Building out a custom stack. For the longest time I've been piecing together a personal style. Testing digital and film, figuring out what works and what I like and then trying to bundle that attribute into a "function" . I often run my project through a group stack with pre and post blocks as powergrades that don't change much. 

Prep - main - post

1) Tone curve, MTF contrast , grain
2) CST conversions - Arri Log C to Davinci Wide Gamut + levels (squeeze and drop lol ) and subtractive saturation + highlight compression + split tone colour
3) Film Contrast DCTL + Mid to high remapping.

I've been looking for something where I can just shoot to taste and run everything through a stack with minimal switches. This way I can have a passable finish in minutes for entire projects. 
I shoot and colour my own stuff so it's a little different from working with a team where the footage has to be passed around. 
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Shot this on the Arri Alexa XT Plus with Spherical ( Voigtlander 58mm f1.4 ) and Anamorphic ( Nikon 50mm 1.8 + Sankor 5e 2x anamorphic block through a Rapido FVD24a variable diopter )

Like still life painting , reps go toward hitting segments of a greater target.
It's weird but to improve quickly it's best to go slow. Setting specific intentional checkpoints. From there we start to become articulate. Accuracy goes up, expressiveness can be threaded in.

​From the start it was like knowing what I wanted to say but not knowing how to speak. Each day I do a bit more to close this gap. Building a playground piece by piece. Eventually getting to play professionally

The amount of work that it takes to make something look easy is absurd. On days when I'm unhappy this still brings me joy to say, it's working. Compressing highlights , lifting shadows, grain structure, frequency based detail, all into a recipe that works regardless of lighting condition. The work is done so we can hit the target every day , at first with less effort, and in time without thought, so the story at the core of all of this can be told. What a journey.​

My friend bought a new home. 

Log : Progression this week is in the form of the low end of my images. I've been combining a few things together to figure out what type of "punch" my main style should have. I'm leaning into a bit of what I experienced shooting Kodak Vision 3 500T, and some of what I've learned from Walter Volpatto. I also used tools from the homie Kaur in DaVinci Resolve.

These images were captured using the Arri Alexa XT Plus, and the Voigtlander 28mm f2.8. 

Kodak Vision 3 500T
​Shot my first music video on these steps. 

​​Nothing could prepare me for the fact that a single image would represent a 7 year journey of healing and transformation.
 
My journey started when I'd just moved home from college and my father was dying of cancer. It was the day after I got home and I asked if there was any advice that he could give me. He said," don't let anyone , even my passing stop you. Go out and become what you want to be." That was our last day.
 
 I decided soon after that I wanted to travel the world and to be a photographer. I took his lenses with me. After travelling to Japan , Taipei and Shanghai, training my eye, I came home. The journeys gradually let me find myself.
 
7 years out from that conversation I took this image. Healed and whole, I can now say with confidence that I'm a photographer.
 

New places with good company. 

Walking around the city for the first time in a while. 
​Fuji X-T3 , Tokina 11-16. 

It's essential to start with a voice, to create a space where it can be heard and a means by which it can be delivered. In this Realm, I share with you something that no other can provide: My perspective, as well as a means for you to connect and share your own. 

Along this journey I'm not exactly sure what new forms this world will take, but I'm happy to be able to contribute to it's creation nonetheless. 

Welcome to the Realm and thank you for taking part in this journey. I'm sure you'll find a bit of something that speaks to you.