For the short-attention spanned people out there, just watch the video below. Yes that’s right, you get to see me walk and talk (in High Definition at that). I bet you didn’t know today was going to be your lucky day.

NOW for the normal-attention spanned people out there, I’ll go in to a little more detail.
First of all it took much more time than I thought to find a good quality/sturdy desk that could roll. Simple to ask, hard to find. After some uninspiring hours of googling, I stumbled upon Anthro, a company out of Portland, Oregon. They have more options than a McDonald’s Big Mac. TONS of desks to choose from, and the one I got is the 60″ Anthrocart. Black, with 5″ caster wheels, and computer siderack.

Introducing the World’s FIRST rig shot from a desk.

It may look like a typical desk, but the quality of Anthro is top notch. You can just “feel” it. No flimsy parts here. Not to mention their customer service is 2nd to none. Ask for Doug Campbell if you give them a call.

My other quest was to find sturdy monitor holders that clamp to the back of the desk. I’m extremely impressed with the arms from Ergotron. Super snazzy, sturdy, and quickly adjustable on the fly to my heart’s content. The big 30″ monitor needed the MX model for the extra weight. For the smaller monitor I got the more compact LX model. Power Rangers eat your heart out.

See that big window in the background? That’s one of the main reasons I wanted the desk to be portable. During the day the sun can really beam down on the desk. No worries, just push it a few feet into the shade. I’d bore you with specifics on the computer. But to skim, it has 12GB DDR3 RAM, i7-920 2.66 GHz Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 grahics card, SSD internal hard drive, and TONS of bullet proof back-up external hard drive space thanks to drobo. pew pew pew! Steve Demmitt helped me put all the pieces together, can’t forget about that.

And there it is. I’d bore everyone if I went over EVERYTHING associated with my workspace, so leave a comment below if you have any questions… Chances are I’ll be typing my response from this very desk!

I’ll be the first to admit that I hop on google and dedicated creative sites to brainstorm. For example look at what I found after doing a quick search for “creative résumés” www.honkiat.com

Reading résumés can be boooooooooooring, and boooooooooooring résumés (unintentionally) can reflect your personality. I chose to be light-hearted with my approach. Specifically, talking about being the “Grand prize finger painting winner at Sunshine Preschool” in 1986, continuing my timeline to 2021, and inserting a slew of informative fun (somewhat true) graphs.

A few rules I go by when creating a résumé:

1. Keep it under 1 page (more than 1 page makes you seem egotistical)
2. Address each résumé to their respective peers (cover letters are so 1997, and wastes paper)
3. Throw in a few fun facts and/or graphics (a wall full of words isn’t very engaging)

For a final touch, I made two versions: computer friendly and print friendly.
On computer monitors (back lite), less energy is exerted with the color black. And for print, less ink is used on white. You get the idea. Not like I’ll be saving any forests here, but this small step can go a log way into showing attention to detail.

Left: computer version / Right: print version

Who is Cargo (the addressee)? A killer ad agency in Greenville, SC I’ve been working freelance for over 6 months now… See a connection here? I’ll save another blog post for that. But till then check out their website: http://thinkcargo.com

Growing up in my high school and college days, I was HUGE (massive) into cars. So much that I started a car club when I was 15. The legal age for a driver’s license in SC used to be 15 (insurance companies get confused about that). During that time I made a very good friend who is the North American distributor of D2 Racing, which is primarily a performance suspension parts manufacture.

My buddy wanted me to take a few pictures of his new inventory. Being the good friend I am, I gladly obliged… However I’ve never really tried my hand at product photography. I’m NOWHERE near as patient and talented as my friend Jeff Creech, but thankfully the pictures were requested to be a simple white background.

So, I took a quick trip to Micheal’s crafts store, picked up two pieces of big white cardboard (I asked the young cat-crazy cashier if she could put them in a bag… she didn’t think that was funny). Set them up in an “L” shape, flanked the 2 alienbee large softboxes, and was amazed at how easy it was to snap away beautiful solid shots. Now I’m not going to write a book about product photography, I’m just letting you know how simple it was to get the following shots:

As you may imagine, a little bit of photoshop was involved to nuke some of the trailing shadows out. Other than that, the images are practically untouched. Not bad for half a days work!

OK first and foremost, Nick Saglimbeni is the mastermind behind WMB 3D. I was lucky enough to be trusted with designing the layout for the magazine. After hearing his vision, I was on board faster than a cat on a ship full of tuna. My main job was to layout the magazine, however Nick is quite a talented designer as well, for he did the logo, and many of the ads you see in WMB 3D. Now I’m not one to boast about something to make an extra buck. I truly believe what has been done to accomplish WMB 3D is ground breaking. I’ll say it now, Nick has established himself as the best 3D photographer in the world. Correct me if I’m wrong. And if you don’t believe me, view the magazine for yourself (free sample gallery, $5 for full magazine):
iPhone/iPad iOS version
Android version

If you haven’t figured out already, WMB 3D is the world’s first magazine fully rendered in 3D, from the photography to the design. It was originally planned to be a tablet and smart phone (backlit) only magazine, but we also decided to print a limited run of beautiful 9×12″ collector’s magazines as well. We chose to do the red/cyan 3D approach because it is the most accessible across the world, and the least expensive. When technology progresses we will move towards glasses-less 3D.

