brandonmeansphoto

[brandonmeansphoto]

PADDLE FOR PEACE PRINTS FUNDRAISER

Check out these images from the Paddle for Peace paddle outs in San Diego last week. I made it out to the Ocean Beach and Pacific Beach ones and others were held in La Jolla and Encinitas. These were powerful and beautiful mornings to see our surf community come together to have a dialogue and peacefully demonstrate solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Tp continue supporting this movement, the photos are now online and for sale of these paddle outs. 100% of all proceeds will be donated to NAACP Legal Defense Fund and I will personally match up to $300 of all donations raised through these prints. Check out the gallery and online store to purchase HERE If you aren't able to make a purchase, sharing this would still be a huge help! I will be providing donation receipts. Thank you so much for your support!

[brandonmeansphoto]

Credit: Unknown

What is commercial, editorial, or social has blended into one. Making it much harder to sell and manage the use of the content that we create. As businesses swarm social media, the problem of unlicensed content being used in advertising is becoming a huge deal. Here is an example of how it is so easy for content to be taken and repurposed on a page without permission...

The above image is easily my most reposted/stolen photo I've ever taken. I shot it a few years back for Jelly Skateboards. Throughout the last few years, multiple accounts have taken this image from my account or Jelly Skateboards account and reposted it to their page without permission or proper credit. Brands like a backpack company, to a large online retailer were some of the people that used the image without permission. But the last account was what sent me over the edge to write this post to hopefully inform people of the problems creative agencies and people are facing today. Just to be clear, the brands that reposted without permission ended up taking down the photo or providing proper credit and compensation after I contacted them. This doesn't completely fix the situation although I appreciated the quick fix that the accounts made on their page. But the last usage violation with this image was last night when my friend saw the photo on Instagram’s explore page I reviewed the page it was posted from ( @fvnkymag ) and the account was basically just reposts of others work. This is nothing new to the platform, but something that we need to be more aware of. I truly believe it is causing negative effects on the ecosystem of Instagram and needs to be dealt with by the platform and our industries as a whole.

I first asked @fvnkymag (with 100,000 followers) to be compensated or take the photo down they reposted without permission or credit. They started off on a rude tone and just got worse by telling me that they charge some people $200 a post for advertising on their page. This just made the situation worse and they did not understand the issue. Whether your audience is 100 people or 100,000,000 people, stealing content is a huge problem in the digital age, especially if you are profiting (indirectly or directly) off of the content. The responses from the page are also uploaded on this post.

Not everyone is producing as much art and creative work as others, so I understand it can seem like not a huge issue to many. But I believe everyone should appreciate the time it takes to produce anything and put it out into the world. If we don’t begin to find ways to resolve this issue, the quality of the content we experience will definitely degrade over time. We don’t expect our physical world to be produced for free so how can we expect our digital world to?

If you are a business, posting content anywhere on social media or your website without compensation or permission is wrong and a poor strategy to gain your audience.

[brandonmeansphoto]

The Ricoh Theta V is one of the many new 360 cameras to hit the consumer market in 2018. I had the opportunity to produce content for the Theta V throughout the end of the year and really get a feel for what is possible shooting 360 degree photos and video. Some of the specs for this camera include: 14 MP still images, 4K 29.97 FPS video, and 360 spatial audio with a 4 channel microphone. This was my first time shooting with a camera like this and there is definitely a bit of a learning curve. Although my experience is only with this camera so far, the content shot on any of these new 360 cameras is shot and edited in similar ways.

Here are 5 tips on shooting the best quality content with your 360 camera…

Use a tripod or selfie stick. Placing the camera on a stable stick or tripod will not only give you more options with angles, it will help you avoid having your hand in the bottom of every shot.

Use Interval Shooting Mode. This is a great way to get yourself or others out of the center of the shot so you aren’t always holding the camera. You can set your shot up, set the mode to interval shooting mode on your camera (or app controlling the camera), and position yourself in the scene of the shot where you would like to be. You will have more excess photos from this technique but it will give you more options. 

Learn your camera settings. This might sound obvious, but shooting in “Auto” is not always the best idea. Being able to properly expose your shot for the type of situation you are shooting in will offer you the most creative freedom and produce the best results.

Make sure your subjects aren’t too close to the camera. Keep subjects in your images a couple feet away from the camera, whether filming video or shooting photos. This will help with the distortion caused by the wide angle lens and also create a cleaner overall image.

Find the right lighting. The consumer 360 cameras still don’t have a high dynamic range. Find a frame that isn’t half in shadows and half in the sun. Even light is key for creating a good image on.

I hope these quick tips will help you get started or improve shooting your first 360 photos! If you have any questions feel free to reach out at: brandonmeansphoto@gmail.com

[brandonmeansphoto]

Surfing Madonna - Sony A6500

Surfing Madonna surf camp this morning was so fun! The waves were the perfect size and these kids shredded the waves. This was my first time helping out a camp and my fiancé has been doing this for years. Our new friend Hannah was so stoked to get out in the water for her second time surfing. I wanted to enjoy the time with the kids but couldn’t help and shoot a couple photos for them on the waves they caught. Can't wait to do this again and hopefully organize something like this of our own soon! <3

[brandonmeansphoto]

Comic Con 2018 - Shot on a Sony A7iii

My Comic Con 2018 was spent on assignment for FOX, FX, and Nat Geo networks. The highlights for me were shooting the Bobs Burgers cast and a Jenga game with Neil Degrasse Tyson. AND the Sony A7iii set up was amazing for the first time shooting a fast paced an event. Handled all the shots very nicely. The ISO range capabilities are amazing and the silent shutter is very convenient. Most of these were shot with the Sony 24-70 mm f 2.8 lens and a few on the 10-18 mm f4 sony lens.