Wes Dorman Director of Photography

Beat huge wireless roaming charges when abroad - USATODAY.com

2011-10-22T01:48:00.001-07:00

Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPhone application.

Beat huge wireless roaming charges when abroad
http://usat.ly/qiqrEx

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPhone and download, visit: http://usatoday.com/iphone/

Sent from my iPhone

Season Premiere: True Crime with Aphrodite Jones

2011-03-29T09:49:00.001-07:00

Link to Discovery ID site: True Crime With Aphrodite Jones

I was the series Cinematographer for Season 2: True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. We just wrapped shooting or 10th show in Southern California, with the series taking us everywhere from the Bahamas to the West Coast. Watch the series Thursdays at 7pm west coast 10pm EST on Discovery ID. Hope you like it!

Festo - SmartBird

2011-03-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

Demo Reel: Recent National Geographic shoot about the Nasca Lines in Peru

2010-02-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

This is the promo for a one hour National Geographic doc that I recently shot in Peru. Directed by Phil Day, it will premiere February 21, 2010 at 10pm west coast on the Nat Geo channel. We shot in July and August 2009 spending three weeks in Peru. The show includes expert interviews, archeological digs, recreations and aerials. I think you will enjoy... A must see if you still believe the lines were created by aliens visiting earth millions of years ago! let me know... Wes

side note - This was quite an adventure in itself, but also included an armed hold up of our hotel one night, where some of our crew were waken at gun point, tied up as the gunmen went room by room looking for the "gringo with the camera".... which was next to my bed. They did not get to my room as our tied up driver Carlos managed to break free and wake everyone in the hotel and scaring the robbers to leave. No one seriously hurt, just shaken nerves...

Demo Reel: Nat Geo Promo: Nasca Lines

2010-02-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

Demo Reel: Franklin Art Glass: John Ratzenberger's Made in America

2010-02-03T10:56:00.002-08:00

One of hundreds of segments shot for
John Ratzenberger's Made in America

Demo Reel: Promo John Dancing on Made in America

2010-02-03T10:56:00.001-08:00

Travel Channel promo for John Ratzenberger's Made in America

Demo Reel: ChemArt: John Ratzenberger's Made in America

2010-02-03T10:55:00.001-08:00

You can fast forward past the intro to see the segment I shot.

Demo Reel: Greensburg Season 2 Promo

2010-02-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

I have been shooting Greensburg on Discovery's Planet Green Channel since the beginning of season 2. Here is a promo for last season.

Currently we are shooting season 3. It will premiere in May 2010.

The world's most generic news report - Charlie Brooker's Newswipe

2010-02-03T09:49:00.001-08:00

Thanks Kevin Brown for blowing the illusion of what we do....

Interesting: NASA and GM Take a Giant Leap Forward in Robotics

2010-02-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

I find interesting.

Interesting: 8-bit trip

2009-08-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

I find interesting.

John Ratzenberger's Made in America Season 3&4 Crew

2009-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

•Director:Ed Nachtrieb •Driver for Crew:Michael Weinberg •Photography:Wes Dorman •Host:John Ratzenberger •Makeup:Ami Murray •Production Coordinator:Cole Berry •Sound:Kevin Brown •Driver for John:Chase White

John Ratzenberger's Made in America Crew

2009-01-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of the last crew photos taken on the series which aired on Travel Channel..

2008-05-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

Joan and Wes on location shooting scenics for Shaklee Corporation. Gerry Berkowitz (sound) was also there with us, but he had to take the photo... thanks Gerry !

Interesting: Apple Mac Music Video

2008-05-10T12:37:00.001-07:00

Another creative project I enjoyed.. I did not work on this...

2008-05-08T11:13:00.001-07:00

I was driving to Napa to visit my Dad when I saw this B-17 on final approach to Napa airport. My dad is an EAA (experimental aircraft association) member. Turns out he was given a ride in this B-17 previously for helping out at the Napa airport.... Lucky guy my dad...

Heading to LA

2008-02-12T18:38:00.001-08:00

2008-02-10T10:31:00.001-08:00

Shooting in San Francisco for John Ratzenberger's Made in America on the Travel Channel..

