University of Alabama Graduation 2012: The Last Greek Stepshow

It's been a month since I graduated from The University of Alabama. Honestly, it feels like it's been much longer. The transition from being a full time student to free-lance working as a photographer/videographer hasn't been as rough as I imagined.

Currently, I'm working as the Director of Photography on two projects. The first is a low budget feature film named "Doobie Sampson." The film is definitely out of my area of interest as a writer or director, but taking the role as DP fits me pretty well. The biggest reason why I applied for the job is to prove to myself if I'm capable of shooting a feature length film (1:30 to 2 hours) at my current level.

The second project is a music video for R&B artist, Gifted. The singer has written for Ne-Yo and Jagged Edge as well working with Def Jam and Atlantic Records. He's looking to start a solo music career, and professor of mine contacted me about my interest in the project. The song is called Superstar. It's actually really good and if you're into music you've probably heard of the producer, Bei Major. Click on the link above or HERE to listen to it.

Now, one of the traditions I've kept up during my tenure at Alabama is photographing or recording graduations at Alabama. Since I was graduating as well, I decided to get friend and colleague, Kevyn Bryant of K.Bryant Images, to help me.

We decided to capture each Greek organization graduating and create a promo video featuring the idea of "The Last Greek Stepshow" since your graduation step is the final event you'll do as a Greek undergrad.

Along with making the promo video we put together a video for the organizations with graduating members. Here are a few. 

Omega Psi Phi

Yes, that's me for once.

Delta Sigma Theta

Alpha Phi Alpha

Phi Beta Sigma

If you'd like to see more of the videos you can find them on my youtube playlist UA Graduation 2012: The Last Greek Stepshow.

Finally, we are only three likes away from 1,000 followers on the Que The Lights Facebook Page! Take out the time to LIKE us if you've enjoy any of my work over the past few years at The University of Alabama!

FStoppers Behind The Scenes Contest: Broken Reality

Photography by Kevyn Bryant of K. Bryant Photography

It's been an unbelievably eventful day. A plethora of pure awesomeness has made me once again realize how much I love being a filmmaker. 

This is a behind the scenes video for the 2011 FStoppers video contest. I directed and shot the video while Doug D. did the edit. 

Photographer, Kevyn Bryant, decided to make a set of photos dedicated to the memory of the devastation that hit Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27, 2011. 

Kevyn and I both were in Tuscaloosa when the tornado hit. The tornado bypassed us, but hurt many other people. It also destroyed hundred of homes in the Tuscaloosa area. 

Our FStoppers challenge then became the best way to convey the devastation Tuscaloosa endured in a creative and powerful manner. 

We put our heads together to figure out what theme would best suite this assignment. We decided on Broken Reality. In Tuscaloosa, there is a new normal. People have gone back to their regular routines, but all around us we can still see the ramifications of the tornado. Many individuals live in an encampment of disillusion and disbelief. You never think the tornado will hit you, until it hits you. 

Once we figured out the theme and how we would go about making it, we needed three things. 

-A first location to use for HDR images

-A second location to shoot our model

-A model (duh)

I knew a house near the main intersection of Tuscaloosa. It was on a field where hundreds of houses use to sit before the tornado hit. By this time, the majority of the houses had been plowed down, but this specific house still stood. 

I used it on a short film I shot recently, and I suggested we use it again for the HDR images. After we finished up at the house we needed to find another location to shoot the model we would use. Kevyn contacted Rae Marshall, a photographer and artistic model we knew at school, and I talked my friend, Sarah, into letting use use her apartment to shoot Rae. 

We put this all together over the span of two weeks. We finished all of the main grunt work in Tuscaloosa, and shot our behind the scenes interview in Montgomery, Alabama (Kevyn and my girlfriend live down there and her birthday was coming up, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Yes, I'm terrible). 

Once we gathered all the footage I stored everything on my Laci Harddrive and took it to my editor, Doug D., along with an outline of what we wanted. 

Four days later, we had a finished product. Best of all, we were featured on FStoppers main page after submitting our video. 

