Suspect Photography

words and images from david george brommer

Category: Ramblings

A Stroll Down Super Bowl Boulevard or How The Super Bowl Invaded NYC in 2014

Seattle Sea Hawk Fans rampage in NYC

Seattle Sea Hawk Fans rampage in NYC. Zeiss 12mm 2.8

Attention Suspect Photography Fans- Finding Photographic Style and Composition in NYC 4 Day Intensive Workshop April 17th to April 20th 2014. Early Registration Discount By March 1st. 

I’m not a jock. More of an anti-jock actually. So when the Super Bowl in 2014 invades my town I’m not excited. However there is no denying that it will have an impact on my city, and it’s my job as New York artist to document this occasion, especially when 7 blocks of Broadway is closed and turned into a Super Bowl conflagration. The Super Bowl is part sport, part commercial and all American. Broadway was transformed into a huge commercial sponsor fest for few days leading up to the big game. I figured I’d go and stroll down “Super Bowl Blvd” and see if I could find some images.

Helmets in Herald Square. Fujifilm 35 mm f1.4

Helmets in Herald Square. Fujifilm 35 mm f1.4

In case you wanted to see exactly where the sponsorship was street signs were modified. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

In case you wanted to see exactly where the sponsorship was street signs were modified. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

The morning of my plans to do this I posted on my Facebook my intentions and got into some lengthy discourses and what struck me the most, a number of my Facebook friends said they did the stroll and had trouble finding images. A challenge! The glove was down, can one fringe artists walk among massive commercialism and come back with a decent image or two? You be the judge.

Kids could be overwhelmed, I wonder if he will remember these days when he is grown up. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

Kids could be overwhelmed, I wonder if he will remember these days when he is grown up. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

It's New York after all, you have to one true fan of real NY in the mix. Long Live The Ramones!

It’s New York after all, you have to one true fan of real NY in the mix. Long Live The Ramones!

I chose to bring the Fujifilm Xpro1 with my three favorite lenses, the 12mm Zeiss, the 18mm F 2.0 (which I didn’t end up using) and the 35mm f1.4. I set the camera to B&W mode and shot away.

It's sports.. you have to have ESPN.

It’s sports.. you have to have ESPN. Fujifilm 35 mm f1.4

The crowds were daunting. Movement was a crawl. So many fans, so many New Yorkers. But we are used to crowds are we not? Zeiss 12mm f2.8

The crowds were daunting. Movement was a crawl. So many fans, so many New Yorkers. But we are used to crowds are we not? Zeiss 12mm f2.8

Later I opened everything up in Photoshop and burned the edges and did some cropping where needed. Pretty minimal, I was using the +/- exp comp due to some back lighting. I believe you getting it right in the camera and conducting minimal post process.

I don't know much about Football, but I think this position is called "The Tight End". Shot inside the NYgard store. They had models gogo sports dancing their tights. Fujifilm 35m f1.4

I don’t know much about Football, but I think this position is called “The Tight End”. Shot inside the NYgard store. They had models gogo sports dancing their tights. Fujifilm 35m f1.4

In the back of my head were the comments from the nay sayers saying they couldn’t find and image. Well it was crowded. Really crowded and I thought how the hell couldn’t you find an image in this crowd?

The Hulk and Bane showed up. After I shot them, they demanded a buck for the pose. I didn't want to piss them off, so I figured it would be best to cough up a buck before Hulk smashed. Zeiss 12mm f2.8

The Hulk and Bane showed up. After I shot them, they demanded a buck for the pose. I didn’t want to piss them off, so I figured it would be best to cough up a buck before Hulk smashed. Zeiss 12mm f2.8

I was looking forward to the Toboggan and how to shoot it. I settled on a slow shutter speed and “hail mary shot” holding still. The image was shot at 1/5th of a second at F16. The 1/5th gave me just enough blur to make it count for more than a snap shot. A tripod would have helped, but this is street shooting, no tripods allowed.