My son Kevin Dorman and I are behind the cameras. Kevin shooting with the Sony HD while the main show is shot with the Panasonic Varicam.

Interesting: Vicious Cycles

2007-11-19T15:50:00.001-08:00

Stop Motion Film from 1960's. I saw this on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It got me excited about what you could do with a film camera. After seeing this I was shooting regular 8mm films of my friends in the neighborhood. My first camera was a Bell & Howell 8mm wind up that my dad used to shoot home movies of us kids growing up. I still have this camera today.

Wes and Paul in Singapore

2007-06-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

We hit the road in march 07 shooting a project for Cisco.. Shooting customer profiles and b-roll about an upcoming software system. Besides Singapore, and some shooting in the San Francisco Bay Area, we traveled to Canada for a few days.

Me and Ansel Adams

2007-05-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

Around August 1983, I had the great opportunity to spend a day with Ansel Adams and his Wife Virginia, at their home in Carmel California. We were shooting a profile of Mr Adams, for a Disney Channel show. One of the sequences we shot of course was in his darkroom developing a print. The darkroom was right off their kitchen. I was going to shoot this scene with a red gel light for effect, and Ansel would fake developing the print because of my light. But first he had to print a real test print and large final print for the shot. I always enjoyed the following moment... Once he pulled the first test print out of the fixer solution, he walked out of the darkroom into the kitchen where Virginia and the rest of the TV crew were hanging out, casually stuck the test into the microwave oven, set the timer and chatted with everyone while the test dried. He explained this was a quick way to dry the print, so he could carefully judge the print density and could determine if the print exposure was accurate. I just loved this moment where one of the most admired photographers ever, was using the kitchen microwave... I can only imagine how many times he must have walked into that kitchen and chatted with Virginia while creating his masterpieces.

You have to know that Ansel and Virginia were the kindest people to us while we were at their home that day. Warm, friendly, talking to everyone on the crew... We didn't go out to eat lunch, Virgina made lunch for us. We all felt very welcome.

We were getting ready to do our interview, I'm nervously lighting the spot where he will sit... remember now, I'm 29 years old in '83 with limited lighting equipment and well I'll admit, less lighting experience than I now have... Ansel turns to me and asks "do you want me to get my TV glasses?" referring to his dark rim glasses he was wearing as I was worrying about reflections in his glasses. Uhh.. sure. and he returns with duplicate frames... No Lens! perfect! Turns out PBS was shooting with him a few months earlier and he got these glasses for that shoot. If you happen to see our interview on some archive Disney show, make note of the perfect lighting I accomplished without reflections in his glasses...

Another question I remember asking him once we were all sitting around after the main shooting was finished was how did he plan out his photos? What process did he use? I mean I wanted to know right from the master how could I do what he does?? I've alway loved photography, I ended up in TV but my roots and original love of photography came from my dad and our darkroom in our house where I grew up... but here I was with the photography godfather and I wanted details, step by step plan! He talked a bit about this but basically said that he would spend time on location and look and wait. You don't know what will happen, but he would put himself into situations and locations that had potential and wait. Observe what is happening around you. Be ready and when the moment happens you'll know and that's when you take the photograph.

He told me about one of his very famous photos, a self portrait of himself. Well actually it is the famous photo of his shadow on the ground of himself with his viewfinder camera and tripod. He told me he did not plan that shot at all. He was there looking for some totally other reason, but happen to look down saw the shadow, swung the camera around and with one negative took that photograph.

I don't know for sure, but I believe my brief encounter with Ansel Adams, did change me. I walked away from that day with a totally different view on what I can do as a photographer. Bring all of your tools and try to plan, but don't forget to just look around and keep your eyes open. You will know the moment when it happens.

It was April 22, 1984, we learned Mr Adams was no longer with us... I was lucky to have spent that one day with him.

Interesting: Matrix Ping Pong

2007-05-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

Interesting: The reason she got mad at me

2007-05-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Interesting: Balancing Point

2007-05-31T03:25:00.001-07:00

I like this video because of the person who thought it up. Turns out the music track was removed due to copyright issues. So you now have to imagine the music track.

Interesting: OK Go - Here It Goes Again

2007-05-13T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ya got to love it...

Interesting: OK Go - Do What You Want

2007-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00