Meet Gobo Plate Inventor Mike Bradley

Posted by Valerie Taylor on

It’s hard to put a label on Mike Bradley. His life has been a juxtaposition of practicality and art. Although photography has always been his passion, his early livelihood as a microelectronics and software engineer gave him the income to pursue his fascination with elegant technology. He collected cars and Beverly Hills Lamborghini was on his speed dial.

But the artist within eventually demanded attention so he turned his career left, picked up his camera and was on the road to becoming a top fashion photographer. It didn’t take long until his style, imagery and bold concepts stood out at LA Fashion Week. Never one to go with “ho-hum” he brought in his Lamborghinis, as the backdrop for supermodels donned in the latest fashion trends. Designers loved him because he actually asked them what they needed, and he gave it to them, spiced with that Bradley touch. Soon he was head photographer for LA Fashion Week.

Back at the studio, his engineering side kept rearing its head. His cameras of choice are Hasselblad & Phase One and the Pentax 645Z. To go with them he soon discovered the benefits of using top cine gear like Matthews light stands, Matthellini clamps, Baby pins, plates, and other grip accessories that make all the difference.

If a tool didn’t exist, he made it (and has several products to his credit) like the Gobo Plate™ mounting adapter. He needed an overhead beam in his studio and found there were no appropriate walls to rig it. He struggled with placing a 2x4 on stands and used a multitude of grip gear to attach it, but required crew for set up. He never felt it was safe. His solution was a metal plate that would bolt or screw to the 2x4 and directly connect to a C-Stand. “That was just the start,” he says, “After I used it, I started grabbing it for other setups, and modified it a little more as time went on until it became my single most go-to grip product in my studio.” When he ran it by the grips at MSE, they loved how well the solution integrates with the rest of their equipment line.

New Gobo Plate™ is a simple & versatile mounting adapter for gear compatibility.

From camera equipment to building materials, Gobo Plate™ solves a wide array of mounting needs. When interfaced with a 2.5” grip head, Gobo Plate™’s smartly spaced holes facilitate bolting on pins, ball heads, etc. Other holes are ready to screw or nail to lumber, apple boxes, overhead beams, set walls and more. Today it is manufactured it to top industry standards in Matthew’s Burbank factory. And its just the start of a new series of products designed with Gobo Plate™ functionality.


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