My studio is located within @thefort614, which is a 130 year old warehouse on the south side of Columbus. It used to be the home of the Seagrave Company, which used the space to manufacture fire engines and other rescue vehicles, for over 60 years. Every square inch of the building has a glorious patina that can’t be faked. The cracked plaster, distressed flooring, and sun-faded glass is something especially rare in this fast growing city, populated with new builds…
Read MoreEyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose (Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes)
It’s been nearly five years since I’ve photographed @kate_sweeney and it was interesting to see the parallel in tone with our last shoot (third eye vibes)…
Read MoreNew Flower Portraits and a Fine Art Print Sale
Historically, whenever I create something that I’m really excited about, I immediately get overwhelmed (this latest shoot is case in point). I’ve thought about reasons why it may affect me in this way, and here are just a few…
Read MoreCyberpunk Photo Shoot for Unsplash+
I was recently commissioned by Unsplash to create a series of cyberpunk-inspired images. Though the cyberpunk aesthetic is especially trendy as of late, it has held a spot near to my heart ever since I was a teen in the nineties…
Read MoreRemnants: Still Lifes of Dead Insects
I’m continuing my series of still life studies of dead things. I’m fascinated by their beauty and feel it an honor to commemorate them by creating an image that will outlast their short time on earth.
Read MoreThe Birds and the Bees and Other Dead Things
I’ve expanded my still life studies to include dead bugs. Most of these were collected from my window sill. On a walk the other day I came across a dead baby bird that had apparently fallen from a nest, which I carefully took back to my studio to photograph. I’ve really been enjoying seeing how these tiny, forgotten specimen come to life in front of my lens…
Read MorePsychedelic 60s and Futuristic Sci-Fi Vibes with Rachel
Stef's Aura
All the Things with Annika
This was my first shoot with Annika Peterson and we did all the things. I started off with some light lighting, using a black fiber optic brush and orange gel from Light Painting Brushes. After that I explored making long exposures while rotating a linear prism FX filter and multi-strobing my flash. Finally, I took some shots with my fungus-filled lens, using shutter drag and an LED with changing colors.
Read MoreWhat Nightmares May Come: Exploring Prisms and Mylar
I’ve worked with prisms from time to time over the years and enjoyed the effects that they offer but never really fell in love with them. Last week I decided to see what would happen if I used a prism while photographing mylar. The beautiful nightmarish images that were produced are the closest visual representation of a panic attack that I’ve ever seen. Now I’m in love.
Read MoreWhat is Time?
Photo by Sean Quincy Munro
Owning My Scars
I was born with a condition called sagittal craniosynostosis. It basically means that part of my skull was prematurely fused and lacked the soft spot needed for head growth. It’s a fairly common defect but if it goes untreated it can cause deformity, seizures, or even death. Though I now know how lucky I was to be able to receive that surgery, I grew up ashamed of my scar. As many of you can likely identify with, anything that makes you stand out from other kids makes you a potential target to bullies. I was called so many names as a kid that I feared ever having my hair cut short…
Read MorePhotographic Mimics: Diptychs of People and Nature
I love symmetry. And I don’t just mean in my compositions. One of my main goals when it comes to editing and laying out my photos is to find parallels between images so that there’s a symmetry (or mimicry) between the pairing. When I do make the connection between a pair of otherwise unrelated images (such as a portrait and an image of a plant) it soothes something deep in me.
Read MoreMy Story: A Short Documentary by Brandon Goodyear
Brandon Goodyear is a local videographer that has an ongoing series focusing on makers and what motivates them to do what they do. Over the span of a month he captured a couple of my photo shoots, me climbing at my home gym, and me watering my vast collection of plants. We also got deep and chatted about my journey through trauma and where I find inspiration as an artist. Check it out.
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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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…
Read MoreThe Thin Red Line
I met Maya several years ago when I was shooting her senior fashion show collection at CCAD. When she me post some images from my trauma series she reached out and asked to participate...
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 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 MoreWilted Flowers, Crumpled Leaves, and Other Pretty Dead Things
We had a bouquet of flowers on our dining room table for the last two weeks, and it had been dead for easily half that time. When I finally got around to tossing the dead flowers I caught myself and decided instead to bring them to my studio to photograph. Though I’ve been photographing flowers and plants for years I’ve never thought to document them after their prime. I added in some dead leaves from one of our ailing house plants to round out my decay study. I enjoyed these studies so much that I may begin a new series around it.
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