Night Paper #3: Rainy Rooftop in Williamsburg (NSFW)
Last Friday evening, I completed my third shoot in the Night Paper series. Deepest thanks go to the very courageous models who braved the high-60′s temperatures post-rainstorm atop the 11th floor of a building in south Williamsburg. One was Clara Coquette, a fantastic and talented local burlesque dancer and the other wishes to remain anonymous. You were both amazing, and I thank you. Also big thanks go to my assistant and girlfriend, Mabel, for making many important details happen effortlessly. Mwah!
Here are some favorites from the shoot. More after the jump!
Here are test shots from the fitting:
Night Paper #2: Gymnos in Long Island City (NSFW)
Second in the "Night Paper" series, I present the shoot we did on 8/30/2012 with Gymnos Alitheia, a fantastic creative mind and eager participant. I can't say I've met anyone with his energy and ebullience yet! Thank you, Paul. Also deep thanks go to Mabel for being an awesome PA on this shoot and Jeremiah Sjoberg who joined us as photo assistant. Three digital shots, first being my favorite:
One 4x5" film shot so far - more to scan:
And some test shots from creating this outfit and fitting after the jump.
Test fitting. This shows Paul's creativity - I hand't figured on wearing the paper cape backwards. Great idea.
And here are some shot from Mabes and I scouted the location:
Proud to present: Night Photography + Cut Paper + Nude Model = Start of a massive project
I have been dreaming about this project for nearly 4 years. After spending a lot of time working out mechanics of dressing someone in paper and honing my night exposure abilities, I felt I was ready to make this happen while on art sabbatical in Denver. Enjoy, and look forward to more of this. I intend to make this a gallery show + coffee table book. Shot on location at Barr Lake near Denver International Airport. Special thanks go to Sky Donohue for being creative, professional and brave enough to try this unusual project (Thank you, Sky!). Also I wish to thank Frank McDaniel from MAC Group and Denver Pro Photo Supply for their incredible support from gear to processing film. Deepest thanks!
These first two are really the essence of my vision for this project - dressing nudes in hand-cut paper for long exposures that include star trails and perhaps more. These are digital from my D700. I also shot film with my Mamiya 7II and Toyo VX125. When those are scanned, I will share. Here is one 6x7 - the 4x5" film got blown at the airport :( I am very partial to the film shot, as the hour-long exposure makes the star trails look like rock stars.
After the jump, see some dusk outtakes we worked on while waiting for complete darkness and clouds to clear (which happened around 11pm).
The work involved in making these fashions was very detailed, yet fun. There were many iterations, fittings and start-overs. Here are some BTS photos of the process:
I used a Profoto D1 Air 500 Kit (2 heads) for this plus a Profoto BatPac for power. I decided I wanted very tight control over the light that included harsh, crisp shadows to complement the paper edges that also did not flood the foreground with light. The D1 grids are awesome, but I wanted even more control. So I made my own 30" snoots from roll paper and white gaff tape. What a perfect light!
This kept the light on the model only and allowed the 8-minute (digital) and 1-hour (film) exposures to be filled out by ambient light, not flash.
Stay tuned! This project will continue fora while until I have a body of work for the show and book. Follow me here in the RSS Feed, Twitter or Facebook.
4x5" Film Night Photography in Downtown Denver
I finally got some of my black-and-white 4x5" images back. These are photographs of them, not scans. One is from 4th of July:
Ilford Delta 100, f/11 @ 20 mins.
The following three are from Monday night down not he Platte River under Speen St and 15th St in Denver.
Ilford Delta 100, f/8 @ 16 mins.
Ilford Delta 100, f/11 @ 16 mins.
Ilford Delta 100, f/8 @ 8 mins.
Frisbee Light Writing in Denver at Night
So we're kind mostly settled in here in Denver down at the riverfront. Today we bought a frisbee at REI that has blue LEDs. This image is eight minutes of vigorous tossing about. (pant, pant...) I like the B/W infrared version most (Via DxO's Film Pack 3, Kodak HIE setting tweaked a bit):
I feel like I am in an episode of Bleach. Like.
And here is the color version, that has a beauty of its own - 8x 2-minutes exposures stacked in Ps:
Star Trails in Downtown Salt Lake City
Last night I stayed in Salt Lake City on my way from San Francisco (well, San Francisco to Reno) to Denver. After having some bourbons at Bourbon House (I highly recommend going!), I headed back out to make some night shots in Temple Square.
3-shot HDR to capture the REALLY bright spotlights, mid tones and deep shadows mixed to taste in Silver Efex Pro 2. What look like imperfections in the reflection are actually my 3rd exposure made to get the coins in the reflecting pool.
2-minute exposure. Star trails in a metro downtown. Unheard of!
This is just to the right of the above frame. I love soft water :)
LDS Headquarters. 20x 1-minute exposures stacked in Ps.
Some private time at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
I had the honor of teaching a private night photography workshop at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. We shot all over the 70 acres. Here are a few shots I managed to take between teaching and lighting sessions.
Bannerman Night Photography Revisited.
Gabe and I held our 5th night photography workshop at Bannerman Island and it was the finest night of shooting we've had since that first outing. Glorious. I experimented with star trail stacking with digital and loooooong exposures with my 4x5 film camera.
You can see our students at the bottom of this exposure - walking around with their flashlights. I lit the armory with a Profoto AcuteB and Magnum Reflector with grid. Took about seven "pops" to cover the entire structure.
Looking south towards West Point.
The best accident I've had in a long time. Two hour+ exposures on a single sheet of 4x5 film.
Two D700 digital stacks of 4-6 exposures that were about 8 minutes long.
If you are interested in our second (and final of this year) workshop at Bannerman Island on September 1st, read about how to sign up here.