Brandon Studio Shoot

Sunday Movies

More Scott

One thing is certain so far in my work in photography: the energy comes and goes. When it is nowhere to be found, I do other things. When it rises like the sap in denuded sugar maple trees in February, I catch as much of it as I can and make syrup.  The memory of the sweet goes when the energy goes but come spring it is all there, back in its generous benevolence.
These are from the third studio shoot I did with Scott, the last one I did with him and his friend, Arron. To my knowledge I have not processed these images before. I focused on the outdoor images we took at the pool. By the time we came back to the studio I had spent the energy gallivanting outside in the sweet sunshine of early summer. Where did the rest of summer go?

This was the first shoot we did when I suggested the guys wear the clothes I had. We had been shooting them in their A&F and Hollister drags. I wanted to see them in more grown-up apparel. I was into GQ and Detail then. Now I am not sure these are images that would sell just by themselves but I like the eloquence, even elegance of these photos. It is like seeing these nineteen-year-old kids all grown up, men of the world.
I am preparing to resume shooting models again. I have these persistent images in my head of shooting them on a posing deck so I can get on the same level as they are, sitting or lying down. On the floor I can only crouch down so far. I want to be able to shoot from below or at eye level. But these poses would work more for art studies that show off the lines of a naked torso. I love the lines of an undressed human body, the shoulder sloping from the neck, the gentle or acute curve of biceps or quads, the long slope of the back from the winged shoulders to the concavity just above the hipbones.
Have I grown as an artist in these last fallow months when all I've done is process old shoots? I am finally growing my own personal aesthetics, something that is keenly mine, a vision that can inform all the work I do? 

I've learned a little from using Photoshop and I want to do more with digital post-production. But post can only do so much. The vital ingredient is the initial capture on camera. The model is such an essential part of the equation. After the shoot I can do a lot of digital manipulation, try out out-of-this world crops and hues, but the initial image is like the eggs, butter, and good-quality flour one needs to create heavenly cookies!

I love post-production. I can do this on my own, in the silence of cold, snowy mornings, a steaming cup of herbal tea at my elbow. Shooting requires a different energy. Energy at a shoot is more out there. It is interactive energy, the energy of relationships, of taking risks because I am working with someone else's energy, too, and the mix can be combustive. I like that, I like the danger. Art is so ho-hum sometimes. I like pyrotechnics and then periods of quiet contemplation, working an more subtle, gentle energy.

All this reminds me of Mozart's piano sonatas, how the legato arpeggios suddenly turn staccato then replaced by hypnotic Alberti bass. I like how quarter notes suddenly become a shower of triplets or runs of sixteenth notes that race up and down the keyboard to alight softly into just a dozen notes clustered around middle C. Loud and soft, slow and fast, busy activity and adagios that draw out the plangent flexibility of the piano keys, caressed rather than struck, touches softer than a feather, lighter even than air.

Revisiting Scott

I've been away long enough from the photo shoots I did earlier this year that I can see the images I took as though they were new again. A great number of the photos I didn't even look at long enough to be truly critical of the work I did. I am realizing how burnt out I was with the rapidity of my exposure (no pun intended here) to model photography.
With the prospect of shooting models again, I've been thinking how my way of looking at models in particular and photography in general has changed in the last seven months. That I have changed there is no question. My work processing images with Photoshop has developed my photographic eye in a way I didn't plan. Stumbling along in the dark I had no clue how to proceed. These last months have demonstrated the strength of my interest in the media. Taking photos and processing a few of them each day is not the quickest way to learn the trade but this has made the learning process more of an organic one.
I've processed some of these photos with Aperture back in May. The resulting images however are way different. If anything I've made the colors pop out even more. They now appear more three-dimensional rather than just highly colored.

Aside from from working with my own photos I've continued to view the work of other photographers and filed away in my head what I liked and what I'd like to adopt in my own images. I have not gone artistic yet. There is so much I'd like to do in post-production but my focus so far has been quite conventional. I do want to split off from the herd but the direction to take has not appeared clearly enough yet to pursue.

If the work I did today is an indication of a change in how I look at images I may be ready to take the process to the next step. At the gym today, walking round and round the catwalk above the workout floor, I meditated on how I'd like to shoot models in the future. I want to create not just images of models showing different facial expressions. I want to create atmospheric images, images that evoke an emotional reaction, hint at a story behind them. Because of my interest in films I want to create cinematic images. Since I don't have access yet to large physical sets cinematic images would mean drama in tiny spaces. One day I want to have a large studio so that space can dwarf the subject, the environment become a character in the images I create. Until that day comes I'll have to make do with what I have. I've largely done head shots and torso shots. I want to do more full-body shots. I love working in front of a white or black background but now I also want to utilize other spaces as well. I started doing this at my last shoot with Scott and Arron but didn't get far. After our work at the pool I was not able to sustain the creative tension. The day had its own purpose which I feel we achieved, leaving more now for me to aspire to.