carefree and loving it

i had one of those days. you know the ones where you get to an assignment and there is literally nothing going on. no one there to make an image of, and just nothing to really explore. then my eyes caught these two girls.



while their mothers were cooking some great food for the caribbean festival, they were cutting some serious rug in front of the food booths.



thanks god for kids and their ability to make a bad situation a lot better with their carefree attitude.

in the tall grass

a few days ago i was sent to make a portrait for a story that is becoming all too common around these parts. it seems that the lady i photographed was having a problem with the abandoned house that she lives next to. the home went into foreclosure and has been unkept since november of 2007. the grass has gotten very tall and the house is in disrepair. needless to say it has become an eyesore and is starting to bring down her property value.

my client wanted to focus on the grass, because the lady was fearful that snakes maybe living through out the over grown yard.

here is the image of my setup.



i used two lights attached to one power pack, the one on the right is at full power, and the left at half. each light had a grid spot attached (a 30 degree on the left, and a 20 degree on the right), and were placed to get as close to a 1:1 light ratio as possible while still be a tad brighter than the ambient light. the final exposure at iso 100 was f-22 @ 1/250.

here is the final image



pretty simple, but sometimes keeping it simple is best.

the storm that wasn't

today i covered fay. there wasn't much to shoot. some wind from time to time, rain off and on, but nothing more than a big thunderstorm. i tried to find something different, but there wasn't much going on other than the typical person on beach watching the surf and clouds.

i had fun chasing stuff down, and met some cool people in the few hours i was out.

that is always a great day in my book.

a love affair created

in mid july i shot a story for city & shore magazine about guys and the really high end cars they love. the shoot included a rolls royce, a bentley, a lamborghini, two aston martins, as well as other vehicles.

after recieveing the assignment and talking with the editors i did a few days of brainstorming and came up with the idea of shooting diptychs. one image of the car and one image of the owner, that would show something that the car and driver had in common. a lot of what i ended up accomplishing relied on the lighting and graphic composition to show similarities.

i am pretty proud of what i did, and after receiving questions about my lighting set up i thought i would post some drawings and the final images for three of my set ups.

first

the bentley



this was the first shot i did. it was shot using two profoto 7b heads a couple of grid spots and a 3x4 soft box. after this shoot i realized i needed more lights.

i shot the driver with the 3x4 soft box set about four feet away from him with the power pack turned up to full power. i had the subject facing directly into the light but the light and the subject were offset by about a foot so the center of the light was aimed over his right shoulder, which was furtherest away from the camera. using the edge of the light like this allowed me to get that sliver of light on his face, while creating a shadow on the left side of his face. the exposure was f22 @ 1/200 with an iso of 100

to shoot the car i used two grid spots. i set up the main light about six inches away from the front bumper with a 20 degree spot on it. i turned it up to full power and aimed it straight down at the hood, it about 4 feet higher than the hood, just in front of the hood ornament. this allowed for the car to become a reflector and bounce the light back up on to the hood ornament. after that light was set i used a 30 degree grid spot on a fill light that was place about five feet off of the passenger side of the car and aimed at the car's head lights. this gave me a nice soft light, with this head being set at half power, to add a touch of light in the shadows. the exposure for this shot was f20 @ 1/250 with an iso of 100.

and here is what i ended up with....



the lamborghini



with the driver of the lambo i used two grid spots, a 20 degree and a 30 degree, set behind the subject and just off of each shoulder. the lights were aimed to glance off of his ears so they could then hit the reflector that my assistant was holding. the reflector was used as the main light source to fill his face. my exposure was determined by the reflector and both grid spots were adjusted to match each other while not blowing everything out. i did allow them to get a little hot, however, in order to match the highlights on the car. the final exposure of the shot was f13 @ 1/250 and iso 100.

to shoot the car i used a profoto 5 foot reflector just of of the driver side back bumper at full power. this light was raised to about 10 feet and then aimed to towards the hood of the car to give me a highlight on the roof and the hood. i then used a 3x4 soft box just to the left of the open door at 3/4 power to give me a highlight on the door, and 30 degree grid spot at half power to light the quarter panel. finally i had my assistant hold a 20 degree grid spot at half power at ground level to light the car's front end. the final exposure for the car was f20 @ 1/250 and iso 100

and the final result...




finally the rolls royce



the shot of the driver was identical to the shot of the lambo's driver. two grid spots placed behind the subject and a reflector used to bounce the light back onto his face. the final exposure was f16 @ 1/250 with an iso 100.

with the car i again used the profoto 5 foot reflector, but this time it was off of the passenger side back bumper of the car. it was raised to about 10 feet, aimed to give me a glancing blow on the roof and hood, and at full power. i used the 3x4 softbox to light the right side of the hood. it was about 4 feet away from the car and at 3/4 power. i then used a 20 degree grid spot at full power to light the grill and hood ornament. this light was placed in front of the car, and off to the right. finally i used a 30 degree grid spot off to the left of the car, by about 4 feet, to add some fill to the head lights. this light was at half power. the final exposure was f22 @ 1/250 with an iso of 100.

and here is the shot....



so there you have it. the really quick version of what my thinking and lighting were. i really think i pushed myself to see beyond what i have done in the past, and because of that i ended up with some really solid results.

check my site in september when i will upload all of the images after the story is publish.

newsletters galore

i have started sending out a monthly newsletter to clients, friends, and family. the goal is to keep people up to date on what i have been shooting, who i have been shooting it for, and where i will be taking this passion of mine in the future.

if you are interested in receiving the monthly installments you can subscribe using the link on the right hand side of this page. once you subscribe you will get the new versions sent to you via email. you can also view the current version all month long by going to www.photojosh.com/newsletter.

thanks for looking

updates

from the new fluidity section of photojosh.com

incase you haven't noticed yet there has been a lot of changes going on at http://photojosh.com. the site has been completely redesigned and now includes three new categories from my trip to mexico. in the past days there has been new images added to the portraits as well as the fluidity sections. the clients pages have also been updated with new tear sheets from recent assignments i have shot for city & shore magazine as well as the guardian's magazine. please feel free to take a look.

in september i will be adding a new section for a story i shot for city & shore on guys who are passionate about their high end cars. more to come on that after the images are published.

olympic dreams

i had the honor of making some portraits of adler volmar, an olympian competeing in judo, before he left for beijing. i just heard on the news that he lost his match and is out of medal contention. he is a super nice guy and i was hoping to watch him go for gold. ah well atleast he can always say he competed in the olympics.