(re)Birth of a Website

Portfolios are never “done”.  Keeping my website up to date is a constant challenge.

Every now and then I need a whole new “canvas” for my work.  Its as much a need for me to be re-energized about my site as it is to keep the audience engaged.  While I have had a liveBooks website from the beginning of liveBooks, their new product, called Scaler, inspired me to do a complete overhaul to my site.  Scaler is so named because it allows the site and images to scale to the size of the monitor it is being view on.  With clients getting bigger and bigger screens it lets me take advantage of all that nice visual real estate.

The redesign of my site also allowed me to show lots of new images sorted into new portfolios.  There are many new projects, personal works and even a new area for me to showcase my recent video projects.

Check it out and let me know what you think!  www.bobmcnamara.com

17 Locations, 7 Days, 60 Models, 10 Dogs, 8756 Shots

 

Just putting the finishing touches on the post production of a wild, fun location shoot.

We shot in 3 restaurants, 2 retail stores, salons, parks, school, train depot, houses, offices, and more. Some days had 3 company moves.

Subjects included business people, kids, animals, everyday folks, the works. A wide variety of subjects and styles… here’s a sample:

 

Special thanks to ace producer Lyn Wik and her amazing crew.

The Art of Dirt

Usually a wardrobe stylist works hard to make sure the clothes in a photo are clean, pressed and fitting perfectly.  That’s easy.  Enter Angel Rodriguez, ace stylist.  His job was to find just the right wardrobe for an Uponor (makers of plumbing supplies) ad.  The folks at agency  Gabriel deGrood Bendt wanted our plumber (the talented Tom Payne) to look just real enough to believe.

This sent Angel off to 2nd hand stores which he soon found out didn’t have much in Tom’s large frame size.  So he bought new.  And with grinders, sand paper and other secrets worn out the clothes just so.

Here’s a short video of a little on-set styling by Angel!

Angel at work

How About a Little Snack at 4am?

This just out from our friends at Buffalo Wild Wings.

We shot this at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Hudson, Wisconsin last month.  Call time for the crew? 4 am!  Yep, that included producer, make up artist, stylists, assistants, food stylists, talent and the clients.

The shoot wrapped around 10am and some of the crew headed for Perkins. Me? I enjoyed a plate of wings… Blazin’ of course!

Thanks everyone for the early energy!

Did You Miss Me?

Did you even know I was gone?

Well I missed you.  I’ve been on the road most of January.  Below is a shot of my collection of hotel keys from the month.  Travelling like this in January can be interesting.  On the one hand not many folks are on the road (or in the air) having just settled back in from the holiday travel.  That makes hotel/air reservations at the last minute easy.  On the other hand the weather this winter has been crazy EVERYWHERE.  Luckily we made most of our connections and never missed a shot.

Thanks again to my traveling team; Tim, Tia and Marty.  We made it yet again!

A Christmas Story…The Later Years

So whatever happened to Ralphie?  You know, the kid who shot his eye out with the Red Rider BB Gun in A Christmas Story many years ago.

Well we went looking and sure enough, he is still living in his parents’ basement reliving the nightmare of the accident every holiday as the USA network re-runs the movie 24 hours straight.

 

Special thanks to Gina Hessburg for her inspired styling, Tia Cartwright for make-up and chest hair and Scott Jorgenson for his willingness to wear the bunny suit.

Happy Holidays Everybody!

Dog Days

Just had a great time in LA shooting for Purina with the fine folks from Fallon.

We had typical southern California weather (foggy mornings / sunny afternoons) and typical southern California crew (terrific)! Thanks again Molly for yet another awesome production.

Here’s a few snapshots of the production:

Here’s our tireless stand in puppy

 

Client and AD congratulate one of our many canine stars.

 

We shot humans too!

 

Ace digi-tech Jon working with the clients.

 

An iPad makes a great wireless 2nd monitor on location!

Closing Weekend

It’s a true Minnesota ritual.  Closing the cabin at the end of the season.

My little cabin is 19 miles south of the Canadian border and accessible only by boat or seaplane.  These two elements combine to shorten our season to about 5 months per year.  Last year we stretch it a week too long and suffered some minor ice damage and a cold nasty time pulling out docks in a snow storm.

This year it could not have been more beautiful.  Sunny and 60 degrees.

The nights were nice too:

It was so calm Saturday night that the brighter stars reflected in the water.

And now the long seven month wait for the ice to come and then slowly go…

The Midwest Road Trip

A classic midwest road trip is the trek across South Dakota to the Badlands and Black Hills.

My 16 year old son, hungry for some cross country driving experience, and I just returned from the western Dakotas.  The Badlands are one of my favorite places to visit.  It takes a little effort to escape the tour buses and RVs but once you do you have hundreds of square miles to yourself.  Oh, except for the Bison.  We were trapped for over an hour in a herd of Bison.

 

Shooting at night with a nearly full moon can be challenging.  The moon is so bright that the stars are washed out.

Surrounding the Badlands is the National Grasslands.  Another place of beautiful desolation.

A storm rolls by…..

Everyone’s a Model

When setting up lighting for a portrait shot I need something to bounce the light off of.  Lighting clear air just doesn’t cut it.  Sometimes I can stick a C-Stand in front of the camera, more often I grab an assistant.

This time the assistants were busy.  Hey, how about Ace Producer Sarah Fisher?  Hey, and there’s Make Up Artist Tia Cartwright……!