Slow shutter speed to give the subjects movement. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

Slow shutter speed to give the subjects movement. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4

Yup, this is on Broadway. So weird, such a production.

Yup, this is on Broadway. So weird, such a production.

The lesson here is to just keep shooting and look for that image. I’m sure in 10 or 20 years looking back to when they brought a Super Bowl to NYC these images will age well.  So when its something out of the ordinary, grab your gear and shoot.

the fans, the football... the hashtag. It's 2014 all right.

the fans, the football… the hashtag. It’s 2014 all right.

~David

End of Year Post : What’s In and What’s Out

Doll_n_whip

Doll with whip, Brooklyn Xpro1 35mm f1.4 B&W jpeg

2013 will forever be known as “The year to try to keep up with”. Innovation found itself at every turn, politics were as contentious as any year in my life I have been aware of, and the now ambiguous smart phone has dominated just about every aspect of life in 2013. Trying to keep up is nearly impossible and requires a devoted assault on what was once known as “free time”. There is no more free time, unless you retreat to a cave, grow your beard (oh wait, the hipsters own beards now), make a conscious decision to quit social media,  isolate yourself,  and avoid at all cost  slew of new cable series that now define pop culture. There is light at the end of the ’13 tunnel, those cables series have become so engaging that reality TV became passé. A lot of shit went down in 2013, and I don’t have time to write about it all, ‘cause I gotta catch up so I’ll break it down with a In and Out list, kinda like In and Out burger.. but much tastier.

candle maker

Candle Maker, Sugar Load NY Zeiss 12mm f2.8

 

InUmami Burger, this LA burger joint opened on 6th Avenue and all the other burger joints in NYC pretty much took the back seat. The flavors are masterful, and the trick is to just sit at the bar and let the families wait for tables.

Out– MacDonalds, actually MickyDee’s has been out for a long time, but this year even their employee HR website recommended they don’t eat what they serve as unhealthy.

 

In– Mirrorless Cameras, this got serious in 2013 after Fujifilm in 2012 was the comeback kid. Olympus pretty much abandoned their DSLR line, and Sony stuck a full frame sensor in a Mirrorless camera.

Out– Cameras with the “hump” (DSLR) and sub $200 point and shoot digitals. Yea, cameras that have the hump mean they have a mirror and a mirror is so everything 2012 and past. Forget a cheap digital point and shoot, you got your iPhone for that. The only p&s digitals that can keep up these days have super zooms, something we are years away from with the phone cameras. At least for now.

 

In– Adobe Light Room 5, pretty much everyone is editing and organizing with this software that pretty much does what we all really need.

Out– Adobe Photoshop CS, It’s cloud based now, and the uproar could be heard in heaven. Adobe had to lower the monthly price and even Scott Kelby was accused of being the bad guy. This move by Adobe will end Photoshop being used by the marginals, and only the pro’s will shell out $50 bux a month for the software. The days of getting serial numbers on youtube pirate vids are officially over. Pony up or just use Capture One Pro 7 or DXO Optics Pro 8 to open up your RAW files.

 

In– the Afordable Health Care Act, with the promises to lower health care costs and provide coverage for all Americans how can you go wrong? Sounds like such a great idea!

Out– Obamacare, with a clunky website and insurance dropping those who are all ready covered and pretty much those who were happy with their insurance before, now paying more to cover those who couldn’t pay. Much like all good intentions, this is looking pretty crappy now.

 

 In– Miley Cyrus- I’m not going there.

Out– Lady Gaga- Her new album is so… meh.

 

In– The Fujifilm 23mm 1.4, and now there is no reason to shoot with any other camera. It’s fast, it’s super sharp, and it’s the perfect focal length.

Out– 18-55 Kit lenses, just go prime. Slow zooms are over, and the everyone knows that to the key to good bokeh, you shoot with a fast prime.

