Advanced Techniques: Painting With Light

For our painting with light assignment I worked with Allison Pasek, BJ Worley and Robson Abbott to create a whimsical photo illustrating adolescent fantasy literature. We went to two locations for our painting with light but had more luck with our second concept. 

In the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, contemporary authors such as J.K. Rowling have rejuvenated the fantasy genre in literature. This renaissance has helped spur childhood and adolescent reading and literacy rates over the last decade. These books are also beloved and well read by adults of all ages.

How we did it:
1. Strobe on me reading the book
2. Lit a sparkler and ran it from the book in a spiral to behind the tree
3. Used a strobe gelled blue to paint the tree
4. Held the book and used strobe at 1/64 power

Lighting Diagram:

Here is an outtake from our attempt to illustrate the increase in gas prices:

Advanced Techniques: Multiple Flash

For my multiple flash I set up two SB 900's and triggered them with pocket wizards. The image was crosslit with strobes low on either side.

Nathan Gibbons skateboards April 12, 2011 at the Columbia Skate Park 

Here is an outtake from before I set up the strobes.

Advanced Techniques: Single Flash

For my single flash assignment I chose to shoot Busker's last stand using bounce technique. The event was very high energy with a lot of interaction. 

Jake Greenlaw of the Touchcats drums along with other True False Film Fest musicians at Busker's Last Stand Sunday night in the Missouri Theatre. The jam style musical event wrapped up the weekend long film festival.

 I bounced off the ceiling at a 45 degree angle onto the circle of musicians playing. I should have taken into account the warmer tones in the room and the photo is underexposed. There were several other photographers shooting so I chose a lower shot to minimize background distractions. I shot at f/4 1/125 and 100 ISO.

Below is my lighting diagram:

Direct flash was another story. My flash only fired once at the Mojo's show I shot Wed. night. As a result I only have one direct flash photo as seen below. 

Danny Seim of Menomena plays keyboard Wed. March 9 at Mojo's. 

Here is a direct flash outtake from the week:

Nadine Oelschlager sits in her favorite chair March 2.

The Def-fish-it

I hear a lot of numbers being thrown around about where U.S. money goes and where it is coming from. I decided to investigate and provide a visual representation of some number crunching. I wanted to show how far the U.S. has fallen into debt and who will be affected by any spending cuts.

The following is a photo illustration of U.S. spending in 2010.

From the bottom up:

Soil: 57% of the U.S. budget is mandatory spending (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid etc.).

Sand: 38% of the U.S. budget is discretionary spending (Homeland Security, Health, Education etc.).

Water: 5% of the U.S. budget was money earned on top of the 1.3 trillion dollar deficit.

Fish: Americans.

The United States is drowning in a debt of over 14.1 trillion dollars. Fifty-seven percent of the budget is mandatory spending (soil) which is untouchable money. Thirty-eight percent of the budget is discretionary spending (sand) which could be reduced if it was not borrowed money. As a result federal spending cuts are limited to the positive portions of the U.S. budget (water).

All information from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Lighting Diagram:

I positioned the fishbowl on a light table directly in front of the camera. I lit from underneath and had Alex Wood gobo. I placed a strip box at an angle to light the front so you could see the detail in the sand and soil. I shot at ISO 200 f/11 1/15.

Advanced Techniques: Classmate Portrait

Here is my first attempt at a studio portrait. Look below for lighting diagram.

Junior Jeremy Jardine throws his hands over his head to relax. Jardine describes his "happy place" as laying in the grass on a beautiful day.

I placed 2 soft boxes at even power 200Ws, one on either side of the subject, to create soft even light. To imitate real sunlight I placed a modeling light high in the back at 800Ws. I also used a white reflector angled over the subject to create more evenness. I shot f/22 and 1/30 at ISO 100. 

Echolilia

Timothy Archibald created a portrait series to examine and try to understand his son's autism. The light in the series was versatile. I found that mostly soft light was used to emphasize innocence and youth but it also integrated hard light to make some of the images more emotive. I think the subject and the photographer are revealed simultaneously in these portraits. Dimension and depth were created through this series by spending extensive time with the subject. The photographs are very intimate and feel natural. Some of the photos were staged and some were documentary style but each picture presented a representation of consciousness by the photographer. 

Photo by: Timothy Archibald

Photo by: Timothy Archibald

Photo by: Timothy Archibald