Thomas Gurnee Photography

Seth Green & the Adult Swim Photo Shoot

2009-09-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

The folks in New York City at P1 Marketing called me and asked if I could cover a shoot for their client, Seth Green and his Adult Swim entourage, in Los Angeles. The shoot covered a rollerskating rink tour the A.S. group was doing and we got some fun shots of Seth, his t.v. buddies, the group and a lot of excited roller skaters.

Comic Con 2009 - The Stars

2009-09-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I really, really enjoy my photography work!

Comic Con 2009

2009-09-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Comic Con 2009 arrived again in late July and again, did not disappoint. My thanks to all those who dressed up; you make the event a wonderful, animated spectacle that is a joy for photographers!

Headshots for Actor, Monica Rojas

2009-06-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Wonderful, new headshots for actor, Monica Rojas! Hire her! She's great!

Curtis King Surprise 40th B-day

2009-05-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends, Curtis King, celebrated his 40th birthday last weekend. His wife, Elizabeth, made sure it was a memorable one by making it a complete surprise for the guest of honor. Elizabeth asked that I bring my camera along to grab a few pics of the event. I was happy to do so.

Lighthouse Entertainment Media Group, LLC is born!

2009-04-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

My Hollywood producer pal, Jeanetta Dumouchel and her two business partners recently started up their own production company; Lighthouse Entertainment Media Group, LLC. They asked me if I wouldn't mind building a modern style looking website that incorporated black and white. I told them I'd see what I could do... Two weeks later, www.LEMGLLC.com was born!

Global Universal Goes Live!

2009-04-05T16:35:00.001-07:00

Hooyah! Aside from the business cards I did for Peter Liapis and his crew, they also asked that I update their website, Global Universal.com. Have a look for yourself and send me your critique! Thanks for taking a look.

Global Universal

2009-03-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

My friend, Peter Liapis, a director and producer in Hollywood commissioned me to do a few new business cards for him and his business partners. The star was a bit of a challenge; getting it just right so that the middle glow wasn't too strong, wasn't too weak. We incorporated the blue background hue and the card popped. Peter said they printed out brilliantly.

The New PurseHook Scarlets and the 10' x 8'!

2009-03-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

My friends at PurseHook.net have a new innovation in fashion design for women's handbags called the "Scarlet". Yet another cool accessory for women to have fun with and brag about. So far, the wholesalers at the shows, I'm told, are going nuts over them...

Rich, Nichole and Natacha also needed a new convention show backdrop to help display the versatility of their FUMI product. Next thing we all know, Nichole has grown to being over 8 feet tall!

San Diego Marriott HDR x 2

2009-03-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

As mentioned below, the first few months of the year here in San Diego can be quite pleasant for local photogrpahers. The clouds are out and they make for super opportunities. I took these/this shot at 6:30pm downtown (f7.1, 400ISO, 24mm w/ mid shot at 13sec exposure, other two shots one stop higher and lower respectively) and Photomatix did the rest.

HDR San Diego Downtown Marriott

2009-02-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

February and March are special months in San Diego. It actually rains sometimes and the clouds make for super photographs. I snapped this shot of the downtown Marriott from over on Coronado. After tone mapping in Photomatix, I applied Kubota's Daily Multi Vitamin and J Parker's Improved China Doll Photoshop actions to lighten up a formerly grey photo. I went in using the burn tool to highlight a few of the really grey parts of the clouds and this was the nice result.

Photomatix HDR

2009-01-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

Last month I attended a workshop that introduced HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography to our group. The instructor's name was Ben Willmore and he's a photoshop GURU. Wow, I was really impressed by the depth of this gentleman's knowledge. He showed us some of his work (which is outstanding!) and told us about the software he uses; Photomatix.

You know, you just have to love Christmas sometimes... "Thanks DAD!" Enough said. ;-)

After a couple experiments, I think I'm getting a decent handle on things.

