Sweat And Gobo’s

Buffalo Bills Linebacker Joe Andreessen

Portrait shoots are somewhat rare for me and I usually ask myself why that is. I always end up loving them.

Evans Bank approached me with a bit of a last minute shoot and I was all in. They had reference shots and a pretty strong concept and a Buffalo Bills linebacker… hell yeah. I had a few days to think through a lighting setup and came up with this. The main players are a DIY snoot and a ‘custom cut’ paper plate with some rare earth magnets so I could rotate said gobo.

A gobo is an object placed inside or in front of a light source to control the shape of the emitted light and its shadow

One of the notes from Evans Bank was sweat! A lot of sweat. So we brought on Buffalo’s sweat queen herself Katie Ambrose. and she absolutely crushed it.

Joe ended up being a nice dude who despite not having a lot of time in front of a camera was a total pro, taking directions well and coming ready to work.

Cool shoot, fun idea and I’m curious to see how Evans ends up using these in their campaign.

Crew shot! Thanks to y’all.

Inspo Links | Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka. Czech born 1938. He documented the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968. He shot the events and had the negatives smuggled out of the country so they could be published anonymously because Koudelka was still working in country and feared reprisals if his name was known.

Koudelka was signed on as a Magnum photographer shortly after the Prague story was published. Are you as big of a Magnum groupie as me? This book is both affordable and an amazing look at contact sheets from some big names in that agencies roster. Just go buy it!

Koudelka shot (and is still shooting) some really interesting projects. Roma peoples, the holy land, and a project on industrial landscapes. Just to be clear- this post isn’t trying to be an exhaustive history on the dude, more of just an introduction to anyone out there reading.

Below are a couple that I liked from those projects named above. And no I didn’t crop these. Koudelka moved into this panorama format for most of his career. He used a Fuji GX617 for years until transitioning into digital where, get this, Leica made a one off unique to him digital panorama camera. You think you’re a big shot photographer…? Has Leica made you your own personal camera yet?

Last but not least here are some quick and dirty docs about our man Josef. These are both worthwhile watches and the channels themselves are worth a subscribe if you’re interested.

Everydaycarry

I picked up a Fujifilm x100vi a few weeks ago and I kinda love the stupid thing.

After being on the B&H waitlist for this camera for 6 months someone suggested I try the local camera shop, Delaware Camera. Sure as shit a week later I had a brand new x100vi. Score!

I bought the camera solely to put in my pocket and play with. To take photos like I used to. And it’s been wonderful at that. The compact size and aesthetics make me want to pick it up and the fuji sensor and film recipes are a hoot. Thumbs up for my new hipster doodad.

The autofocus is kind of rough and the menus are …interesting. But those are my only 2 gripes about my new toy. I see this coming on trips and making its way into a day trip bag where I’m just out to have fun. It’s never going to replace a pro mirrorless system. And that is the extent of my gear review.

Here’s some quick shots from my first 2 weeks with the fuji x100vi.

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Outside InThe Sun Shooting

Give me farm equipment, fields, mud and the sun and I’m happy.

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Childhood Memories & New Lenses

My parents cleaned out their basement and unearthed several trays of matchbox cars almost the same day as an RF100mm F2.8 L Macro got delivered. Light test time!

Seeing these 40 year old relics was …weird. I have a lot of deep seated memories of crashing, smashing, burning, and blowing them up with fireworks. And who else used their bath tub as a race track? If you threw certain cars around at the right speed you could get them to zip around the walls of the tub 2 or 3 times before they fell into the water. Man I was a cool kid.

Since I had just taken delivery of a new Canon RF mount macro lens this was a perfect test to play with the new CA control ring on it. It’s a neat little feature that I will be using in the future for sure. And holy shit the new RF mount lens series are so sharp. This 100mm macro is no different.

After I had a few shots in the can I realized the overview of the cars was just plain boring. So I started punching in on all of the tiny little details that I also fixated on as a little brat. Much cooler.

This was just a goofy light test with the cars. I think I can do something better with them and it involves stop motion. So I’ve ordered a little animation rig and started playing with green screens. You haven’t seen the last of my shitty little cars!