Saving Jake at RAD

Behind the scenes on the short "Saving Jake" in the River Arts District. I love this graffiti building! I feel so lucky to have been able to shoot a scene at this gem of a location.  When you're working with a great team, magic happens and these scenes were magic.

Pillow Fight en Masse

Pillow Fight Asheville's Anti-Valentine's Day 2013 from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

The 3rd annual anti-Valentine's Day Pillow Fight held in Asheville, North Carolina. Shot and Edited by Katie Damien on February 14, 2013 with music by Muse.

Holding the Hope (short documentary)

A while back I made a short documentary for Homeward Bound of Asheville.  They help put homeless people into permanent housing.  I've always loved their mission and think it makes a lot of sense.  Don't worry, it's not sad.  It's actually kind of uplifting.  You can watch the video here:

http://youtu.be/A5MMYWZW048

And this is Homeward Bound's website: www.hbofa.org

Katie

Second Parent Trailer

I'm looking for film festivals to submit this film to.  If you can think of any that would be a good fit, please leave a comment.

Max Patch

I went to shoot time lapse footage at Max Patch. It was amazing! When the weather gets warmer, I want to go back and camp there. All these pictures were shot with a fish eye lens I rented for the shoot.

Katie

Shooting in Brevard

Dave and I frequently find ourselves running all over Western North Carolina collecting footage for promotions. On this particular day we ended un in Brevard, NC and I took my still camera along. The town is really cute, except for the lifesized toy soldiers outside one store, they were creepy.

Katie

The Quiet Fluffy Stuff

The best snow of the winter has come at the very end. Even late in the morning when I finally woke up the snow still layered each and every branch. Even though I’m not a fan of cold weather, I couldn’t help but get excited to go out and tromp around in the quiet fluffy stuff.

Katie

Cherokee, North Carolina

This weekend I went to Cherokee, North Carolina. I stayed with my friends Brie and Andrew, who incidentally are both beautiful people. That should make photographing them easy, but it never is on account of they are both goofballs and don’t ever seem to want to simply sit still for a camera. I’ve shot Brie a couple of times and it seems I always end up with a little series, since one shot never seems to be enough to encompass it all.

I had been to Cherokee once before and I didn’t care for the town. It reminded me of the downtown areas in major ports in Alaska, and still does. Everything was tourist centered and not in a nice way. For example there were shops shaped like giant teepees, even thought the Cherokee people never lived in teepees. Most of the places sold products made in china, and some even had a man in giant headdress outside waving people in. With that said, there are some redeeming qualities to the place. It’s in a beautiful area and there’s a nice village where they have people working at crafts. We were even lucky enough to see a war reenactment in the village. I haven’t seen the show they do at night yet so I can’t comment on that, maybe next time.

Katie

Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain

The Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain is an annual event for Scots, the descendants of Scots, and those who just wish they were Scots. It’s a weekend of athletic events, concerts, and camping. Mom, dad, Sam and I went this year. I saw everything from men in kilts throwing telephone poles around, to men in kilts screaming and beating on drums. My favorite band was Albannach. Their music is classified under Celtic Battle Music and that pretty well sums it up. We had a great time and can't wait for next year.

Katie

Magazine (Rally to Rescue) Cover Shoot

A while back I did my first magazine cover shoot. The assignment was to shoot a man and all the cats that he'd rescued in a cattery he built here in North Carolina. The magazine is called Rally to Rescue. It's put out by Purina and it's all about animals that have been saved in one way or another and the people that rescue them. I shot for the cover and the featured article.

Cats are not the easiest animals to shoot, especially rescued cats. You can pet them and call them and wave toys at them and it's all for nothing. They will either look your way or they won't. My technique was to just keep shooting until I got something. I had hundreds of photos by the end of the shoot, but all the work paid off in the end. I had some great shots for them to use in the magazine. Attached are the pages from the article.

Katie

Next fourth, skip the sparklers

What is required to have a good time on the 4th of July in America? Sparklers? Fireworks? A picnic? For me it took only my sister, my camera, a tripod and a mini Maglite. Rebecca and I decided to lay on the mountain by our house and watch the spectacle of little fireworks set off in our neighborhood. Our neighbors didn't disappoint. They seemed to be in competition and I set up my camera just to play around and get a few shots. Once the display was over, I decided to focus on the tree of lighting bugs behind us. There was a nice gate so I illuminated it with the mini Maglite Rebecca had brought along. Then I remembered seeing some long exposure shots where a photographer had run around with a flashlight creating some cool effects with streaks of light, so I decided to give it a go.

Rebecca saw the results and wanted to play at it herself. Generally, Rebecca hates to have her picture taken, but being a student of philosophy I asked; if you're invisible in the shot, is your picture actually being taken? I guess she decided not, because she and I took turns playing with the light. Who knew playing in an empty field at night with a flashlight could be so much fun? Next fourth, skip the sparklers and give your kids a flashlight.

Katie