Portrait: The Cellar...

Shot a portrait on assignment today...it's for a new bar that is opening up in Long Beach called The Cellar. I shot the 3 principals at the location, which is this neat underground area beneath a historic building. Lots of brick. The interior was really rough. They just got the leather seating but not the boards that go behind it.

I decided to try shooting them on the seat first. Two lights with two umbrellas on either side. One set to 1/4 power as the main light and the other to 1/16 as the fill. Lighting was ok. I wish the board behind the seats was anything but white because it robbed the photo of some contrast.


Next set up I tried was a verticle shot low to get some of the work lamps in the photo to give it an under construction feel. One main light to the left on an umbrella. Not my fave of the three, but I just want to show what goes through my head on a shoot.


The final shot, we did in the brick stairwell going down to the club. I wanted to break up the composition so had one of the guys in the foreground and the other two in the back. I'm using two key lights here, both on umbrellas. I have an umbrella on the guy on the foreground and another one on the left of the two in the background (just behind the door frame so you can't see it). I like this one best. The composition feels dynamic and light is nice and directional.

Playing with myself...

Slow day today so I decided to play with my lights. I usually keep my lights pretty simple but after seeing a few videos of photographer Jill Greenberg at work on Strobist, I got inspired to experiment a little. So here is a portrait from start to finish.

The first set of lighting are two Nikon strobes that act as hard rim light.

The next light is a Norman 200b head with umbrella box that will provide the main light.

Another Nikon with a blue gel aimed at a thunder grey background.

The finished portrait with a little cleaning up.

The final image with some Photoshop to give it a Dave Hill sharpness to it. The whole image becomes a bit cooler (in temperature) and the highlights look metallic. Neat effect.

What it all looks like set up.

Lighting Exercise....my Spork!

So what do I do when I'm not photographing families, weddings or important city officials? I like to take pictures of my eating utensils :) I bought a titanium spork from REI a few weeks ago for my upcoming bike tour. When I first saw it I thought it was a bit absurd. However, after a few rounds in the store it began to dawn on me how perfect it was as an object. Half spoon. Half fork. All titanium. It is the culmination of man's ingenuity and learning.

Anyway, I decided to photograph it heroically, as is only befitting such a singularly perfect object.

It took about ten minutes to set up. Grey matt board as the background with a Nikon strobe with a snoot and gel for a splash of color. The only other light is another Nikon strobe gaffer taped to a gridspot and held by my hand. I had the camera on a tripod and moved the main light around to get different looks....something with even lighting, smothing high key and something low key.

A little more dramatic...

I photographed another lawyer this week from the same firm. We did the regular backdrop shots and he was game to go outside and do some portraits there. I could tell he wanted something dramatic so I tried to find a patch of sky with some clouds in it with a building. I shot low, underexposed the background and hit him with a nice hard light. It was hazy so I had to work the clouds over in PS but it came out pretty well.

Photography is Improvisation...

Plan but don't over plan.

Have a vision of the final image, but be willing to let go of it.

This is usually the mantra going on in my head as a I pedal to a job. Most of my assignments require me to shoot in a limited amount of time with a limited amount of information. Most of the time I have no idea what my subject will look like, what the environment will look like, if the light is good or bad, if my subject is willing or ornery.

At first I found this extremely stressful. I would stay up the night before and storyboard, or dream up different approaches and contingency plans, all of which I either forgot or went out the window once I got to the location.

Needless to say, I've learned to deal with it. I simply accept things won't be perfect, that there will be constraints, but within those constraints is my arena.



This assignment today was a good example. I had talked to the PR person for the two DJs and had anticipated being able to shoot inside the club. When I arrived it was in full swing and there was no way I could set up in there. Luckily, the club had a foyer with a big green wall. Unfortunately, there was a whole bunch of stuff in front of it. So the first fifteen minutes was moving stuff away from the wall and then dragging a speaker from the other side of the room into the frame.

Also, there was a lot of outside ambient light coming in, which wasn't helping the picutre. So I had to dial down to my lowest ISO and my hightest flash synch speed so I could make my strobes the only light source. But to do that, I had to pump the strobes up to almost full and bring them in really tight, giving me a limited number of shots and slow recycle times.

It's organized chaos.

I feel most alive when I'm shooting, it's as if everything in my head turns on and I'm observing and judging variables all at once to create the picture. It's turning the survival instinct into art.

Portrait Kit....

I carry different permutations of gear for different assignments. This is my single person portrait kit. If I know I'm shooting just one person this is all I'll bring. Basically, the camera, a wide lens (17-55), a portrait lens (85mm), some light to give me more control (Nikon SB-800, SB-28 with pocket wizards), some light stands and an umbrella or softbox.


With this setup, I can shoot a nice available light portrait outside in the shade. A dramatic portrait where I over power the sun with a little help from the Nikon speedlights. Or I can also shoot inside and get a nice studio-ish portrait with the umbrella or softbox.

All this fits in my Xtracycle. Brilliant. I don't accelerate or climb hills as fast, but I can still move at a good clip (cruising around 18mph). Which means, I can get from my apt to City Hall in about 12 minutes, or to Belmont shore in about 15 minutes and seal beach in about 25 minutes.

This particular setup I took to shoot the Garden of Eva portrait (see the entries below) which is at the border of Long Beach and Paramount. It took me about 35-40 minutes via the Los Angeles River bike trail.

Tangerine Treehouse

I shot some photos for Tangerine Treehouse today. Laura, the maker, is inspired and influenced by nature and the environment. A lot of her pieces include actual bits of nature in them as well (leaves, flowers, seeds, etc.,)




The setup was fairly simple. Single softbox as main light source. Flexed matboard as the background and a small mirror beneath the jewelry as a kicker. This is my Macguyver-style product setup. Fast, simple and gets the job done with great results.





You can purchase Laura's jewelry here.