Attention paddlers and wanna-be paddlers!!!! Visit your local pro-shop and pick up the latest issue of Rapid Magazine! The good folks up there in the nether-regions of North America have always treated me well.
In this latest issue you'll see a kayaking pic a took in Mexico of my friend Ben Kvanli. Ben is an Olympic lunatic who must paddle every day, lest his brain explode. This photograph was made at the Cascada de Tamul. Where the Rio Gallinas and the Rio Santa Maria rivers meet to form the Rio Tampaon, you will find the Cascada de Tamul... a behemoth. Ben, in his infinite wisdom, figured it would be a good idea to try to paddle as close as he could to the falls.... Now Ben is a strong dude... he paddled in the 1996 Olympics when they were in Atlanta (though the kayaking events were held on the Ocoee River in Tennessee), and like I said, it is very rare that Ben goes a day without paddling. Thank heavens he wasn't strong enough to actually make it to the falls... I don't think anyone would be. The air current alone from the downdraft of the thousands of cubic feet of water pouring over that cliff was thankfully enough of a barrier to hinder his self-destructive attempt.... because I guarantee if he made it all the way he would have been pummeled to death by the ferocity of those waters.... boooooo... no one likes it when a friend is pummeled to death.
Anyway... at least the attempt made for a decent photograph. :)
Meet George Hincapie... George has raced in the Tour de France 15 times! He is one of only 2 riders to have raced on 8 winning teams. George currently races on Team BMC and rocks his own line of clothing, Hincapie Sportswear. George is a total badass, and a completely nice guy.
I have had the good fortune to shoot for the good folks at Bicycling Magazine a few times now. When their photo editor, Stacey Emenecker, first called, I hadn't done any real riding in at least 10 years. I found my bike, immediately scraped off the rust, and dropped it off at the shop for a tuneup. They had to replace all the wires, but before you know it my $400 bike was ready to shred (my chicken-legs would be another issue all-together). The first story I shot was just a one page expose of Asheville... they printed only a few pictures, but man had I gone all out! Since then Bicycling has assigned me to shoot various rides and trails in the area, of which I rode and photographed happily. But the kicker came late last year when they asked me to shoot portraits of George Hincapie...
Of one of the upsides to this down economy is the fact that magazines are less willing to fly folks places, and more will willing to look for local photography talent. I'd bet that 5 years ago Bicycling probably would have flown someone in or driven someone up from Atlanta for this shoot, instead of even considering a local shooter.... Thankfully, they asked me, and I was thrilled.
What started out as a mostly fashion shoot morphed into something very conceptually cool: Street George and Racing George... Street George is a bit more relaxed... he rides a top-of-the-line commuter bike and wears casual clothes... he smiles a lot... he is on your level and approachable (notice height of camera - at mid level). Racing George is tougher... he is competitive and fierce... he rides a top-of-the-line racing bike and wears sleek racing clothes... he gazes intently and stands above you, heroic (notice height of the camera - low as can be). Side by side, they are quite the dichotomy... notice even the cross of their arms...
The coolest thing of all: Bicycling printed both as covers!!! Yup, two versions of the same magazine... same on the inside, but different on the outside. So not only did I get my first national cover, but I got it doubled! I was quite thrilled and honored. I can't wait for another Bicycling shoot.
Getting ready to launch a new website.... so if you are in need of a documentary, editorial, commercial, or portrait photographer in or around Asheville, North Carolina or Greenville, South Carolina, visit me!
I never really post just the spreads, but I think I will this time around, because this is one of my all-time favorites. The super talented folks at WNC Magazine whipped this one up. Huge props to Denise Szakaly who just got promoted to Art Director... Yay Denise! As a photographer I've seen my images butchered in a bad spread, and I've seen them flourish in a good one... here you see them thrive.
I was hired to shoot 8 remarkably stylish folks from their fields... theatre, art, architecture, interior design, personal fashion... and I had a lot of fun doing it. I think this is my favorite type of project right now, the location portrait. Sometimes I get to scout, sometimes not, but I always have to show up and figure it all out. It's the greatest form of a puzzle... all the pieces laid out before me, and I get to choose how they go together.
