The Idea:

In this Nice Photo of the Week I have two remarkably talented actors to work with: Mark Daniel Cade who you may recognize from “The Unicyclist,” and Casey Strand.

I found this great clearing in the woods just a mile and a half from my house and Mark and Casey had rented these fun period costumes, so I thought to myself, let’s give Mark a secret to tell Casey, and then the fact that he told her the secret is also going to have to be a secret. Whatever he’s telling her is something no one would ever want to know. But once you know it, it’s too late. This is not an uncommon theme in my work. Giving your models or actors a secret can help to load the image with drama, even if you don’t tell them what the secret is.

You see, I didn’t tell them what the secret was. I just said, “It’s a bad, bad secret. And you’re going to wish you’d never heard it.”

The Tech:

“Secret In The Woods” was taken with a Canon 5D mII and the unbelievably creamy 85mm 1.2 at f3.5 1/50 sec. I LOVE this lens. The image was lit with a Canon 580exII splashed into a large soft box and a second 580exII hanging from a tree branch via a Nasty Clamp. I never head out for a shoot without it. Here is the lighting diagram to make it all a bit more clear:

Nice!

Let me start by saying, yes, I do understand the concept of time. And yes, again, I have a calendar. And yes, for the thrice time, I realize I haven’t put up a new photo of the week, now cleverly titled, “Photo of the Week – ok, Month” in over four months. Thanks for all the emails inquiring as such. So without further adue… here’s the latest Nice Photo of the Week – um, Month. I hope you like it. Who knows how long it’ll be up?

The Idea:

My wife and I have had our first baby. Turns out he’s a newborn which is nice. I wanted to take a portrait of the two of us that illustrated how I feel about being a new dad. Tandem parachuting came to mind. Two folks tied to each other making a leap of faith together. Staring out into the great unknown. An adventure. That all sounded about right. So we through on the appropriate costumes, or stumes as I like to call it and we were off!

The Tech

“Tandem” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f11 1/200 sec. 100 iso. I blasted a 580exII (with a ¼ CTO gel) into a shoot through umbrella camera right as close as I could get it without it showing in the frame. I wanted the reflection of it in the glass on my goggles so it would look like there was glass in the goggles – which there is. I was using another 580exII (about 1 ½ stops under) for the fill. When I first set up to take the image their was a great rim light coming from the sun, but those beautiful clouds have a dark side that sometimes likes to blot out the sun. So what’s a boy and his dad to do? I popped a bare 580exII on a stand up as high as it would go coming from the same direction as the sunlight. This way I didn’t have to worry whether or not the sun was behind the fickle cloud cover.

Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

Would you like to submit an image for consideration as the Nice Photo Mag Photo of the Week – um, Month? Find out more info on the page from the first Photo of the Week – Trunk.

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If this image looks familiar to you, it may be because it was a finalist in last year’s Strobist Photo of the Year. Pretty cool, right? Anyhoooo…

The Idea:

“Man With Beard and Sword” is the first image I took for my series “Stills From The Unrealized Films of a Stranger.” Each image from the series captures a moment in time when the featured character is about to do or experience something that will change their life forever, a moment from which they can never return to whom they once were. This particular image is about raw, base emotion, a hatred for ones enemy, hatred so complete that it swallows the swordsman and destroys who he was. I felt the image had to be taken in front of a brewing storm to symbolize the storm in the swordsman. In LA that meant waiting for months. I think it was worth it. What do you think?

The Tech

“Man With Beard and Sword” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f18 1/160 sec. 100 iso. The image is done in camera with no photoshop trickery. The tricky part of this image was getting the flash to hit the sword just right to get that sweet star burst of light on the end of the sword. How’d I do it. I bounced a 580ex into an umbrella camera left. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

I’ll post an official announcement soon, but for you sneaky Petes who read all the way to the end, consider this an invitation to the opening of my solo show for the series “Stills From The Unrealized Films of a Stranger.” Click for more information about the free opening party on Oct. 2, 2008.

Would you like to submit an image for consideration as the Nice Photo Mag Photo of the Week – um, Month? Find out more info on the page from the first Photo of the Week – Trunk.

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The Idea:

“Flood” takes advantage of the technique that I mentioned in last week’s article about Creative Cropping only I cropped on the spot by how I framed the image in the first place. I noticed one day on a stroll that if you looked at this really cool looking tree/vine and cropped out the sidewalk and grass between it and the lake I could easily pretend the area had suffered a cataclysmic flood. All I needed to do was stand there for 26 days and wait for the storm clouds. This is LA. It could have been 326 days. There was one hiccup however. I didn’t just want the viewer to feel like they were standing in the middle of a flood. I wanted them to experience a peaceful solitude, the way it might feel to have the throngs of assholes and miles of traffic washed away and to have survived the flood. I wanted to create that brief moment of release after the terror of the storm passed, but before the tragedy and loneliness sank in. I totally pulled it off, too. If you don’t think so, you have poo poo in your pants. It also uses some creative exposure adjustments in camera. Ah, but that info goes in the tech section. Hi, tech section.

