Meet Wesley Corn...

Meet Wesley Corn... a fellow photographer. I've never photographed a photographer AS a photographer... I've used photographer friends for models, photographer friends for stand-ins, etc... but I've never been asked to shoot a portrait of a photographer and represent his or her craft. I'm not sure if I was nervous or excited about this shoot, maybe both. Thank heavens Wes is a cool dude... relaxed, patient and just into it. I must say, shooting artists is usually quite pleasurable. They know the deal... they know what goes into creating something... they know not to expect something totally rushed, totally smooth, or totally without trial and error.... and for that, I thank them all.

I showed up at Wes's place, his grandfather's old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, not knowing what the hell I was going to do. Wes was selected for the On The Verge show based on images he had created of himself in front of an American flag, so without completely ripping him off, I wanted to incorporate that somehow... for the simply reason that I wanted the portrait to look good, and not out-of-place, when published alongside Wes's work in the magazine spread. Other than that, I was completely winging it.

I toured his place, brainstorming ideas... I eventually settled on the inside of his grandfather's workshop... it was dusty, filled with wood scraps, wasps and saw blades, and had an awesome set of windows. The plan was to use the indirect light streaming in from outside to backlight the flag hanging in the window... throw a couple of kickers, a beauty-dish and a ring-flash on Wes, and presto! Well we hung the flag and went outside to gather more equipment and (this is what makes the fluid creative environment fun) after taking one look at the flag hanging in the window from the outside, I knew that we had stumbled across something even better!

I still wanted the flag illuminated from behind, so I set up a 1200 ws Whitelightning inside the shed aimed at the flag. I took the other lights outside, substituted an umbrella with a speedlite for the beauty-dish, and started loving what I saw. Now the question... what the hell to do with Wes? How do I show him as a photographer? There was no way in hell I was going to have him hold a camera... there is nothing a hate more than the awful portraits of photographers holding cameras. How many of those have you seen on photographer's "about me" web pages or in the contributors sections of magazine? Maybe you are one of them? Shame on you!!! Well, I started out trying an equally lame idea: I had him hold up an empty frame in front of his head. Ouch! And then we dug up an old self-portrait headshot that he'd taken... There was one Wes uses for online dating that he wouldn't even let me see, and then there was this awesome goofy one. Just so happens that the color of shirt in the headshot very closely matched the one he was wearing, so I was happy and knew it would work. I had him hold it in a few different ways, yada yada yada, and there you have it. Oh... and that is a remote trigger in his hand controlling an off-set camera that was recording stills of the whole thing... no, not as lame as holding an actual camera. (you'll see a few of those pics at the end of the behind-the-camera video... my G9 battery died before I wrapped up the shoot, so Wes sent me a gif animation... thanks Wes!)

BTW... rather than speed up the whole shoot to 1 minute in length like I do the rest, I left this one long (2 minutes) because I like the song so much. It's The D Bag Rag by The Avett Brothers.

MGMT: Time to Pretend... the karaoke version.

Meet Dustin Spagnola...

Meet Dustin Spagnola... the second artist I shot for WNC Magazine's On The Verge contest. Dustin uses images of famous folks he finds via Google, blows them up really really big, and incorporates them into his oversized, super fantastic paintings. As a photographer that idea bothered me: using someone else's images without credit or compensation... so I knew going in that I would ask Dustin about it (though I have used uncredited music in some of my behind-the-camera timelapses). I wasn't there two minutes when Dustin preempted my protest and, unlike millionare "appropriation artists" Shepard Fairey and Richard Prince, offered unsolicited admission to stealing the pics from Google. I applauded him for that, the admission, but I am still a bit apprehensive about the execution. True, images are forever being borrowed by "Art," reworked and repurposed, but where would the newfound masterpieces be without the original masterpieces themselves? I guess I wonder what's wrong with a little credit where due... For much more brilliant conversations on appropriation art, click here and here... google more and inform yourself... come to your own conclusion.

Dustin's portrait and video are among my favorites of the whole series. Just like the rest of these portraits and videos, it was a one-man, one-camera production. We shot at two locations... his old studio for the portrait, and his new one a few weeks later for the video.

Sometimes, when I walk into a location for the first time, I don't have to do much studying to find what I like... other times I do. After seeing the plastic Dustin had hung in his tiny studio to trap in the warmth during wintertime, I could think of nothing else for the backdrop. To simplify the background I'd drop the plastic as low as I could get it. The window would make a nice frame for his head. The rest of the space would be filled with Dustin's work. I gave him the task of setting up the scene as I set up the lights. Dustin's got a great smirk... just add a cigarette and a rim light and the picture takes itself.

