Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Clipper Anderson

Next in the Leading Questions Project is bassist, Clipper Anderson. Clipper is an incredible musician and really personable guy. Clipper laughs often and places a high value on friends and family.

This shot came about in mid-July of this year. Clipper and I were scheduled to play at the Port Townsend Jazz Festival with pianist, Randy Halberstadt. I thought this would be a great opportunity to use this interesting location to get a portrait of Clipper.

Within our busy schedule we had about a two hour window on Friday afternoon, July 25th, to get the shot. The problem was that I hadn't come up with a strong concept. It is my desire that the images for this project have a lot of character.

We were staying at Fort Worden, an interesting old military base that was used for the filming of the movie, An Officer And A Gentleman. There are a number of cool buildings, open fields and so on to work with. I walked through some of the buildings hoping to find the right room, but nothing was striking me. 10 years ago, these buildings had beautiful wooden floors, high ceilings, rows of old windows, in a word, character. As I looked through the rooms, I was disappointed to see that a bit of modernization had taken place, substituting the old and interesting with new and generic. Industrial strength carpet lined the floors, and the walls looked like they'd been painted with surplus colors from a Starbucks. Not the vibe I wanted.

I could see Clipper in a couple of poses, the one above, humorously playing his gigantic bass like a guitar, a stronger stance with the bass away from his body, I just needed to find the right location.

With about an hour before I was scheduled to meet Clipper, a concept came to me. I had heard that there is a Goodwill store on the outskirts of town, so I hopped into my car and quickly raced out to find my prop, an old hat. 99 cents and I was in business. I raced back to the fort, called Clipper and asked him to put on a suit and meet me with his bass at the end of the Fort Worden Pier . I raced down to the pier and started making multiple trips out to the end, carrying a C-Stand, a tripod, a Vagabond II, digital cameras, my Mamiya RZ67, an octabox, a drum stool and worst of all, 3 20-pound sandbags. (you know that feeling when you are already wiped out and you haven't even started shooting?) Normally I would have carried my gear on a cart, but the bumpy planks of the pier weren't going to accommodate such easy access.

Clipper's bass is a fine instrument, worth many thousands of dollars. He hauled it out to the end of the pier in it's case. It was very windy and the sun was blazing. He informed me that we had only about ten minutes as the bass could not be left in direct sunlight for very long. I kept him in the shade and began setting up my 4 foot octabox with a White Lightning X1600. When ready, I brought Clipper into position at the end of the pier. The sun was to camera right, just a little behind my back. I decided to place my octabank in it's path, essentially blocking the sun, casting a shadow on Clipper. I really only wanted one light source in this image. I removed the outer panel from my box leaving just the internal diffuser. I wanted a large light source but with a little bit of an edge to it.

In front of Clipper I placed the Goodwill hat with a dollar bill extending from inside. Because of the strong wind, I placed my keys and a 580EX inside, just enough weight. I took a couple of quick meter readings and then had Clipper sit on the stool. I placed a polarizer on the lens to help the sky a little and took a couple of test shots. I then had Clipper execute the two poses I mentioned. I then switched to film with the Mamiya and had him repeat each pose as well as getting a Whibal shot.

As quickly as we began shooting, we were done, I got Clipper and his bass out of the sun and began packing up.

I felt a great sense of satisfaction upon completion of this project. My concept of a bass player in a suit, playing for dollars at the end of a pier, with his instrument humorously positioned like a guitar had come off. I feel that the image has character and humor, and a unique, appealing look. Thanks to Clipper Anderson for his willingness to do what I asked of him.

Here is the alternate image I considered, taken with my 5D.













Although I like this image, I felt it lacked the humor and character that I feel Clipper possesses.

Here is a link to the interview:

http://seattlejazzscene.com/?p=775

Technical info:

Featured image shot with a Mamiya RZ67 w/110mm 2.8 lens at f/5.6 1/250th of a second, using Kodak Portra 160 VC film rated at ISO 100.

Alternate image shot with a Canon 5D w/EF 24-70 2.8L USM lens at ISO 100, f/6.3 1/200th of a second.

The lighting for both shots was provided by a four foot octabank minus the outer diffuser with a White Lightning X1600 strobe, powered by a Vagabond II.

Triggered by Pocket Wizards

Saturday, August 16, 2008

James Knapp

The Leading Questions project is one I have thought about for some time. I'm really excited to see it come to fruition.

When selecting subjects I try to consider not only how I think they will interview but if I feel a strong concept for their portrait. My first subject, composer/trumpeter Jim Knapp, was an easy choice. I have known Jim since 1995. I performed in his jazz quintet for some time and have always been a great fan of his compositions and playing. Jim is also a very intelligent, witty person. He really enjoys language as can be seen by some of the clever titles he chooses for his compositions.

At the end of June, 2008, I contacted Jim regarding the Leading Questions project. Because of his wit, I thought Jim would be a great first subject. I had a feeling Jim would understand the concept without my really having to explain it to him, or provide examples that might steer Jim down a less intuitive path. I feel that Jim hit the nail on the head, providing a perfect first outing for the series.

After receiving Jim's completed interview, we scheduled a photo session. I really wanted to shoot Jim with black and white film and chose Ilford FP4+ to do so. We shot Jim's photo on the stage of Poncho Concert hall at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where Jim is a professor. It had been a while since I had been to Poncho and I initially envisioned shooting Jim, sitting in a chair with the trappings of the stage behind him. I imagined curtain riggings and theatrical tools littering the background, but was disappointed to find that my memory of this stage was not accurate. It has none of the things I imagined. (Note to self, never trust your memory, always do a location scout in advance) I however, made due with the situation and instead decided to turn Jim around so that his back would face the seating of the hall.

I set my lights and did a few tests. Now, the tricky part of working with subjects not used to being photographed, is getting them to look relaxed and natural in front of the camera. There is a real art to this. When conceptualizing this shoot, I knew that I wanted to get a shot of Jim laughing. Jim tends to be a fairly quiet, low-key person, who will surprise you with a sudden outburst of laughter when something strikes him as amusing. I wanted to catch this element.

During the session, Jim was his usual self, patiently waiting for me to set up my gear, engaging in a little bit of small talk. To get the image I wanted, I gave Jim a little bit of direction regarding how I wanted him to sit in the chair and then I casually started telling him jokes. (Now, I didn't just go straight into a comedy routine, I tried to keep our conversation natural, but just happened to have a few jokes to share.) I lift my head from behind the camera so that I could directly engage him but kept my finger on the shutter release waiting for the perfect moment to fire. I must admit that I had trouble telling jokes fluidly as I was trying to watch Jim closely while operating the camera at the same time. In the end, I got several images of Jim that I really like and decided to go with the shot above as it really typified what I wanted to communicate about Jim Knapp.

Here are a couple of shots that I considered as well:



Thanks to Jim for his cooperation.

Here is a link to Jim's interview, hosted by SeattleJazzScene.com

www.seattlejazzscene.com/?p=733

This is Jim's site:

www.jimknapporchestra.com/


Technical Info:

Ilford fp4+ shot with a Mamiya RZ67. 110mm @ f/5 1/400th second
White Lightning X1600 through 4' octabox as key. Alien Bees B800 through 4' strip light to rear and camera right. B800 shot into hall in background.

Triggered by Pocket Wizards