We're Photographers, not contractors.

As April was out shopping for duds Greg and I were busy building our new set. Think basement rec room - lots of wood paneling. Thankfully these walls will only have to support unicorn pictures as our talents may lay in other areas; but, it'll work. The first shoot is going to be a ping pong shoot which gave us an excuse to buy a new table and gave Greg the opportunity to start fresh.

Greg attaches some of that fantastic paneling


One section is done


Chris operating power tools AND measuring, never a good idea


Starting to make some progress ...


The finished product

Threads

Cha-Ching: Shopping time! The latest MF photo shoot called for new threads!

Can you guess the theme? Think 'groovy.' In the meantime, check out the ratio of polyester to cotton! Stay tuned for videos and snapshots later in the week...

Motofish Photogs.

Greg and I just revamped the website a bit and one of the things that always surprises me is how seemlessly our work fits together. Motofish has its own style. A few posts down there are links to our family blogs - well, in addition here are links to our individual websites: mine is ... Christopher Cumming Photography, inc., and Greg's is ...Sweney Productions, inc.

As well as seeing the Motofish style our individual websites give an idea of where we come from as individual photographers. Here are a couple shots too ...

Casting Call for Pampered Pets

photo by April

Pampered Pets needed!

We're looking for pampered animals & pets for an upcoming PAID (as in we pay you) photo shoot!

How pampered: Jewelry, special clothing, painted nails, baskets, purses, etc. its all welcome!

Requirements: 1-3 hours of your time

Compensation to owners: please inquire!

Date: TBD, within the next2-4 weeks timeframe.

Where: Studio in Redmond

Number of submissions: We need approximately 10-20 pet submissions!

How to submit: Please include a picture of you AND your animal AND your contact info and send to: april@motofishimages.com

Who IS Motofish?

Just an FYI....Motofish is made of these people: Greg Sweney & Christopher Cumming. Get to know their personalities today because....they both have blogs of their own: www.sweneyfamily.blogspot.com and www.cummingfamily.blogspot.com

Check them out! Its amusing an fun! Also, April, the assistant production chick: www.aprilgreer.blogspot.com

I heard a rumor that some random Seattle "internet-native" says blogs are now a thing of the past. She's sniffing cornflakes because blogs are a hot item!!! Up and coming are VLOGS (Video Blogs)

Keeping it simple ...

Photographers acting as Art Directors?

Aside from outside influences in the office, on the phone, when shooting stock the Motofish guys choose what and how and where to shoot. Its part of what makes the shoots radiate the same funky energy as chillin in the clubs or jammin out in a jukebox cafe. It doesn't "feel" like a photo shoot! This particular model kept it cute and fun working one-on-one with the photographer.

On certain shoots Greg and Chris are able to direct more attention and bounce back and forth between models with the less people on set. This also allows for quick background changes without the fuss and outfit adjustments with additional styling if needed. In other words, its a good thing to let the photogs roam free! Staying loose keeps the creative juices flowing!

Stay tuned for some awesome upcoming work. We have a few things in the works for the month of April, expect these posts to be in full effect!

matzoball snoring

We need to add one of these to the studio!

About Birthday Spankings

Posted by April: A good friend of mine celebrate's her birthday today and I mentioned something about "go easy on the birthday spankings." Later, I wondered where in the WORLD do bday spanks originate from?

This is a serious thing. Americans, with heritage stemming from Europe, Asia, Southern Pacific, South America, Africa, the Middle east and beyond, how can we find out where this tradition traces? According to Wikipedia after typing in "birthday spanking", the search engine revealed that it is a certain "rite of passage" and a "matter of bonding" to team up or allow the head of the household to administer the spanks.

Furthermore...customarily, the person receives a number of spanks corresponding to their age, plus, "one to grow on"; that is to say, someone who was turning n would receive n+1 spanks. An equation, wow!

In light of very old tradition the ancient Egyptians used spanking on the birthday to prepare the person for the afterlife, i.e. soften the body for the tomb.

And finally, the most well-known origination for bday spanks comes from the single smack on the bum doctors and midwives performed on infants to encourage their first breath or scream. This is no longer practiced in modern medicine. Chris & Shan recently had a baby, I'm positive, their was no smacking their babe in the delivery room. He's absolutely adorable, a little cream puff!

Here at the MF blog, its not just about pictures, its about all things important and interesting. Sort of like the mythbusters of photography & blogging.

Vignette

Motofish's shooting style is a combination of things: funk, flava, flare, and old-school wholesomeness.


One common aspect to the whole Motofish experience is the vignette. If you're not familiar with vignetting, its an old-school process used to bring the eyes in towards the subject. Edges of the picture in the darkroom days were "burned in" creating an archival look and feel.

Both Chris & Greg mingle their love for digital precision with dinosaur-era techniques.
For instance, you might look at one of their pictures, love it, but can't put your finger on why!

Aside from a unique angle, its likely the eye pleasing vignette-effect that gotcha.
Vignetting is storming the commercial photography field as of late. Wedding photographers, portrait shooters and many other fields are latching on, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Summatime

Grill it+ roast it+ hula hoop it+ surf it.

The theme: 80's style lawn-chairs, astro-turf + pink flamingos and a dabble of creativity.

Sha-zayam.

Let's Get Physical

Greg & Chris are physical photographers. At any given moment, the situation might call for a squat, hunch, fling, flick, roll, backflip, squint, yell, climb, swim and 'the splits' all in the name of a great photo. The following shots might exhibit grandstanding and off-key photographer humor, however, it is rated acceptable for all audiences. While on the job, Greg utilizes his plethora of hunting knowledge to complete the task. Keep hidden and hold it steady!!

A new addition

I am happy to announce that last Thursday night at 9:24 Daniel Harvard Cumming was born to myself (Chris) and my wife Shannon. After about a week things are going well (certainly well enough to update the blog and the bio page next ...). Daniel has been sitting on my lap in my office for a couple of days now here and there and I think he is already picking up some Photoshop tips. This photo was taken when he was about 20 minutes old.