See the full set of instant photos with Jessica and Jamie HERE!

I recently purchased an NPC Polaroid back for my Mamiya RB67 medium format camera. For those who missed the whole film boat, many medium format film cameras feature detachable film holders, allowing for quick changes and different capabilities. Among the various backs available were ones that shot onto Polaroid film, allowing an instant image to be produced, often for previewing. (See, people “chimped” before that little digital display was available …) Realizing the advantage of being able to preview my shots, and also to be able to make rockin’ instant film images, I snatched up a used back online.

On Sunday, I braved the cold to shoot photos of Jessica and Jamie in Athens, Texas. It was truly a “Polar”oid experience … har har. (Except I was shooting on Fuji FP-100C film …) It was fun to use a light meter, think intently about how the photo would look and otherwise do a traditional film photoshoot, but also enjoy the digital-like benefit of instant feedback.

I look forward to shooting a lot more of these images, so you can be sure you’ll see them when I do.

Fuji FP-100C instant image from a Polaroid back on my Mamiya RB67.
1 second exposure at f/4 (100 ISO).

Merry Christmas! If you’re not celebrating, then I hope you’re having a wonderful day regardless.

I got a ton of photo books this year, and it’s rad! I’m now absorbing “Light – Science & Magic,” some Ansel Adams books and a Dan Winters book. mmm.

I have a TON of stuff I’ll keep sharing, and I’m staying busy on top of it. So expect to see lots more over the rest of this year and especially in 2011. THANK YOU for reading!

See the other two portraits I’ve posted here and here!

The sun was setting, and I needed to help shoot as many portraits for Kilgore College’s yearbook as possible in the 30-ish remaining minutes of sunlight. So I set out with friends/classmates Elizabeth (fellow photographer) and Becca (yearbook editor/photographer assisting us) to see exactly how many actually usable portraits we could snap around Kilgore College in the short amount of time we had, armed only with two cameras and some white foamcore.

Thankfully, the sunsets have been especially nice, so our quality of light was spectacular. So I looked out for nice lines and patches of light to work with. The above photo (snapped for personal use while Elizabeth took the “real” photo) was one I set up when noticing the possibilities the shadow and light direction presented.

The shadow was just from another part of the building, and the light was coming in at the perfect angle to cast a neat silhouette from the subject. I liked the inclusion of the brown-ish bricks because of how it enhanced the already warm light. You’ll notice his face is light in the dark area of the background, and dark in the light area. That was definitely intentional.

Elizabeth and I traded off shots, with the other two of us either holding reflectors, scouting spots for the next picture or stopping people to get pictures of. The most interesting part of all of this is we repeated this process several times in our short session. Part of it was teamwork, part of it was experience/knowledge and part of it was not thinking and just doing.

All in all, we took about 10 portraits that went beyond identification, none of which were set up at all beforehand.

I’m obviously used to being behind the camera, so it can be tough for me to think of creative self-portraits for myself. However, an interesting idea came to me a few weeks ago. The coolest part? I wouldn’t even have to use a camera to take it.

No camera? None needed when you have a scanner. All I did was take the cover off an Epson scanner, lay a piece of glass on top of the plate (for protection), gently lay my hand on it in various positions and cover the whole scanner with a small storage tub with a spray painted matte black interior.

I made probably 8-10 scans of my hand, which imported instantly into Photoshop. In addition to my hand scans, I also scanned several pieces of twisted scrap printer paper.

I picked my favorite hand scan – which conveniently already had a black backdrop – retouched the debris and framed it with selections of the twisted paper. After that, I found a picture of myself and copied the eyes onto the hand scan file. This represents the only use of a proper camera in the image.

I arranged everything to humanize the hand – the paper served as a frame and landscape – and my eyes were placed on the hand like it was head, and my fingers the hair.

Voila, a nearly cameraless self-portrait!

This is a portrait I took for a story in The Flare, the student newspaper of Kilgore College. The story is about two students who bought a van for about $850 and trekked to Alaska and back this past summer. Aaron and Maverick very off-the-beaten-path types, so it was easy to get them to ham it up for the camera, and it paired well with some nice light to make one of my favorite editorial portraits, despite the challenging time and light restrictions I faced.

I went from having a weekend to plan for this photo to having barely a couple of hours because one of the subjects had to be at work. I had to think fast and keep it it basic. The van was clearly going to be in the picture, as its role in the story is almost as big as the subjects’. However, it was out of gas and we were unable to properly repark it for better lighting. No bother, though, as we teamed up and pushed it essentially into a ditch-type area across the road from their house.

Yes, I had a van pushed into a ditch so I could get better lighting. It was still there last I heard, though I’m sure it’s been moved by now …

I tried a few token shots inside the van and in front of it to see if I could get anything interesting, but it all seemed rather bland and cliché. So Aaron and Maverick happily climbed on top to try some pictures up there (which I had hoped would happen at some point).

The sunlight and sky in East Texas have been spectacular in recent months, but even so, the early afternoon sun was an overwhelming backlight. I fixed this by having my friend and Flare editor, Meagan Brown, hold a flash pointed at Aaron and Maverick. I used this to balance the light, and I also took advantage of the ability to pop a strong light on them to crank my aperture up around the f/18 range, creating the starburst pattern in the sun. From there, it was just a matter of letting the subjects be themselves. The photo was intentionally slightly underexposed due to the challenging lighting conditions, but this was easily fixed in Lightroom 3 with very little loss in quality.

With a little on-the-fly creativity and by letting my subjects be themselves, I overcame a challenging situation to produce a dramatic and revealing portrait for a publication in less than an hour.