atlanta photographers guild

After a light july which I recently talked about, I had the good fortune of finding some time to go to an Atlanta Photographers Guild meeting. I had been trying to get to one for a few months but something always stood in the way. They meet at this little bar near downtown Atlanta and when I showed up I was surprised by how many people where there. I can see why. They had about 6 models to shoot and a great environment for it. What a blast and how fun it was to take some pictures.

Here is one that I took of one of the models. I tried to create an interesting environment for all my shots. Not just a color or background, but an element that made the image of the model have more impact. I think this is a good example of that effort and it is actually my favorite image. I think the snake is so cool and adds a nice touch. Her back to the snake was unplanned but interesting. I could probably contrive some symbolism but it was unintentional.

Like I said, it was great to shoot and I am looking forward to the next time.

light july

i haven't had as much time to shoot over the last month as i would have liked. i was busy with other things that took priority but for me this is how it goes. i know the opportunities will present themselves soon. i did have a couple shots that i took on one rainy afternoon and will share them here. hope you enjoy them.

dirk

This photograph is an image of my friend Dirk. My family and his were spending some time together at their lake house and I was able to get some great shots of him and his family. Last week, Dirk moved 1,000 miles away. Making a move like that was once so uncommon but today we have become a much more mobile society. Personally I grew up moving around quite frequently. I think this made me look for few but very close relationships and my friendship with Dirk is a great example. He will be missed but my experience has been that these distances are a difficult thing to overcome. I hope it is different with him.

His move made me think about our friendship and I concluded something interesting about him and me. We met about seven years ago when my wife and I moved across the street from his family. We became fast friends because we shared many of the same interests. We also share a pretty dominant Type A personality, but I think meeting in our 30s (when we were seemingly more mature) helped us tolerate each other. If we met in college or in high school, I am pretty sure he would have beat me up. In our 30s we didn't care as much about one being better than the other at something (I said we didn't care "as much"). Fortunately we met at the right time and formed a great bond.

I am certainly missing my good friend.

what they say about Vegas isn't true

I thought there was this pithy little phrase about "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." I was not so fortunate on my first experience in sin city.

I just got back from a trip out there with a couple buddies. We had a great time and I can assure you that all we did was hop from table to table in casino to casino. We gambled for about 25 of the 40 hours we were there. When I walked in the door my wife asked me if I had fun. Yes I did have fun (thinking, ok she is not going to ask me about how much I lost). But then she brought the hammer down. I ducked and weaved but eventually was caught and had no other choice than to pull out everything I had left from my pocket.

This picture was it. There was $2.50 left and $2 of that wasn't even legal tender. It was all worth it. After all, I was just paying for the entertainment and Vegas earned a tidy profit for all their effort.

Can't wait to go back but need to be prepared next time.

goodsell amplifiers #6

This is my last image that I plan to discuss from this shoot. Hopefully you found my experience interesting. During the shoot, one of the concepts that Richard continued to want in the images were believability. He was very particular about how the amp was placed in the studio. What we showed in the studio. And how the models interacted with the equipment.

He mentioned that he got a lot of comments about Tamra from his last advertising campaign. In particular many did not believe Tamra could play the guitar. It is probably not too hard to imagine that Tamra is not a guitar player. Her perfect nails are a dead give away, so I thought the criticism was somewhat foolish and I decided to play around with that concept. In this shot I had Tamra positioned like she was playing the guitar but instead of trying to give me a believable look I asked her to hold her hands like she was told to keep her hands off. She gave me this great face and I had the shot I was looking for. This was clearly for fun and hopefully Richard will show it to some of his critics. I do not think you will see it on the newstand anytime soon.

Thank you for reading all of these posts about this shoot and any comments you have are welcomed.

goodsell amplifiers #5

This shot of Richard and Tamra is one of my favorites. I really enjoy the moment that they are having. To me it appears so genuine and it was. Richard is a high energy person and he sat down on the couch and started playing and talking with Tamra. It was so easy for him to get her laughing and being relaxed. His interaction also made my job very easy as well. I was just an observer with a camera that had to catch the right moment.

We shot this first and considering the relaxed atmosphere it set a very good tone for the day. We shot for a while and took a break. During the break we downloaded the shots to our computer and looked at them. We identified this shot right away as one that had real good potential and Richard agreed. One shot down so easily gave me a huge confidence boost.

As for the process, we set this shot up, shot it, reviewed it on computer and determined if we needed to reshoot. This is the way I like to work, but unfortunately it was the last time we did a well thought out review. Time did not allow and I could have done a better job with respect to time and will do so next time.

