PORTFOLIO

BE THE WEIRD

BE THE WEIRD - Portland, OR, USA I was truly honored to photograph Portland's weirdest, who assembled for an historic photoshoot capturing the true spirit of the city, amid the threat of violent protests in the Rose City. Weird Portland United is an organization that celebrates and supports weirdness in Portland, Oregon and beyond. They are now proud to offer the finished piece as a limited edition fine art print raising funds for a grant program that will support Portlanders looking to turn their own weird ideas into a reality. Pre-order today from the link below, and you may be able to have it signed by the stars on Nov 7th at the Weird Portland Gala! #BeTheWeird 📸🦙🎸 Weird Portland United's motto is: "Keeping seriously weird, and taking weird seriously." That's the kind of philosophy I can truly get behind. Here's the link to buy the print: https://www.weirdportlandunited.org/print/ Thanks to Weird Portland United, all of the participants, and the people working hard behind the scenes: Brian, Nick, Mark, Liza, Strawberry Pickle, and of course my better half and photo partner Tanya, for this wonderfully weird event! From left to right: Rocket Mean, Rojo the Llama (RIP), Samantha Hess, Lu Ann Trotebas, Mr. Statue, Una the Mermaid, The Unipiper, Toby Froud, Mayor Bud Clark, Daria Eliuk, Storm Large, Darcelle XV, Terry Currier, Poison Waters, John "Elvis" Schroder Stay weird out there!

BE THE WEIRD - Portland, OR, USA I was truly honored to photograph Portland's weirdest, who assembled for an historic photoshoot capturing the true spirit of the city, amid the threat of violent protests in the Rose City. Weird Portland United is an organization that celebrates and supports weirdness in Portland, Oregon and beyond. They are now proud to offer a different photo from this shoot as a limited edition fine art print raising funds for a grant program that will support Portlanders looking to turn their own weird ideas into a reality. Pre-order today from the link below, and you may be able to have it signed by the stars on Nov 7th at the Weird Portland Gala! #BeTheWeird 📸🦙🎸 Weird Portland United's motto is: "Keeping seriously weird, and taking weird seriously." That's the kind of philosophy I can truly get behind. Here's the link to buy the print: https://www.weirdportlandunited.org/print/ Thanks to Weird Portland United, all of the participants, and the people working hard behind the scenes: Brian, Nick, Mark, Liza, Strawberry Pickle, and of course my better half and photo partner Tanya, for this wonderfully weird event! From left to right: Poison Waters, The Unipiper, Una the Mermaid, Darcelle XV, Storm Large, Mr. Statue, Daria Eliuk, Toby Froud, Terry Currier, Lu Ann Trotebas, Rocket Mean, Samantha Hess, and Rojo the Llama (RIP). Stay weird out there!

UMLAUT https://www.instagram.com/umlautofficial/

UMLAUT - Portland, OR, USA

THE HERO PORTLAND DESERVES - Portland, Oregon, USA This is Brian, AKA "The Unipiper," AKA "The Defender of Weird." When he's not riding a unicylce while wearing a mask while playing flaming bagpipes, he's also the host of @PDXatTheMovies, and you can find out more about him, and how he keeps Portland weird, at the links below: http://www.unipiper.com/ https://www.facebook.com/theunipiper/ https://www.instagram.com/theunipiper/ https://twitter.com/TheUnipiper

THE HERO PORTLAND DESERVES - Portland, Oregon, USA This is Brian, AKA "The Unipiper," AKA "The Defender of Weird" AKA Portland's mascot and a very cool dude. When he's not riding a unicycle while wearing a mask while playing flaming bagpipes, he's also the host of @PDXatTheMovies, and you can find out more about him, and how he keeps Portland weird, at the links below. http://www.unipiper.com/ https://www.facebook.com/theunipiper/ https://www.instagram.com/theunipiper/ https://twitter.com/TheUnipiper

THE HERO PORTLAND DESERVES - Portland, Oregon, USA This is Brian, AKA "The Unipiper," AKA "The Defender of Weird" AKA Portland's mascot and a very cool dude. When he's not riding a unicycle while wearing a mask while playing flaming bagpipes, he's also the host of @PDXatTheMovies, and you can find out more about him, and how he keeps Portland weird, at the links below. Had a great time shooting with him, and the editing was... interesting. More photos of the Unipiper, as well as some behind-the-scenes (possibly NSFW?), coming soon. Follow me here and on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/robcorpuz/) to stay connected. http://www.unipiper.com/ https://www.facebook.com/theunipiper/ https://www.instagram.com/theunipiper/ https://twitter.com/TheUnipiper

FOLLOW THAT CAB - Just across the Ukrainian border of Poland These three Brits (from left to right: Leigh, Paul and Johno) broke the Guinness World Record for the longest and highest (altitude) taxi cab ride. And if that wasn't already awesome enough, they did it to raise money for charity. Having bought a London black cab, affectionately christened "Hard Hearted Hannah," they modified it to beef up the engine, add a shotgun seat and remove the barrier, not to mention installing a needlessly (and gloriously) deafening speaker system, and drove it through over one hundred countries on their way from London to Sydney. I crossed paths with them in Kiev, Ukraine, and couldn't resist the invitation to catch a ride with them from Kiev to Lviv, and then on from Lviv to Krakow, Poland. We were stopped by Ukrainian police at least five times along the way. If I remember correctly, I was the first official fare of their journey. Thankfully, the guys were kind enough to accept (in lieu of the meter price of £1035) a tank of petrol, a few beers, some pasta and bread, and a donation, through their website, to the British Red Cross. More than a year later, I met up with them in Moscow and caught a lift again: this time stopping in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the U.K. They also asked me to be their photographer and document the last couple of weeks of their drive, and I was happy to oblige. The last time I rode with them, I figured they might never make it back home without killing each other, but after driving all around the world since February, 2011, they finished their epic and ridiculous journey back in London on May 12th, 2012, after four different continents, more than fifty countries, well over a hundred passengers, four flat tires, 8000 liters of petrol, £20,000 raised for the British Red Cross, one Bollywood movie appearance, and a couple of bullet holes. You can find out more about their amazing journey and see lots more photos here.