The Tech:

Hi idea section. “Flood” was made with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f18 1/160 sec. 50 iso. Yikes! Why so extreme? Well, I needed to get that sky nice and dark so the definition in the clouds would come out and it would look like the remains of a hefty storm. Of course, with such a small window for the light to hit the digital sensor I had to pump the bare 580ex all the way to max. I zoomed the flash head to 105 and kept it close to the tree both to get that spot light look and because I needed the power to get the tree exposed properly. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

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The Idea:

“Preparing to Fly” is an attempt to capture a moment lost in time. The character is introspective. He is dressed for flight. He is confident, but nervous. The flight will be dangerous, but freeing. Behind him is a block wall and he must move forward into the unknown. He takes this moment to himself and the moment stretches out almost to infinity as he prepares to fly. At least that’s the idea. I underexposed the ambient and lit the model with a somewhat unnaturally large (for the situation) soft light to try and remove the model from reality and help the viewer feel more like they were sharing his inner moment. Did it work? You tell me.

The Tech:

“Preparing to Fly” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f16 1/160 sec. 50 iso. The sun was coming in high camera left. I blasted a 580ex through an umbrella close and camera right. Nice and simple. The wind wasn’t playing along, so I tossed the scarf into the air just before snapping the shot. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

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The Idea:

“Oil” is an attempt to illustrate the blood for oil war. The ingredients I felt were necessary: oil to represent, well, the oil and sand to represent the location where the war is taking place. The “war” and “blood” parts were the variables I needed to sit down and figure out. For war I decided to go with a plastic toy grenade. I had access to real artillery, fatigues, soldiers, etc. but felt going with a toy was more inline with my take on the situation that the government is acting like children playing with toys. I also felt the fact it was fake and plastic had deeper meaning than using the real thing. I could have used a toy gun, but felt the grenade implied a more indiscriminate and bloody violence. The trickiest part for me to figure out was how to illustrate the blood. I could have just used blood, or some facsimile, but I wanted it to have more resonance. I wanted it to go deeper. I’m not sure how it happened, but the idea that a flag reflected in water – or in shiny oil – could look like blood. This is the part of the photograph, conceptually; that I feel takes it to a higher level. It also complicated the execution. But that info belongs in the tech section. Oh, here it comes now.

The Tech:

“Oil” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f5.6 1/200 sec. 400 iso. I took a fold out card table, covered it with a garbage bag and then some sand. I used Henry’s Roof Tar for the oil. It wasn’t quite shiny enough so I poured water on top of the tar. I tried using a real flag for the background, but couldn’t get it to hang in a way that I like – don’t forget I needed the reflection of the flag to look at least a little like blood, so I went with a printout of an illustrated flag. To give the flag a glow the printout is lit from behind with a Sigma EF DG500 Super set to optical slave mode. Then I popped the scene from front camera right with a bare 580ex via the canon off camera shoe cord. Getting just the right angle for the composition I wanted, but still getting the reflection to look just right was tricky. In the end I think I got it right. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

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The Idea:

“Valley Girl” is a nice simple image. OR IS IT! Look closely. What do you see? A drive in movie theater, weathered, in disrepair, poorly done paint touch ups on just the smallest sections. Half hearted attempts at improvement. The drive in symbolizes the past, youth. You see a woman and her long shadow as the sun goes down out of frame symbolizing the passage of time. She looks over her shoulder at her past in the valley, a past that was one grand and now less than perfect. Maybe that’s how it always looked and she just didn’t notice. There is a brief moment of reflection on the life she has had there just before taking a deep breath and stepping out of frame confidently moving forward to a new stage.

The Tech:

“Valley Girl” was taken with Canon 5D and 17-40 f4L at 25mm f18 1/100. 200 iso. Light: big ball of sunshine getting ready to set. That means no lighting diagram on this one. You don’t come here just for the lighting diagrams, do you? I didn’t think so.

Would you like to submit an image for consideration as the Nice Photo Mag Photo of the Week? Find out more info on the page from the first Photo of the Week – Trunk.

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The Idea:

“Laundry Day” is one of my favorite images from 2007. Maybe my favorite-est. For me it’s one of those images that are difficult to get out of your head. I hope it’s that way for others as well. This week I don’t really want to say too much about my idea behind the image as I prefer people explore it and come to their own conclusion. Instead I’ll just say the title is as important to me in forming the back story as the image. I feel the title is an absolute essential part of the puzzle that I hope the viewer will want to solve. If you have the time and the desire, I’d love to hear what the image says to you. If we get ten legitimate comments of what the image says to you folks, I’ll post an update with a specific description of my intended meaning/story.

