Chris Crumley Blog

Erica Gunter won an Illinois Model Contest with prizes including a week for two in Cozumel, Mexico and a one-day location shoot with an advertising photographer.

The connection to me? The show's organizer, Sherry Smith Reichart, was a creative partner with me for seven years shooting tropical and underwater photo illustrations for stock, editorial and advertising uses.

We spent all of the day on the east side of the island and used a variety of settings. This is a frame done at a beachfront out-building for the Chen Rio Restaurant Bar.

With a shoulder in the sand at about 90' looking up, this is the bow view of the sunken minesweeper C-53 Felipe Xicotencati in Cozumel, Mexico.

The ship was built in 1944 and was part of the U.S. Navy during WWII (USS Scuffles AM-298) and through the early 60s. In '62, the Mexican government bought the 184' ship with a 33' beam and renamed it. Thirty-eight years later (1999-2000), it was de-commissioned and sunk as a scuba diving attraction.

Before sinking, the ship was stripped of dangerous equipment, cleaned and large holes were cut in the sides and upper decks. The holes allow diver access to well-lit upper deck passages for shallow wreck exploration.

Divers won't ordinarily see this school of redear herring since their home turf is in shallow water (8-12' deep) near the shore. They seem to roam between the cruise ship docks and the entrance to the southern small boat marina. I don't know how many are in the school, but it's way into the thousands.

We always enjoy doing an image like this; it's in the category of "making a picture" rather than taking one. A lot of pieces must come together.

It starts with finding the right angle and elevation to shoot from. Then, the property must be clean, landscaping done, arranging for lights to be on, ensuring sprinklers don't come on, calling in good weather, doing the multiple lighting via voice radio with crew, having reliable radio-controlled sync between camera and strobe lights and doing some complex post-production work.

Of course, it's also helpful to have an attractive property as a subject.

The decision tree for an elevated picture angle might start with a helicopter, but a multi-frame dusk/dark composite image prevented that (budget, too). A bucket lift would be too wiggly. Scaffolding would have been fine, but would've needed a lot of delivery and erection effort. That pretty much left an A-Frame ladder. We wanted 16' but there were none in the local rental system, so we settled for my 12' fiberglas and a tripod extension secured hard to the ladder.

Assistant Dale Maurice works on the radios for remote strobe communications.

If you're gonna "be somebody," better get started now.

With that in mind, I was in Echoes Of Time, a Virginia Beach location for renting/buying vintage clothing, costumes and accessories. The inventory is huge for the Tidewater-size market area.

My costume didn't come together on the first trip (a size issue) but I spotted this headform with red hair, the hat and spyderweb veil. If I was a woman, I would have jumped on this in a heartbeat and finished it with one of a zillion choices of dresses, leather or who-knows-what.

I'm tempted. It's tempting. Naaaawwwwww.... I just couldn't. Well, maybe. Can I?

We're doing lots of different things lately: interior designer work images, location peanut packaging, underwater dance, underwater business themes, cupcakes, restaurants, frozen cakes, airport FBOs and Meals on Wheels to name a few. Then, in addition to years of still stock and commercial/advertising still photography, we're now doing video projects where it makes sense.

This kind of image, with Ariel Skelley, Michael Broth, Rozlyn Papa, Randy McNeill and Virginia Anderson in Richmond is being captured for both still and motion stock. As the images come out of post-production, they're going to the Getty Images still and motion stock files.

We shifted the color pallet on this frame for the Blog, but the normal four-color version was the primary entry to the stock collection.

The non-diver perhaps can't imagine the almost spiritual feeling that engulfs most of us coming in close contact with a large marine creature. Could be a 15-40' whale, similarly sized whale shark or a 6-8' shark.

Humphead wrasse like this give me similar willies. At 4-5' long, they're not so big. But, are unafraid and get so close they seem to want to cuddle up.

Some divers have been known to feed the wrasse hard-boiled eggs. They suck the egg in, massage it in their mouths and spit out the shell. Try that underwater!

Generally, there is a movement to not feed marine life for lots of good reasons, but it goes on. Was this one getting close because he wanted me or an egg?

Ah, well, I'll probably never know.

We all know about email etiquette; it's a courtesy thing to respond fairly quickly. But, sometimes, you just can't.

Take the case of someone who spends most of their time underwater. Maybe it's harder to get a signal there. Or, maybe they use AT&T and they're underwater near Ocracoke Island, NC where there is no AT&T signal on land or anywhere.

Okay, I'm sorry. My phone vendor frustration is showing.

Last week was dedicated to shooting still and motion stock and I was fortunate to be working with an incredible crew in Richmond, VA. Our mer-person (above) was Rozlyn Papa; she'll be back again in these pages, so watch for her. She's also a shoe-in for pages in the Femme de la Mer book.

The pool in the "old" Cavalier Hotel dates back to its construction in 1927. Picture automobiles of the late 20s and early 30s arriving at the front entrance on the hill for big band sounds from Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. This part of the hotel is open in the summer and the pool is clearly from another era.

It's a good location for photography and we took the new Canon Tilt-Shift lenses there for a few trial frames.

Had to shoot some things at the oceanfront house for the Interior Designers today, then ventured out onto the beach. We were getting a lot of wind and waves from another hurricane passing by.

Doesn't look like our typically warm, sunny, calm Virginia Beach beach, huh?

Chuck Guthrie was next to me shooting the fountain and building behind it with a 16-35mm wide angle lens tilted up to get the fountain and the building in the frame (right side with converging vertical lines). He sent his frame beside the Tilt-Shift lens version (left side).

Major difference; most architects would opt for the parallel lines.

Another frame from the Town Center testing session last Friday.

First Friday at Town Center, Virginia Beach, VA takes on a festive atmosphere with artists spread around the four square blocks and in the open area around the fountain. Last night, celebrated local artist Louis Jones was painting a large canvas real time in the square in front of the Bravo! eatery.

It was a good setting for testing the new Canon TS-E (tilt-shift) wide angle lens' ability to correct perspectives normally destroyed by tilting a wide angle lens up or down. This one was using the 24mm. We also worked with the 17mm.

After testing, a cold drink and plate of cheeseburger sliders finished things.

I thought Palm Tree Mart's setup on Virginia Beach at ECSC (East Coast Surfing Championships) was clever.