The Photo Guy

Flamenco

This is the first image of a series paring dancers with the natural world rather than the stage. I have been trying to get this started for some time but as with most personal projects they take a back seat to the commercial work. We finally got this photo shoot going just before Kati the amazing dancer in this image was to leave town for NYC. Our loss, NYC gain.

We staged the photo session at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. They were very kind in allowing us to stage things there and worked with us to make sure things went smoothly. Well the parts we controlled went smoothly but mother nature must have had a bad day. Shortly after setting up a monster thunder storm moved right in over us. We made the first 30 or so images along the fountains we have planned to but then the rain started. The rain forced us to move to the portal in hopes of waiting it out but when it looked like it was not going to lift (and it became even worse… much worse) we started with plan B and then plan C.

Well plan B started out with us photographing from the portal facing back into the garden. This kept us out of the rain mostly but the wind finally got the better of us and forced us in doors. The photo shown was taken with small speedlights only since we were working around water ( and then some) all the power of studio strobes would have been dangerous. This was a three light setup. The main was an SB800 shooting through a 32 inch umbrella gelled half CTO, with fill from an SB26 also through an umbrella. Some of the garden fill was from a third light hidden behind a column. I would liked to have it further out into the garden to illuminate the fountain better but it would have been in the rain and I had no way to keep it dry. All in all the shot turned out quite well.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

What can I say a classic play. More small flash work. Seems I have not dug out the big lights for quite some time. Finding power on the stage was going to be a trick so we went with the small strobes. Again some post processing to make the mood.

J2Cents

Well I am late posting more work again. Always have the best of intentions to post but well you know how it is. It is good to get a post out there on J2Cents and the work we did together. This is part of a project that has been going on for a couple of months now. This image is part of the promotional images I shot for him. This one may be his album cover for the CD he is working on now. Great guy you should check out the his music on myspace. For the promotional work we were looking for a space with some old character, maybe some brick and some industrial. Well, in Albuquerque that is near as impossible to find except for a couple of locations. For this one we used the Factory on Fifth art space which is a converted old brick factory building now housing artists. We arranged to have a space open for us and then went to town with the lights. All small lights for this shot. 1/250th sec shutter to knock down the ambient to let us work the light we added. Back drop light gelled green to accentuate the light from the florescent tubes lighting the space. Gelled the main light 1/4 CTO to help throw the shadows a touch blue and back light to add a bit for the peak of his cap. In post we have added a bit of a grunge touch dropping the shadows down and desaturating the image with a bit more contrast. Gives it a punchy grungy look.

Passenger on the Ship of Fools

Performance image captured during a live performance of the Vortex Theater production of Passenger on the Ship of Fools. This is Bridget Kelley a wonderful actor and in this role for me the first time I had heard her sing. Great voice! She is playing Katherine Anne Porter.

Very high contrast lighting is the norm for a theatrical production. What may look like a smooth open stage light rather evenly to the eye actually produces pools of hot high key light with deep shadows. The eye adapts to the light and has a much broader exposure window to work from than any camera and sensor today. Knowing this and understanding that the shadow depth will be much greater for a given highlight exposure (come on tell me that you are exposing for your highlights…) you can control the subject framing to achieve a pleasing composition.

Promotional Photography for the Vortex Theater production of Passengers on The Ship Of Fools

Always enjoy the time spent in the studio creating promotional work for the Vortex Theater. In this case a character study of the three ages of a playwright. In the studio, a large soft box over head, with a 60 in. umbrella as fill and a barn door baffled gridded reflector for separation. My standard trick for a back ground light is to use a speed light these days. Better variability and control of the power, and small enough to hide and create the effect desired.

Go see the play running at the Vortex Theater July 24 through Aug 9th. Enjoy

Panorama of St. Jude Thaddeus Parrish

St. Jude Thaddeus Parrish

I recently completed a commission to photograph the interior and exterior of St. Jude Thaddeus Parrish here in Albuquerque. While the exterior images are really straight forward architectural photography work the interior was a lot more challenging. Normally you need to add significant but subtle amounts of light to balance an interior against large and important areas of windows like the stained glass in this church. The sheer size of this space meant hours of set up or taking an entirely different approach. When spaces get too large you need to just go with the light they have present but this would have left too much contrast and poor renditions of the stained glass.

In this case I choose to shoot a blended exposure using the natural light available and not add any. Using a 7 stop bracket and a non-HDR blending method enabled the stained glass and the interior to be recorded closer to the way the eye perceives the space. The Panorama of St. Jude was assembled as all my pano’s are today with PTGUI really the best software out there for the task. It handles details and verticals better than anything else I have tried. Don’t even start me on how bad Photoshop is at making panorama’s. Once the pano was created the dynamic range was processed to bring the highlights in and open the shadows. The folks at St. Jude loved the results and so I think things where successful this go round.