Royal Maui Jewelers Website Goes Live

2008-11-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

It seems a while back now, but last April I did a grand opening photoshoot for Royal Maui Jewelers here in San Diego. Their newest shop in Fashion Valley Mall (right next door the Apple Store!) opened to a gala celebration. Several Rolex watches were sold that evening while the bubbly and hors d'oeuvres were enjoyed by the attendees. It's been a while, but their San Diego location website has recently gone live and a great many of my images (including the page's opening shot) may now be seen within the "Special Events" tab. As well, all of the "Fashion Valley" Showroom Gallery images were taken by me.

Comic Con Magazine Cover

2008-10-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

Sweet! My photographer buddy, Tony Amat, called today for me to come over and pick up the hot from the presses, Comic-Con 2008 Magazine Fall Issue. He said a couple of my photos made it inside from shooting the event as a staff photographer last July. "Sweet!" I said and rushed over. When I got there, he said he had an even better surprise for me. Not only did 4 of my photos make it inside the magazine, one additional made the cover! "Super sweet!"

Comic-Con Magazine is published quarterly and circulated globally. It is used to promote the event to many world-wide news and industry related organizations.

Destin Rayes Headshots

2008-09-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

I did some headshots for a new friend, Destin Rayes, a couple weeks ago. Destin is a young, cocky guy (he won't mind me saying that, lol) that plays a mean guitar and who is able to change his looks with a simple change of his hair style. I was stunned at how quickly his face seemed to change when we changed up his hair; essentially turning him from a rable rouser to an all-American hunk. The pictures must have helped, as he booked his first movie role this past Wednesday, a mere week and a half after the shoot.

California Sunsets...

2008-09-07T22:23:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you just have to sit back and say, "Wow". This photoshoot around, I was pretty stoked. Not only did I have a stunning model to photograph, Liliya Czarina, but the sunset in Malibu, was extraordinary. Tough work, but someone has to do it...

Waterman Magazine

2008-08-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

Waterman Magazine, a new SoCal Surfer magazine recently debuted. Tom Locke, the Founder and Lead Editor of the publlication and Alfonso Lopez, the Photo/Art Director found my website a couple months back and saw one of my models, Liza Schwarz there. They wrote asking about the shoot, asking about Liza, and after a few emails, voila. Publication and a new tearsheet.

Comic Con 2008 - The Celebs!

2008-08-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

This year at Comic Con, I was working as one of the event photographers. The only way to go, let me tell you. Just about full rights of passage to all the major and minor scheduled events. I worked my way into seeing great talks from the actors and producers of such hits as: Battlestar Galactica, 24, and a new ABC series coming soon called, Samurai Girl. I sat in on movie previews and talks given by the actors starring in them, ie: Keanu Reeves' new movie due out Christmas 2008, "The Day the Earth Stood Still". And I even got lucky being next to the stage when Hugh Jackman made a surprise appearance. He's a pretty big dude!

Comic Con 2008!

2008-08-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! Comic Con was here! Comic Con was here! Haha, after last year, I fell in love with this event. 140,000 people a day for four days. Geek heaven! Halloween in July! You just have to be awed by what shows up...

Arlington National Cemetary and Washington DC on America's Birthday

2008-08-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Over the 4th of July holiday, I was invited to come up to photograph the internment of my best friend's grandfather at Arlington National Cemetary. The gentleman was a retired colonel in the Army and was buried on July 7th. What an amazing event. Full military honors: 21 gun salute, military band, carriage drawn funeral procession w/ riderless horse... While naturally a solomn event, it was quite riviting to see how the military honors its own.

In the days in-between, while up in Washington, we took in the sites. All I could think was, "Wow. What a great place to be on July 4th; America's capitol, Washington DC". Jim and I woke up at 0430 to get the twilight photograph you see and it came out just spectacular. On the shot, you see the Washington Monument behind the WWII Memorial. Of course, there was a July 4th parade and thankfully, George Washington the XIIIth, decided to come and please the crowd. Twenty minutes of fireworks lit up the mall brilliantly at 2145 and the crowd was huge on a semi-rainy evening. I had my camera covered by my umbrella the whole time, lol.

PurseHooks for Neiman Marcus & Bloomingdales?

2008-06-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

TOM the BUSY BEAVER!

