PDN Magazine Interview "From College Dropout to Portrait Photographer"

Incredibly honored to be interviewed in this month's issue of PDN Magazine. They wanted to know how I made the transition from a college student shooting in Alabama to making portraits for my dream clients in NYC. You can read all about it below, but if you have a chance please go pick up an issue on the newsstands. It's the PDN Photo Annual so the magazine is filled with tons of great photography.

A huge thank you goes out to Marcel Saba, Jennifer Laski, Jonathan Woods, Anne Conover, Amy Wolff and David Walker for making this story happen.

(Click on the image to enlarge for better reading)

UPDATE: If you're having trouble reading the interview below, click here for a larger version.

Beyond the Photograph: Kelly Ripa & Michael Strahan

Wow. This shoot was an absolute blast. Couldn't be much happier with the way things turned out, especially considering the inconvenience of setup and shoot time. The shoot took place last week at the Live with Kelly and Michael studio on the Upper West Side. The assignment came to me from my awesome clients, The Hollywood Reporter. This is how it went down...

My assistants and I were told that we would not be able to show up to the studio until 1.5 hours before the shoot. In the first hour, we were going to be waiting in a loading dock just a few doors down from where Kelly and Michael would be doing a live taping. After we unloaded all the gear in the loading dock, we started setting up stands, lights, modifiers, etc. in the hallway. I had already drawn out my lighting setup because I knew time was not on my side for this particular shoot. Once the lights were on the stands and the modifiers attached, we sat and waited for about 15 minutes. Jana (my wife/manager) and I had previously scouted the location a couple of days before. My scouts usually consist of me taking lots of pictures, but most importantly I try to go ahead and find the shot so I will know exactly what to do when the shoot day comes. I also do somewhat of a technical scout - making sure we have all of our power needs met and do a walk through for how we will load in, etc. That way when the day of the shoot comes I can solely focus on the lighting, subject, etc.

So back to our 15 minutes, the door opens, the publicist walks in and tells us we have 5 minutes until it's go time. She says that the show is about to end and the audience will start exiting. That's our cue to start loading in our equipment from the loading dock to the actual show studio. The door opens and about 100 people start exiting and taking pictures of the set. My assistants and I are standing by waiting to move lights. As soon as the last person exits, we start picking up stands, sandbags, modifiers, lights and start moving everything in. At this point, I've already discussed my setup with my assistants so they know exactly what to do and where to place everything. We have 25 minutes to get everything into place and do testing. I also forgot to mention that we have 3 setups. We get the first setup taken care of and tested, quickly move to the next location for the 2nd test, and then onto the 3rd. The 25 minutes fly by and the next thing you know, Kelly and Michael walk in. They were in fantastic moods and up for most anything. I had brought a few props, and also had some different ideas, but those ideas were shot down by the publicist. I had to resort to plan B and just come up with some things on the fly. The confetti image that ended up being on the cover was an extremely last minute idea that Jana and I came up with after seeing leftover confetti from the show on the floor, and then learning from Kelly and Michael's production manager that they use the confetti in every show. Really excited that last minute idea worked out because it made for a fresh cover. That's one of the biggest challenges of photo shoots of this nature. Nothing is ever exactly planned out.... You are constantly being thrown curveballs and you just have to learn to adapt, think quick, and still remain pleasant to work with. Happy this one worked out so well! 

To get a real sense of the shoot check out the BTS video here. Enjoy!

Kelly Ripa & Michael Strahan

Kelly Ripa

Michael Strahan

Beyond the Photograph: Allison Williams and Cristina Ehrlich

This shoot was assigned to me by one of my awesome clients, The Hollywood Reporter. The assignment was to photograph Allison Williams and her stylist Cristina Ehrlich. If you're not familiar with Allison, she's one of the stars of HBO's television show "Girls". She also happens to be the daughter of Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News. I was told that we were going to be shooting this at Cristina's apartment in SoHo and that we were going to have about an hour to knock it out. Once my assistants and I arrived at the location, we determined that the best place to shoot was going to be outside on Crosby Street. I didn't have a great feeling about shooting inside of Cristina's apartment... I didn't think we had much physical room, and I was not really inspired by the apartment itself. Of course, the minute I made the decision that it would be best to shoot outside, it started pouring rain (pretty much sleeting), not to mention it was about 23 degrees outside. I definitely wanted to get a classic portrait of Allison, but I also wanted to get some very "loose" shots on the streets of NYC. Lately, it seems that most of my portraits have been shot in the studio so I've been eager to get my camera out and not be tied down to a backdrop. Basically, I just wanted to walk around with them on the street and grab a bunch of frames. I also wanted to approach my lighting a little differently and try something that was more mobile.

