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Press
Here’s a short film we shot in cooperation with Lonely Planet. They recently featured the Top 5 Eats in Memphis on the worldwide television channel. The footage we shot was edited by Lonely Planet for their special feature on Memphis restaurants. Our segment was shot for The Rendezvous here in Memphis, Tn. shot on the Canon 5d HDDSLR. And yes, we ate the food we shot!
Oxford Mississippi – Double Decker Festival
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Here’s our latest short film music video for Oxford Mississippi’s Double Decker Festival. The film will be released for use by the Oxford Convention & Visitors Bureau’s website to promote the city and the festival.
Southern Bride Magazine – Seaside Florida – Summer 2011 Issue – Memphis – Birmingham
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Here are a few pages from the recent photo shoot we did for Southern Bride Magazine in Seaside Florida. We hosted a photographers workshop teaching editorial style techniques, challenging the photographers to try new techniques and camera settings. Many of the photographers had a chance to get published in the magazine, which is a photographers dream. The 3 day workshop was intensive, hands on shooting, with location changes throughout the day. We had 18 people on the crew, from models, caterers, hairstylists, makeup, set designers, drivers, the magazine editors, photographers and assistants. Seaside was recently named one of the Top 10 Destinations in the World.
Travel Guide – Tourism Development – Webzmedia.com
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Here is a new travel guide just created by Webzmedia, one of our favorite agencies that we work with on a continual basis. Amber Patten is the designer, and has a successful business with clients across the South. She recently brought us in to shoot & develop professional image portfolios for her books, magazines, and travel guides. This is the latest travel guide produced by Amber (of Webzmedia.com), which utilizes images that she and I both photographed recently for the Gadsden tourism board. Amber’s company, Webzmedia, has won numerous awards, and is a very well known agency that manages tourism development for a number of cities & states across the Southern United States. Our two companies work together for both professional photography and HD films, as well as consulting for emerging communities. We have a new HD film in production for this project that we should have ready by the fall of 2012. Here are some sample pages of the 12 page booklet.
Memphis Professional Photographers – Seaside Florida Editorial Fashion Shoot
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Press Release: June 2011 – Memphis Tennessee
Photographers Michael Allen and Tracy Welch have both had their images selected by the editors of Southern Bride Magazine as the cover shots for
the Tennessee and Alabama issues of Southern Bride Magazine. The magazines will be on newsstands across the South in locations such as Barnes
and Noble.
Michael recently produced a photographers workshop and fashion shoot in Seaside for the magazine. 6 photographers signed up for the workshop and all worked as teams for the shoot. The recent “Photographers Dream” workshop took place in one of the top 12 destinations in the world, Seaside Florida. Michael’s team hosted a 3 day hands on photographers bootcamp, where participants worked along side photographer Michael Allen, shooting for Southern Bride Magazine. The photographers “DREAM CHALLENGE” was to shoot for the magazines feature story, a bridal fashion shoot featuring the latest fashions in the wedding world.
Michael taught the photographers mixed lighting techniques with California Sunbounce reflector systems, and Pocketwizard flash controllers for Canon and Nikon along with editorial photographer Joe DeScoise to capture lifestyle editorial photographs for the magazines fashion layout and cover images.
A behind the scenes look into the photo shoot & the hands on bootcamp, with scenes taken over a week on location in Seaside, interviews with some of the team, and details about shooting for a fashion magazine was shot as a short film documentary and is now being shown on the website and the magazine’s blog.
Seaside provided the locations and the team support, Southern Bride hosted the shoot, and Michael Allen was the lead photographer and instructor for the workshop, teaching photographers editorial lifestyle techniques using California Sunbounce reflectors, ambient lighting, and mixed flash techniques. Our sponsor, www.lensrentals.com, provided some giveaways for the participants, and rented extra gear to the team. Guest photographer Joe DeScoise also helped teach the workshop with Michael. Tracy Welch was the assistant director of the workshop and worked as a camera operator for shooting the short film.
The soundtrack was from www.themusicbed.com, a new resource for stock music for photographers and filmmakers.
SEASIDE Editorial Fashion Photo Workshop – “The Photographers Dream Challenge”
PRODUCED & DIRECTED BY michael allen
ACCOMODATIONS & LOCATION
PROVIDED BY
Seaside Florida
Cottage Rental Agency
SOUTHERN BRIDE MAGAZINE corporate headquarters – Memphis, Tn & Birmingham, Al
Press
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Charity Fest – Skip Cohen
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Every year I go to Vegas or another city to attend a major photography workshop & convention. One of the standouts in the photography industry is Skip Cohen. Skip is an encourager, speaker and leader in the industry. Late last year he sent out requests on his blog for stories from photographers across the world about charities that they may be involved with. Each year I try to find a project that I can donate some time to using my photography & video talents. I was having lunch with a friend of mine, John Thomas, who happens to be a solo piano composer. He began to describe a project that he was starting for NILMDTS, which is a worldwide photography organization that supports families in their time of need when dealing with the loss of a baby. John is composing music for individual families to honor their children, and created a new album called Now I Sleep that will be given to families across the world.