3D lately has made a comeback and has seen it’s ups and downs since the recent explosion of Avatar (up), and the lackluster-last-minute botched downs of The Last Airbender (down). Seems like everyone was trying to hop on the 3D bandwagon, and in return there are a lot of bad apples to ruin it for the artists that follow through from beginning to end. I will not give away Nick’s secret on what camera he uses and how he processes the images, but I will say it’s certainly not as simple as mounting 2 cameras side-by-side and pressing a button. The attention to detail in WMB 3D is stunning. The ability to see immersive depth, and every minor detail without straining the eyes is mind blowing. Have I used enough flattering adjectives yet?

DESIGN
I’m all about the saying “less is more”. Taking any idea and condensing it into a design that fully describes what needs to be said, in a minimalist way. Too many shapes, colors, fonts and pictures can quickly turn a classy Dwell magazine into a Star magazine. Minimalist was the way to go with WMB 3D, mainly because the images were the #1 stars of the magazine. The bigger and less cluttered I could make the pictures, the better. Because of that, the articles are well written, but again, minimalist so the images aren’t covered by walls of text.

Font is by far the most important design aspect we had to decide, because on most pages they will simply contain an image and a few words. After going through hundreds upon hundreds of fonts, we agreed on the sleek rounded font Quicksand by Andrew Paglinawan. We chose this because 1. the curves match the WMB logo 2. the font family is quite large (7 variations) and 3. it is very user-friendly, modern and easy to read. To add a little spice when needed, we decided to use various fonts for section titles.

Designing with 3D images was new territory for me, but turned out to be more convenient than traditional 2D magazines. Funny thing is, you can literally place text anywhere on the image, and it WILL be able to read when viewing in 3D (unless the font is a very similar color to the background). This is because the font is being placed on the plane closest to your perspective, while the 3D image is “sunk” into the page, so you are actually reading the font as if it is floating above the image… therefore making it easier to read on busy backgrounds. Trust me once you put the glasses you will instantly see what I mean.

RESULTS
Thanks to Nick and the team’s hard work, Kim Kardashian blowing the lid off the premiere, and E! News leaking the details days before the release… the magazine has been a major success on it’s first week. But we could of told you that after documenting people’s reactions on the Las Vegas strip:

I’ll be happy to answer any questions, so feel free to comment. But overall, download this revolutionary magazine, I promise you will be amazed by the amount of detail Nick has gone through to deliver you the ultimate 3D magazine.
iPhone/iPad iOS version
Android version

I’ve noticed a trend among the tip-top commercial photographers… minus a handful (Joey L, Nick Saglimbeni, Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias), most have a polished straight-laced persona that is unwavering no matter how big a gig they get, or what awards/feature they’re offered. Will I get jaded after I land my 50th job with Reebok or Atlantic Records? Hopefully I can tell you one day, but the answer to that will most certainly be HELL NO! Back to the question in the title, maybe this will answer the quizzing inquisitors; I’m featured in this months PDN magazine!!! (can you sense the excitement?!?) No, this doesn’t mean I instantly got 20 jobs the next day from the mailers, but YES I got a lot of replies from them, and that builds a solid bridge to future jobs.

As far as I’m concerned PDN is one of the most respected photography magazines in the states, so you could imagine how big my eyes got when I got an email from one of their editors. My little ‘ol mailer penetrated New York’s 6″ steel plated photography editors’ walls. After a morning chat on the phone, Jacqueline wrote a very flattering article. I can’t wait to put my upcoming 2011 work in my next planned mailer (and yes I already have it planned out!).

“Without the help of Photoshop, many of my images would simply be impossible to create. I take the most optimal exposure of the subject and background then combine them in order to achieve a hyperrealistic look. I primarily use the Pen tool to finely clip out objects – then combine the multiple images together for a final piece. In the end, I add universal texture, lighting effects and match the colours to tie everything together.”

And here is the image I chose to feature. Ashley Knights Jr. ripping up the 2nd street tunnel in downtown LA.

