Intimate Moments

For our final assignment before beginning our internships, James asked us to produce a portfolio piece using some of the lighting techniques he's taught us this semester. We were encouraged to seek out something we were interested in, a series we wanted to work on etc. so here we are again with some of my favorite models. Out takes to follow!

An Artist at Work

This slideshow was also made for our Multimedia class. We were asked to find someone we did not know well with an interesting story to share. Through sound and photographs we attempted to tell this story (or at least part of it) in 3 minutes. Julie was very welcoming and fun and I hope I've done her justice!

Community Fun

Here is the slideshow made for our Multimedia class about the Green Bean in downtown Greensboro. We were supposed to capture sound and photos to demonstrate the idea of community through location. All photographs and sound by Jessica Benton and myself. Many thanks to Harvey Robinson and Matty "Sheets" Sadowski for providing us with original and inspiring music.

Diet Coke Induced Nightmare

This shot was done for an assignment for James in which he wanted us to try to re-create an advertising image. The longer I spent on this the more I realized there was probably nothing in the actual ad that was close to reality from the can to where the shadows fell. Four or five hours spent in the studio followed by hours and hours and hours of retouching resulted in this image which is not necessarily that close to the original.


Shot on Hasselblad
w/Phase One back

Mr. Photography

Our second assignment for Advertising Photography this week was to shoot a commercial headshot of Chuck on one of the medium format cameras with a digital back. Chuck was quite patient while I fumbled around with the Leaf back and tried to maintain a conversation and get a good shot at the same time. I quickly remembered why I didn't go into the Portrait concentration although I actually really like shooting people if I can ever get the lights and everything else under control. You may now note the family resemblance between Chuck and his son Greg who is featured in a previous post.


Shot on Mamiya 645
w/ Leaf back
120 mm lens
f18 1/125

Family Jewels

Shooting jewelry on large format cameras with chrome ain't easy, folks. This was my third attempt. Our assignment for Advertising Photography was to shoot jewelry close-up and make it "dazzling". This necklace belonged to my aunt and maybe my grandmother before that so I hope I did it justice.



Set up involved two Broncolors (one with a grid and one with a snoot), a black panel for the background and lots and lots of time (and barely enough patience).

Shot on Sinar 4x 5
Fuji Provia
iso 100
f8 1/125

Multimedia, Baby!

In John's class last week we were instructed to go out into the world and gather images and sounds for a photo story. After a rather unsuccessful attempt in downtown Asheboro, Jessica Benton and I headed to the NC Zoo where, lo and behold, we found all of our classmates doing the very same thing. We then had to throw it all together using Soundslides and Audacity and post it within a few hours. Here are the results.


Photos shot by me on Nikon D2x
Audio recorded by Jessica Benton on Zoom Recorder

Mr. Soccer

For our joint project with the Graphic Design students, my partner and I decided to do an ad campaign for Nike. The campaign centers around soccer cleats worn here by their owner and soccer player extraordinaire, Greg Egerton. Ultimately Greg will be placed on a black background and text will be placed to his left so please disregard the current background and shadows.


Shot on Nikon D2x
f22 @ 1/200

3 lights were used for this shot although the speedo pictured on the right here was actually on the other side for this particular shot.

Hello Mr. Flare

James had us re-shoot our outdoor flash projects this week. I wanted to try using flash at night and come up with something completely different than last week. This is definitely different.

Shot on Nikon D2x
f5.6 1/125
iso 200
rear curtain flash

Just Desserts

Our first Commercial assignment this semester was to create an appetizing photo of a dessert that gave a sense of place and time. We all quickly learned how crucial yet difficult composition and styling can be in these shots. My set-up was very basic. I used one Broncolor shot through a large diffusion screen off to the back left of the shot and a fill card on the right side. The white panel created a bright background.

Shot on Leaf Aptus
Mamiya RB 645
f11 1/8

Good Ladies

For our lighting class with James this week our assignment was to practice with flash outdoors to "enhance reality". Jessica Benton and I headed to downtown Asheboro to make the magic happen. Although our first attempts weren't great, Jessica's shot makes me laugh so I thought I'd include it here. Ashley Ross was my kind subject on Saturday and we were lucky enough to be on Tate Street in Greensboro in some early evening light. Lovely models, great photographers and generally good ladies, the both of 'em.