HELPING HANDS ON HANNAH - Somewhere in France (I think...maybe) These three Brits (from left to right: Johno, Leigh, and Paul) broke the Guinness World Record for the longest and highest (altitude) taxi cab ride. And if that wasn't already awesome enough, they did it to raise money for charity. Having bought a London black cab, affectionately christened "Hard Hearted Hannah," they modified it to beef up the engine, add a shotgun seat and remove the barrier, not to mention installing a needlessly (and gloriously) deafening speaker system, and drove it through over one hundred countries on their way from London to Sydney. I crossed paths with them in Kiev, Ukraine, and couldn't resist the invitation to catch a ride with them from Kiev to Lviv, and then on from Lviv to Krakow, Poland. We were stopped by Ukrainian police at least five times along the way. If I remember correctly, I was the first official fare of their journey. Thankfully, the guys were kind enough to accept (in lieu of the meter price of £1035) a tank of petrol, a few beers, some pasta and bread, and a donation, through their website, to the British Red Cross. More than a year later, I met up with them in Moscow and caught a lift again: this time stopping in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the U.K. They also asked me to be their photographer and document the last couple of weeks of their drive, and I was happy to oblige. The last time I rode with them, I figured they might never make it back home without killing each other, but after driving all around the world since February, 2011, they finished their epic and ridiculous journey back in London on May 12th, 2012, after four different continents, more than fifty countries, well over a hundred passengers, four flat tires, 8000 liters of petrol, £20,000 raised for the British Red Cross, one Bollywood movie appearance, and a couple of bullet holes. You can find out more about their amazing journey and see lots more photos here.

FROG TAXI - Usovo, Russia The Cyrillic on the side of the car tranlates, literally, to "toad carrier." In Russia, "toad" is a slang term for what Americans would call a "gold digger." I'm going to divulge a big secret here: Frog isn't a real cab driver! He is, in fact, the first professional model I've worked with. Thanks also to Richard (the passenger), for helping out pro bono and being willing to make goofy, no-so-flattering faces in the name of photography. Frog, on the other hand, simply will not allow his likeness captured without a ton of make-up caked on, and he refuses to make any other expression other than his trademark "Green Steel" look.

BUMPER CARS - Moscow, Russia The sign in the background basically says that crashing the cars is not allowed.

GLASHA IN MOTION

MARINA DANCES - Moscow, Russia

TANYA

TANYA

JUMP (original) - Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA MOBI PCS "FREEDOM" In January, 2010, I did a commercial shoot for Mobi PCS, a cell/mobile phone coverage provider based in Honolulu. I've included the final versions of the ads, as well as the original images I submitted. The original concepts weren't mine, but the creative team at Mobi was very open to hearing my take on things, which was great. Although we had a short window for the shooting (six locations on different parts of Oahu in three consecutive days), and some bad weather (well, bad by Hawai'i standards anyway), overall I thought it went pretty well. However, there are ALWAYS things you wish you could've changed after the fact. The plan all along was to rotate the images 90 degrees, and the largest output was going to be 8 by 4 foot prints (2.4m x 1.2m) so I had to shoot these with enough space to crop to a 2:1 aspect ratio yet keep the crucial elements big enough to get enough resolution for the large final output. However, at the last minute, Mobi decided to go with a 45 degree rotation instead, and a re-shoot was not possible, which meant losing most of the original frame to cropping and LOTS of retouching to fill in gaps. We ended up swapping out the background of two shots: the new "Dock" background was taken from another frame from the same shoot in order to fit the final layout, and the "Swing" background was eventually replaced by a photo I had shot a couple of months earlier in the Philippines, as it was actually raining while the shot was taken and the moody sky present wasn't what they were looking for. In the end, they decided to go with a different shot altogether for "Swing" which they felt fit better with the new background. While I wasn't that big of a fan of the pose and the lighting on the version they chose, I can understand their reasoning, and of course, it's their show:) Still, I've decided to post what I did myself, with the original backgrounds, before the designers at Mobi did the final rotation, background switches, compositing, additional retouching to fill in blank spots, and added graphics and copy. My side of the post-processing involved color and contrast adjustment, retouching, and a dash of the contrast-masking/hi-pass effect. These shots are essentially what I submitted to Mobi (the replacement backgrounds aren't shown here), although I did add sharpening, a touch of vignetting, and slight crops (in a couple of cases) just before posting. It was truly a pleasure working with Evan and Noa, who were both the brains and brawn behind this project, as well as all of our lovely models. Special kudos in particular go to Evan, who also happens to be my brother, which I'm sure is totally unrelated to me getting this assignment... hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? ;)