Dan Smith of Listener.

Sooooooooo… Here starts my new Personal Project. It doesn’t have a name, it doesn’t necessarily have a theme, except an overall want to make everything in the image Intentional. My usual work is simplistic: 1. usually one light, sometimes two. 2. I’ll shoot at a location or studio, using the surroundings to fill my frame with the subject. 3. I shoot to get it right IN-CAMERA, so I don’t have to spend days and days or hours upon hours in photoshop “trying” to make a good image. 4. When using Photoshop & Lightroom, I only use a few things to put the final touches on a photo. And so on, there could be more points, but those are the most relevant.

With this new project, I wanted to grow more in my craft (as most personal projects challenge us to do) and in that I wanted to: 1. Work with multiple lights (4 or more). 2. I wanted to build the sets from scratch, so I literally could create an image from the ground up. 3. I wanted to focus on ONE or TWO great shots instead of trying to get a slew of pretty cool shots. 4. I wanted to expose, light, set up everything with the INTENTION of going into photoshop and having a hay day! I want my skills in photoshop to continue to stay sharp and grow. I wanted to work on composites, even though this more like a semi composite. So if I read anything that says, “It looks shopped”… I’m just gonna say Duh.

The inspiration for this is all over the place, but as far as set design and editing goes, I’ve been inspired by late 1700s painting styles. Not to sound like a douche with “deep thoughts on his inspiration” but, in the paintings, I actually enjoy the lighting, how it fell on the subject, the objects within the painting. The muted and rich colors. The placement of everything. Everything had a purpose. So why not try some of those things out with some new portraits. I have a bunch more up my sleeve. I don’t know how long it will take to do them all, but I’m pretty stoked on the first result and looking forward to making the next shots even better. And if the world hates them… well at least it was fun shooting them! Whoop! whoop!

Also, check out Dan’s work Listener! He is such a talented musician & lyricist, awesome guy, and good friend. I was so stoked he could make it out to put this shoot together.

Two fun shots after everything! PLUS! A look at the set being developed. Click the link below.

Thanks so much to my boy Paul Wood! Who came and assisted me for this shoot. Snagged this cherry below for kicks 😀

Shots from my phone.