The Eyes and Ears - Interview

I was contacted recently by The Eyes and Ears to discuss my work. I love talking about photography and it was nice to be on the other side of the interviewer's desk for once. It's good to periodically stop and look back.

If you're interested, I discussed this shoot with Brooke Waggoner, photographing my heroes, and the value of baby steps.

Article here.

Mick Jagger visits Nashville

When The Rolling Stones came through town earlier this year, I got to meet Mick Jagger during his private tour of The Parthenon. I was impressed by how engaged he was during the tour, and how gracious he was to all of us. Here is the photo from that visit.

I am thankful that he allowed me to take this, although I had to promise to let his folks review it before publishing. Given the situation and the private nature of his visit, that was completely understandable. Fortunately, they liked it - so here it is.

Mixed Lighting for Fashion - Nashville Photo Shoot

Recently did a photo shoot just outside of Nashville that utilized a lot of mixed lighting. These were shot in mid-afternoon sun, bright enough to cast deep shadows. We balanced that by using strobes and I wanted to share the process and the results. 

Stephanie was willing to climb up onto a tree branch and wait. I used a gridded softbox, high camera left to light her face and fill the front somewhat. The natural light coming through the trees did the rest and I embraced the lens flare. To enhance that, I had [hair / makeup artist] Amanda pull some leaves close to the edge of the lens. They caught the light and added some of the edge glow you see. Very little Photoshop on this image. 

Since we were at the lake, we continued over by the water. This image was taken with Stephanie facing the sun. Still had the bright glaring sunlight, but I wanted to underexpose the background. I used a neutral density filter to allow me to darken it all down, while keeping my settings where I wanted them. With a .06, I could shoot at ISO 100, f5.6 and stay under sync speed. This way, I had a dark background with shallow depth of field, and I could control the strobe. The light was a beauty dish, high camera right. I wanted the punchiness of the beauty dish with a rapid fall-off. It was close to Stephanie, with a diffusion sock, so the shadow transitions are still soft.

Ok, it wasn't super cold, but it wasn't that warm either. Stephanie was a champ, and managed to look relaxed. Again, these were facing the sun, which was now low on the horizon, and shot with a beauty dish. In this case, we left the strobe on shore, so it was a little further away. I had to be very careful with the ratios to prevent them from looking like they were hit with a flashlight. The last one, for example, had a lighter background, which was partially necessary because I had the flash so much further away.
 

I would argue that even if you don't like the look of these, they at least demonstrate the value of understanding strobes. They could not have be done with 100% natural light or a reflector. Don't rob yourself of creative possibilities.

This also wouldn't have been possible without a really talented model and hair / makeup artist. The jewelry, etc, was on loan from a local designer. It's essential to have a team like this if you want to get higher level results.

#nashvillephotoshoot #nashvillethebeautiful

Behind the Scenes - Nashville Photo Shoot

Our recent photo shoot in East Nashville was captured by Unwritten Pictures. Her work is amazing and I'm so glad to finally have something that shows what we do. Be on the lookout for much more video work from her in the future. Also, it features a really superb song by k.s. rhoads.



BTS with Jon Karr from Unwritten Pictures on Vimeo.

Band Photo Shoot with: The Vespers

As part of a feature for New York Minute Magazine, I did a short photo shoot with The Vespers. I was fortunate enough to be invited to their studio space, which is a very cool spot. I've seen them perform multiple times, and I'm always more impressed each time. For the review, I got a pre-release copy of their latest album, Sisters and Brothers, and I've been wearing it out. I expect really great things from these folks.

The interview is here.

The Vespers