I spent a fun day at UNCG photographing students for admissions.

Photographs with Libby

Last week I worked with Libby Newsome on some photos for a project she is working on for runners. Libby is a great trainer, she is helping me on health and fitness issues and my fight to lose weight. Her company Core Dynamics is near the Green Valley area of Greensboro. I cannot say enough nice things about my experience with Libby.

After we shot the photos for her book she was kind enough to model for some tests shots for me. This is part of the outcome of our little experiment. Thanks for everything Libby.

On Set with HGTV Personalities

Recently, Mark and crew had the opportunity to produce some TV and web spots for Mohawk Flooring featuring Taniya Nayak and Chip Wade. Those of you who are HGTV junkies out there will recognize these two right away from their show "Designed To Sell." And the good news is - they are just as friendly & fun in real life as they seem to be on TV.
We had two very full days of shooting on a variety of sets that took our talent from an interior designer's office to a Carribbean-inspired living room to everyone's favorite - the green screen. It was a multi-camera shoot that included a teleprompter mounted to the jib camera.
Thanks to Chip, Taniya, the good folks at Mohawk, Viewpoint Studios and ASV Productions, and all the crew for a great shoot!

Taniya makes sure the carpet passes the barefoot test.

How'd he get that whole floor put in so quickly? Just a little TV magic...

Taniya gets a little touch-up from stylist Heather Hawkins. Like she needed any help!

Taniya & Mark at the end of a good day.

Yakov, Bald Nobbers, and Mark Wagoner Productions

We just returned from a great video shoot in Branson, Missouri. We were there the week after the ice storms, which meant we had to set lights one of the days on 5" thick ice, but the gaffer and crew did an above all expectations job. Everything looked really nice and no one slipped and fell. The grip truck, lighting package, gaffer and crew all came from FILM GEAR RENTALS in Little Rock, Arkansas. Thanks to Dave and David for an excellent job. Christian Parsons also went out of his way to make the project for Wrangler Home Furnishings a big success. No really - he went out of his way, since there is not a very direct way to drive a truck load of cameras and a jimmy jib from Greensboro to Branson. Thanks to Christian for enduring 32 grueling hours of snow, trees in the road, ice, and traffic jams. Ben Root, fresh off a job for CBS, and I had a very early morning rendezvous at the airport and flew to Missouri for the shoot. Ben made the camera fly with ease in the confines of a house, albeit a 5,000 sq. foot house. Our team was rounded out buy a great cast and stylist, and most importantly, a fantastic client! Thanks to Justin for everything!

While in Missouri we shot footage for commercials, DVD's and web spots. We shot with 2 cameras on P2 cards, HMI's and Kinoflos. Camera was on the jimmy jib or dolly and tracks.


Branson is, well, an interesting place. It is a mix of Gatlinburg and Myrtle Beach, plus a dash or so of Hee Haw. We all really liked seeing the Dick Clark Used Car Lot. It was so quiet there, it is hard to imagine that they had seven million visitors last year. Glad we went in the middle of winter. Though we hated that we missed Yakov.

Inauguration Day

    January 20th 2009, Inauguration day in Greensboro NC. A small bit of snow had fallen over night in Greensboro, for me it was a cleansing and a sign of a fresh start. While I could not be in the city of cherry blossoms for the big day, I was happy to see it arrive none the less. It was a great day!

    I had seen small hand painted signs surrounding  Cheesecakes by Alex with the word "HOPE" painted on them while I was downtown over the weekend. I knew I wanted to photograph this visual symbol of the change our country and the world were about to experience. After shooting the signs and having a bit of crumb cake Alex said that the kids had a great time painting them all. It was time to head over to The Green Bean and see what was going on there. People were coming to sip some of the black medicine and watch the large screen TV set up down front. The atmosphere was excited and very upbeat. I hung out with my friend and fellow photographer Christian Parsons , had some coffee, shot some pix and headed home around 11AM.

Lynn and I watched through most of the afternoon. Now off to work and save the country.

I've got to go see a man about a mule.

     Thanks to the cooperation of Ruby the mule we shot new scenes for the Camelback Bridge film  we have been working on this year. Jan turned out to be quite the mule drive and got about 2 hours of practice in. Thanks for all the help from Ronald Hudson and End of the Road Mule Farm for providing our new friend Ruby, complete with a wagon and a coffin. Harvey Robinson and I split camera duties with Carolyn de Berry keeping the show on track as well as doing bang of job as the pregnant women in the wagon. You could feel her pain! The weather was perfect, a bit over cast, adding to the somber feel of this scene.  We shot this scene with the Letus 35 adaptor to give some very nice shallow depth of field looks.

What's our Proximity?

    This week we shot on the roof of the only Platinum rated  LEEDS hotel in the United States, The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro. The fish eye lens comes in handy yet again. We shot an interview with Dale Freudenberger of FLS Energy in Black Mountain NC. FLS provided and designed the solar hot water system for the hotel. Dale explains the workings of the system and discusses the concepts of solar energy in a film I am producing on the Proximity. More updates coming as this project progresses.