Rick’s Rants and Raves

RAСEƆAЯ Promo, originally uploaded by rick020200.

Last week I had the chance to do some promo work for RAСEƆAЯ. I had been introduced to them by Scott and shot their reunion performance. Because of their unique stage presence, I knew I wanted to do a promo shoot with them.

But the question that killed me was “what kind of promo shoot?” I’ve recently been looking at every picture posted to the Band Promos pool and had decided that I didn’t want a bunch of guys standing and facing the camera with stoic faces and a nondescript background (like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one [yes, that's mine]).

My favorite pictures were the ones with a , or some bit of action, or even just a bit of over-the-top expression. I had a lull in my schedule so I reached out to Andy, the lead singer, to see what we could arrange.
At about that time, I noticed a house on my drive home that seemed to be getting torn down by hand, one board at a time. This house sits on the same property as another house, and had obviously been vacant for years, so I figured they were finally tearing it out. I’d seen other pics in dilapidated buildings and thought it could make for an interesting setting. I found the owners on the county auditor’s web site, looked up their phone number and left a message. The next day, I stopped by the house and knocked on the door (boy was I ever nervous) and met Judy. I introduced myself and explained what I wanted to do. She explained that her husband was remodeling the house, but that he was out of town and that I should check back the next week. I left her my card. When I checked back, I talked with their teenage son and left another message. I figured anything more than three attempts would be harassment, so I just let it go.
Fortunately, Andy had an excellent plan B. We could do a shoot focusing on his dad’s restored 1955 car (I’m an idiot for not knowing what kind it was). We agreed on a date, and I quickly finished work on my DIY strip lights (hopefully I’ll do a post on those soon) since I wanted to use them in lighting the scene above.
I bought a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon, threw it in a cooler and brought it with me, figuring the cans would make great props, and give their hands something to do. Oh, and it was terribly hot and the cold beer made everyone happier.
My first idea was to shoot them doing something stoopid to the car under the hood. The strip lights were necessary here to focus the light on the under-hood area, make it reasonably large (soft shadows) and come from a lot of angles (few shadows). I also had a flash on a stand at the back of the car to add depth to the garage, rather than making it a black hole.
The next idea came up on the fly, and started with someone’s comment “maybe we could do something with the trunk”. So I had the idea to work with a mock abduction scene. I wanted to have the band members stuffing the lead singer into the trunk for a couple of frames, then have him battle back and put them in their place (ha!).

Finally, they wanted a shot of all of them in the car. I was really sweating it now. Light was fading, and I knew anything non-flashed would have them dark in the car, and bright sky behind them. So I placed a flash in the center floor of the front seat with a bounce card, and a second flash in the back seat pointed at the white backs of the front seats.
But that wasn’t enough because of the way the driver was leaning toward the window. So I snooted a third flash, turned it way down in power and had a voice activated light stand point it at the driver from just over my shoulder.

When I got home I played around with the post processing on this final shot a great deal because a) there was a suburban looking garage and basketball pole in the background, and b) the back-seat passengers are a bit too fuzzy. I realize now I need to have the aperture set to f/8 or more to get better depth of field. In the end, I just chopped out the back ground, put in one of my sunsets and called it done.

It was a good time, and an excellent learning opportunity. They guys were a blast to work with and were very flexible. I hope they’re able to make use of the photos in their promotional materials.

Dad, originally uploaded by rick020200.

We had my dad over for dinner tonight. He’s 69 and wants for nothing except time with his son and grand kids. He’s recently made it a habit of paying for dinner every time we go out despite our frequent insistence that it is our turn to pay. So for his birthday this year, we had him over to our house for a quiet dinner of Country Captain Chicken (our favorite made-at-home curry dish) and Krusteaz pumpkin pie bars (they are devilishly good!).

The shot above was a “grab” shot. I spent very little time composing it and the only light is from the overhead ceiling fan with a mixture of incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. I like the result.

Moxie, 100mm, ISO 200, 1/40s, f/2.8.

I’ve had a bit of gear lust recently. For the last couple of months I’ve been coveting a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I’ve just recently bought a new camera, and had decided that I should wait before getting a lens. Unfortunately for our savings account, Midwest Photo recently had a “tent sale” for a lot of used and closeout merchandise. After we perused the bins for a bit, I decided to show this lens to Anne.

“We have a used one” the man behind the counter (MBTC) said helpfully. Oh dear. The used one was discounted 30% off retail and was in very good condition. Oh dear. But the tripod mount was a bit damaged. Phew. I pointed out the damage, and the MBTC explained that he had ordered a replacement part for it, and he should have it around somewhere…. Oh dear. A few minutes later the damaged part was gone, and the lens was a good as new. Oh dear. Anne and I stepped aside to talk about the status of our savings account, and the fact that we have a little bit of slack. And it was, after all, a pretty steep discount.
Oh yes!

The first publication to print one of my photos is the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

They had originally found and been drawn to this picture, but when I told them that the adult in the photo was the child’s dad, and not a Free Geek volunteer, they were a little disappointed. I sent them thumbnails of the whole set from our Freek Geek trips and they preferred the image above because Scott was in it, helping the boys. Woo hoo!