In July, I attended the Artists Happy Hour at RCT which I wrote about. I was intrigued by the forms, the guitar, the tattoos, the color. The fellow whose arm this is, Andy, contacted me about maybe shooting some other photos showing his tattoos. They all have some meaning for him, and he designed several of them.
I liked the idea and thought it would be an interesting creative exercise. In August, Andy came by and we did a photo session. I had a few ideas in mind, and we tried those. I also found a tripod way too confining and pulled the camera free to let me move around.
This basic pose was one I had pictured in my head. I used two lights for all these photos. Many of the shots just screamed for some creative post-processing work, although all of the Lightroom and Photoshop work was fairly straight-forward with little to no special masking or touch-ups. Basically, I just applied global effects to add to, or hopefully enhance, the character of the photograph.
It is my favorite photo from the session. I’ve printed it on canvas – it looks great that way. I then pulled out some gels to see what we could do.
The combination of red and blue gels was awesome. The colors look good together and blend into a wonderful magenta. I think they add drama to the shot. When I later removed the gels, I had to adjust to the colorless images I was taking. It forced me to think through the shots carefully, since I no longer had the bold colors.
This was my favorite of the gel’d shots. After processing this image, smoothing it quite a lot, I decided it would make an interesting metal print. These are prints embedded into aluminum. They have a hard, very glossy finish with rich, deep colors. I don’t think they work for every photo – far from it – but this shot looks good on aluminum.
I was looking for ways to highlight the tattoos on Andy’s hands. I asked if he had a harmonica, which he did. He says he uses it more as a tuning tool, but he sounded pretty good playing it. I like that this prop gives him a reason to have his hands there, and I used the lighting to show that tattoos.
Andy knocked the harmonica against his hand to dry it, and that presented a new photo. Strong, warm light works here.
How do we get a natural pose and show these tattoos on his hands? This one works, I think.
I took a few shots at the end of the session that really focus on Andy and his face rather than the tattoos. This photo is my favorite of those. I like the lighting and his concentration.
A musician and poet and a photographer. I like to think it’s art that makes us human and unique among the animals on Earth. I like to think of photography as an instrument to make visual music. Whether anyone else agrees, I guess, doesn’t really matter. But that evening, two artists made some music. Of that, I’m sure.