I aimed to create a mini narrative with each video... two hours of shooting, 30 minutes of recorded conversation, then a night or so worth of editing. It was all on the fly, and all a ton of fun. I asked each artist to come up with the soundtrack themselves... I wanted to incorporate what they listen to while they work, and since I didn't want anything with lyrics I had to dig up a few karaoke versions... for Dustin I used a Fugazi song that he loves.

Music: Murder for Money, Morphine

Sweet and Low, Fucoustic plays Fugazi

Meet Severn Eaton...

Meet Severn Eaton.... He's a cool cat: a father, a husband, a ginger-ale brewmaster, and an artist. Severn's paintings are right up my alley: they have meaning. In one of my favorites black helicopters emerge from a wasps nest... and in another a soldier walks among a field of poppies.

I shot Severn as the first in a series of western North Carolina's top emerging artists for WNC Magazine. I gave myself a challenge: all images were to be taken in the studio of the artist, wether that be a basement, a bedroom, or a warehouse... nowhere else... no scouting, no building sets, no assistants... just show up alone and keep it real. The plan was to spend about an afternoon with each artist shooting a lit portrait and a bonus: SLR video footage that I'd edit down into a 2 minute mini-documentary.

I've attached the behind-the-camera-timelapse of the lit-portait, but this one is a bit vague... see if you can figure it all out... feel free to comment.

And here is the 2 minute doc... It's been years and years since I've shot any video... as I post these in the coming days and weeks you may notice that the videos get better as time and practice assert their valuable toll.

PS... didn't mean to be absent from the blog for so long... this was a big project and a lot of things fell by the wayside... on that note, I'm sorry, Katie, mi amor.

Meet Russell Stall...

35mm :: 1/200 @f/4.5, ISO 100

One of the things I love about this job, location portraiture, is the challenge... seems cliche, I know, but that's one of those things about cliches: they are often true. I get to shoot a lot of "everyday people"... not rockstars or movie actresses, but folks like Russell Stall who run Greenville Forward... Folks with an office, a cluttered desk, an assistant, and something a little different about what they do so as to warrant their portrait being made.

The challenge for me is showing up and making something out of nothing. In essence, I don't have an empty canvas, I've got one already cluttered... In the case of Russell, one filled with filing cabinets, computer printers, papers, desks, books, and a pretty nifty poster of Einstein on the wall. I enjoy the fact that I've got to take all these elements, sculpt them into something framable, then add light and paint something intriguing. It ain't always easy, but it is usually fun.

I chose an exposure dark enough to overpower the ambient light: 1/200 @ f/4.5, ISO 100. I used a white reflective umbrella as key and placed two Speedstrips as kickers (yes, build demo coming soon... probably the next post). I started with a ringlight as my fill, but I had to give it up because I needed to use that Speedlite with a snoot to illuminate the painting, so I used specular reflective fill under the camera instead.

(I start the timelapse after I've already cleaned up the place).

I'm currently working on a series of portraits (still and motion) of emerging artists... They won't be published for another month or so, but they are going to make for a neat set of posts... lots of behind-the-camera-timelapses and some portfolio worthy shots. Fun stuff.... stay tuned... and check back for the Speedstrip build demo coming soon.

Patrick Cavan Brown :: Editorial and Commercial Photographer :: Asheville, North Carolina

Meet Kym Petrie...

59mm :: 1/125 @f/2.8, ISO 50

Meet Kym Petrie...

Kym is the Executive Vice President of the Downtown Greenville Development Initiative, ThriveDowntown.com. Their basic goal is to lure businesses into the downtown area... They've got a neat website, check it out.

One of the frustrating things about shooting for regional magazines is the lack of budget. If I need an assistant I've got to call in a favor or borrow a summer intern, so I am almost always by myself. Usually that works out fine... I shlep all my own gear, stand in for my own setups, brainstorm everything myself... it can be very satisfying... though to be sure, sometimes very frustrating. An example is the video below... you'll see me running around like a crazy-man, moving lights here and there during the shoot, when I could have just said "please" and "thankyou" to some poor unpaid intern. But all is good... I love it. I only have to buy lunch for myself.