My contribution from my film production company to the project was to create a short interview film with John and one of the families, which John uses on his website, and to help him find sponsors for the project, and to let people know more about the project. Through the fund raising phase, John used an internet site called Kickstarter, and with the help of the video, raised over $4000 to fund the project. Since the completion of raising the funds, John flew to Seattle in February to record the new album in one of the countries most acclaimed solo piano recording studios, Piano Haven. John promoted the album creation by having a contest for photographers to enter to submit cover ideas for the CD. Last week the final art was delivered to the CD mastering facility and the first order of CD’s should be delivered by the end of April.
My hope is that giving some of my time and talent to such a worthy, and delicate cause, with help people dealing with a loss. John’s music is beautiful, and definitely offers something special to those who listen. Visit www.johnalbertthomas.com to find our more about the CD.
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Here’s that interview that I did with ReelModels that I said I would post when it went live. A great new blog that is taking the modeling industry to new levels. Click on the ReelModels link to read the full indepth interview. I really enjoyed doing this interview, and sharing some of my thoughts and stories about my experience in working with models, and insights into the modeling and acting world. A few months ago I shot a demo reel for a model, Anna Knight, and the editor of ReelModels found my reel and feel in love with it. I agree with him, there seems to be something missing in the modeling & talent world today, maybe agencies have over looked the potential of reels for their clients & talent. Over the years as a business owner, I sometimes come across ideas that take off like a rocket, this is another one of those ideas that the talent and modeling industry needs to rethink. This is a new trend that will catch on soon, fasten your seatbelts and get your portfolio up to date!
Seaside Photographers Workshop a Success!
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After several months of preparation, and lots of hard work from an amazing team, the Seaside Photographers Fashion Workshop came off with great success. We had a crew of 17 that included 4 amazing models. The 2 day workshop included a extra half day of shooting, and some amazing “boxed lunches” by Seaside’s fabulous catering crew. The management team at Seaside even complimented us of being the best most professional crew they have ever worked with. (that’s huge considering they work with movie crews and photographers on a month basis.) I’d love to post some of the images from the shoot, but the publishers want those kept top secret until it goes to press in May. I’m happy to show a few of the behind the scenes snapshots and will post more once the magazine is released in May 2010.
Did you know that Seaside was selected by Conde Naste Magazine as one of the Top 12 Destinations in the World?
Our next workshop location: To be announced.
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Last year I was happily surprised to see one of my Model Reels featured on a new blog for models and talent. This is a pretty major blog that is turning some heads in the modeling industry. If you follow this link and scroll down to the June 23rd, 2010 post, you can read about the new trends in the modeling industry, model reels, which happens to feature my reel on Anna Knight. Heres the blog for reelmodels.com featuring Anna’s reel
I stay pretty busy shooting headshots for actors, models and businesses. One of the things I encourage people to do is get a really really good photographer to help them create a very diverse portfolio. So many models have really poor quality headshots, they don’t realize how much that hurts them when getting selected for jobs. I know there are a lot of photographers out there, but only a very small select group of professional photographers know what they are doing. Some have a very outdated style. You want fresh, current photography using the best professional cameras and lenses available. In some markets there may only be one or two photographers that are any good and specialize in professional headshots, so be very selective, and plan on spending some time & dough on your shoot for your portfolio.
Last month I was in charge of selecting models for a major fashion spread, I went through dozens & dozens of models comp cards from several agencies, I immediately eliminated the ones with poor photos, they lacked the professionalism that I knew would be needed for the shoot. I was amazed how poor the average model’s portfolio images were.
You want a great closeup image, I mean very close, and you want it to show as much detail as possible. Your images need to be very sharp and clear. Limit showing artistic images that hide you behind a mask of makeup. Next you want some great medium images, show all angles, your body shape, and your back. Finally you want some full length images. You also want both fun images, and serious modeling images. You want to make sure you show both studio fashion images and natural lifestyle images, both with full makeup and some with less makeup.
Earlier this year I attended a gathering of film industry professionals who had come to hear a successful casting agency talk about the industry and tips for success in landing roles. The number one thing the agency suggested was to get current, professional headshots from a really good photographer. They said too many actors and models have outdated portfolios, and that seriously hurts the chance of landing a good role or job. I happened to be the only still photographer in the audience, and was called upon as a contact for a professional photographer who specializes in portfolio photography.
I’m also excited about a recent interview I did with Model Reels last month. The interview will be published in the coming months, so I’ll keep you posted on it’s debut. It’s a pretty detailed interview, so you should be able to get some ideas about the future of modeling from the article.
