Remembering John Pedone
is self proclamation “I’m kind of famous at Burning Man”, I’ve learned was accurate as news of his untimely death spread like wildfire through that community. I knew John Pedone as a colleague and fellow technician in the film lighting industry, and for a short time a decade ago, as a room mate. I [...]
The Road Kings
ith clear blue skies and perfect temperatures we lit out of Los Angeles like a couple of rogues after a bender which left a heap of twisted metal and broken hearts in our wake. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite so dramatic, but every once in awhile it’s really nice to just get out of LA [...]
Balancing Sunset with a Foreground Subject, part 1
A technique I have been wanting to try for a long time now has been balancing a beautiful sunset with a good exposure on a person in the foreground. It’s not entirely simple as the subject should not be lit flat like from an on-camera flash, and the proper balance has to be found. This [...]
The Flying Luchadores
The Flying Luchadores from Jeff Gatesman on Vimeo. Nicky dives from atop a stack of speakers onto the head of Cassandro. This, of course, riles Cassandro and his teammate, who consequently takes it out on Nicky and her teammate, which covers up the fact that Cassandro has climbed up to the balcony. If it [...]
Steven Spielberg Portraits
I had a job last year shooting some images of Steven Spielberg for the opening of Universal Singapore. Here are a couple of those images. Click on them to see a larger version. He was quite nice and very easy to work with. We had a great conversation about the next film he is going [...]
The road to Delhi
I spent 48 hours in Delhi India which is a world of contradictions. Overcrowded and loud, traffic zips by you at breakneck speed, or is at a complete standstill. Driving seems tactile: all flashing headlights and blaring horns mixed in with a little dare-devil-may-care attitude. Brand new, high tech architecture rises out of dirty, broken-down [...]
Head Shots
Hot Head In Hollywood everyone is looking for the perfect headshot: an image actors use to market themselves and/or their looks to producers who may be angling to cast someone in a production. This is a very subjective area of photography. Every agent has their own opinion or idea of how their “client” should look in a [...]
Large Format Printing from a 20-year old slide
One of my clients came across some images from her days as a model in New York and she wanted to have one of the 35mm slides blown up to a 44″ wide print. This presented a couple of challenges and some fun creative choices to mull over. First, we decided to send the slide [...]
That perfect moment
Have you ever had the notion that kids are much smarter than adults? I mean really young kids. It’s as if they have a certain natural wisdom they are born with that sometimes gets corrupted as they grow older. This is Vayle. I made this image while I was visiting her parents in Portland. I [...]
