Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 15mm, F 16, ISO 100, HDR, 1 Exposure

Everyone, meet Bob.  I met Bob through the wonders of Twitter.  I found his HDR work and was totally impressed.  It’s not that often that I find a photographer whose eye and processing style is so close to mine.  In other words, when I look at a lot of Bob’s shots, I know that I’d shoot it and process it almost exactly the same.  And so, I reached out to him and the rest is history.  Bob and I have been on several fantastic shoots and each one brings a lot of good images and great times.

It’s not often anymore that I process an HDR from a single exposure and it’s even rarer that I process people in HDR.  But, I felt that it was somewhat apt for this shot.  This is the Stone Mill and the only reason why I have this shot is because of Bob.  So, thank you, Bob.

And the coolest thing about this shot is that you can actually see the results of Bob’s composition right here!

It all started with Twitter.  Well, to be more specific, it all started with acclaimed photographer, Jack Hollingsworth, embracing Twitter and seeing the potential of its marketing power.  Jack shares his knowledge and insight around the professional photography and marketing industries within the confines of 140 characters and with such tenacity that it is nearly impossible not to be pulled into his orbit.

After some time, I started corresponding with Jack about all sorts of items involving the aforementioned topics.  And here is what makes Jack such a fantastic person to know… he always responds with insight.  For as busy as he can be, he takes care in acknowledging you.  And this struck a chord with me.

So, it was no surprise that when Jack asked if there were any Boston-based photographers who would be interested in assisting in a demo shoot for him, I immediately threw my name in. And so, Jack asked me to join him for a weekend-long shoot at his Cape Cod studio.  In his own words, it was a photography love-fest at its finest.

Jack had assembled a veritable A-Team of photographers and a videographer to assist with the shoot.   The team included our Director of Photography, Ben Eckstein, his grip, Chris Conti, our social media assistant, Keegan Hobson, and myself as the tech grip.  We were also joined by some veterans of the game, all friends of Jack, including Michael Skeggs and Glenn Bacci.

The details were straight forward.  We would chronicle the behind-the-scenes happenings of this commercial demo that Jack had orchestrated.  We had everything that you’d expect to find in a professional shoot – both studio and on-location sets, beautiful and handsome models, props, and enough photography gear to stock one of B&H’s supply rooms (thanks hugely in part to LensProToGo, Westcott, and Calumet)

Out of the 48 or so hours that I was there, I slept for about 10.  The rest of the time was spent either setting up, breaking down, or making some sort of adjustments to the sets.  We had our DP, Ben, shooting DSLR video the entire time w/his Canon 7D.  Keegan was letting the world get a look inside the production via Twitter, TwitPic and TwitVid.  Chris assisted with the overall production.  I was involved with the lighting and technical setup.  And Jack, well, he was the man with the camera.  He conducted his set with the precision and care that I assumed, but never actually saw, of a seasoned pro.

About a week before the shoot, Jack reached out and asked if I would shoot some HDRs of the sets, both indoor and outdoor.  He expressed interest in using the final results as part of this demo shoot.  Immediately, I knew that this was going to be a rock solid weekend.  Jack was very kind when he introduced me to the various people who showed up, each time playing up my HDR work.  It was very humbling and it made me want to knock these images out of the park.  Between the studio space and the various beach locales that we shot at, Jack provided me with plenty of ways to get creative with my brackets.  There was even some downtime in between wardrobe changes for me to show some of the other photographers how I go about processing my HDR images.  In the end, I think I came away with some great shots (I hope!), all of which will make their way on the blog and, hopefully, within Jack’s final products.

Now, you may be wondering what Jack is like to work with.  Let me try to answer that by telling you about the first 10 minutes of my arrival.  I park my car, knock on the door, and am greeted by a handshake and a warm smile.  Jack and I sit down and within two minutes, he is asking me about my photography.  My goals.  My aspirations.  My HDR.  He is asking about me.  And, he is listening, synthesizing, and fashioning a rapport.  He is one of the most approachable and structured people that I’ve ever met.  There is no pretense to the man.  He is a master photographer and marketer.  He doesn’t pretend to be better than anyone else and he wholly understands the importance of aligning himself with those who are better at certain tasks than he may be.