 

In– The Nikon DF, because retro is cool, its half the price of D4, and who really needs video? Oh and did you check out in black?

Out– The Nikon D800, because who really needs 38 megapixel? It’s over kill and there are way too many buttons on that camera.

 

In– Bill D’Blasio, NYC’s next mayor. Who really knows how he’s going to do? We all have our collective fingers crossed.

Out– Bloomberg, He did good for the city and lots of rich guys, but hey isn’t that NYC is all about anyway?

 

InThe Guardian, great journalism that takes chances and it’s free to read.

Out– New York Times, except for the lens blog its clunky to read, who knows if what you’re reading is true or not, and it’s expensive. $20 bux a month!

 

InVine, really my attention span these days isn’t longer than 6 seconds anyway.

Out– Google Plus, despite how much google throws this down our throats, I still only know a handful of people who use it. Yuk.

 

In– The Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 with its retro style and advanced features, it’s the best instant camera to come along since the SX-70.

Out– The Fujifilm Instax Mini 25 was great until I replaced it with the Mini 90, but still for the money, a great instant camera.

 

Flatiron

Flat Iron Building Xpro1 18mm f2.0 B&W mode

 So there you have it, my list of the ins and outs of 2013. Suspect Photography is really looking forward to 2014. Workshops, a new book, and all the photographs yet to be taken. Happy New Year folks!

~David

 

Keep Calm and Carry Cameras II

What the Garbage Truck Sees

This is a short and sweet post, it’s about something I have said in this recent post, “always carry a camera”. You just never know when the photography gods will throw you a good image to capture. On the street, or just coming out of your bathroom. Carry that camera.

So here’s the story, on Sunday mornings I head out to La Bergamote bakery to pick up some croissants to bring back for breakfast. This trip takes me down 9th ave, and sometimes, I head east to 8th ave if I’m in the mood for bagels and lox from Brooklyn Bagel Company. Mostly though, it’s all about the croissant. I always grab my camera, because La Bergamote is in the heart of Chelsea and the architecture and tree lined streets is just perfect in so many ways. It was early on this particular Sunday morning, and cloudless. On the Corner of 22nd and 9th Avenue a Garbage truck had pulled in the corner diagonally so that its front pointed across the street instead of down the street. While a normal site on the streets of NYC, as I crossed it I noticed the windows reflected the buildings across in an interesting composition. Standing almost in the middle of the street I took some time to compose the image, falling into that tantric composition photo seeing trance through the viewfinder that only ones who love photography can understand. Time stands still, traffic matters not and in a 250th of a second it’s done. Exposure made, for better or worse or most likely, for nothing really because only a small percentage of images actually has any guts to it- destined to fall deeply into a folder on the hard drive.

Later during breakfast I did a chimping session and thought, “you know what David, you got something here…” so I downloaded the image onto my iPad and started to do my new workflow with snapseed and was quite surprised at the final edited image. I posted it on my Facebook and got loads of Likes. I’m so happy I brought the Fujifilm Xpro1 with 18mm f2.0 on that croissant mission.

before and after

 

Fast forward a week later, and I visited the bathroom early this morning. Of course I had the requisite iPad with me, and I was sitting there, through the door I spied the rising sun pouring through the windows and shedding light on my wife Barbara’s cabinet. Click.

 Heads greeting the morning sun.

Photography is about so much, and sometimes I just blush with happiness, when all that matters is making the image. I friend of mine recently posted a shot of her under the darkcloth of a Deardorff on Facebook, as I was writing this post I had spotted it on my feed, We had a short exchange and Kendra gets it, she said, “love it”.

photodialog

Check out Kendra’s work, she shoots Tin Types and brings a wonderful aesthetic to her work. When I first met her she was shooting with a 4×5 Speed Graphic, now she’s rolling big time with a 8×10 Deardorff!  Look at those TinTypes, thats LOVE! www.kendraesadams.com

That’s all there is to this I guess. Carry a camera, keep calm, and love it.

