Went to a screening of Errol Morris's new documentary THE B-SIDE: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait photography, and it was wonderful. The film looks back at 70 year-old Elsa's long career and legacy. Being in the same trade a lot of what she talks about really resonated - the struggle to get into the perceived 'cool' group of photographers, a fascination with the facade some of her subjects like to project in front of the camera, and a looks at how decisions she made in her career affected her life. Anyways, enough ramble -- good movie -- check it out if you can.

Here are some BTS from a music video shoot I did recently for the band Ha Ha Tonka. While the video will be pretty After Effects heavy, there was still plenty of work to do in shooting this! Music videos will forever be long grueling shoots, and this was no exception, but it was all shot in studio -- it was nice for once to focus on craft like lighting and performance rather than running around trying to shoot a crazy amount of setups in a day.

Really looking forward to seeing the final product and congrats to the crew on a job well done. The band is supposed to be playing the song on Conan so the video will be sure to get lots of eyeballs!

Photos by Jon Hamblin

Moonlight, if you haven't yet seen it is a stunningly beautiful film that immerses you into the life of it's main character, Chiron like no other film I've seen before. Maybe it's just how tense and nervous most of the film makes you feel - you just never know what's going to happen, and you always feel like whatever comes next could cause you pain. The color palette of this movie will stick with me for a while. Go see it if you can!

Democracy in action is a beautiful thing.

New year, new tools. Added the Arri Skypanel S-60c to the lighting kit. This thing is bright (think Joker 800), tunable to any color so you can match those pesky florescent office overheads, and has a programmed library of all Rosco and Lee filters. I'm excited to see what this helps me make this year!

Launched a couple of short videos on The Atlantic Monthly website today in conjunction with Lincoln Motor Co. They are portrait pieces on people in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The videos live on a site (HERE) that also includes writings and reportage photography all about the neighborhood. I produced and directed these pieces, and am very proud of how it all turned out!

Go Vote.

What a weird time it's been for this country in the past year, right? Whatever your affiliation, go out and vote today if you haven't already - it seems especially important this time around.

The trailer for the film Midsummer in Newtown is up. I spent the summer of 2014 traveling to Connecticut to operate the B Camera on this film. It was such a surreal experience being a part of this project. I feel lucky to have met and spent a lot of time with the kids featured in this film - their ability to pick their lives up and move forward after such an insane thing happened to them is inspiring to say the very least. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this year and was the runner up for the fest's audience award. Thanks to DP Matt Peterson and the folks at The Documentary group for having me on this project, it's not one I'll ever forget.

A great example that shows you can always find a creative and fun way to tell the story in what would've otherwise been another boring commercial. So good!

I periodically work with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago on short artist docs. Here's a recent one on Chicago Artist Andrew Yang. His work is a very interesting mix between science and art. It involves found objects and things he constructs.

Another edit from the Tortoise shoot!

2 years married to this lovely lady!

Some buddies and I shot this band Tortoise recently for a record company. The band was about to go on an international tour and needed some promotional tour to send to cities before they came to play. This shoot was done on a shoestring budget and I really feel like we were able to get some nice stuff regardless!

Vacations are good for your brain if you can take them.

Tribeca 2016 official selection!

A film I spent much of last summer working on as a B Camera Operator is officially having its premiere at Tribeca 2016! Congrats to Matt Peterson, the director of photography and to Vulcan, the production company.

The film is called Midsummer in Newtown and here's what it's about:

The upcoming documentary Midsummer in Newtown is a testament to the transformative power of the arts. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, one grieving couple honors their daughter through music, while community children find their voice through a rock-pop version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This film will premiere at Tribeca in April.

Here's a couple of frames from a recent shoot that was meant to be used for a case study on millennials. These portraits, with a bit of movement will be surrounded with graphics that animate as you scroll through the site. It will be interesting to see how this project all comes together!

Throwing back to a Hilary Clinton spot I worked on a couple months ago in Iowa. Fun to be running around shooting in my home state again.

Had a great shoot with NBC sports over the weekend shooting some Olympic wrestling features in Iowa. I loved the chance to take the Arri Amira through it's paces on this hectic run-and-gun shooting schedule. This cameras amazing, with a lot of features that keep you rolling instead of playing with the menus when on documentary shoots. The highlight of this trip for me had to be meeting legendary Iowa wrestling coach and olympic gold medalist Dan Gable, who grew up in my hometown in Iowa!