BUT, one of the most wonderful things about shooting for regional magazines is the fantastic folks who hire you... you get to know them as friends, rather then just as voices on the other end of the phone or computer... you share a beer, a dinner, a birthday party... you hike in the woods, paddle on the rivers, play with their dogs... I'll take that over an assistant any day of the week.

Kym needed to be shot downtown, as that's her gig. It was another cold winter day, breezy but no rain or snow. I'd picked out a nice spot in front of the newspaper next to a hotdog stand... I thought that would work well to show "downtown", but the hotdog man got bored and left before our scheduled shoot time. My backup plan was the clock, so backup it was.

I underexposed the background by about a stop and used an umbrella with a Speedlite as my key: ETTL +1 stop to compensate for the white coat (your camera's meter will see that coat and try to underexpose it, seeking middle-grey). For some minor edge definition I set up two Speedlites as kickers, low power. Mother Nature handled the wind-machine and styled her hair with flare. I sat in the street and got low with the camera to emphasize Kym's "power" and to deemphasize the street. I took my shots between passing cars and pedestrians and dodged a few cars myself. If I hadn't been using my tripod as a sand-bag, and if I'd had enough ND to slow the shutter without losing my shallow depth of field, I may have gone for blurry pedestrians and cars instead of empty streets. I could have composited a scene in PS, but I wanted everything in-camera. The shoot lasted about 4 minutes (I had another shoot scheduled for a short time later), and Kym was a natural... never take for granted the fortune of having someone who knows what they are doing.

Patrick Cavan Brown :: Editorial and Commercial Photographer :: Asheville, NC Greenville, SC

Meet Peter Waskiewicz...

55mm :: 1/160 @ f/5.0, ISO 100

Meet Peter Waskiewicz of Sow True Seed. A couple of years ago he starting a small seed company in Asheville that is now exploding... they specialize in open-polinated, heirloom, and organic seeds. We dug tilled the garden this weekend (my back hurts) and plan on filling it with Sow True's seeds very soon... I'll include pics when I update this post, so check back if you are interested.

I was tasked with shooting Peter, the founder, on a rainy and blisteringly cold January day. I tracked down one of his vendors, Reems Creek Nursery, because I needed to hide the winter and highlight "growth," what Peter and Sow True is all about. The nurseries weren't quite in full swing yet, too early in the year, but I the good folks at Reems Creek had one table of young plants that I could utilize. I got low with my camera, right over the plants, to emphasize them in the foreground. I cleaned up the background by moving all the other plants to the floor. I used a couple of bare Speedlights as kickers, and one with an umbrella as key. I underexposed the ambient by about a stop, to both help the subject "pop" and to reduce the influence of the strange color created by the natural light filtering through the plastic ceiling. We tried a few different poses and positions, and I liked the one with Peter holding a flat of new plants the best.

Is there any other information that you would like to see covered in these posts? Leave a comment and let me know...

Patrick Cavan Brown :: Editorial and Commercial Photographer :: Asheville, NC

The Land of Popular Photography...

I was recently approached by Popular Photography Magazine and asked to contribute to a "How To" lighting column. They specifically asked to use a shot I produced for a personal project in which I photographed a group of small town police officers... Pop Photo wanted to use this particular shot to highlight solutions to obstacles presented when shooting into the sun. I said "yes" immediately, and for one simple reason: years ago when I was the photographer for my high school yearbook and had just begun to realize my passion for this light sensitive craft, Popular Photography was the very first magazine I subscribed to... nostalgia. Pop Photo's editor, Peter Kolonia, was gracious and awesome as we put together the column... visit your newsstand or subscribe today!

The overall project is entitled "Has Anyone Seen America Lately?" My idea is to travel this great land of ours and use this lighted pano technique to capture all the everyday unique and fantastic folks I can get my hands on... folks like the Martindale, Texas Police Department (see above), World Champion Gun Twirler Pistol Packin' Paula, and Xaden the red-headed firestarter. I'll write more about this project in the coming weeks... I need to muster up some funding first... wanna help?

In the mean time, check out the article in Popular Photography, and watch this Behind-The-Camera-Timelapse below.

I underexposed the ambient light in the scene by two stops. I used four Canon Speedlites to mimic the sun by wrapping light around the subject. Each strobe was equidistance from the subject and each reduced by 1/2 power in relation to the one before it. The strobe furthest from the camera (and closest to the sun) was at full power, and the one closest to the camera was at 1/8 power. This allowed the light intensity on the subject to fall off gradually as it wrapped towards the front of the face. They were triggered using the ST-E2. Each subject was captured separately on my 5D and later compiled in Photoshop. I don't want to give away all the details... need to save a few for the Pop Photo article. Fun stuff!!!

