The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Halloween is the best holiday there is. Nope, you aren’t going to fight me on this. Halloween totally kicks Christmas’s butt.  What is better than costumes and candy?

Nothing.

Since I moved to LA almost 8 years ago, I’ve made it a point to bring a camera out with me on Halloween whenever possible. I load up the ole Pentax K1000 with high speed (3200) black and white film and try my darndest to focus in the dark.

Here are a few faves from over the years:

 


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Beverages

During my workshop I’ve come to realize I really like shooting liquids. I collaborated with a classmate today and we had a blast catching the different water patterns.  Here is my first attempt at capturing some split second splashes.

 

 

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Food and Still Life Lighting Workshop

I’ve been spending this week at the Maine Media Workshops taking Food and Still Life Lighting Techniques with Judd Pilossof. The class has been great so far – I’m learning a lot.  I’m realizing how difficult it is to shoot food and how Judd makes it look easy because his images are awesome.  We shot an assignment in Camden, Maine at The Hartstone Inn.  Chef Michael Salmon provided us with beautiful dishes that we had the opportunity to eat after the shoot.

 

 

 

 

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Fine Toothed Gnome

Just wanted to share a poster I just did for my comedy duo friends – Fine Toothed Gnome. I used a screengrab from the French children’s show “Telefrancais.”  We used to have to watch it in 7th grade French class.  The only French I have remembered to this day, is the show’s theme song.

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Really Real?

I wasn’t quite getting the visual results I was hoping for with the light streaks so I decided to put that idea on hold and focus on images I could make using the mannequin. During Christmas vacation I packed Ginger in my car and drove up to the Griffith Observatory.  I expected the masses to be out of town, but I was wrong. I drove around Griffith Park until I found a quiet spot down the road from two older gentlemen immersed in a game of chess. After I got out of the car to begin putting Ginger together, I saw a coyote wander by across the street.  “Please don’t eat me,” I whispered as it walked off into the woods.

I dragged Ginger’s limbs out of the car and built her on a hillside piece by piece.  As I clicked on her last arm I heard loud growls coming from the top of the hill in the direction I was shooting.  I stood for a moment and tried to figure out if it was a wild animal or someone messing with me.  In the event of a mountain lion attack I had devised a plan: run.  I was parked nearby so I could hop in the car, lock the doors, and leave Ginger to fend for herself.

Luckily no wild animals made an appearance so I continued with the shoot.  I decided to shoot digital and film in tandem.  The digital format allowed me to frame for a rectangle and the medium format film for a square.  It was a fun exercise to frame for both shapes.  I found I could get very different images of the same subject matter with both cameras. Also, I liked to compare the differences in color and tonal range.

film

digital

When I showed some people the digital version of this image they asked if the mannequin had been added photoshop.  I prefer to shoot elements in an environment than to composite afterward – plus I don’t have the skills to make it look authentic in Photoshop.  Though this made me question how people perceive images and photography in this digital age.  Since anything can be fabricated in the digital post production realm (which is an art of its own) we tend to be skeptical of visual authenticity.

One of my favorite photographers, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, shoots amazing self portraits that aren’t digitally altered.  The image you see is the one captured on his negative.

Is our viewer experience affected by an image’s perceived authenticity?

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