This shoot was all over the place. It was equal parts conversational (we hadn’t shot in a couple of years) and me just winging it (as usual). I started off by just using window light. Then I added in a background light and slowed down my shutter speed to get a blurry subject and sharp silhouette. I experimented with a prism for a bit and then added in a bit of multiple exposure with some coconut oil on my lens (why not try all the things at once?). I finished off the shoot with a minimalist tabletop setup and one light. A visual crescendo before the calm.
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Minimalism and Discovery
I’ve been taking a pretty minimalist approach in my personal shoots lately. Just using window light or one flash. I am trying to put all of my focus on my subject, rather than technique. Their pose, facial expression, and energy will tell the story. My goal is to capture a side of them that I don’t see in their other work. Maybe a side they don’t even know they have. The interesting thing is that as I am exploring how to understand and capture my subject, I am actually learning something new about myself.
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Mini-Session with Aleksa Palladino
Last month I was in Los Angeles for an editorial shoot with a high profile band. As is the case with high profile clients, delays are expected. The shoot ended up being pushed to the next day, which meant I had to figure out how to make use of my now-empty day. I decided to reach out to my friend Aleksa to see if she was available for a quick photo shoot…
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When You Move I Move
I love working with dancers, and Kristie in particular. There is so much power and calculation and precision in her movement (or even just her finger shape). We’ve shot together a dozen times by now, so there is almost no need for communication. She does her thing and I do my best to keep up. The hardest part for me is figuring out new ways to shoot her…
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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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Opting Out
I’ve had plenty of time to think about my journey as a photographer these past six months since I left social media. I’ve considered how much I’ve grown in the 21 years since I took my first photography course in high school; I’ve taken inventory of my what my journey as a freelancer these past twelve years has entailed; and I’ve spent an especially long time thinking about when and why my anxiety began to spike, ultimately leading me to delete all of my accounts.
Read MoreTidal Unplugged
Back in June I was tapped to shoot editorial portraits of the five finalists of Tidal’s Unplugged grant program. Tidal narrowed down thousands of participants to five talented musicians from Detroit and gave them the means and opportunity to expand their musical careers…
Read MoreStarset Divisions Press Shoot
My buddies at Tension Division worked with Columbus natives Starset on the design of their latest release, Divisions. The shoot was split into two separate days, with the first focused on getting a range of studio portraits for use on streaming and social platforms, and the second focused more on getting dramatic press photos of the band. The only issue was that I had less than three days to prepare for the location shoot, no additional budget to procure said location, and finding the requested “post-apocalytpic film set” in Ohio was no short order. However, I wasn’t worried in the slightest as I knew the perfect spot…
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Time and Temperature
Red (and yellow and blue) Redemption
I’ve been shooting with Melissa for around six years now and some of my favorite shots that I’ve taken have been from our past collaborations. So when she texted me a couple weeks ago to tell me that she and her boyfriend are relocating to New York, we made sure to get in one last hurrah. For the occasion I brought in my friend and wonderful makeup artist, Andi Summer. When she asked what I was going for I said bold. She responded, bold as in colorful eye makeup or bold as in body paint? Yes.
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Photo by Jeremy Slagle
Interview: Leaving Social Media
Back in April my friend Jeremy Slagle, a celebrated designer and illustrator, and Thad DeVassie came by my studio to interview me for their podcast. At the time of the interview I had been off social media for two months, which had been the reason for the interview. We chatted about my reasons for leaving as well as how I’ve reallocated my time since. We covered a lot of ground in the talk and I’m happy i was able to connect with these two on so many different issues that confront both creatives as well as small businesses. I hope you find it as encouraging and hopeful as I did.
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Glam!
Jennifer is a drag makeup artist based in Seattle. When she showed up with her (epic) makeup already in place, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to play with sparkles and color. I started off by having her slick back her hair. Next I gave her a yellow gel to hold over her eye, while I hung a red gel between the light and her face. Then I held a blue gel in front of the lens, thus completing an RYB triad. For the second look…
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Through the Eyes of a Child
I was on the road for work for nearly half of July, which meant I didn’t see much of my two kids, Jack and Margot. When I returned home I wanted to reconnect with them and decided to plan individual day trips with them. They are getting to the age where they are starting to understand what I do for a living and have each expressed a desire to know more. I thought, why not make these trips photo-centered while I’m at it…
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The Ghost of Her
I recently scheduled a personal shoot with model Mallory Landis and hair/makeup artist Andi Summer. As usual I went in the shoot with little to no idea of how I would light/shoot it, and unsurprisingly I went with ghosty, hazy images as I’ve been frequently exploring these past few months. The hazy, semi-solarized duotone shots that I came away with made me quite happy. I haven’t made anything quite like it before and am excited to explore it further.
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Diamond Hill for Barron's
Last week I photographed Chris Bingaman, the CEO of Diamond Hill investment management firm, for Barron’s magazine. I shot a range of color scenarios but both Annie Chia (the DoP) and I agreed that the black and white conversions were the stronger images.
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Ghost Soul Trio
I recently worked with Ghost Soul Trio, an indie-pop band from Columbus. Since music is such a huge passion of mine and especially because I lack the skills to create songs of my own, I always embrace the chance to visually collaborate with musicians. Though we only had an hour to work with, we came away with a range of visuals that mirror the vibrant notes that are so present in their music.
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Monster Christ
If you’ve been following my blog for much time at all you’ve no doubt seen me mention Sara Lando’s online photography course, The Support Group for Lazy Photographers. As the final assignment in her 12-week course we were given the challenge of recreating an iconic photo but in a way that’s unique to our way of seeing/shooting. I chose to recreate Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ.
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SFPW Chroma 2019
I brought my Chroma lighting class to the https://santafeworkshops.com this past week and, as you can see, had a lot of fun in the process. Normally I have one day to try to cram in as much color theory and lighting techniques as students can handle, which is exhausting for everyone. This time we had five days together, which meant we could really take our time with each technique, slowly building in complexity throughout the week.
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Shelby, July '19
Golden Girl
I’m still on a kick of exploring hazy, golden light, with layers of texture. For this shoot with model Rachel Luree, I began by positioning her in front of a 37” octabox, in order to get an ethereal backlight. Next, in order to take advantage of Rachel’s long hair, I laid out a large sheet of glass, covered in a thin layer of coconut oil. I had her stand over the glass with her hair hanging down, and I lay underneath it shooting up. I wanted to give the appearance of her being submerged in water, with her hair swirling around.
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