I’ve been an Adobe Lightroom user since 2007, when it first dropped. When it comes to post-processing, I use it almost exclusively, only rarely opening Photoshop. It has not only elevated my color grading game but it has also probably added a year to my life with the time it’s saved me. All that to say I was honored and flattered when they reached out to me to write some tutorials on how I use their software…
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Gilding Lilies
I’ve never been especially fond of flowers. Don’t get me wrong— they’re pretty and everything, but I don’t stop to smell them, much less know their names. That said, flowers make wonderful subjects. They sit nice and still and always put on a great performance as I take my time fiddling around with lights, gels, and camera settings. Though I suppose any inanimate object would suffice for testing, I find flowers to have a human-like qualities to them. They have a face, a neck, and elegance for days. That’s not to say they’re an easy subject. They don’t bring anything to the table, save for their looks. They don’t have a range of dramatic poses or expressions or wardrobe changes. When working with flowers as a subject you only get out of a shoot what you put into it…
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Waiting, Watching
When I was teaching at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops last August I had the fortune of sitting in on a presentation given by Tony O’Brien. During the talk he discussed his photo series, Light in the Desert, wherein he spent a year living with and photographing monks in a monastery. He described how he had waited seven months before he even picked up his camera to take a picture. He wanted to earn the trust of his subjects before attempting to capture their image. It absolutely blew my mind. That level of patience and intentionality is unheard of. No one had directed him to wait that long. No one was watching him to make sure he captured his subjects with honesty and integrity. It was apparent to me that this is the way he lives his life and in turn also carries out his photography work. All that is to say is that I’ve been working a lot on modeling my life after a slower, more intentional way of living…
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Ransom & Rose
Ransom and I go way back to the JackThreads days. Since we’ve been shooting for the better part of a decade, we have an old, easy rhythm together. I don’t even have to speak as he moves from pose to pose. He’s also a fantastic stylist, meaning that he always brings the best wardrobe to our test shoots. This session was different than any of our prior sessions, however, as this time he brought his girlfriend Rose to model with him…
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He's Seen the Same Things I've Seen and It's Certainly Made an Impression on Me
Jim is one of my favorite people to collaborate with. Not only does he bring great poses and emotion to every shoot but his older age brings an element of wisdom and time to the shoot that it would otherwise lack. He becomes my surrogate self for a few minutes, during the session. Depending on how I direct or light or pose him I can explore my own feelings of terror, hope, fear, or acceptance…
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Dreams Are Like Water
I’ve been experimenting with photographing reflections in mylar for four shoots now, and I’m finally starting to get the hang of it. In order to get a good range of movement in the mylar (which translates to warped reflections), I set up an oscillating fan nearby, and turned it on to the lowest setting. The effect ranges from minimal to so abstract that you can’t even tell what you’re looking at, so there’s a bit of luck involved. Every time the fan would pass over the mylar, it would ripple like pond water after a rock was tossed in, so I basically shot like hell and hoped for something good.
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Santa Fe Workshops Presents Chroma: Lighting with Color
If you’re unfamiliar with the Santa Fe Workshops, it’s one of, if not the, longest running photography workshops in the US. They started in 1990 and have had some of the most renowned photographers in the industry teach there, including Albert Watson, Joyce Tenneson, and Frank Ockenfels 3. The format of the courses is especially unique, given that it’s a 5-day course where the students and the instructor are together learning and shooting, from sunup till sundown.
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Product Photography: Michael Malul London
I recently shot product and editorial images for Michael Malul London, an emerging fragrance brand. Aside from shooting the standard “soft light on white” ecom shots, I shot a range of of stylistic shots using different colored backdrops and hard light.
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On Self-Assignments and Getting Discovered
I have photographers regularly email me, asking for advice on how to make a living doing photography. Aside from the obvious things like assist other photographers or work on building your network, I always say if there isn’t work coming in, make work for yourself. I’m talking about self-assignments.
Read MoreColor and Shape
I kept it simple and fun for this shoot with model Rachel Luree: crisp shadows, complementary colors, playful poses.
Images from GPP Photo Week 2019
This was my third time teaching at Gulf Photo Plus and my second Photo Week (since February 2018!). It’s always a whirlwind of a week, teaching five workshops in seven days, but super rewarding. Here are a few images that I took throughout the week. I can’t wait until next time.
