Todd Davis is the Handy Dad!
Well I now know that KIDS RULE! And, being a kid once myself I am reminding myself to act more like one!
I just finished shooting one of the most fun, energetic and pretty much over the top projects I’ve ever done. And the great thing was that it involved kids, families and my great friend Todd Davis. Todd is the author of the Handy Dad series of books published by Chronicle Books and this is his second book. As a sequel to the best selling Handy Dad, Todd talked me into (in about 3 sentences) shooting the hero shots for Handy Dad in the Great Outdoors.
Background on Todd: Extreme skiing, snowboarding, wing suiter, with his own TV show on the HGTV network called Room Crashers. Check out the article here. He also owns a very cool design business www.epic-spaces.com
Well, I worked around Todd’s insane TV production schedule which was about every day for the last year (acutally we tried to shoot kids in the outdoors about 3 times in the winter, which was kinda dumb) we shot in San Francisco and finally finished it up last week in perfect weather here in Oregon.
It was an epic adventure of laughter, energy, late night editing, dusk to dawn shooting, and me going “is that a little over the top?” and Todd going “that’s perfect!” In about a week we pulled off about a years worth of crazy, cool images of kids having a hell of a lot of fun.
I thought I’d share some of the out takes with you over over a couple days. This shot is a long exposure where I framed the Golden Gate and SF (Todd lives in the city), he took a red flashlight and light painted the word Handy Dad and then stood over on the left and I popped him with a softbox. Looks like a bunch of photoshop, but it wasn’t. Enjoy!
Behind the Scenes of Yala Designs: Fall 2010
In fall 2010, Jared Cruce Studio was approached by a national clothing company working on one of the scariest things a company can do: A total re-branding. Originally called DreamSacks, the mission was simple: take the new name, Yala, and actively create a new look for a new company but still maintain the customer and client base. Working closely with the founders/owners of Yala, Jared Cruce Studio was asked to conceptualize and create a style of imagery that would breath their creative vision and set them apart.
Our studio took on the pre production, location scouting and talent casting with an absolute dream team of talent, locations, and crew we pulled off a heroic shoot All tin less than two months from initial concepts to capture and delivery!
On January 1st, www.yaladesigns.com officially launched. The site has seen an incredible amount of activity and now Yala is starting to see all kinds of press. Check out this article written for The Oregonian‘s business section.
With this new image, Yala can now extend themselves further; beyond the DreamSacks moniker and reach out to a world of buyers and supporters. Congratulations to Yala Designs.
You can look forward to more great Jared Cruce Studio/Yala Designs collaborations in the coming months.
2011 Workshop Schedule
The workshop season is here and we have an awesome schedule of workshops to announce. Last year was great and this season looks to be even better as we have added an HD DSLR video workshop to our program. This will cover equipment, production and shooting for documentary and narrative. 
Coming Really Soon!
Adventure Photography Workshop May 13-15
Rafting / Photography / Lodge Stay
Also, we are again offering one of the coolest photo courses available – a white water rafting trip / lodge stay / photo workshop on what many consider to be the premiere multi-day wilderness river in the US, the Rogue River. Check out the Rogue River Workshop for more details.
Last year many of the workshops sold out so book early to insure your spot.
Ashland, OR A hidden Gem of a Place!
Ashland, Oregon is an amazing vacation spot with the mountains, Crater Lake, the coast, rivers all right there! The small town is nestled in the mountains, has all qualities of lodging from B&B’s to inexpensive motels, quaint shopping, awesome dining, Lithia Park and the prolific and award winning Shakespeare Festival. Best of all most of the courses are held in Ashland in or near our studio, so pretty much you can walk from your hotel, to class, to dinner, to a play and to bed!
Workshop Schedule 2011:
Adventure Photography May 13-15
Location Lighting June 24-26
Rogue River Workshop September 16-19
HD DSLR Video Workshop October 7-9
Discount for Multiple Classes and Professional Associations
We offer a 15% discount to students who take multiple courses * See our About the Workshops page. We are also offering a 10% discount to ASMP members as well as members of Southern Oregon Film and Television – SOFAT.
Please contact us if you are a member and we’ll hook you up with a discount code!
Professional Screenwriting Class – January 25th 2011
Professional Screenwriting Workshop
Coming up this Month!
Jared Cruce studio is hosting a screen writing course with “Calvin Marshall” Director and Writer Gary Lundgren.
Spaces are still available but we recommend you make bookings quickly as space is limited. Register and Info here >>>Reserve a Spot for Screenwriting Workshop.
Bald Eagles
Today I got up at 4:30am to shoot some cool Bald Eagle footage for Director Joel Lesko’s upcoming documentary. In the 11 deg. weather we shot some great video in the amazing freezing fog of the Klammath Wildlife Refuge. I snapped off a couple stills as well and thought I’d share. Check out the frozen branches!
Bald Eagle - Klammath Wildlife Refuge
The Janks Music Video – Hands of Time: A Behind the Scene Snippet
http://vimeo.com/18678137
UPDATE 2: For those that didn’t get to see the footage, here’s another version cut with an already released song, “Long Way Home”. The more I listen to these guys, the more I love them. Can’t wait for the new album to drop in April.
UPDATE: We accidentally jumped the gun a bit. The band and the real video shoot were so sweet but we just need to give the band time to release the song properly. We will have an altered version of the snippet up soon with a different sound track, until “Hands of Time” can be properly introduced. I guess this makes for good propaganda and viral marketing. Check back soon to view the footage.
