Whenever I am planning a shoot with a dancer I face the challenge of coming up with fresh ways to capture their movement. Sometimes I put my camera on a tripod and use a long exposure to capture their fluidity. Or I might have the dancer stand still while I move my camera, which creates a similar-yet-different effect. Or I might fire a strobe multiple times during an exposure in order to crisply capture how they move through a space. In this shoot with dancer Sophie Bolton I opted to do it all…
Read MoreThis is Water
For decades I’ve adored 4AD album art from the 80s and 90s. The genius team behind the photography and design was Nigel Grierson and Vaughan Oliver, who operated under the name 23 Envelope. They were responsible for iconic album art of This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Pixies, and many more. Over the years I’ve tried over and over again to mimic some of the effects that I saw used in their photography, but my experiments always came up short. Much to my delight, my latest photographic exploration is the closest to their aesthetic, by far…
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Fancher X Feinknopf
Last week I had the privilege of photographing photographers. Great ones, at that. Brad Feinknopf is a legend in my neck of the woods, and to be asked to photograph him and his team in my style was a great honor.
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Cyberpunk Flapper Girl and Other Photographic Mashups
It’s a rare occasion when I do a team collaboration on a personal shoot. I typically prefer to work directly with the model, having them bring their own wardrobe and arrive with their hair and makeup already done. It not only saves time and is easier to coordinate but I also love the challenge of coming up with a cohesive theme for the shoot, basing my techniques, lighting, and color palette on the items that they brought with them. That said, when I do get to work with a great team such as this, I can see how the images really elevate…
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Color and Shape Collab with Larry Robertson
Larry Robertson is a clothing designer, stylist, poet, and many other things. Everytime we collaborate we walk away with fire. He came by my studio yesterday and brought with him a bunch of outfits. We vacillated between shooting and chatting, discussing life, creativity, and navigating the ever-changing world…
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Playing with Bold Colors and Silhouettes
Bold Black and White Fashion Story with Molly
Shutter Drag with Window Light / Creating Dappled Light with DIY Reflector
I wanted to create a dappled light effect, similar to sunlight reflected off of windows. I actually came across this effect by accident. I bought some mirror stickers used for crafting, which I adhered to a piece of cardboard. I had scored the cardboard on the back which made it an easy-to-carry tri-fold reflector. The happy accident came about in that the corrugated cardboard texture created the dappled light effect when lit with a bright light source, in this case a flash…
Read MorePlastic Galaxies
It’s been a while since I’d shot images for my series One Man’s Trash, where I repurpose single-use plastic, so it was fun to make these images with Katy. She’s draped in a mattress bag and her pointy fingers came from vials saved from the chemlab at her school. I love the eerie sci-fi aesthetic in the images.
Read MoreFractals: Photographing Time and Space
Though I’ve been exploring long exposures and shutter drag in my portrait photography for years now, I’ve recently began to explore it in a new way. For some time now I’ve implemented intentional movement into my shoots but I was always doing the moving— not my subject. I’d shoot at exposures longer than 1/30th of a second and I’d move my camera around as my subject sat there. I’d mix in a strobe light with a continuous light source so that at least part of the subject was sharp while the rest of the frame fell away to blurred movement. Lately, however, I’ve decided to ditch the strobe and fully embrace the blur…
Read MoreMy Travel Gear Kit
This is my travel kit. I’ve whittled down my gear over the years to get the leanest and meanest kit possible. With this two camera, two lens, two light setup I can easily travel and solo shoot, creating a broad range of indoor and outdoor scenarios.
Read MoreNathan Ward's Winter Triangle
Aside from being a great photographer, Nathan Ward is also a multi-instrumental musician. His first album until the name Winter Triangle is a lush, layered, ambient endeavor in the vein of Daniel Lanois and Harold Budd. Needless to say I was stoked when he asked me to shoot his portrait for the album promo. After listening to the album I knew I wanted to used a projector and smoke machine to create pins of light. The native color temperature of the projector was on the cooler side and I leaned into the blue tones as I colored graded the files in post. I also decided to add a bit of grain to give the images an older feel. The final images look like his music does in my head.
Read MoreLiquid Color
This was a fun little test shoot with Jona. For some of the frames I projected video footage onto her and made multiple exposures. Other frames I used a pulsing, multicolored LED and had Jona do the moving. There was an element of control and chaos in each scenario, and all of them led to discovery and delight.
Read MoreDiscovery with Marissa Nadler
A couple weeks ago I drove down to Nashville to photograph @marissa_nadler. I’d been a fan of her music for almost 15 years so I was super excited to work with her. I didn’t have any visual plans for the shoot— no mood board or pre-conceived ideas. In recent years I’ve really embraced improvisation when it comes to shoots. I bring a few key pieces of equipment with me— enough to cover a broad range of techniques— and then I allow the space, the subject, and the moment to dictate what happens within the session. Sometimes it backfires and I come away with nothing. Other times magic happens. Either way, it’s my favorite element of a shoot…
Read MoreEphemera: A Collaboration with Hana Mendel and Celeste Malvar-Stewart
Last week I collaborated with Hana Mendel (an amazing photographer, illustrator, guitarist, etc) and clothing designer Celeste Malvar-Stewart. In an effort to maintain social distance guidelines, Celeste dropped off her garments, giving us permission to style and shoot them as we saw fit. Hana showed up ready to shoot and I kept my distance, wearing a mask the whole time. Save for the addition of wearing a mask, the shoot wasn’t any different from my other personal shoots— I always work with a minimal or non-existent crew…
Read MoreBlue and Gold
My friend Dylan is an amazing designer and illustrator and he recently hit me up to update his head shot. He uses a certain hue of cyan for his branding which he wanted to implement into the shoot. I decided to also use yellow-gold (the complementary color) and work within that palette for the entire session, changing only the angle or hardness of the light sources. Here are just a few ways to use two colors:
Read MoreRemotraits Vol. 3
After a month of experimenting with these FaceTime/Zoom photo shoots (which I call Remotraits) I’ve really broadened the range of techniques and materials that I work with, resulting in a big variety of styles. Just in creating the images in the gallery below I worked with mylar, prismatic window film, rubber cement, honey, water, and trash bags. I love the painterly results I’m getting and can’t wait to do more.
Read MoreMetal Hammer Magazine: Lamb of God
Back in February I had the opportunity to photograph the metal legends Lamb of God in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia. I was told that the theme of the story was revolution so I began to brainstorm ideas for lighting, pose, and technique that would match. We used orange as the color palette, giving a nod to Russian propaganda posters. I also decided to give a nod to the infamous NWA album cover for Straight Outta Compton.
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Remotraits Vol. 2
I’ve been doing remote photo shoots (Remotraits) for a few weeks now and they continue to evolve. I began by projecting the FaceTime or Zoom feed onto a backdrop and shooting through different materials and substances. Then I moved on to projecting the conference directly onto different materials to change the shape and add texture to the projection. After that I started placing different substances on plexiglass over a horizontal computer screen, allowing me to shoot through different liquids. I’ve really been enjoying these experiments.
Read MoreEpisode Two of The Creative Portrait
Episode two of The Creative Portrait is now live. In case you missed my previous post, I am teaching my entire creative process in a multi-episode video series. In this episode I cover the following setups:
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