The brothers from Chip & Pepper Jeans Company

In a random passing on a tiny "locals only" beach access road here in Malibu a few weeks back, Anna Marie and I ran into Chip Foster, (one half of the infamous twin-brother team of Chip & Pepper Jeans Co.) and as we stood there checking for surf, we began to ramble on about C&P's new 2009 premium denim collections, of which subsequently Anna Marie had worked on, and that they needed someone to shoot the new collection.  What a chance meeting, right?  

Well, that immediately turned into Chip and I mumbling over ideas of what to do for the shoot and our brief encounter concluded with me needing to connect with his Marketing/PR girl Kim Anguiano to set everything up the next morning.  

As Kim and I bounced calls and emails back and forth for a week or so, all turned out that we would shoot an "urban jungle" theme in downtown LA by the old warehouses and railroad tracks.  

Fast forward a week or so to this past weekend, and it was set, a final production call time to our shoot.   We had four models, all the stylists one could ask for, a massive wardrobe truck, assistants, etc... it was all there for us.   Both Chip and Pepper, with family in tow was on set as well for the activities.  All in all, it was a great production that provided wonderful results...

After hours of run-and-gun shooting, we wrapped our shoot and were on our way to post production of the nearly 1200 images we created.  This is a sample of what we did, so be sure to look out for the actual C&P Jeans Ads, their catalogs and the tons of press sure to be in magazines in the near future.  Also, be sure to follow Chip & Peppers blog at http://www.chipandpepperblog.blogspot.com , or be sure to check their website at http://www.chipandpepper.com

 

Stay tuned for more updates on my mad mad mad world as I have a pretty full schedule coming up in the next couple of months........

2009- we're off and riding...

First off, thanks for stopping by my "house of rant" and- for all of you that do not live in, or have visited lately - sunny southern california, you have been missing an incredible season of varying weather patterns.  We have had a few frontal storms of rain (badly needed of course) and then spread in between these cold, wet days- it has been 78 and blissfully sunny.

Take this weekend as an example.  I got off the phone- mid last week with my long time friend and true example of a best friend, Darren Dickey.  He and I grew up next to each other, our families ranch property lines met and therefore, in the area- we collectively had the most area- so we were the neighborhood kings.  Not really kings, but we certainly thought we were... 

Anyway- fast forward 25 years and...  Darren and his family are now residents of the ultra ritzy and swanky village in the San Bernardino Mtns known as Lake Arrowhead.  (picture of a portion of their house is attached below).  Darren tells me that the National Forest trails are now open for dirt bike riding and that we should go early saturday morning as the trails are fresh and the creeks are running deep.

Who can resist this, right?

So, 5am saturday morning- and I am sitting in his driveway awaiting the homes interior lights to come on.  And of course, by 5:15- we have action...  So, the morning hello's & hugs take place, a little breakfast, vitamins and a cup of coffee in the great room overlooking the lake that is now starting to shimmer of the golden sunrise and boy- we have ourselves the making of one incredible day...

Fast forward a bit to 8am- and the thumping of the four stroke motors begin to warm up and the riding and protective gear was being drawn like suits of armour.  (for those of you that are off-road riders, you know this morning and it gets no better- right?)  We take off from the 14' roll up garage doors of Darrens mcMansion and meander through the small quaint neighborhood on the steel horses that will carry us throughout the forest trails this day.  

Darren is on his race bike, a Yamaha YZ 450F, and me, I am on his ultra customized desert race bike- a Honda XR650R, a completely tricked out, polished and anodized beauty with more power than will ever be asked for, or needed this day.  (Side bar note here:  this bike is the same model that consistently wins the grueling Baja 1000 year after year by the Honda factory teams.  And the truth be told, I am interested in buying a similar bike for my off road photo shoots, the Honda XR400R, and Darren has offered to let me try his bike for the day before I make the somewhat expensive leap of no return).

Anyway, off we go on these incredible machines in to the forest trails.  Our day carries us nearly 80 miles through the winding trails of the SBNF and our encounters with other riders are rare, but there were a couple.  As we pass by, the casual nod of acknowledgment from the tilt of the helmet and within seconds, we are yet again- in the peacefulness of the serene forest.  

Below is a local lookout point that many riders gather and have a quick snack, drink a bottle of water and briefly rest the weary legs...

Now- trying to explain the sheer excitement and jubilation of this morning is a difficult one- but lets just say- it was like a non-stop roller coaster ride of dirt trails that went up, down, twisted left - twisted right, and on a few occasions, we were even called upon to grab more throttle and blast through the three foot deep creek beds that are full of running water from the seasonal melting snow.  This adventure had it all,  and many times Darren and I looked at each other as we were blazing through the trails, eyes squinting through the sun glazed goggles and only as two best friends of nearly 35 years could, acknowledged that we where doing what we did as children and this day could NOT be any better.  Under my helmet, as with Darren's, was an ear-to-ear smile that we all need, but usually only desire.  