So, what is this shot going to be used for? Richard is using this as a lifestyle shot. The shot has all the components he was looking for...the amp, the guitar, the guy who fits the demographic, and the hot girl hanging on every cord. I can't wait to see this in print. Thanks for looking.

goodsell amplifiers #4

As I mentioned before this is the biggest shoot that I have done and one thing I learned in the process is surrounding yourself with excellent people is a key to success. No bigger example of this is the assistance I had from Craig Tanner. He agreed to assist me and I would not have been achieve half of the shots without his help. I have to admit it was a bit strange being assisted by your instructor, but it didn't phase him so I tried not to let it get to me. Craig handled all of the set up details. We would talk about it, I would get his suggestions, then he would set it up. This allowed me to talk with Richard and the girls about what we were doing next and what I was looking for. Like I said, Craig was tremendous and it didn't stop at the end of the day. His encouragement continues and I am grateful.

A good hair and makeup person can make a huge difference as well. I hired Nancy Hancock (http://www.nancyhancock.com) to take care of the girls hair and makeup. She was a great addition to our team. This shot of Tamra helps demonstrate her talent. The girls looked beautiful when they walked in but Nancy transformed them into Goodsell Girls and they looked stunning. Good hair and makeup takes time and this is something I need to prepare for when working in these situations. We started the girls getting ready when we got to the studio and we ended up waiting for them to get done which hurt our ability to get all the shots we wanted. I should have had the girls get with Nancy earlier so they were ready to go when we got to the studio. Considering that minor issue, this was money well spent and I look forward to working with Nancy again.

With respect to this shot, Tamra did not like it all that much. She liked it somewhat better in this toned version, but the color version did nothing for her. Richard and I found it a personal favorite of ours. Too bad I forgot the amp in this one.

goodsell amplifiers #3

This shot was conceived because this type of amp is known as a bedroom amp due to its low voltage. I had a few ideas trying to tie the concept of playing in the bedroom with the amplifier. After talking through them with Richard, we decided that we would use the feathers from an earlier shot to create a bed of sorts for the girls to lay in. Getting the proper perspective proved challenging and I am happy with the results. We experimented with some adjustments in Photoshop to improve the perspective even further but they didn't look believable to me so we left the shot as is.

We got to this setup at the end of the day. In fact, we had only about 30 minutes to get it set up, shoot it, and clean up before the studio was going to be used that night. My desired process of shooting, reviewing and reshooting as necessary had been abandoned much earlier in the day, so I was hopeful we could wing it for this shot. This second shot gives you an idea of how we set up the lighting. The actual shots I took from this position were not the ones we used. Being down at their feet created too much distance from toe to amp (and as you can see the amp is the focal point!!!). With respect to lighting, we had a strobe up very high directly over the girls. There was also another strobe on the other side (in the shot we used the strobe was down by their feet). We also handheld a strobe to provide some light on the amps.

Having gotten the lighting and perspective right the rest of the shot was pretty easy. I just let the girls get comfortable laying down in a bed of feathers. I did direct them a bit to get their heads together and to get the right emotion from them. A couple suggestions and they knew exactly what I was looking for. This shot was not my favorite of the series but Richard liked it. He used it for a poster at a recent trade show and I understand it was a hit.

goodsell amplifiers #2

My client Richard chose this shot as the main cover shot for his website. It can be seen if you go to www.superseventeen.com. I was surprised that this showed up because it was a raw image right out of the camera. I delivered to him a large number of shots that he wanted on disk just to look through. Together we focused on about a dozen shots that he felt had potential. This was not one of those.

This shot is an example of seeing something you like and grabbing it. It is also an example of where a formalized photo shoot can also achieve desirable effects with some spontaneity. We had stopped shooting for a moment when Tamra walked over to speak with someone. She stopped right here and gave me this pose. I quickly grabbed one shot composed exactly like this. It appealed to me visually and without thinking about it I shot it and am glad I did. I like the somewhat hard light on her and the amp. To me it is almost a spotlight effect. The couple feathers on the ground are a nice touch as well.