WOW! Busy is good! The past couple months have been very good ones and work has been quite busy. From photoshoots, to web designing, to graphic designing, my time has been spent in front of the computer or behind the camera lens as of late. It's all been a lot of fun, too! A lot of hard work, mind you, but a lot of fun! Here's some of what's been going on:

PurseHooks for Neiman Marcus & Bloomingdales?

The good folks over at PurseHook.net had a couple of BIG meetings with buyers from Neiman Marcus AND Bloomingdales before they attended a show in Dallas this past Friday. For their meeting, they asked me to shoot some new hooks for them as well as put together some marketing material for the meetings. Ten flyers, 3 posters and lots of product photography shots later, voila.

PurseHook's new "SIGNATURE LINE" examples:

PurseHook's new "DIVA LINE" and new Marketing Posters:

A new concept, "FUMI", by Je'Marie PurseHook:

Tom Ardavany

2008-06-22T14:22:00.001-07:00

An acting instructor down from Los Angeles named Tom Ardavany has set up shop in San Diego. Tom has two Golden Globe and three Emmy Award winning actors as alumni and teaches a really amazing methodology he created for on-camera artists called, "The Ardavany Approach". My acting skills have jumped since studying with Tom and in-between lessons, I offered to build him a website to help find more San Diego students. He agreed and I had something up for him in literally only a day's time. I must be getting better at Dreamweaver. ;-)

Check out the site here: http://www.theapproach.net/sandiego/index.htm

Royal Maui Jewelers Grand Opening

2008-06-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

Royal Maui Jewelers had a Grand Opening of their new store in Fashion Valley Mall last month and wanted some professional photographer mementos to celebrate the occasion. I was happy to oblige and took some great shots of their invited friends coming in to try on some pretty serious jewelry. Ie, the $228,000 Breitling watch... Yes, that was $228,000 for a watch. I wonder if they take checks... All in all, it was a super little party w/ all the trimmings!

USS Midway School Programs Photoshoots

2008-06-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

The USS Midway's School Programs Office is putting together a new marketing campaign to help all of the school districts out there see what a great opportunity the Midway offers school age kids, and the office was kind enough to ask me to assist w/ their project. Three days of imaging children and young adults being taught various aspects of how the men and women of the US Navy work onboard what was once the largest aircraft carrier in the world. The Programs Office teaches the kids in classroom settings, offers many hands-on activities and is overall, a really great experience! Check it out via the Midway's website: http://www.midway.org/

Trekking to the Top of the World

2008-03-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

An acquaintence of mine, Ben Saunders, two days ago, began his solo and unsupported, world record speed try of getting to the North Pole. I'm sure he would appreciate your words of encouragement by visiting his website: http://www.bensaunders.com. You can also keep track of his progress by reading his daily posts there.

For more about Ben (copied from the blog of Simon Jones): Ben is a 31 year old Englishman who in his own words “specializes in dragging heavy objects around cold places.” He doesn’t consider himself an explorer but an athlete. “I am an explorer of limits – geographically, physically and mentally. It’s about pure human endeavour, and the way in which I can inspire others to explore their own personal potential.” He says.

In a matter of hours (weather permitting) Ben will begin his latest solo adventure unsupported and on foot from Ward Hunt Island to the Geographic North Pole. His aim is to get to the top of the world in just 30 days, thereby smashing the current record of 36 days 22 hours which was set in 2005 by a guided team using dog sleds and numerous re-supplies. The route Ben has chosen has only ever been completed once solo and unsupported, by Pen Hadow in 2003, and Ben plans to halve Hadow’s expedition time. It’s an ambitious goal which, if achieved, “will totally reset all existing North Pole records.” According to Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

Pulling a 60Kg Sledge packed full of equipment as well as all the food he’ll need for the expedition, Ben is going to walk (and at points even swim) the 478 miles to the North Pole in temperatures ranging from -50 to -5°C with the wind chill as low as -70°C. He will be completely alone in the region with 5.4 million square miles to himself, that’s a land mass larger than the entire United States of America!

Thanks to an Iridium satellite phone and a satellite beacon you can keep up to date with Ben’s progress via his website. There you can also leave comments and encouragement which he’ll actually be checking in to read from time to time. He won’t be able to comment back, but he’ll no doubt appreciate knowing that there are people out there willing him on.