 

~David

 

The Old Tuscan Farmer and Every Picture Matters Lesson

The Old Tuscan Farmer in the Cortona market

The Old Tuscan Farmer in the Cortona market

On Saturday mornings in Cortona the market comes to the squares. It’s where we buy our produce, and Barbara’s family has been shopping there for seemingly forever. We have a favorite farmer, and when I met him, he was old. Italian countryside old, which means he looks older than he is due to that famous Tuscan sun. Plus farmers always age harder than regular folk do. His stall was attended by his extremely nice wife (equally as old, but very sturdy), and who I think is his daughter in law, along with his son and a few others who might be family but might be farm hands helping to bring the crop to the market. For as long as I have been coming to Cortona, this has been the same. They are very nice, and the old farmer is jolly and congenial, he always has a firm handshake and a grand smile. For the life of me, I have a problem understanding older Italians and we would go back and forth talking and I never really knew what he was saying or if he understood me, but I grew to like him immensely, he became part of what I love about Cortona.

Two years ago he stopped working the main part of the stall, and broke off to the side setting up next to a wall, sitting mostly, and selling herbs in little pots. No more the heavy melons and sacks of tomatoes, this aspect of the business was now delegated to his wife and the kids. His hands would be always wrapped around a cane, and it was understood he was letting the next generation take over and he would just be in charge of a much smaller crop. When asked how he was feeling, he shook his head and said he was fine, but age was taking its toll on the old farmer, and his pride wouldn’t let him stay home, complain, nor stop what he had been doing his whole life. When I was working on my Instant Italy project (shooting Fujifilm Instax photos exclusively) I took a fine photograph of the old farmer and tried to give it to him but he didn’t comprehend an instant photo so I slipped it in his top pocket as the image was developing. I shot a second photograph of him, the one I would keep, but didn’t come out well. Pointing a camera at the old farmer produced a random result because he didn’t keep still and was always in conversation with who ever would be near him. The next year, I came with the Fuji X-Pro 1 and had decided that I would shoot the people I knew, but I would do it unobtrusively and I would focus on thier hands frequently.

I was eager to be shooting him, and as Barbara and mom selected produce I chatted him up and photographed his hands wrapped around his now ever present cane. I made one exposure, that’s all. I didn’t want to be intrusive as he was now engrossed in another conversation. We saw him a few more times that year on following Saturdays but I had my image.

This year we trotted through the market to buy our produce. I looked forward greatly to seeing the old farmer and being in the presence of his smile and hearing his undecipherable Italian. When we turned the corner the herbs where there, in little black plastic pots but he was nowhere to be seen. His wife upon seeing Barbara and mom greeted us, and mom and Barbara had an exchange with her. They asked where he was and I was hoping for another story of what I had already gotten and inkling about. The farmer’s wife looked down, and said something I of course couldn’t follow. Barbara turned slowly to me and lamented, “he’s gone” with a long face confirming what I had already suspected. He had passed 4 months ago, and further details were absent. I hoped it was an easy passing, and I walked away sadly, feeling empty, like a little part of my summer was forever gone, and then I thought about the photo of his hands. Holding on to his cane, and perhaps a grip onto this world for his last year here. The old farmer will live on in my memories and in that photograph, as well as the Fujifilm Instax photo. I don’t have the latter, but I hope his family found it in his belongings and it’s sitting on a hearth in the farmhouse.

Photography is powerful, it can make a man immortal or conjure the emotions of a past moment. As I lamented the passing of my nameless old farmer I knew I would treasure that image for all time. When I made the image I was thinking of how I could elaborate on my style and work that I shoot in Tuscany. When I edited the image I was unimpressed and not too excited about the photograph I had made. Now, with his passing the condition has changed dramatically, the importance of the image magnified.

Never ever take an exposure for granted. What is drab can become brilliant, what is mundane exceptional. Photographs like wine can into something far more important and relevant than what you thought during the 1/60th of a second it took to expose.

