Working fast and light in a small factory

I have been photographing for this client for so many years, they are now way into the good friend category.This winter they asked me to start making some portraits of a documentary nature, featuring their production staff and customer service.

Here’s what I did a couple of days into the new year of 2012. This is their fabrication crew. They didn’t slow down a bit for me.

I was working two little lights with color correcting gels on them. Sometimes I had the D700 on a tripod, sometimes not… all were made with my old 28-70 2.8 Nikon. The ambient light was pretty typical overhead warehouse lighting, and some high and very yellow translucent panels the length of one wall, about 20 feet off the ground. You can see some of that in a few of these out takes. I like this gritty duotone treatment, but they will probably want color, which is why I use the color correction on the flashes to get them as close as I could to the vague, rambling Kelvin of the insanely mixed temperature light sources.  Plus the sun was in and out all afternoon, pushing EVs, color temperatures and the relative lighting ratios all over the place.

Before and while I worked, no one came in to clean up the shop, no suits from corporate appeared to affect attitude, no art director stopped production to rearrange the work space, no make up was applied.  I moved a few trash cans and a broom, mostly to remove an errant highlight and keep the compositions as I wanted them. I loved it, and worked alone (without an assistant) for about three hours.

Here’s a sample… my quick edit.

Shop Forman

performance art

springs, ready for assembly

at the lathe

the lathe that is older yet more precise than me

sanding the edges of a plywood armature

an anthropomorphic plywood form, glued and clamped, dries overnight in the empty warehouse

assemblyman

drill press

my kind of color palette, in the high window's light, end of day

still life, masquerading as portraits – October 14, 2011

The benefits derived from turnip husbandry are of great magnitude; light soils are cultivated with profit and facility; abundance of food is provided for man and beast; the earth is turned to the uses for which it is physically calculated, and by being suitably cleaned with this preparatory crop, a bed is provided for grass seeds, wherein they flourish and prosper with greater vigor than after any other preparation.

Brassica rapa #1

The first ploughing is given immediately after harvest, or as soon as the wheat seed is finished, either in length or across the field, as circumstances may seem to require. In this state the ground remains till the oat seed is finished, when a second ploughing is given to it, usually in a contrary direction to the first. It is then repeatedly harrowed, often rolled between the harrowings and every particle of root-weeds carefully picked off with the hand; a third ploughing is then bestowed, and the other operations are repeated. In this stage, if the ground has not been very foul, the seed process.

Brassica rapa #2

The next part of the process is the sowing of the seed; this may be performed by drilling machines of different sizes and constructions, through all acting on the same principle. A machine drawn by a horse in a pair of shafts, sows two drills at a time and answers extremely well, where the ground is flat, and the drills properly made up. The weight of the machine ensures a regularity of sowing hardly to be gained by those of a different size and construction. From two to three pounds of seed are sown upon the acre (2 to 3 kg/hectare), though the smallest of these quantities will give many more plants in ordinary seasons than are necessary; but as the seed is not an expensive article the greater part of farmers incline to sow thick, which both provides against the danger of part of the seed perishing, and gives the young plants an advantage at the outset.

Brassica rapa #3

Turnips are sown from the beginning to the end of June, but the second and third weeks of the month are, by judicious farmers, accounted the most proper time. Some people have sown as early as May, and with advantage, but these early fields are apt to run to seed before winter, especially if the autumn be favorable to vegetation. As a general rule it may be laid down that the earliest sowings should be on the latest soils; plants on such soils are often long before they make any great progress, and, in the end, may be far behind those in other situations, which were much later sown. The hot turnip plant, indeed, does not thrive rapidly till its roots reach the dung, and the previous nourishment afforded them is often so scanty as to stunt them altogether before they get so far.

