Here’s another short post with another photo from the group shoot I did. Couldn’t let the guys off the hook. Looking at their pose, there just had to be something big happening behind them.
I don’t know – do these guys look like they belong with the gals from my last post? You decide.
During the holidays, I did several shoots. I’m slowly catching up with them. I’ve been doing more work on my I Dance personal project I’ve blogged about before. I’ll discuss that project in more detail eventually – perhaps after I display some of them at RCT’s run of The Producers – but the link to today’s topic is postproduction.
I enjoy working a photo in Photoshop perhaps as much as I love shooting. Back in the day, I was happy to spend time in the darkroom creating prints and exercising the various techniques I knew to achieve the results I wanted. But it was slow – incredibly slow by today’s standards. And there was the chemicals and the costs. The color paper I used, Cibachrome, was great but very pricey.
For most of my photographs, post means some adjustments, culling out the best shots, maybe hitting Photoshop or a plug-in for a few. For some, though, I look at the image and try to let it speak to me – what does it say, what’s it want me to do.
So it was with the image above. I did a shoot with Rebecca and several of her friends. The gals all got together to do this shot. Jay Maisel says with a shot like this, it’s not my photograph, it’s our photograph. That’s very true, and as I’ve said before, I love shooting actors. This Charlie’s Angels pose is pretty common, but actors give it that something extra.
Looking at it, it said I needed to extract the women and it said red. Okay, I have to admit it – a lot of images say red to me. I pulled them off the background and added the yellow-red gradient background, then did a couple finishing touches with Perfect Effects and Color Efex Pro. When I was done, it looked like a square crop would complete it.
I have a lot more work to do with the other shots from this shoot, but sometimes I have to start with the one that speaks to me the loudest.
Kem is a fabulous actor and an amazing young woman. The last time I was fortunate enough to listen to her sing, I realized I had forgotten just how great her voice is.
A few months ago, I shot some boudoir-style shots of Kem for her. She wanted some photos for her then boyfriend, and now fiance. Kem’s face lights up the camera, even the viewfinder as I noticed while shooting Kem and Don’s engagement photos.
It was great to meet Don. The two of them play well together and look comfortable as a couple. Kem’s an actress, so she’s always willing to try things, to take some direction. Don was right there with her.
The weather for the day of the shoot was forecast to be cool (actually, a bit warm by Minnesota November standards) and cloudy. Cloudy was the forecast all week for that day, which means when it came, it was sunny. Not-a-cloud-in-the-sky sunny!
We deal with the light we’re given. Sunny meant the lighting approach would be a bit different. Lynne came along and helped by holding my big reflector. We shot a nice variety of photos. It was a fun session, and I’m honored they asked me to shoot their engagement pics!
It’s been a couple weeks since my last post. There have been plenty of happenings around here, and I’ve been able to do some shooting, too. Did a nice head-shot portrait session with Lisa. I’m still working on editing the shots, but I’m happy with the results so far. I think Lisa will be, also. She looks great and has a wonderful smile.
I shot a few photos using more of a glamour lighting setup. It’s interesting how much that changes the look.
On Tuesday, I shot Riverland Community College’s latest production, Be Aggressive. It’s a show about adolescence and loss and cheer-leading. Shooting during a performance, there are some fine points to the story that I’m sure I miss since my focus is more on the visual part of the show. Still, I enjoyed the show and its poignancy.
Looking through my shots, I noticed that the vast majority of the scenes involve exactly two people. There are a few with one or three, and the group cheer-leading scenes. But most of the play concerns interactions of two people – friends, sisters, father/daughter, a mother and an unrelated daughter.
It was interesting – not something I’ve noticed in any other show. I didn’t realize that as I was shooting, and I’m not sure I’d have noticed had I been just watching from the audience. The show did feel intimate, and I suppose this is one reason. We can easily consume art without digging into it, understanding it, studying it. But I think it’s fascinating to delve into the artist’s brain and try to understand and to participate more fully. Study the lighting in a photograph, the blocking of father, mother, and son at the staircase in Rebel Without a Cause, the dynamics and intricacies of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the nuances of Rembrandt.
I was back at RCT on Friday night to grab some promo shots for the upcoming reprise of White Christmas. There are many familiar faces from the production last year, but other new players. It’s a great cast with many great voices. I’m sure it will be a terrific show. The theatre had to turn folks away last year. I hear ticket sales are going briskly already. Christmas seems to be a time in Rochester when folks are looking to relax and be entertained. Live musical theatre is a great venue for that.
