Tay Humphrey Promo Shoot

Had a happy client, so I wanted to do a quickie blog post.

Meet my friend Tay Humphrey. I did a headshot for Tay last year. He's the guy in the cowboy hat in front of an American flag on my portfolio site. He's changed a bit since last year and needed some new promo shots done. So, he came back and we did his shoot at Studio Daylight. I think this shot turned out pretty cool.

Model Christina Crawford

It's about 1 a.m. right now. I've been up late tonight working on photo retouches for my new portfolio site that's about to launch. These photos are from a shoot I did at Studio Daylight with one of my favorite models, Christina Crawford. She is a fantastic model and extremely easy to work with.

We went artsy for one look, and did fashion on the second. I like these images because they are both strongly built around color. The first shot combines the deep colors of blues and reds together in a great way. My mentor and friend Michael Gomez actually recommended the color combination to me a while back. I was a bit skeptical at the recommendation at first, but, I pretty much take all advice that Gomez gives me... and I went with it. Really happy with the resulting image. And he was right on the money with it.

The second shot is more of a fashiony feel. It looks like magazine ad work you see in some higher end books. There's almost some sort of a monochromatic feel going on here. I used moody lighting and the neutral colors in this image to create a soft feeling. I like the way the jacket blends with the background. It's somewhat delicate and a little dark. Then, her bright hair and fair skin mixed in with a little blue from her jeans. I think it works together.

Late Retouch Inspiration

I'm working on my portfolio selections for my new website. I worked on this shot of Nashville drummer and bass player Cassady Feasby. He came up to shoot with me one night at Studio Daylight. This image, he glows in.

Time With Phil Vassar

I've been really, really, really busy for the last two weeks. Phil Vassar came by Studio Daylight in Nashville, Tennessee, for a shoot with me (Nashville photographer Wes Aldridge) the other day. It was the day of the CMAs, so naturally he didn't have much time to devote to the shoot. My team of assistants (Nick Bumgardner, Amy Harris, SaraMac and Andy Middleton) and I knew about our time crunch (appx. 2 hours) and still planned to get 6-8 looks. It was going to be fast-paced and fun, just the way I like it.

We spent the morning setting up about 7 different shooting stations. We had everything laid out and tweaked so the only downtime in the shoot was when Phil was doing wardrobe change. We literally would finish shooting one set up, he change clothes, and we would be ready for him to walk in and start shooting on the next set. Everything ran super-smoothly because, like nerds, we had all of our exposures written down in big, detailed list, keeping us ready to shoot as soon as we switched the channel of my PocketWizard on camera.

I'm really pleased with many of the images we came out of the shoot with. If you go to Phil's blog
http://blog.philvassar.com/ you can see the same photo I just posted on my blog. Its kind of cool. Phil's site is done by Carter, a really great friend of mine.

And, I learned something really cool about Phil. I had one of my classic rock playlists going over the studio speakers and of course, David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" started to play. My instinct was to walk over to the iPod and skip it because Phil probably thought Major Tom was a freak, but to my surprise, I look over at Phil and he's playing some air-guitar and wailing on some Bowie high notes. I was like, "Wow, dude, you dig Bowie?" Phil's like, "Yeah, we used to cover a bunch of Bowie songs back in the day." I thought that was a rad moment that needed to be shared with everyone, hehe!

"Ashes To Ashes" is probably my ultimate song to do photography to. One of the most magic times I've had a camera in my hand was watching the sun fade away at El Mirage Dry Lake with my brother after I did his "Sun God" portrait. Bowie was singing that day in the California desert, and he had Phil Vassar jammin' out to him for my shoot. I dig me some Bowie, man.

Thaxton Ward @ Studio Daylight

Its been a hot minute since I've posted anything new to Mind of the Photographer. Lots of great things have been happening, and my shooting has been going in a direction that really excites me! Its found a way to mix this gritty-look that I have into a commercial sense of shooting. I've been working with it in many of my last shoots. Hope I can get a little time to retouch some images from other shoots as well soon.

