This shot I’m happy with. I shot here once before with a family and was already aware of the nice perspective and playing off of elements that makes this a great place to shoot. But I wanted to try a few new things, too. I was trying out a new lens and using a gradated filter for the first time. I shot 20-30 images in this pose, moving around, trying the sun out in a bunch of different locations. Between them was what I ended up on, but it was tough - a lot of shots were getting really blown out in the middle. Hiding it just enough was key.
It’s nice to take a break from trying to light somebody from the front. It’s been a long time since I did a natural light shoot. It limits your options, but frees you up, too. It was during that experimenting that I asked her to turn sideways. I had that “oh, that’s perfect” moment right there when she turned.
This is the first shot since my studio is back up and running after the flooding. Carpets dry, padding replaced. Felt good to get back in there and do some things. Also, it’s all cleaned out now, so instead of looking like half-storage/half-studio, it looks like a studio. With the extra room, I want to fill shelves with props and photo equipment and the kinds of things that help in the creative process.
As for the concept, I’m happy to have a second shot in series done. Sort of like a second album from a music artist, I think that’s when you know if there’s something sustainable there. I’m liking the exploration and I have a few more ideas in this vein.
I’m drawn to the surreal part of this. Probably no coincidence that there’s a striking resemblance to Halsman’s “Dali Atomicus” photo in both images from the series. But as it progresses, I think it’s important that it find a path that departs from that famous shot. The concept is to capture the playful, magical, not-of-this-Earth way that kids’ lives unfold. I don’t want it to just be the “things in the air” series. My next one is probably going to have something slightly more grounded to it, just to make sure of it.
“Man Versus Poo (MVP)” was a short-lived, dumb little comic strip idea that exemplifies my wandering mind, nearly completely. The kind of endeavor that you do, spend some time and effort on, lose interest in and then forget about until you stumble back onto it at some point and go, “Did I do that? Why? Why did I do that?”
I have a lot of those. So, when I found this old Tumblr site and saw the sketchy beginnings of Man Versus Poo, it triggered something for me. It was July, 2009, we were in the middle of pitching HTC. I was just considering putting a stop to all the creative meandering I was doing outside of work and focus my efforts on photography. And then I did. Kind of a neat marker of time as since then so much has happened.
Then just today I was thinking I should maybe make a blog for my photography and came across this strange thing I made. It would have been nothing to scrap Man Versus Poo and start a new blog. But why not just keep it here? The thought is the same: it’s me against all the crap in the world, still. Same premise, different medium. Different way to look at it. And that’s as good an analogy as I can think of for what I’m doing in photography anyway. Trying to look at something in a new way.
Outside, the sounds of children walking back from Summer, with its games of chalk-drawing, skip and dirty shoes, hose-water mouths and half-eaten sandwiches. Inside, the two just thought of better days. Stillness made the evening deafer.
