bye bye blogger

hello wordpress. visit http://calebcondit.com/blog for further updates to my blog.

new work and we can shoot too

My friend Wes wrote about Juco on We can shoot too and I think I lost about 2 hours reading and looking at all the work. I love when I haven't seen some work and a friend of mine points it out to me/the world via their blog. It keeps us all inspired and doing new things and thinking about why we create and what we're creating. The recent talk on APE about not becoming a trucker (aka getting a "real" job) is so relevant in these days. It takes a lot of heart to stick it out when the chips are down and you still have rent to pay and ideas to realize.

I was looking through my hard drives for a headshot of myself for my website and I ran into these shots I took one day walking around downtown Chicago this June-ish when it was still warm and balmy. It makes me realize how lame I get in the winter and how I don't go out and adventure into the cold quite as much as I should to create new work for myself. It could be that the wind/weather is punishing, or just that winter makes me more introverted.

Now some pictures in all their summery Chicago glory.

Rj Dugan

I'm set to shoot Rj tommorow at noon for the launch of his new personal portfolio website. His blog can be seen here. He's a graphic designer, art director and yesterday showed me some sketches of some new furniture designs he's been thinking about. I'll post some behind the scenes shots of Rj picking his nose when he thinks I'm not watching tomorrow.

And I'm all about this site The Ones to Watch. Its pretty self referential and is just there to show off new talent in the modeling industry, but the editorials are solid and it doesn't feel sneaky. It calls it like it is. Cute young talent, being models. Thanks to Mary-Alice Wilson for giving me the heads up on this when we were researching a collaboration.

Julie Adams Looks

Julie Adams recently hired me to shoot some of her undocumented pieces of clothing. These are a couple that I'm really digging that I shot more as an editorial (whenever I shoot I make sure there's always at least a few morsels just for me) on top of the traditional straight catalog shots.

credits the movie

so its been a while, but I've been busy. This is a website for a short film by Hugh Schulze that I recently shot stills for. My girlfriend Helen Sadler starred in it as well. Just thought I'd show off here a sec...

danny goldring

I just shot with Danny Goldring today. What a great guy. He's been a working actor in Chicago for quite some time and you really can see why when you get to work with him. I'd give him a little direction and the result was fantastic. He had this crazy shirt he wanted to shoot in first so I thought, "why not". I like that it's a bit off, as it balances out the rest of the shoot. This is more of an editorial edit ( we were shooting his headshots as well) as a big part of what I sell as sessions to actors is headshots and an editorial session that's uploaded and tagged so that casting agents find a nice series of images of them that are professionally done.

His latest movie trailer is here and its called Chicago Overcoat and directed by Ray Berkowski. He acts alongside other big names like Stacy Keach, Mike Starr, Frank Vincent, and Katherine Narducci just to name a few. I watched the trailer and loved the editing sequences. I can't wait to check it out. I love that the trailer doesn't give away the whole movie but still gives a feeling of what what the storytelling is like.

Shooting David Dastmalchian

When David was recently in town for the screening of his recent film Keen (also starring the amazing helen sadler) we did a afternoon of photography. Here's some of my favorites. It's not quite up on calebcondit.com as I'm still working through the final edit...

for now you can see my working edit at calebcondit.com/david_dastmalchian or on flickr by clicking on any of the photos.

Dan Stransky from Grossman & Jack

Dan was sent by the wonderful katherine at g&j agency. dan in a real dude and needed some new shots to show all his different angles. this is my short sample, as there are too many great shots to even post online. check calebcondit.com for a better view.

megan lewis

Megan Lewis from Agency Galatea came by for a quick test. I like the results, clean, modern, personal. We were friends on Facebook and hooked up there before shooting. I'm finding that I'm meeting models more often before I'm introduced to them through agencies and that I'm able to better see HOW someone will be to shoot and the process becomes something completely different. I'm a laid back and relaxed person, so I think the personal touch is exactly what's needed to keep my buisiness successful. Some people thrive on the separation of the two, but for me it's inevitable for them to mix. I've made this series into a nice hand made book as well as "the Newmans" so maybe I'll take a quick video of the two and post that here to give a feel for my new presentation of my work.

the newmans and my website update

Having friends who photograph well, or are professional models has been the secret to my portfolio looking like it does for the past few years. But this new series has me super excited like nothing else quite has. Ashley and Brian recently got married (and are repped by Elite/Chosen), and she got a new NYC haircut and wanted to shoot while she was in Chicago for a few days. It was fantastic to see Ashley so happy. We've known each other since college and we've both been through rough patches and for her to get hitched to such a great man is so perfect. She's a great example of how a model can be a truly interesting and compelling person with tons of charisma, not just a pretty mannequin with no story.

