Baltimore Magazine: November 2009

The January issue of Baltimore Magazine hits shelves in about 2 weeks, so there's still time to pick up the November '09 issue. But in case you miss it anyway, here's a few tear sheets:



This was the "UpFront" opener, which is always a full page and in my experience has always been a blast to shoot. This month, B-mag featured Jeff Hinton, a tailgating Ravens fan so passionate that he opened a Ravens tailgating supply store in Westminster, MD. We got permission to shoot just outside the Ravens M&T Bank Stadium, and Jeff brought a bunch of merch from his store. (Oddly, the address isn't in the piece, so if you're interested in checking it out, here you go):

Home Gamers
400 North Center Street
Westminster, MD 211457

When we arrived, the light outside was ideal- slightly overcast, perfect for the small light set up I packed. But by the time we finished setting up, the sun was out full bore and we were pretty much shooting into it (towards the stadium). One of the things Jeff brought was a giant tent, which under the glaring sun made anything under it go totally dark and obscured. Fortunately, it had a silver lining on the underside, pretty much making it a giant reflector so long as I could sneak a light in underneath. It took a few more to overpower the sun and have a little control, but it worked PERFECTLY. Here's an outtake where you can sort of see what I mean:



And here's the Dep't. Arts piece, featuring Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, and her daughter Adia (who is currently enrolled):



The article was about four Baltimore School for the Arts alums, but only Linda and her daughter were available to photograph. The auditorium at the school is gorgeous, and we thought it would be a great place to shoot. For this shot, I played with some filters on the lights and the white balance to make it a little more dramatic, here's a better look at the shot they used:



And here's a shot balanced for the light available in the auditorium. Instead of using filters to make it more dramatic, I used them to match the available light in the auditorium. So in this shot, the background is actually closer to how it appears to the naked eye, in real life, etc:



I think this second shot is nice and all, but I'm glad they went with the more dramatic option. I thought it was much cooler, and somehow more appropriate for the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Last but not least, here's a few from the "Home" special edition section:






This was a piece on a "green kitchen", owned by the Plisko family in Catonsville. The kitchen was designed by Polly Bart, who owns Greenbuilders. The kitchen is energy efficient and environmentally friendly, and th Plisko's enjoy much of their family time together and were warm and welcoming in letting me into their space and their lives to photographs. It's too bad they could only use a handful of images in the article, there were plenty more!

Coming soon...

I'm getting to that point again where I feel guilty for not updating the blog more frequently. So to stop feeling like I've been slacking....

Just finished working on the Top Salons feature for the January 2010 issue of Baltimore Magazine, which went great! Got a lot of great shots, many more than what will be featured in the piece. When the issue hits stands, I'll post tear sheets along with some of the out takes and shots that weren't used (there are many - I shot a TON). Anyway, in addition to Top Salons they're featuring me as a contributor again. I wanted to use a different head shot this time, so here's what I went with:



This was shot while testing a lighting set up before a head shot shoot. Then I played with some of the post production techniques that have been so popular lately...

Anyway, that's all I have time for now, more posts to follow soon!

Hasselblad Polaroid Self Portrait

Shot with my 503cx Hasselblad and Polaroid 100 back. I love these polaroids- the lens is so sharp and renders the tones so nicely, but there's still that instant film quality. The film is daylight balanced and there's a combination of tungsten lights and sunlight in this shot, so there's kind of a cool mix of colors.

I also just got some expired Polaroid film that I can't wait to toy around with....

Connie Imboden

Connie is a very good friend and mentor of mine, and it was a huge honor when she asked me to photograph her for the Biography page of her new book, "Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden". I've modeled for Connie countless times throughout the last several years, so it was interesting to be on the other side of the camera!

We shot this with her standing in front of a mural print in her studio. Connie works intuitively, exploring the body and allowing for discovery, rather than preconceiving or planning images. In the portrait it almost looks as though the figure in the background and over her shoulder (her work) is informing her, almost whispering to her. I also love how it's essentially both B&W and color, which seems so appropriate for the new book as it features some of Connie's never before published B&W images, as well as some of her latest color work. But most of all, I think it's just a great shot of my friend.

"Reflections: 25 Years of Photography by Connie Imboden" is an amazing book and collection of Connie's work. It's available to order now from both Connie's website as well as her blog. It's also the first book containing several images that I modeled for, so you KNOW it's good!

Violet Glaze

I met Violet Glaze in back in October when my good friend Henry Hong was helping her out with a piece she was writing for Baltimore City Paper about eating bugs. Specifically crickets and meal worms, which, I gotta say, really aren't too bad after all! Here's my favorite part of the article:

"But the final test would be in the eating. I met up with fellow City Paper foodie Henry Hong and his equally adventurous buddy Cory Donovan in the kitchen of Henry's restaurant..."

But that is another story, click here to read it.

Anyway, Violet eventually contacted me to shoot a head shot for her. She was interested in doing something fun and dramatic, something more like an environmental portrait rather than a just a head shot. The original idea was to shoot it outside, at night, near some sort of a neon light that would actually highlight part of her. Here's a sketch Violet sent me early on to give a sense of what she was looking for:



The original location we had in mind fell through (the neon lights weren't on), so instead we decided to shoot at The Charles Theater. The Charles Theater is a small but popular art house theater here in B-more known for it's hard-to-find documentaries, independent films, and foreign flicks, and Violet is well known for her movie reviews. We were given access to the second floor, which was a GREAT space with all kinds of awesome crap laying around- cool movie posters, old projection equipment, prints and negatives pinned to the walls, etc..

One thing I wanted to do was keep our original idea for the lighting - where part of Violet would be lit by the light glowing from a neon sign. Fortunately, the space we shot in at The Charles was funky and mysterious enough that it didn't look awkward. I used color gels on the strobes and loved the effect! Here's a few more of my favorite shots:











The same color gels are on for these as well, but with a little more subtlety...