Every picture matters.

Image made with Fujifilm XPro1 and 35mm 1.4  shot in film sim B&W Mode 1:1 format. Processed in Snapseed.

It’s the end of year and we’re still here: Images and Reflections of 2012

Street Smoke

The 12th year of the new millennium comes to a close and like most of us in the western world, I find my thoughts drawn to what happened, what I accomplished, created, did right, did wrong, and learned. Retrospect is trending it would seem, and it is demanded by the calendar.

These ruminations are dominated by two biggies in 2012; shooting with my Fujifilm XPro1 and starting this blog. My role at B&H Photo running the Event Space is a massive creative block of my time and I pride myself on what I can create on my off hours. I’m not alone in the assumption that a simple camera stimulated my creativity in such a profound way, Gabriel Biderman also credits the XPro1 as major new work instigator for this year. I now can state with absolute certainty that a piece of gear can inspire you to take great photographs. Learning the Ins and outs of a lens and camera forces you to milk a good photograph out of the kit, utilizing the new technology expands your horizons, and hey you know what? A few good photographs come out of it. Can I get a Camera Hallelujah!

I made a selection of images for this blog in no particular order using Adobe Bridge to look back in the image folders of 2012. These aren’t the best nor represent 2012 as a statement of the year. They are just what I choose as I looked back, they are simply images that hadn’t been blogged over the year. New stuff? Yea.

 Images and Reflection’s of 2012.

ScoobynSlash

Peopleumeetonthestreet

Antonioconnecron

CamuciaCouple

DSC00120

Metal Detector

CortonaHillside

Those images are presented in varying post editing techniques. I wouldn’t recommend mixing and matching like this, it dilutes the style of the photographer. But I do have to say, this year I really fell in love with Nik Silver Efex pro.

Listing of what got accomplished

  • Learned Wet plate photography techniques
  • The book I co-authored was translated into Korean.
  • Taught a cyanotype class with Barbara in Cortona at the Cortona on the Move festival
  • Shot a few gigs worth of image mostly with the Fujifilm XPro1.
  • Survived a contentious American presidency with my pick winning (I know that’s not creative, but trust me, it was a long and arduous political process that sapped lots of creative juice as it ran its inevitable course).
  • Was able to register the URL “Suspect Photography” and start this blog. (darn thing was taken since I have building web sites but now I got it)!
  • Exhibited in a group show at Soho Digital At Gallery
  • My Youtube video for Better Photographic Composition: Beyond the Rule of Thirds reached over 100K views… omg!
  • Saw and photographed a number of great rock concerts. Gotta keep that up, seeing live music is so inspirational.

What’s it gonna be for 2013? I have two goals. To start with, create a one week long seminar teaching photographic style development. Second, loose some weight. I need to bulk down from a large format body to a 35 mm format. We can see about APS-C size in 2014.

Happy New Year to all!

418032_10200204482417731_1009771358_n

Darwin, Taxidermy, and the Spiders from Mars. Meandering the halls of The American Museum of Natural History

Skulls 1/50 Second f1.4 iso 1250 Processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0 “Yellowed Preset”

Taking class trips while in school when I was a kid always promised an exciting day. You got to jump on a bus and leave the tedium of the classrooms behind and explore some thing new. All it took was a permission slip singed, a few bucks from Mom and Dad and off you went to somewhere special and different. My favorite was a trip to the Museum of Natural History in NYC. So much to see; take in a planetarium show, rub a meteorite, and see arguably the best taxidermy in the world exhibited in very cool dioramas. The museum is where learning, culture, and adventure collide to stimulate your imagination to new heights. In a word, “neato”.