Anyways, I took the shots and printed up a nice handmade book of the images. The first printing didn't go quite as I planned (there will be round 2) but this is what It should look like in the end. (the last image is the front and back cover, folded down the middle)

bread o'rama

I got some choice cheeses from my friends who work in the kitchen at Tizi Melloul, and decided I couldn't dare take them to see "Sunset Boulevard" in the park downtown without a proper bread to go with them. Of course each cheese was different so each one got a different loaf to accompany it. I made one plain white loaf, which started out as a boule, but I think my inability to let it be (too much kneading) made it into more of a ciabatta loaf. I then used a bit of that dough and kneaded in (and glazed with) a garlic, rosemary and lemon butter. Loaf three was a whole wheat+rye combo filled with raisins, dates, mission figs, almonds, walnuts and pecans. Here's a little snippet of what they looked like.







As you can see, the crumb is all pretty even, but the flavor what right on. I really need to try and get a truly french loaf. I think I might start that right now....

Oh and shout out to thefreshloaf.com for inspiration.

canon software update stuff

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/sdl/dpp-e.html
is where you can download the Dpp software if you've ever lost the canon disk. Tisk tisk for not letting this be available in current versions like this.

If you don't have the original CD you can edit the registry with regedit and add the following lines of code. This is danerous, so be careful!!
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\DPP]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\EOS Utility]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\PhotoStitch]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\ZoomBrowser EX]

This is all pertinent to windows OS

yes

new website up

I just started using dripbook for my portfolio. Its a nice interface to work with to get a decent simple portfolio site. I was considering Livebooks for a while, but my friend steph mcniel (the cuter half of yurnevmcniel) recommended it to me as a viable option that doesn't break the bank. It's a step up that more properly shows the level of photography that I've been up to in the last year.

Take a look, let me know what you think.

How to make the headshot work for you in Chicago as an actor

I've been shooting pictures since I was about 12 years old. The first picture off of the first roll had me so stoked. Through the years I experimented with different mediums but was always shooting pictures of people for one reason or another. After getting an art degree I decided that commercial photography was for me and did a short bit of assisting and went on my own. So for the last 4 years or so I've been self employed and running my own photography business. I don't specialize JUST in headshots but do a decent amount of them. I'm a portrait shooter in chicago and do headshots when my clients ask and they are an important part of my business whether for actors, musicians, business people, or other creatives.

It started with helping an acting friend out, Kevin Viol, because he'd gotten some crappy shots from some guy who bought a decent digital camera but was still using brown cloth backdrops from the 90s. (This was back when the people who used digital were somehow more legit or unique). Since then I've shot numerous other people's headshots and been a casting director for my own productions (normally fashion and lifestyle/commercial stills productions). I've also spoken with a few people who are also casting directors for respectable theatre organizations or cast for on camera projects.

The one thing that connects what everyone needs is the shot that really shows who you are and especially what they can do with your look/presence. That means probably not too far in one direction and not forgetting your important features. For example, one of my friends is a female actor but she's tall and strong. That matters on stage especially as it makes her more commanding. So her shot shows her whole body in proportion to her surroundings to give the viewer a sense of what she has to offer physically. Another friend is pretty much a blonde bombshell so she has a nice warm and slighly sultry picture. But both of these opposite type actors lean to the middle and play it slightly safe stylistically in the pictures. Subtlety is key here.

Recently Rj Dugan, a designer and art director for new media projects in Chicago wanted to do a professional portrait/headshot session that showed him as approachable, slightly edgy, current, and commanding. Things that showed good leadership qualities but still made him seem like a nice guy and someone you want to like. Professional yet creative.

When I shoot models for agencies, normally two routes are taken and done in varying degrees of intensity. If they are more commercial minded and do mostly catalog work, a nice warm and happy shoot is needed. A beauty shot may come but the makeup is never too strong to let the model's natural features shine. If the model does more runway and editorial work or needs to fill out that part of their book then that's the other direction. The makeup tends to get stronger and stronger as the shoot progresses as its easier to add than to take off.

Here's a bunch of images that I would consider successful heashots and or portraits that I've done over the years. That are everything for actors to musicians to personal art projects to my friends.