2010

Mustaches in favor of Movember!

Posted on November 16, 2010

What do handlebars, pencils, cops, walruses, and Salvador Dali all have in common? They’re all types of mustaches! Everyone’s favorite piece of manly facial adornment, the Mo, slang for Mustache, has taken over the month of November and Studio 3! We got in on the fun with some portrait photography, inviting over a dozen men and their Mo’s to our Seattle studio to get their mugs shot. From all ages and backgrounds, all lengths and styles of mustache, we captured the essence of what being a “Man with a Mustache” is all about.

Movember, as it is known, is international awareness month for prostate cancer. Men everywhere are encouraged to grow their own signature mustache for the month of November, raising awareness and money for world-class men’s health groups that combat prostate and testicular cancer as well as mental health challenges, including Live Strong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Beginning in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, Movember has since grown into an international campaign. Mo Bros and Mo Sistas, as we are called, raise funds by asking family and friends to donate in support of the mustached month. Mo Bros start the month with a clean shave and let their Mo’s grow all month, to the delight of themselves and those around them. Last year, the campaign raised over $255,000 worldwide! These funds are used to help support research projects, life support groups, as well as awareness and education efforts. Through their efforts and the organizations they support, Movember hopes “to have an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health”.

The official Movember website includes the history of the month-long celebration, as well as dozens of ways you can help support the cause, including some hilarious Movember-inspired merchandise, from t-shirts to mustache-shaped cuff links.

Grass Fed Photography

Posted on August 5, 2010

Portland Photographer Henry Ngan recently took a week long photographic tour of a few ranches in Eastern Oregon that are part of the Country Natural Beef Cooperative. Country Natural Beef is a marketing cooperative started in 1984 by Doc and Connie Hatfield in Eastern Oregon with the commitment of its members to produce naturally raised grass fed beef using environmentally sustainable practices and humane treatment of animals. Doc Hatfield said “Our consumers know where the cattle come from, and they know the people who produced it”. With camping gear and camera equipment in tow, Henry stepped into a different world of cowboys and the open range. Throughout his five-day, four-night venture into the ranching world, he took his lifestyle photography to the next level, actually stepping into the life itself and was able to capture many unique moments including horse wrangling, cattle herding, family life on the ranch and plenty of gorgeous landscapes.

Henry enjoyed the warm welcome of the families that own and operate Probert Ranch in Vale, Foster Ranch outside of Baker City, Mallory Ranch towards the Wallowa’s, and the McClaran Ranch in Joseph. Says Henry about his experience:

I camped out at each of the ranches amongst the Angus and Herefords in my Jeep, gazing at the stars in the clear night sky. I could see deer once in awhile passing through while the cows grazed.

My equipment of choice was Canon 5D MkII with an assortment of lenses from a 70-200mm to an 85mm to a 16-35mm. I found that cattle can be skittish and easily spooked if you are a stranger. That made it difficult to get really close to them without warming up to them first and some coaxing along the way and hiding behind blinds such as stacks of logs. Life is tough on a cattle ranch. Everyone works hard in an often times harsh environment especially during the winter and during calving season. My plan was to capture some of this way of life. I will have to go back to capture the seasonal nature of ranching. During the winter, the cattle are driven into the valleys and canyons where it is warmer and where they can get to the grass away from the snow. The following spring, they are moved again into the higher elevations.

Photographer Neil DaCosta joined Henry for the last two days, taking the “old school” route and shooting with a 500 CM Hasselblad and Kodak film (remember film?). Both photographers had a blast, roughing it on the wide-open ranges and shooting some amazing imagery.

All four ranches are family-owned and have been operating since the late 1980’s. Country Natural Beef and their ranchers uphold the highest humane animal practices and use environmentally sensitive land management practices.

Garden Still Photography Party!

Posted on June 23, 2010

Studio 3, Inc. Seattle recently collaborated with longtime client Antica Farmacista on a joint video/ still photography project featuring a new product line shot in a classic garden setting. The lifestyle video shows Creative Director Shelley Callaghan dressing a table for a special event and highlights the elements of style that make Antica a high-end luxury brand perfect for every home.

When planning a project like this, that involves both video and still photography to capture the essence of our client, we always aim to make each component compliment the other rather than having them compete for the spotlight. These multi-part projects are always fun and challenging for that reason. For Antica Farmacista’s work, we wanted to show the care, craft, and most importantly the eye that the brand upholds with its products and aesthetics in each component. By showing the products in use as compliment to the product feature style used in the photos, a more subtle but meaningful approach to highlighting them, the video aspect of this work provides a practical grounding and deeper sense of the items and brand.

The end result is clean, beautiful video and still photography that exude the charm of Antica Farmacista’s wonderfully crafted products. Even though we’ve been working together for some time now, it’s always a treat to have them come to us with their products, each one so full of personality and care, that let you know the people behind the company have a passion for their craft.

Antica Farmacista has captured old-world European charm and mystery with its collection of unique signature scents for the home and body that draw inspiration from the mystery of the Mediterranean Sea and the serenity of the gardens of Tuscany. Each fragrance is formulated with only the world’s finest essential oils and natural ingredients, and every product is meticulously produced and presented in an antique inspired apothecary bottle.

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Conveniently Exclusive Documentary Photography: Al Gore

Posted on April 30, 2010

— Studio 3, Inc.

Hired by the Super Computing 2009 Conference team, Henry Ngan of Studio 3 was the only official show photographer to shoot documentary photography of Al Gore at the Portland event. Al Gore was featured as the keynote speaker, addressing the theme, “Computing for a Changing World.”

In Henry’s words, “The highlight of the conference was shooting documentary photography of Al Gore. I was the only media allowed in a private meeting with the conference leaders and the former United States Vice President. It was a true honor.” This was the 21st annual conference, recognized globally as the premier international event on High Performance Computing or HPC.

The show floor at the Oregon Convention Center was the epicenter of enormous bandwidth flow to various HPC computing consortiums around the world. There was the bandwidth challenge whereby various teams were competing in order to set new records for sustained data transfer among storage systems from around the world. They were able to achieve data flow of 110 gigabits per second (Gbps), sustained indefinitely among clusters of servers on the show floor and those at Caltech, Michigan, San Diego, Florida, Fermilab, Brookhaven, CERN, Brazil, Korea, and Estonia. In the LHC challenge, a peak bidirectional data flow of 119 Gbps was achieved. We will be able to solve the world’s problems in a shorter time span due to achievements we see today. We are talking globally distributed data analysis here in order for worldwide collaboration amongst physicists, scientists, and engineers that Henry Ngan was able to capture. There is just so much data that needs to move between all these supercomputers as quickly as possible that it is truly mind boggling to the average person and Studio 3 was happy to shoot these hi tech geniuses. As a photographer and a computing junky (Geek), Henry Ngan was able to capture and experience all this electrifying excitement on the convention floor in Portland. If you want to know more, go to this link: http://www.hpcwire.com/search.html?sortby=date&sitesearch=bandwidth+challenge+sc09&search=Search

Read below for Henry Ngan’s documentary photography shooting experience:

I used Canon 5D MkIIs for this shoot with various lenses from a 70-200mm to a 16-35mm wide angle to capture all the events unfolding from keynotes, to ribbon cutting, to information sessions, to group shots of various organizations. We had an older Canon 5D in the corner of the main floor doing time-lapse photography of the whole event. The 5D MkII performed well using high ISO settings with little noise problems. I had to be able to capture all the ambient lighting because many of the exhibits were lit up glitzy like Las Vegas. Canon speedlites were used to fill in or create some direction in some cases.

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http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/ef_lens_lineup

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