To see the feature click HERE. 

Along with this awesome news I found out Que The Lights was The Black Weblog Award's Judges Choice for Best Video Blog and Best Photography in a Blog. 

This has been an amazing day. I hope yours was just as memorable. 

And Goodbye

This is it everyone. I'm done with one of the biggest goals I've held since the beginning of this blog. I've finished applying to all of the institutions I'd like to go for a graduate degree in Directing or Cinematography.

If you haven't been with me since the beginning take out the time to read one of my firsts posts, The Graduate School Quest. This was the first time I legitimately looked into pursuing film academia after my time at The University of Alabama. I wrote that on July 14, 2010. It's been over a year since that period in my life.

Honestly, it's amazing to be able to look back and have a record of my thoughts concerning a future I'm now consolidating. During the time I had my eyes set on USC, UCLA, and The American Film Conservatory. Now, the list has expanded to include NYU Tisch School of Arts and Columbia University. It's pretty ambitious and I'm nervous. I didn't apply to a safe school so it is all or nothing.

I should've done so, but for the past four years I've complied with being at a University I was not happy with. Now, as I progress forward I want to be somewhere of my own choosing. I've worked hard and I'm ready for the payoff.

Now that everything is done I'd also like to showcase my latest short film, And Goodbye. 

I directed, DP'd, and edited the short film specifically to showcase to my prospective graduate schools. I also sent my short film Portrait of the Storm as my second visual submission. I consider these two the best work I've done so far. Hopefully, they'll see merit in each of them.

I'd also like to say thank you to a few people who helped put this together. My homeboy Kevyn Bryant (of K.Bryant Photography) helped me find the talent in the film. My producer, Matthew Cocozza, put everything together smoothly. I believe this is the first time I knew I didn't have to worry about the logistics.

 My 1st and 2nd camera operators Greg Kubik and Tyler Plemons did a great job as well George Miller (who acted as our main sound operator and helped me shoot the time lapses earlier this year). The music was scored by Michael Maffei and Sundeep Kapur.

Overally, I'm happy with the final product. I'm already looking forward the next project, but I recently got in touch with Mike Gordon, one of the first people who let me touch a camera. It was amazing to hear him say the growth he's seen in my work has been exponential.

That's all I truly want. To keep getting better.

Be sure to follow Que The Lights on TWITTER and like us on FACEBOOK. 

QTL Images

Good news once again.

Portrait of the Storm has been featured on the website, Confessions of a City Girl.






Sherine Patrick (founder and author of Confessions) recently covered me as her Artist Spotlight this week for my short documentary, Portrait of the Storm.

Sherine has been on the blogging scene since July 2010 (not too far from my own start) and has amassed a large following dedicated reviews, fashion forward thoughts, and interesting epiphanies on the world around us. Check out the feature as well as getting to know the city girl behind all of the confessions.

Still, there is even bigger news for Que The Lights! One of the biggest reasons behind creating this site was to maintain an online portfolio capable of presenting my work to the public in a professional manner. Que The Lights has evolved from a simple portfolio site into a full-blown center for my creative work, writing, and ideas.

This wasn't a bad thing, but I still believed the best way to reach clients and individuals interested in my work is through a site that centers solely on the work.

I'd like to present the newest addition to Que The Lights, QTL Images.

The portfolio site highlights my best work in a clean format anyone can comb through with ease. I'd been thinking of this idea for long period of time, but I only went to action when I realized my trip to California for the CMF Grand Finale Film Festival was nearing.


I wanted to make sure my was presentable as possible since I'll be in California for the Film Festival as well as scoping opportunities for the next year. Be sure to check it out. You can find the link by clicking the Portfolio button at the top or click HERE. Finally, with the success of Portrait of the Storm I'd like to say thank you to some of the people that helped me out with it.

Sumerlin Brandon- the musician who composed the score for Portrait of the Storm.
Trey Moe- One of the testimonials as well as great comedian in his own right.
Kevyn Bryant-Que The Light's Partner and photographer in the Tuscaloosa area.
Dr.Rachel Raimist and Professor Adam Schwartz- My professors and friends who have made it possible from the beginning when I entered The Telecommunication and Film Department at The University of Alabama.