After Allison arrived, we started inside the apartment and did some classic portraits. I kept my lighting setup fairly simple for this one. I used a Photek umbrella without any diffusion as my key. I place it camera right, high and angled down. I then put a  silver reflector card, probably at least 4x4 feet to camera left. I think we actually sat the card in a chair and moved it pretty close to Allison. You can see the reflection of the silver card in her eyes. Sometimes the best light is the most simple. After I took a few portraits, we decided to venture into the freezing raining cold. Allison was such a pro - she was scheduled to leave our shoot and attend a fashion show, so I could totally understand her not wanting to go outside and get rained on, but she was totally up for it. So we headed out to Crosby Street... My lighting was obviously really simple. I used the Magnum Grid that Profoto makes, and my assistant hand held the light right behind me. (Image below). I've always wanted to try something similar to this lighting setup, and the opportunity presented itself so I jumped on it.

I'm pretty happy with the results and love the sharp light that it produced. It always fun to try out new things on shoots. As I've said before, it can be easy to get stuck in your default way of shooting. It was fun to branch out and shoot a little more loosely. Huge thanks to my assistants for always being up for challenges, even when it's freezing cold and raining out. Good memories...

Allison Williams & Cristina Ehrlich

Allison Williams & Cristina Ehrlich

Crosby Street, NYC

Throwback Shot: Paula Zahn

I made this image while I was shooting some of Paula's promotional material for the Investigation Discovery channel. My whole day was spent revolving around a film crew that was shooting the motion aspect of the campaign. I would wait for about an hour while the film crew got their shots, and then come in with my assistant, setup my lighting, and shoot some images. It's always a challenge shooting stills behind a film crew. For the process to be seamless, the photographer has to be included in all of the early pre-production discussions. The director must also understand and respect the photographer's goals. This one ran pretty smoothly for the most part. After the shoot was over and the film crew packed up their gear, I decided to venture off the shot list and grab something for myself. I asked the film crew if they would mind clearing the area of the grip van and let me get a quick shot. My assistant just hand held a boom arm with an octabank attached. Paula was totally up for it and it happened to be one of my favorite shots from the day. My advice is when a client gives you specific directions or a shot list, make that your priority, but also go for the shot YOU want. Planning is key, but going on instinct is sometimes better.

Beyond the Photograph: The King of Youtube / PSY

I really don't know where to begin with this one. Let's start with the call. That's always a good place. It was December, and my wife and I had just finished up three weeks of straight shooting and 15,000 miles of traveling. We were at the airport about to catch a flight back to NYC. As far as I knew I did not have anything booked the rest of the month. It was time to relax, enjoy the holidays, and start planning for 2013. As Jana and I are sitting in the airport, I get the call to photograph PSY. If you don't know who PSY is then you must not have been alive in 2012. I don't even have to link to his "Gangnam Style" video. I find out that the shoot is going to be taking place in Washinton, D.C. where PSY will have just performed at a party with President Obama. I have about a day to prepare and get down to Washington. After the initial phone call, I started writing down all my ideas for the shoot. There were some crazy ones in there...I figured why not shoot for the sky. At one point, I was thinking how cool it would be to have him on a white unicorn. Sometimes I get ahead of myself! After many conversations with the magazine, we decided that because of time constraints, I would only be able to pick up a few props in NYC before heading to the shoot. I decided that it would be cool if PSY was sitting in something reminiscent of a king's throne. So off to the prop house we go to pick one out, load it into our cargo van that's crammed with equipment, and begin our drive to D.C. 

When we arrived in Washington, we settled into the hotel, had a few drinks, and got a good night's sleep. The next day we head over to the location which was a hotel meeting room somewhere outside of D.C. I had been given about three hours to setup and get prepared. PSY's people were only going to give us 5-7 minutes so when he arrived to the shoot, there would be no time for figuring out what to do - it all had to be planned down to the last detail.

