Stories

It was my idea to get up to try and shoot a sunrise shot of a decrepit barn an hour from home. The worst part of getting up at 3am is falling asleep and getting enough sleep to be able to function throughout the course of a long day. Well… somehow that happened so in a month or so we might be seeing a new John Takacs directed Milk for Health On The Niagara Frontier commercial around the Western New York area.

First shot of the day – 6am (ouch)

Heading out to get the last shot of the day with JR Kraus. Yeah, it was hot as blazes that day.

Just got back from a little trip to the Los Angeles area where we shoot footage for a new New Era Cap spot (and ate a lot of Thai and Indian food, tee hee hee.) We had 2 Red Epic cameras rolling and I finally got to try out the Fujinon 19-90mm zoom lens and catch up with a few friends in Venice. Good times!

We used Ralph Wilson Stadium this year to shoot some NFL talent for New Era Cap and banged out some footage being used in upcoming spots. Weather was mostly cooperative and it all went off without a hitch. Mr. Eric Frick even joined us again on camera. Three 5DMKIII and a Red Epic – good times!

(all photos: JR Kraus)

The Cumbo, Inc. team spent a week in Florida and a week in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona recently to capture many gigs of high quality Red Epic footage, and with a top secret, highly specialized camera rig for this piece.

Massive thanks to Tom Wills, JR Kraus, Joe Bunce, Stephen Barone, and Nikki Styliades. Dig it!

Had a little photo adventure recently on a spring-like-ish day in Buffalo shooting some quick spec still images with excellent model/actor Mu-Shaka Benson for a commercial client.

Seven pieces I shot for New Era Cap and one I shot for Northwest Savings Bank were recognized with 4 silver and 1 gold Addy last night. Whoot!

Flying into or out of the Northeast during winter is always a dicey proposition and we spun the wheel again recently with myself on one flight, our director Peter Cumbo on another, and 4 crew members on another flight – all on an early morning in Buffalo when it was below zero degrees. Below zero degrees is really not good for planes.

I got a text as I was waiting for my flight to board from Nikki saying their plane was “frozen.” They were delayed, and this was an omen for the rest us us flying out a little later than them. My plane was de-iced twice, once again completely after the pilot in the next frozen plane over radioed our pilot that “they missed a spot” (I guess that’s a good thing.)

We finally made it to the runway after being completely slathered with de-icer, throttle up, and, throttle back down. Ruh roh! Maintenance was asking for our plane to return. Great.

Apparently, Heisenberg was on our flight, unbeknownst to me, and he was not happy about having to deplane. So we waited, and had to board a different plane just in time for me to miss my connection in NYC, and have an adequate salmon dinner at the Radisson where I slept that night.

To make a long painful story a little shorter, WE had to book a new flight (thanks, Delta) so I could get into Scottsdale in time to prep for our 2 shoot days and was greeted with a nice Arizona sunset and a delicious tea based beverage, courtesy of JR Kraus.

We made it! And made much footage of MLB players at our most favorite baseball facility in the whole world, Salt River Fields.