Meet Dr. David Shi...

Meet Dr. David Shi... President of Furman University and co-author of the popular textbook America: A Narrative History. Dr. Shi is retiring this summer after 16 years as President, and plans to write another book that he began taking notes on more than 2 decades ago about loneliness in modern American culture... There are days we could all offer him some notes...

It was a very cold and blistery afternoon, the day I was scheduled to shoot Dr. Shi. I had envisioned something outside on the campus, as it is beautiful, but elected for the boardroom next to his office instead. He was a very generous fellow, however I didn't want to consume much of his time. I planned on two similar setups, one with a long lens down the length of the table, and one with a short lens over the width of the table. Dr. Shi was to stop by twice, for just 2+ minutes each.

I used 3 Canon Speedlites and the ST-E2 wireless adapter: two kickers attached to stripboxes, and one with a reflective white umbrella as the key. I generally never have great luck with the ETTL, so I manually set each strobe. As promised, it only took a couple of minutes, though Dr. Shi was nice enough that I think he would have stuck around all day.

Meet Trey Pennington...

Guess which city has the second largest social media club in the world? If I told you it was Grenville, SC, would you believe me? Well, that's the truth! And Greenville has Trey Pennington to thank for it, social media instigator, entrepreneur, writer, father of 6, and a really nice fellow.

I arrived at his office building, very modern - filled with concrete and plexiglass - and began searching for a location. I wandered down to the bottom-most floor which was still under construction, and I immediately saw what I wanted: a mix of old and new... established and soon to be... the cold concrete world juxtaposed with a warm, smiling, "social" face.

One light is all it took... I wanted to match the sunlight coming through the windows, without actually using the sunlight coming through the windows... Control, as they say, is the key... and only God controls the sun. One Canon Speedlite 580, one shoot-thru umbrella, one fancy office chair, one cool dude, and a bunch of chit-chatting...

You can find Trey at treypennington.com, or be one of his 62,000+ tweeters at twitter.com/treypennington. Good luck with his facebook account, he's already maxed out his allowed number of friends!

See the G Magazine article here.

Meet Tom Davis, The Brewmaster... Thomas Creek Brewery

Meet Tom Davis... Tom is the brewmaster of Thomas Creek Brewery in Greenville, SC. Let me tell you, it's good beer.

I shot Tom for G Magazine, along with a few other artisans whom I'll highlight in the coming days... Tom got the best time lapse, so he goes first.

I don't like going into portrait sessions blind, without having scouted the locations beforehand, but that is happening more and more regularly... sadly, it's mostly a result of the economy, having to maximize my time by cramming more into less... and that is what happened here. It all works out, I just stress about it a little more. One of the primary reasons I've been loving this whole editorial lit-portrait thing is it's challenge: the process of starting out with only an idea, a box full of toys, and my two eyes, and inventing an image from scratch. I love the method of brainstorming and executing an original idea with story as intent... that is what makes location portraiture fun for me.

Patrick Cavan Brown :: Commercial and Editorial Photographer :: Asheville NC, Greenville SC

Meet Brandon Raab...

Meet Brandon Raab...

A few years back Brandon and a friend of his, Dave Elmore, started a non-profit foundation on the island of Routan off the coast of Honduras.... it's called SOL (School of Life) International Foundation. They are working to initiate and support community-based programs designed to promote education and increase the quality of life of kids around the island.

Brandon's been a teacher most of his adult life... so I knew I wanted to shoot him in a school-type setting. A few months back I photographed a kid named Summit Jaffe at Asheville Middle School... Since I had already scouted that classroom location, and the folks there were awesome, I figured I would give it another shot. I brainstormed an idea and ran it by Brandon... he was game. I planned to have him write on the whiteboard as if he'd gotten into trouble, but incorporate the idea of making the world a better place... I came up with the phrase "I will not let life go unlived." Sure, unlived might not be a real word, but it's in our lexicon enough to make sense.

One umbrella and two kickers later, I had my shot.

Note to self, try to remember to turn the time-lapse G9 on before the setup is already 1/2 over...

Patrick Cavan Brown :: Editorial and Commercial Photographer :: Asheville, NC

Meet Doc Hendley...

Meet Doc Hendley... Doc is a very original fellow. How many folks do you know who go from bar tending to digging wells in Darfur? Me, only one: Doc.