This is the part of the story where the real lesson was learned. My assistants and I start pulling all the lights, setting up the backgrounds, etc. We finally get our first setup ready to go which was in my mind going to be killer - it involved the throne that I mentioned earlier (pictured below). As we begin testing, I come to the hard realization that this whole throne thing is not going to work. It feels too forced, and it's probably just not right for this particular cover. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but I could not figure out how to make it work visually without it looking like the cover of some cheesy rap album. But, I was stubborn. I kept trying to make it work, changing the lights, the positioning of the throne, adding more haze to the shot, trying to make it look even more dramatic. It just wasn't working. The next thing I know, 2.5 hours have passed and PSY will be arriving in 30 minutes. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself because I had less than 10 minutes to achieve a classic portrait for the cover. I started testing other ideas that I had for backup and they were decent, but not cover worthy. The pressure was starting to sink in and I knew if I did not come up with something soon this whole thing was going to be a failure. I look at my watch... time is up. It's go time. The door opens from outside in the lobby and in walks PSY's manager, "PSY is running about 10 minutes late...Hope that's okay."

Okay, so by the grace of God some time has been bought. I decided to leave the set and just take a quick walk with my wife outside in the lobby, just to clear my head. Sometimes as photographers, we get this visual in our head of how our shot is going to look. We think we have it all figured out, and the photograph has not even been made. That's what was wrong with me that day. I could not get the "throne" out of my head. I could not get the dramatic lighting out of my head. I could not get all the thoughts and ideas I had written down, which were not working, out of my head. My wife, who is my best source of encouragement, told me to just completely clear my head and approach this photograph differently.

I went back into the shoot and decided, I'm going to do a close up and use hard light, which I had never really experimented with. I ended up using the white side of v flat for the background and lighting PSY with the magnum grid that Profoto makes. I also stuck a beauty dish above his head, maybe 4 feet above him, that shot straight down for a little bit of kick in the hair. When PSY came in, complete with an entourage of 5 people and a bodyguard, (which we found a bit humorous) he stayed for about 5 minutes. I must say his outfit and glasses worked perfectly for this shot. I asked if he would lower his glasses so we could see his eyes, to which he agreed. I knew after the first frame that this was going to be the cover.

It was pretty crazy how it all turned out. All it took was for me to realize that my idea was not going to work. I was so stuck in my default way of doing things that I could not see beyond it. It was a huge lesson learned for me and luckily I came out on the good side.

Our location after clean up - hotel meeting room.

The failed throne.

Beyond the Photograph: Tarantino & Foxx

It feels like yesterday when I got the call to photograph Tarantino and Foxx. I'm not going to lie, this was probably the most excited I'd ever been for a shoot. The photo editor gave me all the information I needed to know. She said, you are going to be shooting them at The Ritz Carlton in New York and you only have 10 minutes. From that point on I knew I had to prepare like none other.

Lately, it seems that a lot of my shoots are "celebrity" shoots with limited amounts of time. When I get a shoot like this, the first thing that runs through my mind (besides where, when, and how much time will I have) is scenario and lighting. I usually figure out how many setups I'm going to go for and then start writing it all out on paper. Usually I am the only one who can understand what I've drawn out, but that sheet(s) become a lifesaver on set. The other most important thing to me is location scouting. I can't tell you how much time that has saved me in the past. If possible, I try to scout a location a few days in advance of the shoot. I go and take pictures of the location, then come home and start planning out the scenarios, arrangement, etc.

For this particular shoot, I knew I wanted to bring a special element into the shoot. I did not want the two of them just sitting in a hotel room doing nothing. I wanted to put everything into context. So, I made a request that Tarantino's people bring a copy of the script to the photo shoot. I was told by the production company that this would be happening, but I knew from past experiences that you cannot always rely on things like that. The day before the shoot I created a fake script, by researching online and finding Tarantino's script, then printing the cover and stapling that to a stack of blank papers. Done! 

One of my other goals for this photograph was to keep the lighting motivated. To my best ability I was trying to go for the effect that the practical light, which in this case is the lamp behind our subjects, was the motivated light. What I did to make this happen was setup an octa bank high and behind our subjects. High enough to where it would be out of frame. Then, my next light was my fill, which was a bare head bounced into the wall behind me. The shadows, especially on Jamie's face were very dark. I knew that I had to get just the right amount of fill to make it all seem somewhat natural. Not enough fill, would result in a dark image and having too much fill would result in an image that looked obviously artificially lit. It was all about finding the sweet spot.

The hotel suite after the shoot had wrapped.

Ritz Carlton / New York City

A couple of more portraits from the shoot. In order to fully capitalize on a shoot of this nature, I think it's important to have multiple setups. These portraits were actually taken in the bedroom of the suite, where I set up two background options beforehand. I think I got about 15 frames of each subject, before PR came in and wrangled them up. I gotta say that the gash in Tarantino's face was not planned! I got lucky on that one! After meeting him, there is no telling how he got that mark, but I think it makes for a great addition.

Quentin Tarantino

Jamie Foxx