This is a pretty exciting week for me... my very first produced-all-by-myself TV commercial is airing! I am shooting a short series (3?) of :30 spots to promote ASAP - the Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project and MTMA - the Mountain Tailgate Market Association. We are highlighting different farms in the area, folks who sell their food at the tailgate markets. The first farmers profiled are the good folks at Flying Cloud Farm. Annie and her kiddo's were fantastic and Isaiah was the force unseen. Galen Kipar of Asheville, a musician who's played many a tailgate market, supplied the awesome tunes.
Shot on a 5D with a crew of me I learned one thing well, the sucker is not easy to use. One day soon Canon will shove their APS-C sized CMOS sensor into an actual video housing, and that day will be a good day.
Please leave feedback... there is nothing better than good old-fashioned constructive criticism.
Greetings to all! Yes, I know that it has once again been forever and ever since I've posted on this thing called the blog... sometimes I just want to take pictures and forget everything else... I'll try to get better at that.
This is October's issue of Our State Magazine. My first cover for them. Mike Crowe Jr is the Cherokee on the front... an awesome guy, Mike portrays legendary Cherokee warrior Junaluska at Unto These Hills, a spectacular nightly historical performance in Cherokee that I can't recommend highly enough. They allowed me total behind-the-scenes access to the show and I was blown away by the amount of production that goes into it... it was incredible.
Shooting this story for Our State was a somewhat humbling and awakening experience... I'll write more about it, and include some awesome outtakes, in the coming days. In the mean time, I'd say go and see Unto These Hills, but the show ended last month... set aside a few days for 2011 to visit Cherokee, it's worth it.
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.
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.
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.
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... 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.
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...
Who would a' thunk it... Me shooting fashion? Well it happened... and it was a whole lot of fun and didn't turn out half bad.
The shoot was for G Magazine... The editor, Jack Bacot, came to me with the idea of combining fashion and art... in the sense that we'd actually stage the shoot in an art museum. The initial plan was to use the galleries of Bob Jones University... they claim their museum to be "recognized as the finest collection of religious art in America." It is in fact amazing. When asked, they said no... for obvious reasons.
The Greenville County Museum of Art, on the other hand, was willing to assist and absolutely amazing to work with. Mary McCarthy, the media relations director, and her fellow employees were more than helpful. There were some really neat works of art which provided fantastic accompaniment and contrast.
I had some awesome folks backing me up... Mary Ann Sudnick and Taryn Scher styled the whole thing... They were crucial in the selection and pairing of the clothing to the art pieces. Karen West came in from Charlotte for the hair and makeup. These images are as much theirs as they are mine.
Matt Tierney, Paul Mehaffey, Sally Morris, and Jay Vaughn were also more than crucial to the entire project... a big thanks to everyone. You can see the rest of the images and the story here at G's Website.
She is a young lady, early twenties, and has already made a bigger dent in 3rd world malnourishment than most of us will with a lifetime of participation in "...only 30 cents a day..." charities. Angel Cruz spends her days in El Salvador teaching folks how to develop successful community farms.
It was a rainy day, the day we were slated to shoot her portrait. I met Angel at a coffee shop in Burnsville, NC. I had scouted a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm called FireFly Farm; Angel knew the owners and they were gracious enough to allow us to shoot there. I wandered around the grounds looking for an awesome (dry?) place to shoot... what I found was not dry (look closely and you can see the raindrops!). The saving grace of shooting battery-powered small portable strobes (Canon Speedlites), is that they fit inside of ziplock bags. I wrapped my camera in my raincoat, sacrificed my warm dry clothing, asked Angel to stand patiently in the rain, and with 2 kickers and 1 umbrella I had my shot.
Please visit Angel's blog and show your support to a damn cool chica.
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... 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...
Meet Chef Keith Snow... An internet video pioneer in the realm of farm-to-table seasonal cooking, Chef Snow lives out in the hills not too far from me. He's got a small farm, a couple of horses, a raised-bed garden on the side of his house, and a kitchen filled with his children's laughter, good food, and a bunch of Arri hot lights (I used my speedlights).
Chef Snow started with a website HarvestEating.com, and after a few years of being a slave to HTML, he's now gets to live inside Tivos... PBS picked him up for a series starting this fall.
I shot this for the fine folks of WNC Magazine out of Asheville... I'm always grateful when they throw work my way!
It's official... I've been here a year... yee haa!
