Look to the Skies.

I’m working on some new stuff that’s got atmosphere. Like this.
Thanks a lot to Jennifer who was all about having her picture made.
I got some help from Nia, who works just as well on both sides of the camera, evinced here and here. We set up the lights for this and had Jennifer stand in the cool rain for about 25 minutes before we wrapped.
This image is new and different for me ’cause the retouching will be done by my twitter bud, Tanya Nichols. She was interested in honing her skills and asked me if I had any images I could let her work on. I told her I’d have new images from time to time and that she was welcome to help out with them when they came up.

I’ll post an update when she sends me something back.

An Experiment.

A long time ago, a stock photographer put to me and a friend a hypothetical question: “How would you make a picture that sold washing machines but wasn’t the standard image?” Immediately, I thought about using a machine out in a field and just standing people on it.

Fast forward a few years (and a couple of children for me) and I find that one of my neighbors is actually throwing away an old washer. Now at this point, I don’t have time to borrow a truck and schlep the thing out to a field. Moreover, I don’t have any models immediately available.

But I do have my daughter. And the house next door to ours is vacant.

This was one of a couple dozen I shot very quickly, without extra light, reflected or otherwise, but it reminds me of how I want to frame this as a serious shot later. Who knows? Maybe the little girl here will even be in the final shot.

The Look.

Right before I pushed the shutter, I told Jennifer that this would be the best image of the day.

I was right.
Sometimes with all these digital cameras around, I forget how cool film is.

Altered Points of View.

I should say that when I first contacted Jennifer via ModelMayhem, I didn’t think she’d pan out. Why? ‘Cause hardly anyone from there does, at least here in Richmond. If the photographer isn’t an experienced glamor artist, a lot of the RVA talent isn’t interested. So I was elated when she agreed first to meet me and then later to schedule a shoot.

I’d run some ideas past her and gotten her okay, but for one, she said she’d have to do a wardrobe adjustment. Unbeknownst to either of us, that adjustment would change the timbre of the shoot. We went from creating an ambience-rich one-off image to something that, if we’d brought more changes of clothes and spent more time, would have been at home in the pages of a fashion magazine.

Hangin’ With Carlos Part Two: Seein’ Red

This pair of images, like the first three, was from later in the night, once I’d found a place to put up lights that I thought would work. This young lady (whose name I didn’t get — it’s that laid back) stood for me and pulled off some amazing poses. I initially started to worry ’cause the light behind her was supposed to only be a hair light and when she moved, it was bare. Then I thought, “Go with it,” and I did.

Carlos (‘member him?) made some small adjustments and shot all the same people with the same lights. His stuff looks different, but it was amazing how quickly and dynamically he worked with the gear.

Keep watching. There’s more to come.

A Walk in the Park.

Models seem to be everywhere.
There I was, just minding my own business in Forest Hill Park and all of a sudden…

No Peeking.

Another shot from the recent shoot with my graduate friend. Those two MFAs look pretty sexy on her, no?

Sometimes A Lady…

I almost called this post “Location. Location. Location.” ’cause I lucked into this beautiful space in which to shoot.

The ladies of the Junior League of Richmond were kind enough to let me use the Mayo-Carter House. It was built in 1895 and is done in a style called French Renaissance Revival. This house was designed by New York architects Carrere & Hastings, the same architects who designed the Hotel Jefferson, just one block east.

The house is beautiful. It has super high ceilings and is furnished on the ground floor with stuff that feels like the scenery from a high fashion catalog. As I understand it, this is just a reflection on the important outreach work the Junior League does.

Anyway, we were there for about two and a half hours and snapped a few digital images and a few film ones, to include a roll of black and white and a roll of cross process. I think I had greater success with the film than with the digital. These two are film.

A Lady, Darkly.

The first time I met Tatiana, she was still an undergraduate in college. These days, she’s a bartender and a graduate who’s thinking about law school.
Fortunately for her, she’ll always have a second career.

The Sunny 16.

In a fit the other day after dropping my daughter (the Small) at daycare, I threw a roll of cross process film into my camera. I’d had this notion to shoot some of the pretty skies that abound these days in an attempt to practice shooting stuff without people. I got one frame (that I didn’t even scan) and put the camera down.

Then Sunday rolled around and she (the Small) woke up from her afternoon nap in an great mood. She mentioned “outside” in the funny patois that she has so I figured in typical dad fashion, “Why not?”

I grabbed my camera knowing that I probably wasn’t shooting any more sky pictures. The issue with using a Hasselblad with someone like the Small, someone who’s in constant motion, is that there’s no time to meter. There’s barely time to focus. I used the Sunny 16 Rule and did my best, constantly telling her to stop moving so much.

I’m really glad I did: