I’ve spent a lifetime manipulating light to create images. Throughout it all, I have always had a longstanding passion for natural light. In my eyes, nothing else comes close, and attempts to imitate it are futile in a way that so many of man’s attempts to imitate nature fall short. This is a project I’ve started at work that grew from an ongoing portrait project I’ve been working on for many years….perhaps a lifetime since I can trace the origins way back to my formative years in photography. For this work, I’m working in very limited quarters, usually with a single subject and very basic equipment, and using only natural light. I work in a very busy eCommerce studio for a major fashion retailer shooting on-figure imagery for online publication. On an average day, I press the shutter release around 1500 times. It is a high-volume studio and the work is understandably monotonous. It occurred to me if I could keep my setup simple and stealthy that I might be able to break up the monotony of the shooting days by doing natural light portraits using the window lights in one of the studio areas. I use some basic modifiers, but other than that it’s just me and my subject and the window and the room. Most of these sessions have had to be kept to 10-15 minutes in order to accomplish them either on our breaks or taking a small chunk of our lunch hour. I work with coworkers as well as professional models as my subjects, with either the clothes they’re wearing or with the generous help of some of my talented coworkers both in styling and hair and makeup. Again, limitations are pretty rigid since there is really no time to do much but use what is there at hand. About 90% of these shots were done in front of a window, and the balance was done either at an outdoor location with similar light qualities, or at another studio location, but all are using natural lighting with no supplemental light source. You don’t need fancy gear to take make great images. This project also grew from my love for people, and my enjoyment of the talented people I have the pleasure to work with every day. I’ve put the images to one of my favorite pieces of music by Kate Tempest, from her recent album, The Book of Traps and Lessons. Tempest is a spoken word poet from the UK who has successfully integrated music into her poetry. I recently saw her perform locally, and the concert moved me and has stuck with me so I thought I’d share a piece here which seemed very much to fit with the content.
Song
Artist
Kae Tempest
Licensed to YouTube by
UMG (on behalf of American Recordings/Kate Tempest); PEDL, LatinAutorPerf, Warner Chappell, UMPI, Abramus Digital, Polaris Hub AB, CMRRA, ASCAP, LatinAutor - Warner Chappell, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, and 5 Music Rights Societies