I believe that intuition plays a big part in my process. I do not get too caught in following rules and just try to shoot what I like or what I think would look good. In this case, my intuition was right for what the client was trying to accomplish.

goodsell amplifiers #1

i recently had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot for Goodsell Amplifiers. Richard Goodsell is a good friend and I had been wanting to do some work for him for some time. he approached and indicated he had an idea for a shoot and offered me the chance to shoot it. i start with this shot because it was the main concept he came to me with. he told me we had access to Tree Sound Studios and wanted a shot of a guy playing guitar while two models had a pillow fight in the background. hmmm...sounded interesting and i was game.

we scouted the location and i knew it was going to be a challenging shot because of the size of the two areas we had to shoot. the windows into the recording room made it even more difficult from a lighting persepective. eliminating the glare was too much to overcome in one shot with the time we had available. we thought about different ways we could accomplish this shot but it didn't have the feel Richard was looking for. on the day of the shoot, we almost abandoned it until we decided that we would shoot two separate shots and composite the image. Richard was still skeptical of the idea as it seemed too much trouble.

i had the incredible honor of being assisted by Craig Tanner that day and he showed Richard how a composite could be done in photoshop on our iMac. Richard was sold and off we went. having decided on the two shots, the rest was pretty easy. George from Atlanta Discount Music looked great playing his guitar and fit the customer demographic very well. the girls gave me a lot of emotion and had a fun time with their pillow fight. the shot of the girls was taken before they had the pillows but i liked how Tamra seemed to be saying "hey, what about us?" as George was rippin' it.

this was certainly the most complex photo shoot i have done. the post processing on this shot was significant and pushed my photoshop skills beyond my current capabilities. it made me realize i need to work on getting better with photoshop as much as i need to get better with my photography.

i will share more shots form the shoot and share the experience in future posts. this shot was very well received and i can't wait to see how it gets used by Richard. Keep your eyes peeled. You can also see it on his website at www.superseventeen.com.

ahhh...it feels good to be back here. creating images like this and telling you about simply rocks. thanks for looking.

distortion on reality

cry, cry, cry

Again another image that has nothing to do what I am talking about in this post. This image was a good result considering the circumstances. It was shot at an ISO of 1600 which normally results in a lot of noise, but in this picture it doesn't bother me. The lighting was the primary difficulty in this shot so I did ask my sister and her boyfriend to not move since I was shooting at 1/45 sec. They did a nice job for me.

What can I possibly be talking about when I say cry, cry, cry? Hillary Clinton of course. She broke down today in response to a question today in NH about how she does it day after day on the campaign trail. She gave a nice reply about how personal her quest is for the presidency. She began to cry. My obvious question is was it genuine?

Again, I am going to stay neutral about what I think of Hillary and her politics. But wondering about her strategy is interesting to me. If it was planned and people think it wasn't genuine, then it will provide additional fodder for those who think she is calculating and contrived and will backfire. If it was genuine then I would guess that some will conclude that it shows her to be weak when faced with such an innocuous question. It could be made worse because she is a woman.

Either way, it is a risky thing to do. I would guess that she was crying because she really thought she was going to be President and is realizing she is becoming an also ran. This is a good thing because the Bush/Clinton oligarchy needs to come to an end.

it's starting early

The title of this entry has nothing to do with the picture. The 2008 Presidential campaigns are in full swing. Iowa got us started and we will have New Hampshire to evaluate on Tuesday. Iowa was interesting for a few reasons. First, Obama showed he is a force to be reckoned with and Hilary has an uphill battle for the democratic nomination. The republican race is a toss up. I think Huckabee is off to a great start but I doubt he will hold up nationally. So, who's it gonna be? Who will be our next president?

Having watched the caucus in Iowa and a good portion of the debates in New Hampshire I am going to say that Barack Obama will be our next president. I am not saying I am supporting Obama rather I am just predicting he is our next president. I think he is electable and I think he is a leader that makes people want to follow. The person I am glad is in the mix is Ron Paul. He hasn't got a chance (prove me wrong), but he is talking the most sense on the issues. Isn't that what is most important?

I am fascinated by election politics and the next 10 months will be exciting for me.

do something goofy

I didn't even have to ask. It just happened. She isn't my favorite niece for nothing.

waiting for santa

happy new year

I am taking a bit of a different approach to my normal posts. This is just an image and I am not going to take the time to explain it or to give you more details. This may be a resolution of sorts. I am just going to post pictures and if I want to explain them then I will. I think this will allow me to post more regularly because I guess after a few months of doing this I am running out of words. Go figure.

I will say something quickly about resolutions. This idea that was created cracks me up. Why change your life because of the change of a calendar. If you need to change your life, then you need to change it no matter the date.

I hope you enjoy my blog in 2008.