Brassica rapa #4 copyright T.W. Meyer 2011

The first thing to be done in this process is to run a horse-hoe, called a scraper, along the intervals, keeping at such a distance from the young plants that they shall not be injured; this operation destroys all the annual weeds which have sprung up, and leaves the plants standing in regular stripes or rows. The hand hoeing then commences, by which the turnips are all singled out at a distance of from 8–12 inches, and the redundant ones drawn into the spaces between the rows. The singling out of the young plants is an operation of great importance, for an error committed in this process can hardly be afterward rectified. Boys and girls are always employed as hoers; but a steady and trusty man-servant is usually set over them to see that the work is properly executed.

Brassica rapa #5

In eight or ten days, or such a length of time as circumstances may require, a horse-hoe of a different construction from the scraper is used. This, in fact, is generally a small plough, of the same kind with that commonly wrought, but of smaller dimensions. By this implement, the earth is pared away from the sides of the drills, and a sort of new ridge formed in the middle of the former interval. The hand-hoers are again set to work, and every weed and superfluous turnip is cut up; afterward the horse-hoe is employed to separate the earth, which it formerly threw into the furrows, and lay it back to the sides of the drills. On dry lands this is done by the scraper, but where the least tendency to moisture prevails, the small plough is used, in order that the furrows may be perfectly cleaned out. This latter mode, indeed, is very generally practiced.

from the Instructions for Field Cultivation of Turnips, in the 1881 Household Cyclopedia

Serendipity is such a nice word

When working as an “event photographer”, the tendency is to set a high-ish ISO (400 or 800), attach a competent and slightly diffuse flash to the camera and just document the scene as a dispassionate observer with an agenda.

I have no problem keeping such elemental guidelines prominent in my approach, but I also like to look for opportunities to break out of that static mode, turn off the flash and crank the ISO up. Especially when the ambient lighting reveals such surprises as I encountered a couple of days ago…

Last week, I was asked to photograph an event hosted by the management of the building where my studio is located, the Little Five Points Community Center. It’s a non-profit organization in an almost 100 year old building that offers reasonably priced studios to artists and arts organizations, and that’s one reason why I can afford to keep the space. It’s a deal that can’t be matched anywhere in the Atlanta area. As icing on that working man’s cake… it’s in Little Five Points, where there is never a dull moment or a shortage of interesting people.

The old cafeteria is right outside my studio (which is half of the original kitchen), and I use it when I need to build a large set. The ceiling is high, the room is large and the really ugly florescent lighting emanates from fixtures that are recessed into the ceiling (ie: out of the way).

The hallway off the cafeteria is several stops darker and that presented the best photographic moment of the day to me.

I had been photographing the Manga African Dance troop in the cafeteria, and moved over to the exit to the hallway for a new point of view. In that hallway was this beautiful young woman. She was watching the same dance performance, and sort of subconsciously spinning an inflatable globe…

I saw her as I crossed the room, but rather than approach with the camera’s presence on her, I turned back to the room to check my point of view on the performance that was in progress. But while watching, I turned off the flash and knocked the shutter speed down by two stops. I turned, focused and I exposed a frame of the globe spinning woman (she smiled!), and then turned back to the dancers. It wasn’t until downloading later that evening that I noticed the orientation of the globe, which was undoubtedly set for me by the rhythms that surrounded us at that moment.

Young Woman, Spinning Globe. Little Five Points Community Center, Sept 17, 2011

28-70 f2.8 on D700 Nikon, ISO 800, 1/50th @ f2.8

Atmosphere, light and foxes

I recently spent another week at Anna’s Veranda and found some new residents in the Inlet Beach Dune Preserve. They would only appear in the last minutes of sunlight when the weather and atmosphere has its greatest effect on the quality of light.

Florida Red Fox, August 10, 8:40pm (Vulpes vulpes), © T.W. Meyer 2011

I went to photograph them on 3 evenings, but my longest lens was an 85mm 1.8, and the light was almost non-existent when they would suddenly appear from under the scrub and palmettos. The first two nights I hand held the camera, and worked iso 400 at insanely slow shutter speeds, bracing on the railing of the boardwalk and watching for that still moment to release. iso 400 pretty quickly became 1600, which the D700 handle pretty well. And they are so fast… and then there’s the wind.

