This story was part of the big Cosmo shoot I did a few months ago. It finally ran in a couple international editions of Cosmo. Taiwan being one of them. If you haven’t seen the behind the scenes video of this shoot, check it out here: http://nonk.it/cosmonyc_BTS
I’m pretty stoked about this Behind The Scenes video that my boy Ja Tecson cut for me. We did a three day shoot a couple months ago for the international division of Cosmopolitan Magazine, and it was a good time. We shot at a few various locations in NYC. Kristen, who makes her debut in the video as you can see is one of the most fun clients I’ve worked with.
Here’s a few images from the shoot:
Just worked with Katie Noble (her interview here) again a couple weeks ago. My boy Ja Tecson shot this fun little behind the scenes of the shoot out in Venice. Below are the tears from the mag.
Here are a few of the final retouched images from a recent Chevy campaign I shot along with a few behind the scenes set shots.
First off I want to thank everyone that made it out to the Photo Trekking book release party. We had close to 400 people come through that evening, and I’m honored that that everyone came. We put together a little 2 minute video to recap the night and show everyone else that didn’t come, what they missed.
If you’re interested in the book, and didn’t get a chance to purchase one after we sold them out at the party, you can get more info on the book and links to purchase them here: http://www.phototrekkingthebook.com
You might have saw the photobooth to the side, and we managed to drop about 350 images from that for you all, and a few poloroids. Check them out here: http://bit.ly/FB_PT_PhotoBooth
We were also lucky to have Antwan from ithinkyourswell.com, nyc’s hip event photographer. You can check out his photos here:
http://bit.ly/ithinkyoureswell_nickonken_phototrekking
The video was produced by http://www.reckoningstudios.com/
Download the special On The Road mix tape collaboration with DJ Cosmo Baker: http://bit.ly/OnTheRoad_tapepost
Special thanks to all who contributed:
Space provided by Calumet Photo
The party was produced by Kat at http://www.iwantafternoontea.com/
Art curated by Heart Art
Space design by Christopher Confero
Special DJ’s Cosmo Baker and Johnsville
Charity collaboration with Pencils of Promise
Drink Sponsors:
Beer Lao
Bear Flag
Prometheus Springs
Chairman’s Rum
Food by Asia Dog
Photography by I Think You’re Swell
This month I’m excited to announce the launch of my new educational travel photography book, Photo Trekking. It’s a collection of my travel photographs from around the world and the stories around them. It’s amazing how long it takes to publish a book. Here’s a little background on how the book came about.
Long story short. A couple years ago, I had some travel photo promo books I had done with Blurb. My photography consultant, Amanda Sosa Stone, had used them as examples in her seminars. Randomly enough she was at Photo Plus giving a seminar and an editor from what now is a small publisher called Random House saw the work in book form and got in touch with me about writing a book. Something I was very excited about, it still took us 6 months to write a pitch for it to even get sold in to get published. Come August of 2008, we received great news that the book was greenlit. From there, the March 2009 deadline to write the manuscript and curate the imagery was looming. Amongst the growing business of my commercial photography world, we managed to get everything turned in on time. It’s amazing that from that point of turning in the manuscript and content, it takes one year from that point till the book hits the stands. It has to go through manuscript edits, my approvals of edits, book design/layout, printing in asia, marketing and PR channels, and many other stages that I’m probably unaware of, which brings us to where we’re at this month: The official release! (oh and forgot to mention the 5 years and 33 countries it took to shoot all the images in the book)
So THAT is why I’m proud and excited to announce the release and release party for Photo Trekking! I’m going to be throwing a release party here in New York City on March 19th. It’s an open invite, but you must RSVP to get in the door and you can do that here:
http://www.nickonken.com/phototrekkingparty/
Photo Trekking is a compilation of the work I’ve shot all around the world from my non-profit adventures, to my short stint of living in Paris. It’s mostly comprised of photos, but in addition to that, I’ve written stories around the images and have a few chapters with my shooting methods and lots of tips.
To see more on the book and/or pre-order it check out the book page: http://www.phototrekkingthebook.com
Lighting Essentials has written a nice little review of the book here.
Hoppipolla means puddle jumping, and after going to Iceland, I can see where Sigur Ros got the word from. Plenty of puddles there to jump in. With the help of my new Icelantic friend, we were able to pull this lifestyle shoot off in and near Reykjavik.
Lighting: As you can see, this is all naturally lit. When you're traveling over seas and bootstrapping a production, you don't always have the luxury of many assistants, lights and reflectors. Know your light. Especially when shooting on the fly.
Here is the full story:
http://www.nickonken.com/Stories/IcelandHoppipolla/
A video and a few Behind the Scenes shots by Jeff Holt(The Viking Warrior):
Iceland Hoppipolla BTS from conk. on Vimeo.
This job was a prime example of getting hired to do what you do. I was super stoked to work with Art Directors Luis Aguilera (check out his sites: http://www.dadadroids.com/ & http://defithenorm.com/ ) and Jamie Tao from Miami on a one day shoot in LA. Obviously you can see that this job was right up my alley. Again, with my LA crew we had a ton of fun on set.
Here are some behind the scenes shots and a vid as well as some outtakes from the shoot.
A little BTS vid by my lovely producer Jewely Bennett at Porkchop Productions:
State Farm BTS from conk. on Vimeo.
And here’s the photo that came from that:
Some Outtakes:
and some Behind the Scenes pics:
Back in April I shot a print ad campaign for Nike Brazil, but we shot it on the Nike headquarters in Portland Oregon. The ad finally was printed and released, so I can show you guys. It's a Nike Just Do It ad, with the the Brazilian Soccer star Lucas Leiva, who plays for Liverpool. Rodrigo from Saatchi Brazil was the Art Director, and makeup artist. (Mud and water)
The shoot was mad crazy. I had about an hour and a half to prelight with my assistant Matt Brush, and about 5 minutes with Lucas in between Omri shooting the tv commercial. All said and done, it was a lot of pressure, but I nailed and everyone was happy.
I thought I'd break down the lighting and show you what we did. Nick Onken use artificial lighting you say? Yes, he can.
Here's a diagram of the lighting:
A photo of the setup:
Some other Behind the Scenes photos:
We finally finished a cut of the full version of the behind the scenes from the Nike Corre 08 job last month. The video was shot and cut by my friends over at Celluiode Films here in Mexico City. The Music was specially cut by my other amigo DJ Kore in Brazil with Reset Studio.
There is a lot more footage of me shooting and the rest of the production. It’s a 3 minute vid, so check it out.
