Decorating the British Consulate Residence...

Most people who know me know that I spent several years growing up in England, from age twelve to eighteen. My parents and three sisters still live there today. Every time I go back for a visit, I always do a lot of shooting, often going away for a few days on my own to shoot. I've sold some of these pictures for book covers, some as fine art prints or posters, and one even went on a national ad campaign for bottled water a couple years ago. For a long time, I thought of approaching the British Consulate (like an embassy but smaller) here in Chicago and seeing if I could decorate their walls with some of my prints.

The years went by and I never made contact with anyone about my idea. Then about three months ago I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a few years, who now works at the Consulate. I told him of my idea, and a month later, I was in Chicago talking with them about putting some prints up. The Consulate is in the Wrigley Building, but they have a penthouse apartment where the Consul General (the Director) lives, and has receptions for people wishing to do business in Britain, as well as British groups coming to Chicago. It's in a great location, just off Michigan Avenue, sixty stories up, with a panoramic view of the city.

Last night, thirteen prints made their debut at a party to mark the British elections, where about 150 guests gathered to mingle, eat fish and chips, sausage rolls, drink British beer and watch the results come in. These are the largest prints I've ever had made, including two 16x48 inch panoramas, a 36x48 print and a triptych of 20x30 prints.

The prints will be on view for at least the next three months. Unfortunately, the suite is private so you'll have to enjoy them from the gallery I've posted. I'm always looking for other venues to show my work; if interested, send me a message.

View the prints and price list here.

Lighting

I was asked by a new commercial client today if it'll be necessary to set up lights for a shoot we're doing. I know the location will be bright enough to shoot without any additional lights, but I responded that we may use them anyway. Here's why...

Photography literally means 'drawing with light'. Think about it– without light, whatever you're taking a picture of won't be visible. As a photographer, I'm always faced with decisions about how to photograph a particular subject. Should I use available light, or light with my portable strobes (variable powered flashes)? How will the light fall on my subject? Will they be backlit? How will I light up the background so it doesn't go dark? If I'm using available light, will the color be off due to mixed sources (all lighting emits different colors- tungsten light bulbs are yellow, fluorescents can be green or light yellow, and halogens defy normal colors)? Will the available light complement my subject, or should I use supplemental lighting to define my subject?

Yesterday I did a shoot for a client that will go on the cover of a magazine. This was an important shot, probably to be seen by 100-150,000 people, and the cover will set the tone of the magazine. Put a bland picture on the cover and people may not open the magazine. Put a quality picture on the front and readers will associate that quality with the organization producing the magazine. I wanted it to look really sharp and draw attention to the woman who was the cover model. Bland lighting wasn't going to cut it. In the end I used three lights– two on the woman and one bounced off the ceiling, lighting up the colorful background. It took more time to set up and shoot the picture, but the effort was justified by the final result.

And that brings me to my point. The magazine client and I have been working together for many years and we almost always use additional lighting. Another client of mine has a tight budget (ok, all my clients do...) and wants to squeeze the most out of my time while we're shooting together. We rarely use my lights, often moving quickly from shot to shot without time to think about making things look any better. Basically, we're shooting snapshots with little thought about lighting. There are times this works ok, but most times, unfortunately, the pictures don't look like anything special. Image is everything, and for better or worse, people will judge your business by the image you portray. If the images of your business are classy, well executed and eye catching, your customers will look at your business that way too. There are times when I won't want to use additional lighting and natural light can sometimes be perfect for the job, but for the best quality, take the time to create your images, don't just let them appear.

The first shot was used for placement, to see where the subject would stand and how the background would appear; the second will be the cover shot. BTW, extra space above her head and around the edges will be used for the magazine masthead and additional copy.

Nice Portrait

Got a call to shoot a college student, the vice president of the student government, for the college magazine. Usually when I get these calls, the setting and concept for the picture is all left to me. After reading a draft of the article, I decided to place her in their SG meeting room. I decided to use three lights, two to light the room and one on the subject, placed in a softbox. Met the subject yesterday, and she suggested holding her gavel, something she used in all her meetings. We spent about an hour all together, lighting and shooting the picture.

I was pleased with the lighting especially. The key to a good photo is almost always in the lighting. I could've taken an easy route and just shot her in front of one of the campus buildings in natural light, but that wouldn't provide any context to what she's all about, and what the article says about her, as well as being a pretty dull picture. We had a good rapport and shot over sixty pictures in several different poses.