In 2003 Doc was inspired by learning of massive water shortages in developing countries... so inspired in fact that he began raising money in the bars in which he worked to donate to non-profits for water-well drilling... long story short, a few years later he had his own non-profit (Wine to Water) and has dug 80 wells in 6 developing countries.

I shot Doc's portrait for the October issue of WNC Magazine (get yours at newstands everywhere!) Wine to Water is based out of Boone, NC, where I shot Doc a month or so ago. I drove out there and scouted locations the morning I was to shoot him... I knew I wanted a seedy bar setting and found the perfect one in Murphy's Pub. Mr. Murphy himself was kind enough to let me shoot there despite no advanced warning. I really wanted a smokey look so I bought a pack of cigarettes and lit all 20 at once... big fail! I was instantly hooked, craved 20 more, and didn't even get the effect I tried for... should have used my fog machine...

Check out the video below!

Visit: winetowater.org and donate your $$!!!

Visit: bobbybarejr.com and buy his music!!! (Borrow Your Cape, Bobby Bare Jr.)

Hello, My Name Is... Gabriel Shaffer

Meet Gabriel Shaffer... Gabriel is a mixed media (mostly paint) artist from Asheville, NC. A cool cat, Gabriel's work had the honor of gracing the WNC Magazine cover last month for a neat feature I shot called "On the Verge", highlighting up-and-coming western North Carolina artists. WNC sponsored a fantastic show with these folks... I've already highlighted one previous "On the Verge" artist here on my blog, with more to come.

Check out the Behind-the-Camera-Timelapse below, and the killer layout that Matt Tierney and the great folks at WNC put together.

Music by My Morning Jacket. Buy their songs!!!

Meet Dr. Thomas Kurfess... CU-ICAR

As promised, here is the first of the CU-ICAR portraits... and this one has a bonus, a behind-the-camera time-lapse!

Meet Dr. Thomas Kurfess, the Director of the Campbell Graduate Engineering Center at Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). A super nice guy, he was bound and determined that I make him look cool for his kids... and in my humble opinion, indeed he does look cool!

I don't mind working alone... many of my portraits are simple enough as to where I don't really need an assistant... it always nice to have someone sit in as I set up lights (you'll notice that I am running back and forth shooting myself with the timer), but I kinda like the solitude that a budget sometimes forces me into. This is a 4-light setup... 3 Speedlites up front and an 800-WS monolight back in the room.

Check out the video... the song is "Keep the Car Running" by Arcade Fire.

Meet E Ryan Simmons - Metal Worker, Artisit

Meet E Ryan Simmons... A quiet guy and an amazing artist. He told me that he wants viewers of his work to feel empathy... he wants them to feel sorry for his work and about what they see... a very interesting take... something I'd never heard before... and I like it. Inspired by the natural decay of unnatural things, Mr. Simmons sees real beauty and genius in the old painted walls and doorways of Puerto Rico... always a fan of old doorways, I'd have to agree.

Meet Virginia Uldrick - The Governor's School

Part of a series I shot highlighting artistically influential folks of Greenville, SC.... Virginia Uldrick founded the Governor's School of South Carolina, a boarding school for high school Jr's and Sr's specializing in the arts... music, dancing, theatre... an amazing place. I went to a boarding school long ago, so this was was especially cool to me. I believe they might even have a photography course!

UPDATE: I'd forgoten that I'd made a time-lapse of this shoot... I just found it and put it together... kinda fun. Thanks to Paul Mehaffey for his help setting up!

Meet Gene Berger... Owner, Horizon Records

Meet Gene Berger... Gene's been around Greenville, South Carolina for a while now. He owns the local music store, Horizon Records, and is Greenville's phenom music promoter. Through the years he's brought such names as Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krause, Buddy Guy, and the Indigo Girls to our sleepy little town.

The great folks at G: The Magazine of Greenville hired me to shot a series of portraits to salute Greenville's community of creatives. Gene is the first... I'll post others in the coming days.

Just so happens I shot a little time-lapse of this location portrait shoot.... something that I plan to make a habit. The music is from Mahler's 4th Symphony... the very album that Gene is holding in his arms.

Martindale Police Department

This is the first in a planned series of images that I am producing for a personal project / portfolio project. A few of the shots have already been completed and I will be posting them here ever now and then. See more at my website.

This is the Martindale, Texas Police Department... and awesome bunch of folks who graciously agreed to let me take their portrait.