Entrance 1/1200 Second f2.8 iso 200

Barbara and I were off to see the Spiders Alive show on this lovely Columbus day. We had this planned for about 3 weeks and truth be told, I really couldn’t wait to connect to my inner child and hit the museum. So I grabbed my faithful Fujifilm X Pro 1 and figuring it would be dimly lit I chose the 35 f 1.4 to document the day. Normally I wouldn’t post these images, just keep them for myself as I am working on other blog entries of shall we say, “more important nature”? However, marching about the museum’s halls with the X Pro 1 gave me a photographic tingling and so I figured I’d share. Once again, experiencing the world is enhanced when you see it as a photographer and the results were better than I thought. This whole blog post was shot using the 35mm 1.4 capturing standard film sim mode as a jpeg.

Leslie the Tarantula Detail 1/100 Second f1.4 iso 200

Spider Detail (crop of 50%) 1/50 Second f1.4 iso 2000

The American kids were super respectful during the demonstration. Notice the hands up when they have a question? They were attentive and into everything the docent was describing.

Docent and kids 1/50 Second f1.4 iso 1250

Rows of specimen bottles 1/50 Second f5.6 iso 2000 Macro Mode

The following is various taxidermy.

Note: All images are  shot through glass.

1/50 sec f 1.8 iso 400

1/50 sec f 1.8 iso 800

1/50 sec f 1.4 iso 2000

1/50 sec f 1.8 iso 800

Something wonderful for all those curious about where we came from (humanity that is) is the Hall of Origins. Something I always remember from my childhood is the hominid couple walking across the plains. They are short, hairy and and have an affection to each other. They greet you entering this vast temple to Darwin and it’s always a pleasure to see the lovers from another epoch.

1/50 sec f 1.4 iso 3200 Processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0 Antique 1 setting

I asked a security guard if any creationists had issue with this hall. After all, Adam and Eve have no place here, and with the abundant skulls and supporting arguments for evolution present, creationists would find no sympathizers. The guard said he had been on duty for three and half years and no one had ever spoken or acted with animosity to the exhibits singularity.

I was very impressed with the quality of the images two fold, first the auto focus did great shooting through the glass, secondly the quality of the overall image. I had set the camera to auto iso of 6400 and kept it in auto focus the whole time. I loved the shooting wide open most of the time and the depth of field accentuated the subject matter terrifically in my estimation. Once again, the Fujifilm X Pro 1 delivers stunning results and is a pleasure to keep as a companion around your neck as you explore the glorious world about you.

~David

The Suspect Story: Part 1, A Un-Published Suspect Photography interview with Chris Gampat of the Phoblographer

Io Electro from the Seattle Suspects series Contax RX 60 2.8 Macro Planar 1/60 sec f 11 Kodak Techpan 25 iso

A couple of years ago, Chris Gampat, chief editor of the Phoblographer asked me a few questions about my Seattle Suspects project. For some reason, the questions and answers were never published, and recently while cleaning up some hard drives, I found the piece. This will be the first part in a three  part series about my most photographically productive time, the Seattle years.

Tell us about how you came up with the name, “Seattle Suspects.”

Suspect Photography was the name of my gallery/studio in Seattle. We filled a niche in the photography community of Seattle by showcasing emerging and mid-career photographers that had an edge, but couldn’t find a home in the more established galleries such as Benham and Gail Gibson gallery. We had a great location, in Pioneer Square and I coined a term, Maverick Gallery. These were artist owned galleries that were prevalent in the bohemian inhabited old industrial and manufacturing buildings that made up Pioneer Square.

Suspect Photography was named after an experience I had where I “suspected” anything could exist in an instance of chance. When you look at an uncertain future, you can “suspect” anything, because anything is possible. Suspect Photography is both pragmatic and optimistic with a dash of fanciful promise.

Since the subjects were a selection of Goths, Fetish heads, Drag Queens, Artists, Poets, Musicians, and other assorted wayward souls I had a small difficulty in coming up with a name for the project. So I looked for the common denominator, which was they all came to Suspect Photography to be photographed, and Suspect Photography was in Seattle, hence the name Seattle Suspects. On a side note, everyone I ran the name by loved the title, but Joyce Tenneson. She is the undisputed queen of photography books and she absolutely detested it! I had to go with my gut, and keep the name in spite of Joyce’s opinion.