By the end of the 2.5 day shoot, I felt like I had known Jack for years.  And when I asked myself how that could be, it really boiled down to this: Jack is a guy who takes photography, and not himself, seriously.  It really is just about the love of photography and I can relate to that.  He’s been in the game for 30 years and the love of his craft has only grown.  He understands that photographers as a whole… we are greater than the sum of our parts.  Collectively, it takes a village to make wonderful things happen and I am proud to be one of the villagers.

All in all, I am very fortunate.  I got to meet and work alongside some extremely talented folks, all of whom I would be happy & lucky to shoot with again.  I also got to learn from a photographer whom I greatly admire.  Not bad for a random winter weekend, I say.

I look forward to more adventures with Jack.

To Ben’s, Keegan’s, and Chris’ experiences from this shoot, check out their blog entries below:

Ben’s Entry

Keegan’s Entry

Chris’ Entry

Cheers,

Brian

I am pretty sure (but not 100% so) that if you were walking with me during one of my jaunts around the city, you wouldn’t hear me utter phrases like “Ok, tilt your head about three inches to the left” or “That’s great, you look great” or “Give me angry”.  It’s no secret that I have an affinity for shooting the more stoically available urban landscapes and architecture.  It’s not that I don’t like shooting people (puns, you silly things), it’s more that the eye I have developed (pun, for 2!) is more apt to shooting an alleyway than a pin-up.

So, whenever I have the opportunity to break out of my shell and do some portrait/model photography, I’m all over it.  This was the case a few weeks ago when my good friend and even better photographer, Doug Levy, invited me to participate in a strobist-style shootout at the great LensProToGo.  The premise is pretty straight forward: show up at LensProToGo’s massive studio space, set your gear up to any one of the  model stations (already configured with every studio strobe, softbox, octobank, and modifier known to man), grab a model, and go get creative.

It was nice to see a few familiar faces that I had met in previous workshops, but despite not being totally the odd man out, I did feel far out of my comfort zone.  I understand the technical premise of light, I just haven’t developed a knack for sculpting it on the fly.  So, I decided that for the first few hours, I’d hang back.  Take more of an assistant role and help out with the positioning and powering of the lights.  This worked out well for me, especially because the other photographers were more than fostering and made sure to help me understand what they were doing and why.

After lunch, I felt that I had mustered enough nerve to begin my own shooting.  I started off with Amanda.  I knew that I wanted to go for a hi-key glamor shot with her so I positioned a huge softbox directly behind her so that it would blow out the background and wrap around her hair and shoulders a bit.  I also added some fill to bring back some depth in her face.  After a wardrobe change, I decided to do some more fashion-style shooting and lit it accordingly.

Next up was Casey.  Earlier on, Doug had set up a station outside in the mid-noon sun to shoot Casey on a loading dock.  I took the opportunity to fire off a few of my own shots while Doug was making his own adjustments.  It’s really nice to be able to sync up to about 1/8000 of a second if you need to drop the bright sun down a few stops.  I really like how Casey’s makeup is complimented by the colors in the background.

Finally, it was time for Artist.  Not much that I can say about Artist except that he is the man.  In terms of a photographer wanting a model who doesn’t need tons of direction and can be as versatile as you want, you do not have to look farther than Artist.  I was glad that I had the opportunity to capture a few of his different facets.  He plays each one so well.

In the end, I rotated each of these three models in front of the amazing ring light setup that was available for use.  Needless to say, having a nice ring of specular catch light adds a very unique dimension to your shot.  It also provides a very pleasing and even light on your subject.  I was really happy with how those turned out.

I finally had the opportunity to start processing the finalists from this shoot a few days after the LensPro event.  When I was done, I sent the images over to Doug for his critique.  While he was most generous with his words, he did make a point that resonated with me.  He called out the fact that just about each shot has a pretty different processing look.  He said that, while there is nothing wrong with it, when shooting people, he doesn’t deviate from the styles that he has worked hard to craft and create consistency around.  That made sense to me.  It was feedback that would surely stay with me, especially when I have the opportunity to process more portrait work.

All in all, I was really glad that I went to this shootout.  I broke out of my comfort zone, met some more amazing photographers, and came away with a few nice shots that are pretty different than what you will normally find in these parts.  I guess it further proves that you don’t have to be this type or that type of photographer.  You just have to be a photographer.

Cheers,

Brian

Technical Notes:

All of these portraits were shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a combination of the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM.  Both provided really nice, shallow DoF and provided a nice, pleasing perspective for these models’ faces.