Micah 

Travis 

Gabe 

Vic 

On Location: Salvage Yard Photography

A colleague and pro photographer, Jon Lamborn of NailwoodGraphix, recently invited me along on a photoshoot of the Travis Lee Band http://www.travisleeband.com/home.html.

This photoshoot was done at a salvage yard. It was actually a relief to me to discover when I arrived that we were shooting the band without their instruments. The reason I say this is because I've shot guitarists before and the horizontal orientation of the guitar with a vertical person makes tight shots a real challenge. For this session we had the four professional band members and a lot full of wrecked cars to work with. To make it even better it was late in the day and the sun was low in the sky, providing an evening glow that surfaced the heart and soul of these fabulous musicians in their eyes.

Three photographers participated:

Jon Lamborn, with an extensive background in portrait and graphics photography, shooting with a Nikon D50 and, in addition to other lenses, a fisheye lens. Jon did a great job of group shots incorporating props and the theme of the new CD, high risk.

Nancy Lebbing, a wedding photographer with a great eye for detail shooting with a Canon film camera (sorry Nancy, I forgot which model you had).

Myself, Kathy Denton, shooting with a Canon 20D and a 28-135 lens. I'm pretty proud of some of the closeups through the broken glass, but really everyone did a fantastic job and having professionals who know how to model made it easy and fun.

If you've heard the band play or linked over to the band's web site you know who they are already. If you haven't heard them play, you must get a CD and be transfixed. They are fabulous, and that is an understatement.

I'd just like to add a couple personal observations that might help you out in portrait photography.

We were working outdoors and although the wind wasn't very strong, it did have it's way with hair. In some cases it worked to our advantage, pushing a strand of hair near an eye, emphasizing two attributes. On the other hand in one shot one of Travis' curls stood straight up. Jon would say, photoshop it, not a big deal. Well, Jon's better at photoshop than I am. I had other shots that were better so I worked with those. I really liked the way a shattered dirty window diffused the light to highlight Travis' hair and features.

A couple of the guys wore T-shirts with something written on them. They probably weren't an issue, but considering how touchy people are about copyrights these days, as much as we all liked that Gabe's shirt proclaimed him to be a ping-pong champion, I chose closeups that left out that "fact" (ok, Gabe admitted he isn't really a ping-pong champion). Nancy on the other hand, got some nice close ups of the shirts. Anyway, if you are shooting portraits you might want to get some shots without logos just to avoid issues later. My favorite shots of Gabe were close ups with light depicting contrast, his serious expression seems focused on his rhythm, his work, his music, and his dedication to God.

Vic wears a hat that casts a shadow. Not a big deal but if you are working with hats, remember to use fill flash or have the model tilt the hat back enough to reveal those great eyes. The eyes tell the story behind the person. Vic's eyes are intriguing, each line a chapter in a story alluded to in his face. The full story lies within. The photographer may never get there, to busy shooting to cover that much ground, but the photograph should take the viewer to the doorstep, seeking more.

Micah was a lot of fun and did a great job of putting himself into the situation. When you are photographing people, try to get a variety of expressions to use for various messages you want to send. To do this ask the model to think of themselves in a given situation and watch their face transform to meet the thought. Then nail the shot before the fleeting moment gets away. Micah did a great job of expressing the emotions of a young adult, both fun and tragic. Whatever you get from a model, the end product should depict the individual's personality.

Here are a few shots from the salvage yard. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them, and I hope I've done justice to the band. That's their call.

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Lion gaze 

Killer Tiger 

Ruby Hummer 

Photography Adventure: Big Cats

A few weeks ago I visited a large cat rescue center near Terre Haute Indiana http://www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org/home.html. I never saw so many lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, and a variety of other cats, in one place. It was a great experience. The other thing that made it exciting was the fact that the cats were so close. Instead of the cats being separated from visitors by giant motes like my zoo has, they were in yards with chain link fences, so close you could look deep into their eyes just inches from them in some cases.

The cats in the rescue center were there for a variety of reasons. Some were rescued from owners that didn't care for them properly. Some didn't care for their owners properly, that is, they killed their trainers. In some cases when you were looking into the eyes of a man-eater you knew it. And they let you know it also. I like to get pictures of animals at their eye level. That always makes a more imposing, and respectful shot than one where you are looking down at the animal. In order to do this, I frequently squat down and poke my small lens through the fence. More than one cat decided that I looked like easy prey. One tiger was taking a bath and he sprung up out of the water, Shot up over my head and gave me a huge shower as he hit the fence. I got a blurry shot of his chest. Another tiger was pacing and each time he emerged from the woods, about 25 feet away from me, his eyes locked on me and within seconds his massive body hit the fence with so much force it bowed outward several inches. I was always able to get away from the fence in time to avoid the impact, but just barely. His persistence and power were amazing. I'm posting his picture coming out of the woods just as his gaze locks on to me. Each time that was my signal to flee because it only took him a few seconds to cover the distance once that occurred. I'm sure a human would have no chance of escaping a charging cat if there were no fence to stop the advance.

The other pic I'm posting is a beautiful lion. He was resting against the fence and obliged the lens with intent curiosity.

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