Chris Crumley Blog

Yesterday was one of those crazy days where ten things were happening at once, there was a crowd in the studio and the new mermaid tail arrived a day earlier than expected. Funny how everyone dropped everything, out pops a knife and the box got opened.

Christina was the first into tail and it was a loose fit on her. Laura Russell was in the studio and is a little larger than Christina, so we put her in it and the fit was better.

The tail is a work of art and was done by movie special effects artist Adam Martyn in Hungary.

We're anxious to get it underwater and shoot stills and HiDef video. There's a lot going on, so it might have to wait until Friday or Monday. Stay tuned.

Tuesday we were immersed in water; today we transition to baked goods.

Carla Peay and her cute little "I love cupcakes" staff member brought a big batch of less-than-four-hours-old cupcakes to the studio and we built a set for one of her startup ads.

"Just Cupcakes" opens July 11 in Hilltop West, Virginia Beach.

It's tank time. The water is 88F and clear. Walls are 18 percent gray unless I cover them with a black or other color drape.

Mix someone comfortable in the water and see what we can create.

We're working on several proposals that include images depicting concepts/image styles we think the client might use. This is one of those images.

Except, it's not quite the image we visualize, so we're calling it an "interesting failure." I learned the term "interesting failure" from Bill Allard, a National Geographic photographer. Like Bill, I sometimes use it to describe an image of mine or someone I'm coaching/mentoring.

Well, this image was taken, not made, so we're only partway there. The next session, we'll shoot it vertical or crop the left side to get the model out of the center. Also, we'll get the model to lower her forehead to the surface line, keep her eyes open, bring the stingray down with her and have another killer bikini.

Dancer Stephanie Mas dancing underwater using a red rope in the choreography. Stephanie, with Artistic Director Leslie Anne Scott, created a number of artistic interactions between the dancer and the rope. And, later in this session, added another dancer reaching downward to Stephanie.

It would be appropriate to say "this work is being done by professional athletes with safety backup and shouldn't be tried at home."

The Just George's Sports Bar end of the Captain George's Seafood Restaurant building in Kill Devil Hills, NC three nights before the Grand Opening May 15.

Art Director, Larry Peak and I drove down one afternoon to get images of the new building at dusk.

If you're spending some time in the North Carolina Outer Banks, stop at Just George's and have one of their Haystack Burgers. They are pretty amazing.

Dancer Felice Gabrielle Romero underwater with a few yards of coral fabric in the shallow end of our wet studio and cyc.

We typically shoot behind-the-scenes pictures while doing most shoots so the crew has something to remind them of the time and place. This was around lunchtime after shedding wet costumes, except Brett and Nhan were stilling hanging in the 88-90F water.

We like shooting this kind of thing on overcast days, but Monday was a sunny blue-sky day, so the light was subdued with a 20x20' Matthews scrim held in place with PVC stanchions anchored in 55 gallon drums of water. At 8.3 pounds per gallon, each drum weights about 400 pounds, enough to keep things in place.

New York modern dancers (l-r), Brett Alan, Allison Ploor, Kristina Skjelberg, Megan Krauszer, Felice Gabrielle Romero, Stephanie Mas and Nhan Ho at the surface during an underwater photo session in Virginia Beach, VA June 1, 2009. Not pictured is Artistic Director, Leslie Anne Scott, dancer Lindsey Gruber, photo assistant Christina Macfarlane and photographer Chris Crumley.

When the NY dance company was here last year, we just shot underwater. This year, we added a studio session with a variety of dance costumes and lingerie from designer Jodi Gallaer. A new member of the dance company, Stephanie Mas, is in this picture in a blue Gallaer ensemble.

As with all the dance images, Artistic Director Leslie Anne Scott and Rehearsal Director Allison Ploor are essential to directing the dancer's movements for the camera.

Some lingerie underwater with a shift in the color palette.

I've been away from the Blog for awhile tending to a variety of things. Now, it's time to be back.

Mild weather came early this year and the pool could be opened earlier than usual. We've had some good underwater time and the last week has been very productive.

Today we rigged the 20x20' scrim over the pool to cut the dancing reflections. This is what it looks like with the soft-even-ambient light and a strobe-lit foreground subject (Christina Macfarlane). Chuck Guthrie and Kaitlyn Benetz were also part of this.

As usual for this sort of session, the water temp was brought up to 88-90F and the chemistry fine-tuned. We pay particular attention to pH; having it as close to normal eye pH of 7.3.

I met Jamie during one of the Interior Design series we are photographing. We finished shooting one of the interiors yesterday and she was standing by a window lighting her eyes (marvelous eyes) and I shot a few frames of them.

The atrium ceiling above the Starbucks in Lynnhaven Mall, Virginia Beach, VA has very intriuging patterns of light combined with repetitive angles and triangles.

We sent 12,000 of these email promotional pieces to the major art buyers and creatives in the U.S. week before last. It's impossible to pick a precise target audience for something like this because any kind of product can use a water-based ad concept.... insurance, pharmaceuticals, transportation, banking, fashion and a long list of others. And, then, of course, there are editorial possibilities like sports magazine swimsuit issues.

There are only a small handfull of photographers in the world who do this sort of thing successfully, so you just have to be in the buyer's or creative's files when they are moved in the wet direction.

Thanks to Tom Dye/Ferguson Enterprises and Jeff Ainslie/Ainslie Group Homes (Virginia Beach, VA) for availability of the shower unit, Chuck Guthrie/Lynnhaven Marine (VaBch) for transportation/sinking/rigging, mermaid Viv LEPLUS (Miami Beach, FL) and Christina Macfarlane (VaBch) for creative. All the photography was done underwater.