The Tech:

“Laundry Day” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f13 1/125 sec. 100 iso. It was shot in April around 5:30. It was golden hour, or just approaching it. I found the background I liked. In fact, with the clouds it was hard to find a background I didn’t like. That let me adjust the clothing line to get the gloves lit in a way where you could see them, but still have them sculpted by the sun light. It is lit just with the sunlight – hence no lighting diagram on this one. No bounce. No strobes. Oh, I had the strobes with me. In fact, it’s the light stands that I tied the clothing line to just out of frame. But with the sun and the background cooperating to give me just what I was looking for there was just no reason to manually light this set up.

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The Idea:

I set out with “Mom in the Mirror” to tell the story of young woman who for a moment instead of seeing herself in her reflection sees how much she looks like her mother. I think this is something most people experience at some time in their life. It can be comforting or scary, or both at the same time. And our parents probably experienced the same thing when one day they looked in the mirror and saw a bit of their parents. Growing up can be hard, but the alternative is worse. So I set out to capture that exact moment of seeing one’s parent’s look in yourself for the first time just before the flood of emotions that it brings. What I hadn’t set out to do, but feel is also captured is the emotion of the mother seeing her younger self in her daughter, or seeing her daughter as a toddler despite how old she has grown. I try to create images that grow deeper the longer you look at them, hopefully this is one of those images. It is for me.

The Tech:

“Mom in the Mirror” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f9 1/50 sec. 100 iso. I had the mother and daughter stand in a way that the reflection worked as I prefer not to do composites. It can be tricky getting the emotion you want out of two models at the same time, but I feel the reward is worth it. I used one 580 flash bounced into an umbrella to light both the models as you can see here in the inadequate lighting diagram:

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The Idea:

“Ellis Island In the Desert” was shot while I was on a short trip to Las Vegas. During the day I’d noticed this walkway with its tall, curved fence and the “Statue of Liberty” in the background. The walkway was packed with people. Maybe everyone thinks it when they see this, maybe no one, but Ellis Island popped into my head. As the day went on I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty stood, to so many, as a symbol of hope, opportunity, and freedom. Vegas seemed like the modern interpretation where glitz=hope, loose slots=opportunity, and money=freedom. I knew I wanted to come back at night and do the long exposure. The long exposure gets me blurred faces – anonymity, blurred bodies – huddled mass, and movements to add to the disorder and disorientation in an attempt to further tie the people from the real Ellis Island to the tourists in modern day Las Vegas. Am I saying the two groups are the same? Absolutely not. But when your dream is to have the American dream, and now the American dream stinks of plastic, maybe it’s time to dream a new dream. Maybe.

The Tech:

“Ellis Island In the Desert” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f13 1/6 sec. 400 iso. I set out for the night without a tripod, wanting to draw as little attention to my self – and my gear – as possible. So how did I take a 1/6 second exposure that is relatively steady? I held the camera tight against a lamp post that was conveniently placed just about where I wanted to take the photograph from. This was a natural/existing light shot so there’s not much point in putting up a diagram of the lighting setup. Instead, I’ll just say I positioned myself with a large light up sign (maybe 50×30 feet large) down about twenty feet behind me. I needed enough light from the sign to fall on the crowd and light them up about the same amount as the “Statue of Liberty” in the background. The first shot I took I was too close to the main light source (the sign) meaning good old (built in 1996) lady liberty was too dark or the crowd was too bright. So I slid down the walk way away from the sign until the people were in balance – well, light balance at least.

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The Idea:

“Clipping Clouds” isn’t trying to make a statement about global warming, education budget cuts, or reality television. The idea behind Clipping Clouds was to try and create an image that looked like a still from a dream. I combined a few meaning-loaded symbols (clouds, scissors, running water) with the kind of lighting that isn’t normally seen in nature, and a human arm seen from the position you might look at your own arm. I think it was this POV that locked the image into dreamland for me. It feels just disorientating enough to sell the idea. At least I hope it does.

The Tech:

“Clipping Clouds” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f16 1/160 sec. 200 iso. I bounced a 580ex into an umbrella, making sure to hold the scissors in a way to light up with a reflection from the flash. A brought up the contrast with a curves adjustment in Photoshop and burned the corners of the image to further disorient the viewer with a touch of tunnel vision. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

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I know what you’re thinking, “Not another picture of some shirtless guy with a newspaper Christmas light hat. Didn’t Horst already milk that cow to death? Just a joke. Everybody calm down.

“Unplugged” has a very specific message, though the way I told it, there’s a chance know one will understand what I meant. Before I tell you what I was going for, look at the image, the expression, the props, the details. What do you think I was trying to say?