Top shot:
Nikon D2X
f8 1/250

Bottom shot:
Nikon D2X
f7.1 1/250

Garnish is Good For You

This shot was for a final self-promo assignment this semester. I wanted to do a sort of non-food food shot. I was hoping to emphasize how people (especially Americans) often eat everything on their entire plate, but leave the garnish untouched. The lighting may leave a bit to be desired, but this is actually pretty close to how I visualized it.



Shot on Mamiya RZ67 w/ Sinar back
f4 @ 1/8
one broncolor with softbox

More RCC in NYC

A few more...

RCC In The Big Apple

Here are a few beginning shots from our trip to New York City this weekend. Most of us started off with very little sleep due to an early Wednesday morning flight and never really caught up while we were there! I think it's safe to say we all learned a lot, saw a lot, met a lot of photographers, talked to tons of people about RCC and generally had a grand old time in the city that never sleeps. Many thanks to RCC for giving us this opportunity which we hope will bring many new students and potential internships to our beloved school.

Tiny Soldiers

This was shot for one of our final Self-Promos for the semester. As I was shooting the soldiers in various lines and set-ups, the sun started coming through the window behind them which made for many fun shadows. I shot several looking down on their heads which made interesting patterns with the light, but I thought ultimately the viewer would want to be able to see their faces. This was a combination of flash, natural light and fill cards.

Shot on Nikon D1X
f7.1 1/25
ISO 200

Fashion in Greensboro

This is my wonderful friend Lauren who was kind enough to model for me on a 95 degree day in Greensboro. Not only is she beautiful, but Lauren has a fun personality and an impeccable sense of style which made my job easier than it might have been otherwise. Our assignment was to produce ten photos for an aspiring model's portfolio showing a variety of warrobe changes and locations. It was somewhat insane in the limited time we had, but in the end was lots of fun and actually reminded me that even as lowly second year photography students, we might be capable of more than we think.

Barbie and the Fish

I've been wanting to shoot this fish for a while. After recently spending time with my nine year old niece (who has a very serious Barbie collection) and visiting my childhood home for two weeks, I realized that I needed Barbies to make my vision complete! This shot was done for one of our Self-Promo Assignments in which we can basically do anything we want as long as we plan and sketch it out ahead of time. I shot this at home with two White Lightnings and a yellow gel. The fish and the Barbie were a joy to work with and needed very little direction from me.

Rotary, Baby!

I found this phone at the Antique Mall in downtown Asheboro. This called out to me from the endless rooms of treasures. It made me happy on a lot of levels (good old rotary phone memories, the color red, etc.) and I wanted to shoot it in a clean, crisp way to emphasize the lovely circular design that is lost on modern phones. It was suggested in our critique that the shot might have been better had I used more dramatic lighting or set up an old-fashoned office sort of feel with a desk lamp, etc. I can certainly see how that might have added to the shot, although this is sort of how I imagined it initially.

Lifestyle Assignment

This is one of my shots from our Lifesyle Assignment in Commercial. We had to shoot natural looking shots of people with computers. The shots were supposed to show an interaction between the subjects and present a pleasant, "lifestyle" sort of mood. For this particular shot I used mostly natural light with a soft box off to the right side as fill. "Mystery", the neighbor's cat, only wanted to hang out for a few shots, but we managed to pull off a few before he left.



Another shot from our Lifestyle Assignment. One of the objectives was to get a clear image on the computer screen, which can slow down your shutter speed dramatically. For this shot I had a softbox set up at the top of the stairs pointing down on my models and natural light coming through the windows. Many thanks to Harvey and Lauren who were charming and patient, as always.

Head Shot

This shot of the lovely Layne Sizemore was for our Client Assignment #2. The goal was to have a completely white background with no flare which, I've come to find out, is harder than it might seem. Luckily I worked with a great group of people and a wonderful model who is making appearances in many student projects. (She's also a really good photographer).

Layne is such a natural model that we had several shots we liked out of ten, so here is one more.




Shot on Mamiya RZ67
Ektachrome
Scanned on Imacon Flextight
f8 1/60
180 mm lens