Hard work sometimes pays off.

Travis Cooper

Que The Lights is moving forward. I'm happy to say I finally finished up a two month project between me, Boomtown Management, and Couper Models.

The project was a photo shoot done by me with the help of colleague, Kevyn Bryant, and a collaborative effort between models Travis Cooper, Margaret Holloway, and Synetta Hawkins.

If you don't remember I first spoke about the project in the post, Behind The Scenes-Travis Cooper. Joe Field, another colleague, recorded the first section of the photoshoot (in the video section  of QTL second from the top or the video with a camera as the title image).

Now, I'm finally done with the entire set and I'd like to present what I feel are a few of the strongest photos in the mix.

For more of the Travis Cooper's set check out my FLICKR.

The LZ Scholarship Ball

The Lambda Zeta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta commissioned me to take photos for their Scholarship Ball this past week. The Scholarship Ball recognized men and women who exemplified the best in collegiate undertakings community wise and educationally.

Here are some of the best photos from the ball.

For the rest of the photos you can check out at the Flickr page. Click HERE

Behind The Scenes-Travis Cooper

Campus Movie Fest is quickly approaching. We've been in intense pre-production recently. As head of the Que The Lights Team I've been making sure everything comes together in a smooth fashion. This is honestly the first time I've been the head of a project this large so I'm sweating a few bullets, but I believe the end product will be on point.

For the upcoming week (Feb.1-Feb.7) I've notified clients that I'm not taking any jobs so I can focus on the short film. This weekend, I finished up a photoshoot I was comissioned for a few weeks back.

The main model was Travis Cooper, a student at The University of Alabama whose been building up a commendable reputation. The shoot also included Margaret Hollaway and Synetta Hawkins. All of this was headed under BoomTown Management, an on-campus marketing and agency group.

I also received tremendous help from Kevyn Bryant as well as one of my residents, Joe Field.

Overall, the photoshoot was a success. I haven't finished up editing, but Joe compiled a lot of candid film which we then edited into a short behind the scenes video.




Be on the lookout for the pictures soon,

The 21st

A few weeks ago I was commissioned by a client that wanted me take photos for her 21st birthday party. At first, I was reluctant considering the fact I felt as if I didn't have the equipment necessary to handle a darkly lit party.

At the moment I use a Canon t2i (550D) with an accompanying 18-55m f/4 (kit lens) and a 50mm f/1.4. I've been to my share of parties and they tend to have the same common elements save the DJ and whoever is on the flyer.

It will be dark. There will be (at a well pubbed party) a large amount of people. They'll be congregated around or near the dance floor. Wherever the dance floor is situated there will also be a tight ball of sweaty partygoers twirking (shaking their hindquarters very rapidly) at all times during the event. There will also be those stragglers, girls who are got so prettied up for the party they're unwilling to enjoy themselves and dance and guys who are either too scared to dance (but wanted to be on the scene) or the conventional semi-thug who doesn't dance, but is quick to beat another guy for semi-glancing slightly to the far-side left of his crew.

Anyway, the main point is even a 50mm wouldn't have been able to light up a scene that dark without a high amount of noise and camera shake.

I asked another photographer, Kevyn Bryant, what equipment I could pick up to alleviate the problem.  He  the 430EX II External Flash. I picked it up a night before the party and scoured through the manual about an hour before heading to the party.

Definitely not the best way to become acquainted with new equipment but that's me.

It took ALOT of misfires with the external flash before I started getting comfortable with using it during the party. Another hamper was the fact that (even with the 430EX capability to light up the LCD screen on the camera) the preview picture still had a high amount of grain and was difficult to examine because of the lighting.  I also ran into another hamper. The preview screen would pre-light up when using the 50mm but not the 18-55mm severely limiting my range for pictures.

I'm still not sure if that was a setting mistake I made, but it's something I've been trying to figure out.