Nearly Naked Man from the Seattle Suspects. Contax RX 60mm 2.8 1/60 sec F11 Kodak Tech Pan 25 iso

 What was working with these people like for you?

Like hanging out with friends that I wanted to become closer to. I love people who are on the edge, I love freaks. I love people who take being called a freak as a compliment.

Susan from Club F*uck Seattle Suspect Series Contax RX 60 2.8 Macro Planar 1/60 sec F 11

 How did you get your subjects to pose the way that they did?

I encourage them to take over the studio sounds system. If you didn’t bring a cd over, I’d drop in one of mine, something that local clubs would be playing. It was the mid 90’s so NIN, Skinny Puppy, Dead Can Dance would suffice fine. I’d let them dance for me and coach them to stop when they got into an interesting pose. I would look for positions that were demonstrative of the subject, ones that encouraged positive and negative space with expressive reaching of the arms or straddled legs.

Sparks from the Seattle Suspects series Contax RX 35-70 vario-sonnar 1/60 sec F 11 Kodak Techpan 25 iso

Do you feel that chemistry between a photographer and the subject is vital to creating great photos? If so, why?

Absolutely. Emotions will be caught on film, so if they don’t trust you, then your images will reflect that. They wont give you their all. I likened the underground of Seattle to a court, and I was the court photographer. I photographed the kings and queens of the scene and they trusted my eye to capture this moment in their life. This gave me access to the rest of the courtesans. I have to also say at this point that I was one of them. I wasn’t an outsider looking in, I was an insider of the scene. I partied at the after hour speakeasies where I recruited the Suspects, I promoted at the clubs (Catwalk and Chapel Periolous) and I ran a gallery that featured edgy art. I also shot Fantasy Unlimited ad campaigns that gave me street cred. The Suspect’s trusted me with themselves, and I respected them.

Dalia from the Seattle Suspects series. Contax RX 60 2.8 Macro Planar 1/60 sec f 11 Kodak Techpan 25 iso

How did you inspire yourself?

How could I not? Look closely at the suspects, they are so complicated and strangely beautiful, a blend of darkly serious and deathly whimsical that I always was honored these subjects would pose before my lenses. What we photograph will echo in eternity, I was inspired to ensure their voices and style would not fade into obscurity. The suspects of mid 1990’s Seattle are fully documented and that is inspiration incarnate.

Malinda from the Seattle Suspects series Contax RX 60 2.8 Macro Planar 1/60 sec f 11 Kodak Techpan 25 iso

Tell us about how you lit your subjects to get the look that you wanted.

I approach studio lighting like two puzzles to solve. First, you must light the background. I would hit the background with two While Lighting “oil cans” fitted with barn doors to keep the spill from hitting the subject in the foreground. I would try to even the light out so the flash would give F11 across the entire backdrop. To light the subject I would use a White Lighting Ultra 1800 in a large Photoflex soft box as a main light, pretty much hitting the subject’s torso at f 11 but the trick was to mount the light on a Bogen Super Boom. Booming the box lets me use the light like a great soft skylight to bathe the subject that I can tweak and aim just so. For fill light I would use an Ultra 600 in Photoflex Stripdome to achieve F 8 1/2 output. I recommend playing with your lights and testing them so you can find the look that matches the subjects and the process your using.

Thank you Chris for asking me those questions, and thank you to all the fabulous freaks of mid 90’s Seattle. You set me free to find myself.

Seattle Suspects book published in 2009 with Blurb and available on the Blurb market place or with a print on the Seattle Suspects site.

Please visit the Seattle Suspects main site to view the book and more suspects, and whilst your at it, give a “like” to the Suspects fan page.

~David

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