My sold out, two-day Creative Portraiture photography workshop took place a week ago and we had students travel from three other states to make art at my Columbus studio. We began by covering different qualities of light (soft vs. hard) and how to intentionally create different types of shadows. Next we covered a bit of color theory and how to use cookies (cucoloris) with gelled lights to create colorful shadows. For the rest of the weekend we covered a vsat range of techniques, such as making multiple exposures; creating prismatic effects with a broken mirror; shooting through different materials; photographing warped and colorful reflections with mylar and prismatic window film; using shutter drag; making custom shapes and images by way of projector. It was a jam-packed whirlwind of a weekend but we all came away feeling inspired and ready to go back into the world and create.
Read MoreCreative Portraiture Workshop: Columbus
Fantastic Plastic
Chyna popped by my studio last week to update her digitals. Of course I couldn’t let her get away that easily...
Read MoreHe'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…
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…
Read MoreTime and Temperature
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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