This day, this glorious day of tranquility, friendship, fun and peacefulness in the national forests near our homes- offered us both her majesty and her beauty, and then delivered us home safely filled with great energy- and quite frankly- this wonderful story to share....  

I do hope that this journal entry finds you all well and that you're exploring your own adventures and have the means to share them with everyone you come in contact with....  And of course, I hope I have put a little smile on your face, or a warmness in your belly by sharing my good times with you...

Work wise, the next up for us are a couple of commercial projects that are in pre-production right now and hopefully, many more days of riding my new Honda XR400R with friends in the deserts and mountains of my beautiful home state of California....

Cheers and good health to you all...

Shawn  

Live and getting my rant on...

Hello everyone- with this being my first "rant" about the goings on of FREDDY and his Photography World, I will try to keep it short and sweet.... but you already know I won't so deal with it...  :*)

First off- Happy New year to you all, and I hope that everyone made it through the new year parties w/o much drama or any severe jail time...

Starting off the new year of was fun for us here at FPC.  We received the new layouts to the Kane Freisen / Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R shoot we did in Las Vegas with AD/Dave Cho and ACD/Chris Macabitas, and the results looks amazing.  Both of those guys, amongst the account guys, Tom Blinn and Chris Dingman were a blast to work with, and all are very adept with their understanding of the creative process and how to get the results sought.

With the magical design touch of David Cho's- it most certainly did the pictures justice in my opinion.  Also-- many thanks need to go to Michael Gayer for the amazing post production work he did for us on this project.  (On that note; Mike and I are talking about [artnering together in a new venture together which we are thinking of calling it, "Industrial Retouching and Design").  So keep an eye out for our full website of the work we do together.  

Anyway, below is a copy of the Kawasaki ad's done by us all...  Be sure to let us know what you think?  If you're brave enough that is.....

We also heard from Kane Freisen (the pro athlete in the kawasaki ads- see more of him on his site at www.kaneone.com) and he was thoroughly happy with the results of shooting with us, and is now using a few of the pictures on the vinyl wrap of his 40' industrial motorcycle trailer that he travels the country in.  So, stop by his site, check out our pics of him, and follow him on his tour and watch what he does.  It is truly amazing to see him stunt riding his bike.  It is nothing like you have ever seen- trust me!!!  

Also, after shooting for the guys at Kawasaki- one of Kane's other sponsors- Vortex, saw some of the stunt action photos of mine, and now-  will be using some of them in their ads and brochures of him.  One of the layout drafts is below:

Upon returning from all of our holiday travels, parties and gatherings, we received a nice call from our friend- Hide Okano. -(pronounced hee-day )   He's the managing director at INNO, ( innoracks.com ) a rack and accessory company based in LA and HQ'ed in Japan- and he asked us to create a collection of images for their 2009 brochure needs.  So- we packed up the gear again and off we went...  We shot for 2 days at a handful of local secret spots here in Malibu and around the private Hidden Hills area.  On day two, we made our way up to the meandering and majestic rolling hill roads of the Santa Ynez Wine Country.  These locations were at the advice of good friend, and fellow shooter- Rob Dafoe.   None the less, the pictures are stunning and Hide was very happy with the results.  So, thanks to my boys Rob for the hook up on the private stash in his area, and of course to my wonderful better half, Anna Marie for being my wingman and producer on this shoot.  A couple of pictures from the Hidden Hills area attched are below. 

As a quick follow-up to shooting the first collection for INNO, they very much liked the results, and as such- they called us in again to do another series of shoots for them.  This time with their product attached to a collection of 2009 Toyota's- at locations not yet disclosed to us.  So, as we are waiting on the details to that-  when we know more- we will post it here for you to all read about- along with behind the scene pictures from the shoot....

A few other fun details to rant about- just prior to the holidays, we began working with Rick Erkeneff, senior partner at R&D Design in Dana Point, Ca. on a rather large project they have going, and are very much hoping to tell you all about it soon.  It is a very fun production  to be inviuted to work on, and their project is potentially being built amongst 5 motion picture movies.  So- stay tuned on that one as it will be fun to show you all once it goes public...

Also, on a more personal note- but still business.  We have been working with an amazing actress and model- Jill Wedmore from Laguna Beach, Ca.  We're working on her new portfolio, and have done three shoots with her as of this date.  She is an amazing young lady, very adept at working in front of the lens and has a very bright future in the world of acting and modeling.  Below is one of the many sets we did with Jill, and we all wish her an amazing 2009 and beyond.  So, look out for her in many magazines and catalogues throughout the year- or more from other shoots we do with her...

Also, my new 2009 coffee-table style portfolios are being printed and should be in circulation in the next week or so, so for many of you that want to review large scale pictures of my work for any of your upcoming projects, please let me know- as they're sure to look amazing, and will take our presentations to the next level...  

In the event you'd like to see the news books, or just connect with us for your production needs, you can either contact me directly at www.frederickphoto.com under my contact page, or with my agent, Lynn Lamoine at lamoine.com or 323.467.9730

Okay- that's it for now- i'll jump off and talk with you all later...

Thanks again for stopping by,

freddy