I'm staying very busy with a host of very successful shoots in the past couple of weeks. Been doing some PR work, shooting for a restaurant, did some models, shot several musicians and bands, etc. I'm back-logged for photo retouching from now til Eternity, but wanted to post something from a shoot last night at Studio Daylight.

Nashville-based rock act Thaxton Ward had a show booked at The Rutledge on Second Avenue in downtown NashVegas last night. The studio is only a few city blocks from the venue they were going to play at. So, I thought, why not get them up in the studio to do a little bit of shooting before they bring the noise? It turned out to be a great idea. We had the band in with a few friends about two hours before the show began. We worked and played and talked and rocked, and it was good. We got creative, had fun, and I think we orchestrated some gritty and dark, yet still very commercial music photography. I think everyone enjoyed the time amongst friends in the studio and I'm well-pleased with how the images turned out.

I would like to give a big thank you to Nashville photographer David Bean. He runs Studio Daylight and let us get in there last night to do a bit of shooting. I actually had the opportunity to assist him on a shoot for Gaylord earlier in the week. He's a great photographer, please go check out his work at: www.visualreserve.com

And, as always, I need to say thanks to Michael Gomez. Please visit his Web site: www.gomezphotography.com. He is a Master of the Art of Photography. He is inspirational to me. He gets it. He really, really does. I see him as a mentor, and as a friend. He was the connection that made shooting in Studio Daylight happen. So, thanks bro.

Uhm, this is kind of a sad confession because it took so long to post, but this blog entry is the first one I've posted using my new camera. Last week I purchased a Canon 5D Mark 2. I have to say, I am very impressed with the files this camera produces. The clarity, file size and overall quality of image are everything I had hoped for, and more. With that said, there are still a few things that annoy me about the 5D Mark 2. I am used to shooting my Canon 1D Mark II and the feel is different in Canon's flagship 1D series cameras. It has a much broader auto-focus point registry than the 5D, and those extra AF points really come in handy when shooting anything with some action. I need to mention the full frame sensor is pretty radical too with my 16-35 mm lens.

Another funny confession, I keep this old Canon Elan7 film body on a bookshelf in the dining room. I used to pop my 16-35mm lens on there to "remember" what full frame shooting was like with a really wide lens! Ha! Yeah, totally lame, I know! But its funny because I have a full frame digital camera now and the Elan7 still sits in the same place on the bookshelf.

Halo Stereo Bassist Jody Hicks

Here is Halo Stereo Bassist Jody Hicks from his single shoot at Studio Daylight. I did a bit of retouching on it to make sure it has a little "pop." I dig it. I think the guys are going to swing by tonight and have a look at the shots from Wednesday on the big screen. There are many that I really think are rockin' and I can't wait to share with the musicians. There is some talk about shooting with them in an upcoming studio recording session, too. We'll see how things pan out, sounds like it could be some fun.

Shot Day: Halo Stereo, First Look

My good friend, Brian Carter at Red Light Management, hooked me up with "Halo Stereo" for a session. The bassist Jody Hicks and singer Andrew Fry stopped by for a few shots. Here they are... on to the next look in the elevator shaft!

Go check out their music on their site:

www.myspace.com/halostereo

[IMAGES FROM SHOT DAY @ STUDIO DAYLIGHT ARE NOT RETOUCHED. RETOUCHED IMAGES WILL REPLACE CURRENT RAWS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.]

Shot Day: Nick Bumgarnder, First Look

So, here is Nick Bumgarnder. He is a great photographer that is shooting with me today here at Studio Daylight. Nick brought his wedding suit that he had custom tailored. We had a little bit of downtime, so Nick got dressed and I shot him on the 20-foot cyc wall. It looked pretty rad. Nick, always complete with hat and bow tie, was rocking it out today. I think Nick is gonna be mighty dapper on his wedding day...

[IMAGES FROM SHOT DAY @ STUDIO DAYLIGHT ARE NOT RETOUCHED. RETOUCHED IMAGES WILL REPLACE CURRENT RAWS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.]