Collaboration

This past Friday I had the pleasure of not only taking photographs of one of the leading consultants/lawyers in America, Elizabeth Birch, but to also work with art directors Neal and Brian Ashby. What I really love about photography is collaborating with talented people who have a vision. Most creative people do have a very vivid imagination, but to be able to translate that into words can be quite rare.
The photos taken of Elizabeth are for her web site, which Neal and Brian are designing. They wanted the photos to evoke a feeling of relaxation, familiarity and engagement. To do this we had Brian stand just off camera and listen as she told some amusing stories, which brought laughs from everyone on the set. We caught some great expressions and reactions. Below are some of the photos.

What Do You See?

During a photo shoot this week one of the items to be photographed was a candle. Fairly simple item to shoot, but being black caused some problems with reflections. But my assistant, Rachael, and I worked it out. Where my creativity was really sparked was when we blew out the candle. The puffs of smoke that rose from the candle was mesmerizing. We just had to take a few minutes to play. Here are some of the results. The shots were taken moments after the candle was blown out. The more I look at them the more I see - letters of the alphabet, faces, a horse...
What do you see?

Characterizations

The portrait is a wonderful thing. Probably my most favorite assignments are portraits. The photographic possibilities are endless. You can shoot in the studio, in a chosen environmental, get close or pull back. Revealing the character of a person is what it's all about. Being able to capturing their mood or showing an emotion inspires me to keep shooting.

Fortunately many of my assignments are portrait related. The wide range of personalities and the variety of advertising concepts produced by clients keeps it all fresh. There's always a different way of portraying an individual. Capturing the character of a person is what keeps me in photography.

The Color Card Assignment

Before the start of any photo shoot I use a color card - as every photographer should. After two photo shoots this weekend (and going over the images later) I noticed that those images were very candid, and sometimes funny. I started to go through some past assignments and noticed that most of them were great, spontaneous moments that really could make a wonderful series of images.

This is what I love about photography. Anything can come from everything. You just have to be willing, and open, to see it. So from now on I'm not going to take these pre-assignment moments for granted. But instead shoot them as a personal assignment.

I'll have more to show in the future.

The Art Directors

I love taking photos of people! But when I was asked to take the photos of two local art directors I was kind of nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous because I could only use 1/10 of the studio space available to me and excited because I knew I could experiment. We ended up shooting against the garage door then added a black and then white background for contrast. It's nice working with people who are willing to experiment a little

Here are some of the photos I took of Neal Ashby and Mathew Curry. They were nominated for a Grammy in the album design category. The images were shot for Apple's web site.

To see more images from this shoot go to my web site