Last weekend it was home to a regional youth bouldering competition and hundreds of the best little climbers this side of the Mississippi.. and their families. It was the last stop before Nationals and these kids were good!  The event went off with out a hitch, and my bro and I were there to document it in its entirety. Below are a few selects from the weekend and links to galleries of some shots from Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday Gallery

Sunday Gallery

So while i did spend some time on the mundane day to day tasks that it takes to run a small business I also found something that would make me happy, something that would keep me excited and inspired. And the best part is that it was sitting right in front of me. I launched my live music catalog and dove into the images from last years Coachella festival. For those of you that are unaware, or haven’t browsed backwards 3 or 4 posts, I have been shooting the Coachella Music and Arts festival for the last 5 years. I am one of a hand full of photographers that shoots directly for the Producers of the event which gives me complete unadulterated access to the show and allows for some great images. My main task while there is to produce a Virtual Tour full of 360 degree Interactive Panoramas to show off the event. It is used as a promotional tool both for attendees to look back at the previous years, and to help build excitement for the upcoming festival. It is a blast to shoot and also a challenge, I love doing it.

However, in addition to shooting the panoramas I shoot a TON of still shots (almost impossible not to with access like that). I shoot 4 to 5 thousand still images over the course of the 3 day festival. But because my first priority (or rather what i am paid to do) is the Virtual Tour, my time after the festival is completely consumed with running post production on the ~50 panoramas I select from for the final tour. By the time I am done with these I have had my fill of festival images and I have to move on to other projects, so my stills get tucked away and sit quietly and patiently on a hard drive (or three).

So…. short story long… this leads me to my night last night. Up till 3am editing the first days images from last years Coachella. And super stoked on it. Usually I would have thrown in the towel on the work day long before that, but I was having fun. I was excited and inspired. Not just cause I was finding some cool images that hadn’t seen the light of day, but because I was re-living one of the best weekends I have each year. If you haven’t experienced Coachella I highly recommend going. The level of production is phenomenal. The incredible main stage musical line up is just part of the weekend. There is installation artwork scattered around the polo fields that deserve a festival (or museum) of its own. There are the side stages that feature some relatively unknown artists that will be HUGE next year. The ability of the folks who put this thing on to continually book “the next big thing” year after year simply amazes me, they have an incredible accurate finger on the pulse of the music scene. On top of that you have the incredible location, beautiful weather, and thousands and thousands of great people having an amazing time, some of who are sure to be your best friends either before, during, or after the festival.

By digging up some old images that I had never seen I was able to relive this amazing experience. It excited me about my work, inspired me to do more fun shoots and to get to work booking as many music festivals as possible this summer. I guess the moral of the story is that once you get going, and you’re looking for where to go next that sometimes it helps to look back on great times and that the past can help propel you forward.

Below is one select from the bunch I went through last night. I have tons of band shots that I will share over the following days/weeks but this shot really sums up the feeling I get at Coachella.

Click here for a bunch of images from Coachella 2010

]]> http://jorgphoto.com/2012/01/04/where-do-i-go-from-here/feed/ 0 http://jorgphoto.com/2012/01/03/2012-one-gear-go/ http://jorgphoto.com/2012/01/03/2012-one-gear-go/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:25:10 +0000 admin http://jorgphoto.com/?p=1078 More >]]> Its been several months since I have posted anything here.. bad Andrew. So I figured what better way to kick off the new year than to dust the cobwebs off the ol’ blog and get things going again.

I spent the last week and a half back home in Arizona and had some time to reflect on the past year or so and think about whats to come. Recently I have been feeling a bit stagnant with my photography work. I can’t pinpoint exactly why but I was just feeling uninspired and unexcited about the whole thing. Well, long story short, that’s all changing, in large part to some inspiration from a few fellow photographers.. Joey Lawrence, no not the woooa guy, but one of the most talented young photographers I have ever come across, and local badass Tim King. These guys are both doing amazing work around the world and loving every minute of it. Joey has huge name commercial clients but continues to use these only as a means to fund his personal projects, something I need to do more of (both the huge commercial client thing and the personal projects).  Tim is killing it on the weddings and event photography scene here in SD and around the globe. While these are two areas of photography I generally turn and run from I think his work is absolutely top tier and I really respect his approach to the business and life in general. Definitely a few things to learn from this guy, check out his blog and his recent “post a day challenge” if you haven’t already.

Anyway.. enough blabbering. The first few days of the year are full of big talk and little action, so I am going to shut my mouth and get to work. And I will start by sharing a little video I threw together of my drive home from AZ. Not the most exciting drive in the world, but it represents the mindset I want to be in from now on. One gear, GO.

(best enjoyed in fullscreen HD with the speakers cranked)

Celebrating the release of their new album Quit Sleep, these guys put on a performance to remember.  Check out the pics below and a link to a full gallery from their Belly Up show. When your done with that head over to their website and pick up the new album, you wont regret it..

Click Here for full gallery

Click Here for the offical Vokab Kompany Website

Full Image Gallery:  Click Here

Suite Sioux FB page:  Click Here

I’m starting with some images of Sleigh Bells AMAZING set at Coachella 2011. These guys played a daytime set in the tents last year and while very impressive you could tell that they were a very new band. Over the past year they have really dialed in their sound and performance and gave one of the best shows all weekend.

Take a look and check back soon for more images from Coachella and more!

Click Here for full gallery

and check em out on FB for more info/tourdates/etc:  http://www.facebook.com/sleighbells

]]> http://jorgphoto.com/2011/04/22/sleigh-bells-at-coachella-2011/feed/ 0 http://jorgphoto.com/2011/01/20/coachella-2010-posts-by-band/ http://jorgphoto.com/2011/01/20/coachella-2010-posts-by-band/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:50:41 +0000 admin http://jorgphoto.com/?p=978 More >]]>

To celebrate the release of the 2011 Coachella lineup I have gathered up links to all my posts from last years Festival. Each post has a bunch of pictures, maybe some info, and quite possibly a bit of witty prose. Feel free to browse at your leisure and please do enjoy..

Click here for Full Gallery

We spent the entire day shooting, about 11 hours total.  Shooting tethered (direct to computer), I was able to build some on-site composite images to show the client the potential of creating ultra wide angle shots by stitching multiple images together.  The client was really happy with the test shots/composites I put together so we decided that the majority of the day would be spent shooting this way.  While I had done quite a bit of this type of work on personal projects, this was the first time shooting composite images for a commercial client. With my extensive background in stitching full 360 panoramas I was confident that I could put together some really amazing images in post production.  Shooting tethered allowed me to put together quick comps of the stitched images as we went, making sure the final images would have the angle and look we were going for.  Visualizing final images in my head comes relatively easy after shooting and stitching panoramas for years, but being able to share the ideas and get immediate approval from the client was incredibly valuable.

Shooting tethered also allowed me to immediately review images and make necessary lighting adjustments. Keeping the dark ambiance of a restaurant while illuminating necessary elements is not a simple task.  I did so using anywhere from 4-6 Nikon speed lights at each location, all remotely triggered using either pocket wizards or optical slaves, and shot through a wide variety of light modifiers. This allowed me to put little bits of light where needed, and keep the ambient light low.

All in all I was really happy with this shoot. I tried some new things, got to work with a great new client in a beautiful new property, and ended up with some really hot images. Big ups to my Art Director, Assistant, and big brother Brett Jorgensen for all the help and also to my good friend Brett “Pedro” Rubin, Director of Marketing for STK Las Vegas, for putting the whole thing together…

Click any image to load a larger version…

(click on the first two to see them larger)