Friday, May 28, 2010

Mike Cassidy...

Today was the last day of work for my friend Mike Cassidy at Edwards Air Force Base. In June of 2005 he left the film industry in Hollywood to take a unique opportunity to work at Edwards and utilize his many years of television and movie camera experience for RSI under the graphics contract. During the nearly 5 years he spent at Edwards he has captured the progress of many flight test programs, Space Shuttle landings, air shows, change of commands, award ceremonies, two fatal aircraft crashes and the arrival of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The first time I met Mike was during one of the many 95th Communication Group Commander’s Calls he covered where he was capturing the award portion of the ceremony. I was immediately struck by his confidence, professionalism and positive attitude. Throughout the following couple of years we would generally connect at these events and I would always try to meet after to catch up and say hello.

About 6 months ago it became readily apparent that the longevity of his service under the base contract was no longer a steady option. At that time Mike and I solidified our friendship and began to spend more time talking about life, family, the future and different options for both of us. During all of this I was extremely impressed with his professionalism and positive attitude. I do not think I have ever met an individual with his ability to remain focused on the positive and to actively stay away from the negative.

So today, Friday the 28th of May 2010 marked the end of this phase of his journey. He finished his last test program yesterday, which included what was described as an amazing send-off. Today he inventoried all the gear he has utilized on nearly a daily basis and turned in his passes, badges and keys. Tomorrow starts the next phase of his journey where he steps back into the film industry with a newfound excitement. Mike is also pursing his life long dream of sharing his tremendous collection of fine art night photography with the world through his new website and soon to be featured in magazines and art galleries.

I can’t wait to see where you are going to go from here and I am honestly grateful that I can call you a true friend!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Playing in the grass...

Above is a shot that I've hand in mind for a while now.  I've been working with new ideas to tame the harsh mid-day sun and with the grass looking much more alive I thought today would be a good day to give it a try!

This setup yet again demonstrated to me the value of c-stands and their various attachments.  As you can see from the image at the right all the lighting modifiers are held in place with a single Matthews c-stand with two 40" arms.  The main arm is holding a 4x4 aluminum frame with 150 diffusion paper and the second arm is attached to the first arm holding a medium foam core board in place to provide just a little bit of bounce on the right of the subject.

I captured a handful of shots that I think will work very well for stock and after a bit of extra processing and keywording will be heading off to enter the inspection queues!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Mike's Presentation at the Antelope Valley College

I had a really cool opportunity to watch my buddy Mike Cassidy give a presentation on his movie industry experiences for a class at the Lancaster Antelope Valley Community College.  It was a four our class where he talked about the different aspects of how films are put together.  He also showed clips from a handful of movies he worked on and he spoke about the details that went into the shots to make them come together.  It was really cool to see him in his element and interact with the students.  

As you can see from the image to the left he also brought a collect of memorabilia from some of the movies and productions he has had an opportunity to work on.  Some of the pictures from his past were pretty entertaining to look at as well.  

Mike has been part of this class for the last couple of years and the instructor has made him apart of the curriculum for the class.

It really seemed like he was well received and I know that I had a good time!