After making the switch from Art Director to full-time freelance photographer, I knew it was a matter of time before I started a lifestyle photography website. I love all types of photography, and I get asked all the time to do (relatively) simple shoots for family members, kids, portraits, weddings, etc. Considering Derrick Rose, floating desert girls, and blingtastic rap artists don’t really belong on the same portfolio as playful kids, families and newlyweds, I started a new website just for that. After countless hours of thinking of a name, designing a logo, making a twitter/facebook page, tweaking a blog, I finally launched www.davisvisuals.com. Most of the work featured is naturally lite, with a few excpetions. A very stark contrast to the massively lite and photoshopped work featured on my commercial portfolio clintdavis.net. Any day I’m behind the camera is a good day, and this is just another way to have more good days! Here’s a screenshot of the new website. Click and browse around and see if you like my softer, sweeter, more gentle alter ego

Got lucky and found this snazzy Prat Preference messenger bag to loop around my shoulder. Just the right size for my portfolio.

Open the flap and out comes the goods, a black aluminum Pina Zangaro 11×14 presentation box from fastportfolio.

Plain black just isn’t my style, fire up the engraving machine engraver guy.

Behold, the prints, neatly stacked inside the presentation box. I opted to have loose prints for passing around. I find the 11×14″ size isn’t TOO big to flip through, yet not TOO small to discriminate the quality of a high-resolution image. I decided on white borders considering the number of fingers that touch the prints.

Everything spread out and exposed, it feels so invigorating. At the bottom of the stack is an 11×14″ collage of images for the interviewee to hang on to. A mini poster of my blood sweat and cheers. Teeny tiny iPhone at the bottom for scale.

Sometimes it may feel that no matter how hard you try, getting a client to look at your work can feel like whispering in a circle of vuvuzelas. Introducing my trojan horse; a brick-sized-self-promoting white box.

Fortunately my previous job as an Art Director for national magazines put me in the position to receive self-promotion mailers from aspiring photographers. Most of the promo pieces were 4×6″ postcards with a picture on one side, and printed addresses on the other side. Stale, non-personalized, and probably frayed at the edges, the postcards rarely made it from the mail room to my desk. But a box?!? A freakin’ box??? NOW you have my attention. Maybe it’s just me, but when I get a box in the mail with a hand-written address, a slow fuzzy feeling comes over me and my eyes open 43% more than usual. YOU good box are coming back to my desk for a thorough dissection.

Above all I wanted to make a self-promotion mailer that wouldn’t get tossed in the trash right away. Considering the caliber of ad agencies, magazine photography editors, athletic teams, and select others that will receive this mailer, that is a tall order to accomplish.

The first step. Well, I wish this was the actual first step; neatly stacked boxes of everything I need suddenly appearing at my office. Everything from the dimensions of the boxes, size of the stickers, color of the camera, size of the camera, color of the stamps, dimension of the print holder, size of the foam packaging, pictures to use… well, you get the idea. After an endless amount of virtual measuring and imagination, I pulled the trigger and ordered everything you see above.

Here is everything involved in 1 mailer before any folding, gluing, plucking, sticking and stamping.

I practically modeled my entire mailer around the slogan “GIVE ME A SHOT”. Sending out shot glasses to possible clients wasn’t really a wise option, so why not place stickers with the slogan on disposable cameras. In return I hope to see some cool pictures.

Sarah, my big sis, kindly lent a hand in the tedious process of assembling the boxes. Here she’s gluing in the foam to the edges so the camera doesn’t get banged up.

Additional little foam bits were glued in to hold the camera in nice and snug as a bug. Each mailer comes with a personalized note. When testing the boxes on my artsy neighbors, I noticed they had a hard time opening the plastic card box. So on each note I included a diagram on how to open it. Problem solved.

I couldn’t send out plain white boxes, instead I stamped each box with my logo, address, and “Emergency Photo Kit” on the inside flap. The personalized notes were then taped to the inside.

Oh my gosh, Moo cards… What would I do without you for this project? Practically the centerpiece of my mailer. Of course when sending out a photography self-promotion piece, pictures MUST be included. I’ve heard great things about Moo cards, and now I’m the preacher. The quality is top notch, and the option of printing up to 50 different looking cards in 1 order is perfect for my project. Here they are stacked and ready to be sorted into each mailer. Bogart did a good job of watching… and scratching… and licking… Good boy.

400 total cards were ordered. 40 different images, 8 included in each mailer, however not chosen at random. In this case I’m sending this mailer out to a cycling company, and therefore include mostly cycling pictures. Each mailer contains a unique set of cards in a hard plastic case. Each Moo card has my contact info on the back, and for good measure I included my personal business card.

Good to go! After a few dozen more, I just need to close em, lick a few stamps, write addresses, and ship em out!

“Without advertising, something terrible happens… nothing.” Once this famous statement became rooted into my brain I started my project. Creativity, personalization, and budget-friendly were key in building these mailers. Each mailer has a different message along with a different set of cards to view. A small idea turned into a 3-month long project. Now I feel confident with what I’ve sent out to my prospective clients, and hopefully, they give me a shot!