I don’t even know what it was… but it was some rusted out machinery next to a factory. The backdrop was layered and interesting. The rust helped with the raw urban feel. The ladder and ledge helped me to stagger the band to create an interesting composition. We jumped out of the car, started shooting and ended up with the best shots of the day.

This was a truly satisfying experience. One where everything looked like it was going to fall apart because we lost a really cool location, but the moment turned around and helped us to discover a new location that we never would have found otherwise. The band is really happy with the final photo and so am I.

The Plastic Boots are playing at the Double Door on August 12th, 2010. Check them out if you’re in the neighborhood.”>Double Door on August 12th, 2010. Check them out if you’re in the neighborhood.

Oh, and here’s the back up location which turned out really well too:

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: