Nick Merrick Workshop

I recently returned from Santa Fe, NM where I took a workshop from the living legend, architectural photographer Nick Merrick (www.hedrichblessing.com). He's as great a teacher as he is a photographer and the class was far better than I even hoped for. Here are a couple of shots from the workshop...

Profiling

When working at college campuses, shooting profiles of students or teachers is a way for schools to have the people who actually teach or learn there get the message out about how great an experience it is to be at a particular college. The images here will be used as double page spreads in brochures and billboards along with quotes from people profiled.

The first shot of Staci, the soccer player has Staci lit from the left with a large Photek Softlighter and an Elinchrom RX600 from the right and another RX600 to the right of the lockers in the back bounced into the ceiling. The next shot of Doug, the math professor, is lit with an Elinchrom RX600 to his left and slightly behind him to give him a bit of backlight and also light the blackboard in the background. Another RX600 with a large softbox is placed to the left and a little in front of Doug. The last shot of Cathy, a graduate student, is lit with natural light streaming in through the windows behind her and an Elinchrom RX600 with a 10 degree grid as close and as in front of Cathy as possible and aimed directly at her face to give her just a little extra light. All three shots are with the Nikon D3 and the 70-200mm Nikkor zoom except for the shot of Doug which was made with the 24-70mm Nikkor zoom.

Times are Tough

Sometimes my assistant and I will grab a beer after a particularly long day and decompress. We were in the northeast recently in a small town hard hit by the economic crisis and stumbled into a small bar that catered to a community of veterans who are struggling like so many others. Not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for my Dad, Grandfather and all these guys and women who offered their lives in service to our country. Here's to the vets...

Speaking of Architecture...

I also shoot architecture for architects and interior designers. I've just recently been in Naples, Fl working for a couple of different designers. Most of the work I photograph in that part of the state are condo penthouses. The beach down there is littered with expensive, high rise condos catering to people who spend only a few months out of the year there. I recently saw a statistic that showed there were more millionaires per capita in Naples that anywhere else in the U.S. Anyway, I'm lucky enough to get to photograph these places with the great views. 

My lighting for interiors varies depending on the style of the room and what, if any, available natural light is present. As examples, the first shot of the seating area with the blown out floor to ceiling windows is just late afternoon natural light streaming in from those windows. No other supplemental lighting is used. Nikon D3 and 24-70mm 2.8 Nikkor.

The next image of the hallway is lit with a combination of 11 hidden Arri and Lowell tungsten lights and the dimmed down ambient light of the existing lighting fixtures. Nikon D3 and 24-70mm 2.8 Nikkor.

The last shot of the contemporary interior is lit simply with two 4800ws Speedotron units with standard reflectors on the heads set up on the balcony to simulate sunlight. Nikon D3 and 24mm 2.8 PC Nikkor.  

Ikea vs Breuer

While working in New Haven, Ct, we stayed near an Ikea with  Marcel Breuer designed building in the parking lot. Breuer is from the Bauhaus school and is world renown for his architecture and furniture design. He designed the Whitney Museum in NY, among others. This building in New Haven, I believe, is known as the Pirelli Tire building, and was apparently saved by preservationists after Ikea bought the property sometime around the beginning of this decade. The building is saved but empty. It looks like its only use is as a glorified wall for Ikea to hang it's banners. 

Upon first look, the style of the structure looks pretty heavy handed, almost crushing, until you notice the beautiful sculpted patterns on the facade of all four of its sides. We were lucky enough to happen upon the building late on a clear afternoon so we could get the early evening light highlighting all of Breuer's design elements sculpted into the concrete surface. I'm so lucky to have a job that allows me to travel and stumble upon art in a random parking lot. 

Shot with the Nikon D3 and a 24mm PC Nikkor lens.  

Winding Up...

We're winding up and reflecting on this season of shooting colleges and prep schools. It's always amazed me the difference in personality between one school and the next. I love the distinct vibe you feel at every campus. Small schools have a closer knit, family feel and some of the larger universities are like cities. Some of the kids we've profiled, whether at a small or large institution, have left me with a great feeling about our future. With each passing decade or so in our history, the youth have become increasingly savvy in everything from technology to world view. The best and brightest are better and brighter....Hat's off to the graduating class of '09. 

As for the shots- Andre', a basketball player with his game face on at a New Haven University with a stellar GPA and shot blocking abilities is shot with the D3 and lit with direct sunlight coming through the gym's high windows. Kids in the student center are shot with the D3 with an Elinchrom RX600 with a red gel over the reflector aimed at the guitarist and another RX600 with a blue gel  and a 40 degree grid on the reflector back and to the right and aimed at the couple. The next shot of the "Gladiator Games" that we happened upon at one school is shot with the D3 and available light. Those kids were nuts! The dorm room shot is with the D3 with the white balance on tungsten (to make the daylight in the room go blue to simulate evening) and my assistant holding a Nikon SB800 speedlight over the shoulder of the girl taking the picture and aiming it at the kids she's photographing. The lacrosse kids are shot with the D3 and lit with a RX 600 with a Photek light bank to the left, slightly behind and aimed at the two kids up front. Two more RX600's are bounced against the right side wall to illuminate the rest of the locker room. Finally, the lab scene is lit with a large Chimera soft box attached to a RX600 placed to the left and slightly behind the professor and students, another RX600 at the back of the room with a 10 degree grid on the reflector for a slight backlight on the subjects, yet another RX600 with a 40 degree grid and a blue gel over the reflector aimed at all the glass in the foreground and lastly, a 650 watt Arri spot is aimed on the background lab hood.   

DC3

On the way out of Ohio and to the Detroit airport after a college photo shoot, we saw this old DC3 parked in front of a small airstrip that was bathed in orange from a fantastic sunset. We had to stop and shoot a quick one...I've always had a love for aircraft and the DC3 is maybe the most durable plane ever built. There are still hundreds, maybe thousands, of them in use all over the world. It's the VW Bug of commercial aircraft.