A couple weeks ago my friend Gary Lundgren (writer /director – Calvin Marshall starring Steve Zahn) and his long time DP Patrick Neary (dp on Calvin Marshall) shot a video for a ridiculously cool band from LA “The Janks.” The video was a 1930′s sort of speak easy concept and Patrick shot it on his 1940′s hand cranked 35mm camera. I’ve never seen anything like it. Gary invited me down to hang out with the crew as “2nd AC” and I was able to shoot a few stills and some motion clips I thought I’d share with you.
Pat is an amazing DP and I really was impressed with not only his skill as a cinematographer, but how calm he was shooting a world war II era camera, with limited stock on hand and no budget or room for errors or screwups. I’d of been totally gripped. There were about 70 people including crew and cast and everyone had a blast.
The band, a super talented and fun group, is releasing their first album and Gary and Pat are producing a few videos for it. I can’t wait to see the footage. I’ll pass it along when it’s out.
I recommend checking out the movie Calvin Marshall – it’s a great coming of age baseball movie and was shot in Southern Oregon in 2008.
Photography as Emotional Storytelling – Naked
I was blown away by Claudia Hehr’s portfolio Naked www.ClaudiaHehrPhoto.com It’s a flash site so I can’t give you a direct link.
This is what I shot on the assignment
A month or two ago I was sent on assignment for an east coast publication to make a portrait of a Doctor living in the remote town of Crescent City, CA. As always, I got a couple copies of the magazine before hand from the editor and began studying the images and work of some of the photographers who had shot for the publication. For me it’s a great way to evaluate where I am with my work by what company I am keeping. After an hour or two of checking out websites and portfolios of some great photographers (it’s late night at this point) I ran into the site of Claudia Hehr a NYC based shooter. She’s got some great work. At the end of her site there was a portfolio that really intrigued me and probably would anyone searching the internet late at night. The portfolio was named ”naked.” It wasn’t what I expected and completely floored me! Check it out and see for yourself why I was so blown away by this photo essay! It reminded me a little of my roots in PJ and why I love what I do as a visual artist, telling stories and how powerful photography is!
www.ClaudiaHehrphoto.com > Naked
Screen Writing Class w/ Director Gary Lundgren
Upcoming Next Month: January 25th? 2011
Jared Cruce Studio presents:
Screen Writing Class with Calvin Marshall Writer / Director Gary Lundgren
Attention all you film makers~
Update: Last November and December Jared Cruce Studiohosted an amazing class / workshop by Writer/ Director Gary Lundgren on Directing for the camera. Gary has written a ton of awesome screenplays and recently wrote, directed, and edited the feature Calvin Marshall (available on NetFlix) The class was incredible and ended up with the direction of a short scene (I shot on the 5D mkii and a steady cam) As far as classes go, my back pocket calculation is that a good workshop will give me about a year of practical learn on your own lessons. A great workshop will give me about two years of practical hands on knowledge making it well worth the investment. I would rate last months directors class that I personally took as a great workshop. In a lot of cases you get what you pay for but for this upcoming class, you are sure to get more than you pay for. Gary is doing it for dirt cheap! See Below for contact and registration info. I digress.
Gary is doing another workshop that Jared Cruce Studio is hosting next month on Screen Writing. Since the early 2000′s Gary has written about 2 screenplays each year and I would believe him when he says, “This may be the only screen writing class you will ever need to take!”
The class still has openings and will be every Tuesday evening from 6:30pm to 9pm starting January 25th. Date to be confirmed. Contact Gary @
Gary Lundgren
Joma Films LLC
238 E. Main Street Ste. C
Ashland, OR 97520
M: (310) 463-8655 or lunchpail@mac.com for more info and registration
September 5-7 Rogue River workshop
Digital photography workshop and whitewater lodge trip!
If you are even thinking of taking a photo workshop any time soon you should check out the Rogue River Trip we’re doing which will be and incredible blend of rafting, photography and relaxing at the historic river side lodges.
September 5-7, 2010 and there are spots still available. Register Here.
There are some some very cool photography workshops on the books for late fall with spaces still available. Check out our current schedule here and look for our winter schedule to be out in late September and we will be adding courses throughout the year from Intro to Advanced so subscribe to the RSS feed or email us to get on our mailing list for course updates and event news. We offer private instruction as well as private group instruction so if there is something you are itching to learn or your photography club or group would like to request a special course just contact us.
A Fresh New Website
I’m excited to announce the launch of the fresh new Jared Cruce photography website.
We’ve filled the site with our new work, buffed out sections on our new studio. Like a breath of fresh mountain air, we’re invigorated, feeling good and looking forward to keeping it coming! We hope you are too! Take a look and let us know what you think!
Besides showing our new portfolio, we built the site to give our clients and friends a better understanding of what we do and our capabilities. We offer a 1350 sq. ft. studio, location and production services and retouching. We are located in possibly one of the most beautiful regions of America (a.k.a location opportunities abound) and when were not busy with commercial and editorial clients we are teaching some killer workshops in and around Ashland, Oregon!
Did I mention we now have a nice home for Jared Cruce Photo Workshops.
The site was a collaboration with our buddy Thad Allender at Graphpaper Press and we couldn’t be happier. Thad is doing some amazing things with websites and bringing new technology to us artists who can really make use of it. We’re pretty lucky to had him work on this for us! If fact it came out so good that GPP is using it as an example and design theme for entrepreneurial photographers. You can see what they’re doing here. I think that is pretty cool. Thad is not only a sweet developer, he’s a photographer himself and has a great sense of the web from our perspective.
We’ll be keeping you up to date via our blog. We have some new things happening in the near future so stay tuned!
