Greetings again from the land of Blogstoolittle! I hesitate to even say it (because I seem to inevitably prove myself wrong), but I will make a genuine effort to change the name of this town from Blogstoolittle to Blogsalot. Or at least Blogsenough.
At any rate, I simply wanted to share with you some thoughts and images from my most recent shoot for Vype Magazine, one of my favorite and consistently awesome clients.
The concept this time was simple: dynamic duos. Involved were three pairs of footballing duos from the area. We took shots of the individual pairs as well as some group shots. Every single one of the guys was a pleasure to work with and meet. I am constantly impressed by the charisma that emanates from the athletes I meet; these six footballers proved as impressive as any.
The challenges for the shoot were few, but tough nonetheless. First, it was hot as hell outside, which was attributable to the fact that we were shooting outdoors at noon on a July afternoon in North Carolina.. which, of course leads me to the next challenge: god-awful light. So solutions included copious consumption of H2O, utilizing shade as much as possible, and just sucking it the heck up and dealing with the fact that the light just really wasn’t going to improve. All in all, it was a pretty successful afternoon.
Such, I guess, is the nature of life… Always assessing your surroundings, understanding your limitations and moving forward with the equipment you have, trying all the while to make something beautiful happen.
Peace y’all.
Just a few days after spending a night at Hillside, I had the privilege of meeting eight area high school girls basketball players. We met at the local YMCA for a cover shoot for Vype Magazine
As I’ve indicated before, I’m a huge fan of high school basketball. It was a pleasure to meet each of these girls, all of whom have demonstrated an admirable level of skill and leadership for their respective teams. If you’ve watched the aforementioned multimedia, you may recognize one of the girls from this shoot, Kelsey Evans of my high school alma mater, Wakefield.
As always, lighting these shots was an interesting challenge in a gym. With only about 30 minutes to unload/set up/prepare, a lot of the procedure was improv. For the group shot shown here, I lied on the floor (looking quite foolish) with a softbox just to the right of my head pointing upward towards the girls. The basket is lit by one light pointed in its general direction. Unfortunately, without time to adjust significantly, much of the wall behind the basket is also lit; I would’ve liked to have toned this down a bit. However, with time restraints also come creative restraints - in addition to the group shots, we had to finish 8 individual portraits (a few displayed here).
I expect the shots to yield another intriguing Vype cover. This issue is due out in January.
A few weeks ago, I did a cover shoot for a new magazine, VYPE (stay tuned for the new local web page; I’ll let you know when it’s up and running), a franchise publication which covers high school sports in the Triangle area. So far, it has been an absolute thrill to work with the folks at VYPE, including editor Teri Saylor and owner Richard Williams. Their enthusiasm for this new project is palpable and contagious.
This particular shoot featured three local athletes from different area schools: Chris Ettson, a football player at Northern Durham High (my mom’s alma mater), Courtney McKim, a golfer from Wakefield High School (my alma mater), and Taylor Gilland, a cross-country runner from Chapel Hill High School. Each of these athletes excel at their respective sports, hence, of course, their being featured in the magazine.
We shot these photos at Northern Durham High School in Durham, NC. I wanted to get everyone out early in the morning in order to capture the magic morning light. Unfortunately, however, we shot these photos on June 21, the longest day of the entire year. By 8am, the sun was already extremely high and the light was quite harsh. In hindsight (as is the case with pretty much every shoot I’ve ever done), there are quite a few things I feel I could’ve done a lot better, though I’m decently satisfied with these results. In particular, I absolutely love the individual shots of Chris (football).
I’m completely psyched about continuing to work with VYPE. My love for high school sports runs deep (as indicated here), and the opportunity to meet and get to know local high school athletes and coaches makes me giddy. Next on tap for the cover of VYPE - Cheerleader vs. Volleyball Player: Who is tougher? This one’s going to be fun.