Ready? Well, I wanted to make an image about America’s obsession with TV news, or rather how I felt that obsession affects people. The Christmas lights represent the neurons in the brain firing off. The newspaper is the news, no big stretch there. The lights are on even though the socket isn’t plugged in (hopefully implying the emptiness or disconnection from reality).

If you thought it was saying something else, no problem. If I needed everyone to think the same thing, I’d start a 24 hr. news channel. If you just thought it was an interesting photograph you’re okay in my book. And if you still have no idea what I was trying to say, I’ve done my job.

The Tech:

“Unplugged” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 50mm 1.4 at f9 1/80 sec. I exposed the image to get the Christmas lights how I wanted them to look. Then I positioned the subject so his back was almost right up against a large window for the rim light and pointed the business end of a 580ex right into his face to imply the light from a television. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

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Last year while in Seattle, I went for a walk with a camera, tripod, flash, and off camera flash trigger. The goal was to make a photograph that would capture Seattle as a feeling rather than just a location. Everyone has different feelings about different places, but pictures of famous cities seem to have the same image or idea used over and over again. I knew I wanted to do something different, something that had emotion. I knew I wanted the image to have the Space Needle in it, but I’d have to use it in a way I hadn’t seen done before. So I walked. I tried out lots of ideas, shooting the needle reflected in shop windows, popping out from behind street signs, and few other ideas. The images were okay, but they didn’t convey a feeling, the feeling I was going after. Then I found myself in this park, with this bench, and looked up to see a clearing in the trees and the Space Needle in clear view. Finding the location was half the battle.

The tricky part: there was loads of sunshine even in this wooded park. For me sunshine doesn’t scream Seattle. So I’d have to get rid of light. The grass around the bench was GREEN. I mean really green. It was beautiful, but distracting. I knew I was going to go black and white with the image. I did a couple test shots and found that I could get the sky’s exposure pretty close and cast the park and bench in near complete blackness. Nice and moody. I brought the bench up with a spot from the flash zoomed to 105. Next thing you know, Bob’s your uncle. An image of solitude and self reflection in a big city – at least that’s what I was aiming at.

The Tech:

“Needle Over Bench” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f11 1/200 sec. I made sure there was just enough ambient to get the tree shadows on the ground around the bench so I wouldn’t have just a spot from the flash. I didn’t have a light stand with me, but I had a tripod, so once I had the composition down, I put the camera on self timer and ran over to hold the flash. Not the best way, but it worked. Also, I was zoomed in all the way to compress the space between the bench and the Space Needle. Here is a photograph of the lighting setup:

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Here is what he had to say about his image Huts In The Storm

The Idea:

“This image is the result of a series in black and white on the marine environment often in severe weather conditions. What I’m interested first and foremost is to try to transcribe an atmosphere. The sea is present in the imagination of everyone, it means dreams and Adventure, but also mystery and fear.

The work I want to develop concerns the emotions that the sea. It can inspire in each of us through evocative images and not the Translation of a reality.

I am trying to capture the atmosphere of places and poetry and mystery that surrounds it.”

The Tech:

“Shooting is the first part of a process which also includes a long “dark room” work to try to recreate the “Feeling” of the moment, perhaps a bit like the Pictorialiste of end of XIX century” The images was shot with a Contax 645 Tri X Kodak push to 800 iso.

You can see the image larger along with many of his other inspiring works of fine art photography on Philippe Marchand’s website.

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Another from my series of images inspired by the feature film look, Ready Wet Fire was the result of a challenge I gave myself to strip down the elements and still maintain an inference of a story. I wanted to have very little in the way of background to help me tell the story. The only tools I gave my self were light, an actress, and the gun props. Using the guns was a bit of a cheat for the challenge, so I tried to get an unexpected expression from the lovely actress Christina to make up for it. The direction I gave her was something like, “You are waiting for an ex to come home. He doesn’t know you’re waiting for him. He deserves whatever you’re going to give him. But you aren’t mad or happy.” I think she did a great job.

I used a snooted Canon 580ex II to create the hard rim on the side of her head in an effort to make her look hard emotionally, but a large soft box (also lit by the 580) lights her from the front so we can still see her beauty. There is an additional 580 pointed down at the pool bottom to simulate a pool light coming from under the water. I think it worked.

Hopefully the fact she is holding guns submerged in a pool combines with her almost deadpan look along with the lack of any other detail to create an image that forces the viewer to search for their own story, that is if I gave them enough to want to.

The Tech:

“Know Your Job” was taken with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f4 1/200 sec. There is no ambient light as it is night time and light entirely by the 3 off camera flashes. I had an assistant point a bright flashlight at the subject in order to have enough light to use the auto focus. Here is the lighting setup:

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