And now the holidays are nearly upon us. I hope everyone can enjoy some family time at Thanksgiving with great food, perhaps some wine, and plenty of love.
About this time last year, I had the idea to depict the four classic elements photographically. My first thought was to use actual images of fire, water, earth, and air, arrange them somehow creatively, maybe do some interesting post-processing.
After thinking about it briefly, I decided it would be interesting, but it would not be all that compelling. Other than placing them together in some arrangement, there would be nothing visually tying them to one another. And, it would not be much of a stretch for me. Working on a personal project should stretch my creativity and my skills.
Instead, I had this crazy idea to use human subjects and light to evoke the elements without explicity showing them. It would be abstract and force me to think and create.
In time, I started sketching forms on paper. Some came to me easier than others. I think Fire was the first one. Air stumped me for a while. Not surprising since air is itself, not visual. But I had some decent ideas, I thought.
Then, I stashed away my sketches and moved on with the many things that life has presented over the past year. In the back of my mind, I still had this project mulling around. Would I ever get off my duff and move it forward?
At some point, I decided having dancers as my models would be ideal. Dancers are used to creating images with their bodies and movement and would be more likely to hold the positions I wanted while I stumble around with my gear. Fortunately, Lynne and I know some dancers from our association with the theatre.
This summer, I finally started putting out feelers. Would you be interested in modeling for me for this crazy project I’m doing? Who do you know who could help? I had two dancers, Missy and Morgan, who were interested right away. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to make the date I eventually set. They would have been great – and I may ask them again if I decide to do something like this in the future.
I knew some of the dancers would be leaving for college, so I bit the bullet and set a date. It was going to actually happen! I pulled out my sketches and redrew them, this time planning out the lighting in more detail. On the day of the shoot, I had Tony Carlson, Ben Parrish, Julie Benirschke, Katie House, and Britta Logdahl. The were a terrific group to work with.
After the shoot, it was time to complete the images in Photoshop. I wanted to use the models and the lighting as I shot it and just expand on those elements. I refrained from doing too much in post. In the end, I wanted the focus to be my beautiful subjects and their forms.
I feel good with the outcome. It was a lot of fun from the early planning to the final edits. Photography is a wonderful art with so many opportunities to create.
I don’t remember exactly when I met John Cohn, but it’s been a while. I’m pretty sure it was while I was still in NY, and it was likely some time in the 1980s. The more I got to know John, the more I admired him. A while back, a photo of John’s late son, Sam, inspired my post about why we photograph.
John is an engineer – electrical or computer, probably doesn’t matter. He is unabashedly an engineer. He’s passionate about science and technology in way no one else I know is. He worries about how we will encourage young people to consider a career in engineering. So, he takes his passion and the fun he has into schools around his home in Vermont. But he doesn’t just talk, he entertains and does so in rather exciting, sometimes explosive, ways. Tesla coils, spud guns, glowing electrified pickles. A modified power chair – modified as in fast. Very fast.
Two years ago, John was part of the cast of Discovery Channel’s post-apocalyptic reality show, The Colony. He hoped to use that role as another positive message to young people about the value of engineering. (I know I’d want John in my colony if the need were to arise!)
John came to Rochester to do a couple presentations, meet with some folks, and help with the IBM 100th anniversary celebration here. I was excited to see him again, and I thoroughly enjoyed his inspirational talks. You walk out charged up as his excitement spills all over the audience.
Along with many other folks, I spent the evening at Whistle Binkies, a local bar and grill, with John. Lots of reminiscing and discussions about where-are-they-now, those many other colleagues we’ve all know over the years. As I prepared to leave for the bar, I grabbed my camera and trusty 50mm f/1.4 lens. John has a face with such character, I had to grab a few shots. But I had something in mind besides the low-light candids like the shot above. I wanted to – hoped to – capture some of that character if he wouldn’t mind.
After a bit, I pulled out my flash and sync cable, added a small Lumiquest diffuser, and waited for a moment when I could ask him to move in closer. My settings were adjusted to make the background go black, letting me put the light where I wanted it.
John happily obliged me and gave me a look that was all John. If it were just me and him, I’d have probably asked him to give me something more of a semi-traditional pose. But this shot captures John and who he is.
A couple more quick snaps, and we see the man running all day on three hours sleep. And I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend some time with him, to toast beers, and to grab a photo or two. As he explained in a talk today, you have to take your passion and put it out there. Give it to the world. And, frankly, the photos in my head aren’t ones I can share until they materialize in the camera.
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