But the really magical thing that overlayed my excitement at being so close to these thoroughly wild creatures, was the wonderful shifting qualities of light in late summer on the gulf shore of the Florida panhandle. Every night the coastal sky presented a rapidly shifting range of color, from a deep clear blue to a fiery orange glow to an almost completely neutral silver.

In preparing this images, I tried to remain faithful to the impression of those moments, if not to an empirical reproduction of the twilight’s actual spectrum. Each of these images of the foxes was made on a different evening, and the color they have is my best recollection of the experience. I’ve included some photographs of the sky, just to give you an idea of what the illumination was like, in the surrounding minutes. There was no way for me to empirically identify and record the color temperature without a color meter, and I wouldn’t have used one, had I had it. Well, maybe I would have, but I just set the white balance to “fine weather” which gave me a constant standard to work from, had confidence in the fluidity of the raw files, and kept my attention with the foxes.

Florida Red Fox, 8:55pm August 8, 2011 © T.W. Meyer 2011

Monday – 2011.08.08 at 8:55pm, iso 1600, f1.8 @ 1/8th second, 85mm f1.8 Nikon AF-D

Florida Red Fox, 8:20pm, August 10, 2011 © T.W. Meyer 2011

Thursday – 2011.08.10 at 8:20pm, iso 800, f3.5 @ 1/400th second, 85mm f1.8 Nikon AF-D

The sky above me and the foxes, 8:31pm, August 10, 2011 © T.W. Meyer 2011

Thursday – 2011.08.10 at 8:31pm, iso 400, f4.5 @ 1/250th second, 85mm f1.8 Nikon AF-D

Florida Red Fox, 8:43pm, August 10 2011, © T.W. Meyer

Thursday – 2011.08.10 at 8:43pm, iso 800, f1.8 @ 1/25th second, 85mm f1.8 Nikon AF-D

The sky above me and the foxes, 8:47pm, August 10, 2011 © T.W. Meyer 2011

Thursday – 2011.08.10 at 8:47pm, iso 800, f2.8 @ 1/10th second, 20mm f2.8 Nikon AF-D

Florida Red Fox, 8:31pm, August 13, 2011 © T.W. Meyer 2011

Saturday – 2011.08.13 at 8:31pm, iso 400, f2.2 @ 1/30th second, 85mm f1.8 Nikon AF-D on a tripod (finally)

You can see more on my Facebook page from this trip.

portraits masquerading as still life

Photographing food that is as fresh and beautiful and delicious as what we’ve been getting from Turtle Bend Farms, is quite similar to cooking it.

Just don’t mess it up. Keep it simple. Show some respect for the subject.. and the artistry of the farmer. Growing this stuff, organically, is quite a feat.

I’ve been photographing fresh vegetables and fruits for a few years now, and have sort of cooled from that pursuit. But occasionally something presents itself and I make images like this, that are less Still Life-ish and more like a portrait. I keep it simple for a few reasons, but primarily out of respect for the forces in play.

This is actually a pretty heavy handed treatment for me, but there’s something almost comical in this set: watermelon, cucumber and peach (an exotic strain from China, according to Adam at Turtle Bend), so I’m ok with it.

Watermelon on a refrigerator dish lid, 2011 07 07

Cucumber in a blue refrigerator dish. 2001 07 07

Peaches in a tart pan, 2011 07 07

Night City

Sometimes a job goes on so long, I think “man, am I glad that’s done”. I pack my gear, walk out the door and into the night.

A couple of hours later I start the car.

Night City #1

Night City #2

It happens when the sky’s light balances with the lights of the world.

Night City #3

Night City #4

Night City #5

portrait of a young man as a Young Man

I really can’t think of anything to say that this photograph doesn’t say better, all by itself

ring bearer

Ring Bearer

Why I always carry a camera (#2): form and light

shy pistel, May 16, 2011

There’s a passage in my favorite book by Annie Dillard, “Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek” in which she comments on how she sees differently when she walks with a camera.

