Hiatus

(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

Due to Blogger's discontinuation of FTP publishing support, the WAP blog will go on hiatus until I can reconfigure to a different (better) blog publisher that will work with my site.

Until then, keep up with me on Facebook or Twitter. Or drop me an e-mail to say hello.

2010 will bring many big changes. Stay tuned.

Wm. A

Saturday Drive

I went for a long drive today to clear my head. These are a few things I saw.


Apartments. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Redondo Pier. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Polynesian. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Poseidon. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Queen Mary. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

The Peps.

(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

This is Pepper. (aka "The Peps.") She was made by our good friends Tom and Kristy. Yes, that is her real hair. No, I did not Photoshop her eyes. She really is just that cute. (And better behaved than some celebrities I've worked with.)

Look out Anne Geddes.

Spectral Motion Shop Tour

Atlas of Clinical Dermotology (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

On the occasional Monday night, I play on a pub quiz/trivia team called "Titicaca." (Don't ask.) One of my teammates in cerebral calisthenics is a guy named Brent Baker. Each of us on the team have our trivial specialties. Mine are biology, aviation, photography and Precious Moments™ figurines. Brent's are TV, film, horror movies and special effects. Which makes sense because he's an amazing special effects artist with a long, distinguished filmography.


Brents. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

A while back I asked him if he'd be interested in a portrait at his shop. Why? Why NOT? He has one of the coolest jobs in Hollywood. I dream of portraits like this. Plus, I think it's important, every now and then, to turn the spotlight around and shine it on the people who don't see much light because they're quietly working in a non-desrcript industrial shop in Glendale. Thankfully, he agreed.

So earlier today, I got a tour of the Spectral Motion studio for a scout. It was pretty amazing. Being a scifi geek and lover of all things fantastic, I wandered around wide-eyed and slack-jawed. This is an amazingly talented group of people and I felt pretty lucky to be invited in.


Paint shop. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Same to you buddy. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

Spectral Motion has worked on many feature films including M. Night Shayamalan's Lady in the Water as well as Hellboy. And every so often I'd turn around only to be staring right at Hellboy's sawed-off horns or down the jaws of a snarling robotic tinder wolf. Hostile workplace at it's truest.


Hellboy sculpture by Ryan Peterson. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony


Animatronic wolf head. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

My visit was timed so any and all top secret projects they may (or may not) be working on were not in view. They're currently working on an upcoming Martin Lawrence movie. (See below.) I saw dismembered portions of Mr. Lawrence throughout the shop. His head here, lips there. A leg on a shelf, torso on a table. Really, really surreal.


Martin Lawrence mold. (Click image for large.) © William Anthony

In the next few weeks we'll set up a time and concept for his portrait. And given the location and subject, anything is possible.

Stay tuned.

Artistic Cross-Pollination

(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

Last November, I had the honor of meeting and photographing the award-winning Los Angeles architect Michael Lehrer. As stated in his feature in Architect magazine, he is a big proponent of cross-disciplinary artistic exploration. In other words, he actively encourages his architects to occasionally take a break from drafting buildings and instead allow some time to simply, and loosely, draw the human form. So a few years back, they began holding life drawing classes at the studio.

While striking our lighting at the shoot back in November, I humbly asked if I could participate in one of those classes. "Of course!" was the answer. "Bring your own art supplies and $10 for the pizza & wine fund," were the extent of the instructions.

Last night, I dropped in and drew for the first time in twelve years. The last time I got charcoal under my fingernails (not to mention all over my face) was several years before I first stained my tee shirts with photographic developer and fix. My last life drawing class was in 1998. Oh how I missed it.


(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

I hadn't imagined how much that college drawing class informed my later photography. And inversely, I was amazed to see how much my photography informed the drawing. Economy of line, line contour, value, shadow—it all came back. But best of all, there were no rules. No equipment failures. No hovering publicists. No weather cancellations. No CF card corruptions.

Paper. Charcoal. Model.


(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

I encourage other photographers to experience this themselves. You don't need to be able to draw well. It's not about that. It's about freedom and exploration. It's childlike. We all did this when we were children. The only difference was that art was crayon or markers and usually ended up on the refrigerator for sibling critique. But for some reason, as "adults" we rarely make time for this sort of freedom.

The world is complicated. Business is complicated. Relationships are complicated. Drawing is simple.

Thank you Michael, Travis and Mary. Thank you very much.


(Click image for large.) © William Anthony

Cindy Ortega for Eco-Structure Magazine

Click image to go to site.

My portrait of Cindy Ortega, Senior VP of Energy and Environmental Services for MGM Mirage, photographed at the new CityCenter in Las Vegas is now featured in the March 2010 issue of Eco-Structure magazine. We did the shoot in the beautiful pocket park area between the Aria casino & hotel and the Crystals shopping complex.

Ms. Ortega did the impossible. She oversaw the "greening" of the largest privately-financed construction project in history. No small task. She was gracious throughout the shoot and her enthusiasm for the project beemed through her smile. There's no doubt her pioneering management of this daunting task will forge a path for all new construction on this scale to do so with minimal impact on the environment. If CityCenter, under the skilled guidance like Ms. Ortega's, can do it for a 16,797,000 square foot, $11 billion (with a "B") complex, anyone can.

Quote of the day from the shoot while discussing cheap, overused, environmentally caustic plastics: "You know that new car smell everyone loves? It's really bad for you."


(Click image for supersize.) © William Anthony

Len Anderson IV in Plane & Pilot Magazine

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My photograph of pilot-turned-actor/screenwriter Len Anderson was used in a recent feature in Plane & Pilot magazine.