It isn't often that you get to shoot one of your best friends for a national magazine (Canoe & Kayak)... and it isn't often that someone deserves it as much as Michelle does.
Michelle is a professional kayaker and one of the most honest, generous, and genuine people on the planet. Her and her husband, Ben Kvanli (1996 Olympian paddler), run a non-profit kayak instruction school in San Marcos, Texas, Red River Racing and KayakInstruction.org. They have introduced thousands of folks to paddling over the years (I have taught many a class with them)... they coach a Jr. Olympic team (awesome kids!!!)... and also run a kayak rehab program for veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Michelle has spent much of the past year training and competing around the country, and after recovering from successful shoulder surgery has had her best competition year yet. Michelle placed first in the U.S. open division at the NOC, and took 3rd at the team trials in Durango.
I encourage you read more by clicking on the tear-sheet above, or just head over to KayakInstruction.org and learn to paddle with Michelle in the spring fed 72 degree waters of the San Marcos River.
I've sold this photo a number of times, and each time I sell it I make less and less $$. This time it was to Rapid Magazine out of Canada... they produce a great product for the whitewater paddling community and have purchased a number of images from me in the past. But what has this wonderful economy and dwindling print market brought us? A rapid depreciation in the amount of cash I can make in the editorial market. Not only was it chump change from this 1/2 page image, but it was in Canadian Dollars... which means after converting it to US Dollars and eating the fee associated, I made about enough money for a cheap dinner (sans the bottle of wine) and a matinee movie for me and mi chica... which we are going to blow watching District 9 and eating egg-rolls at PF Chang's tonight!
BTW... The image was taken on the San Marcos River in San Marcos, Texas... we've got a new whitewater kayaking park there in that spot, but we didn't even make this list! The irony...
Wanna learn to paddle? See my friends Ben and Michelle Kvanli at KayakInstruction.org in San Marcos, Texas.
Meet Summit Jaffe... Summit is 13 years old and a musical whiz kid. He's got a real talent for using instruments and computers to create a very cool sound... and he is a very cool kid.
I brainstormed the concept for a few days before getting in touch with Summit and his mom... Asheville Middle School was gracious enough to allow us in for a few hours one morning... it's summer time, so the place was empty. This particular full-bleed single-page layout in the magazine requires the image be 1/2 negative space... I figured the white ceiling of the hallway would be a nice way to make some.
Utilizing my traveling pack of 4 Canon strobes and an 800WS mono-light I threw this one together with the assistance of Summit himself... it's turned out to be one of my faves... though I wish I had rearranged the desktop slightly...
Make sure to read the article published by the awesome folks at WNC Magazine.
Meet Philip Curry... Owner / founder / president of Astral Buoyancy. If you are a paddler, chances are you own one of his PFDs (Personal Flotation Device)... prior to forming Astral, Philip started Lotus Designs, now owned by Patagonia. Philip is a kayaker and started Lotus out of the frustration of not being able to find a comfortable and maneuverable paddling PFD. He picked up sewing in college and made his first few life jackets by hand. Philip met his wife, Linda, a seamstress, and together they made the first professional samples which he sold at paddling shops. I talked to Philip's mom the other day (she got my number from the magazine and called for a copy of the portrait)... she told me how in the early days even she would cart the jackets around and sell them from the truck of her car. The rest is history now... Lotus, and now Astral, are the biggest and most innovative PFD designers in the business.
This was shot for the great folks at WNC Magazine. They've got me shooting the "Local Seen" segment each month, which I love... there isn't anything much more fun than a conceptual portrait. The Asheville YMCA was kind enough to shut down their pool for an hour in the middle of the day for us. I was only yelled at by one patron, though quite a few were unhappy about not being able to swim in their favorite pool (though there are two pools). I dropped a blue backdrop into the water, used battery operated strobes (stands in the water), underpowered everything to get get a nice shallow depth of field, and got myself nice and wet. Kudos to the YMCA, and to Philip for jumping through hoops with me! Gracias!
On a side note... still no more time-lapses... haven't gotten the G9 fixed yet... but this would have been a good one!
Who would a' thunk it... Me shooting 
The shoot was for 
The 
Matt Tierney, Paul Mehaffey, Sally Morris, and Jay Vaughn were also more than crucial to the entire project... a big thanks to everyone. You can see the rest of the images and the story here at 
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