Category Archives: Photo Shoots

Shoots I have done, both commercial and artistic

Preparing for museum show…

The final sprint to complete all of the work I need to have finished for the graffiti show in the Brevard Art Museum, Under Pressure on May 16th continues. I use a printer in New York, Ken Allen Studio, to print all my work, his quality is second to none.  I have opted for this show to use large size images. The smallest of the 9 images I will display at this event will be 20 inches by 30 inches. I have two panoramic shots of work by Cynic and Slow, they are 72 inches wide by 24 inches tall may largest images to date.

Ruby Rocket

I met Ruby Rocket in 2007.  We had shot together before and liked to work with each other. She had been working on a cos play outfit of the character Black Cat. We shot on a parking garage roof in down town Orlando. I found I really like to shoot on the roof of a parking garage. A wide open space to move around, fresh air. Just have to watch out for rain storms and police. The shoot when really well and we both where very happy with the results. 

I few months later I get a note from Ruby about the images being used on the Maxum Site. I was flattered that they would want to use my images. Just proves you never know how far you can go…

 

Ruby Rocket as the Back Cat

Ruby Rocket as the Back Cat

Graffiti session with Slow & Deps

I am preparing for a museum show in May. I met up with graffiti artists Slow and Deps to get some video and stills for the show.

Shoots with graffiti artist is very different that shooting models. I interact a great deal with models. With a model I would instruct them were to stand, how to pose. When shooting a street artist I stand in the shadows and let them work. We speak very little, they slip into their zone and I try to show them working.

Cynic photo shoot

This is a shoot I did while watching Cynic paint a piece. He invited me to participate with his crew in a museum show that will be in May. This series is in preparation for that show.

I wanted to approach the shoot with the idea of showing the painter in the urban element.  Simply snapping a few pictures of someone in front of a wall has been done. I want to show relation of the painter, wall and enviroment. The first shots I was just not feeling, there where at best I would call bland. As the sun began to set the light was fading and decided to drag out my portable strobes (Hensel Porty) to throw some more light on the wall.

With the strobes set up I started to get closer to the look I wanted, I placed the strobes close to the wall to “skip” the light off the texture of the wall. I placed a small second strobe on the ground behind the paint can crate. The allowed me to control the light and focus it on the area of interest. There is no photoshoping in the light, there is some minor tweaking done in Apple Aperture.

Graffiti writing…

I have been tagging along with a local crew of graffiti artist. I accompanied Cynic to a local secret location. He was working on a quick piece and I was along to shoot the painting process.  This was an interesting shoot for me. At first the images I was getting was just not hitting the mark for me. I was just not feeling I was really capturing the feeling of the moment. I wanted to capture the lone artist quickly working in this environment. When I shoot an artist I do very little interaction as to setting up a shot. I try to remove myself from their space to allow them to work naturally. I want my presences to minimally effect there work.

Cynic painting at dusk, John Sluder Photography