I know this from my own walks. It’s as if a syntactical vision is imposed on the world by the nearness of the device and it’s familiar constraints. Juxtapositions that offer fluency or tension within these photo-mechanical confines often determine the route, duration and velocity of the trip.

The campus of Agnes Scott College is quite beautiful, as campuses go. It is meticulously maintained, all well-fed lawn with trimmed borders and neat pine straw beds around the trees and buildings. The paths are always free of debris  and the stately magnolias groves that populate the campus were both grand and floral at that time of year.

I’ve been walking the campus for over 20 years now, and I’ve seen some pretty spectacular flowers there. But on this particular evening, the light was soft and directional, and this one presented itself at just the right angle in just the right incoming light at just the right moment. It’s pistel was hidden from view; in another day, it would be browned, wilted and expired. But here it was at it’s prime, fully opened, and scented to heady perfection. I stood as tall as I could, and reaching the camera out, set the auto focus with my eye perhaps 10 inches from the finder.

Deferring to that moment, I have keep this image subdued, preferring to let it’s form have the leading voice. The minimum crop to 4×5 made sense to me… t

Why I always carry a camera (#1): Palette vs non-sequiter

behind Mobley Tire, Decatur, Georgia, USA

Whenever I take my car to Mobley Tire for repair (or anywhere for that matter), I wander through the mini-wasteland next door. It sort of borders on a strip club and a pet crematory (I can’t find a good joke in that… make up your own). Some of the stuff has been there for years, some looks like it was dropped off yesterday.

This image has all the right stuff to make it susceptible to good artspeak descriptors, so here goes:

Within this image, there is a  disassociative juxtaposition within the repetitive seduction of a seemingly chaotic yet structured and textural fugue. Built with a constrained and harmonious palette and dynamic tonal range, it’s objective content is interlaced with just the right amount of visual jangle and droll humor.

This entry has been quite satisfying to my artist remnants.

portrait of a working artist in a really small room

Christina Kober is an enterprising jeweler who understands the value of self promotion and is working it from many angles. She asked me to make portraits of her at work.

Her studio is small, but quite efficiently laid out and easy for one person to use. Adding a photographer (even a thin one) and a light stand with a diffusing modifier (even a small one) quickly shrinks it to the point where everything is a bumping hazard. And some of her stuff, you don’t want to bump.

Christina Kober: Window light for main, strobe for back light

In the above image, a window is the main light on camera right. I used a favorite old 30 inch Westcott Halo for a back light. Unfortunately, the 30 inch Halo is now out of production and there’s nothing that replaces it. I love it because it’s small, provides a directional yet soft and shape revealing light, works really well with speedlights and it’s convex front diffusion panel can be placed very close to a subject. I prefer the enclosed construction of the Halo because it doesn’t create the contrast lowering spill that is a problem when a comparable shoot-through umbrella is used in a small room.The Halo kept the wall behind her a deeper blue, in contrast with the warm window light on her skin, hair and scarf.

Christina Kober: Bounced main light and daylight rim

This image shows the intensity of Christina’s concentration when she’s working with the torch on a very small piece. I wanted to light her from my left, where there was only room for an undiffused, small and flamable light source, all of which were just not good ideas.  I dodged those issues by putting my Lumedyne on a stand above and behind her (to the right), with a 5 degree grid on it. That light was pointed over her head toward the closed white blinds on the window to my left so that it bounced from those blinds onto her face as a softer light, while the window light from across the room created an edge lighting on her right hand and the tools she was using. Grids do collimate the light somewhat, but not as tightly as a snoot or fresnel head would. This grid is held on with velcro… not exactly a light tight seal so maybe some of that rim light was leakage from the grid.  I’ve learned to exploit such weaknesses  idiosyncracies in my archaic vintage equipment… t