After Work

The arguably obsessive pursuit of excellence in bottle-breaking shots, a mind wracking and grunt workish journey, has me forgetting about the simple pleasure of finding a new place by foot and casually capturing observances.

A discovered urban thruway here, off the beaten path in a pleasant commercial district. Very clearly after 5:oopm. On the first floor we’ve got a waiting area at right and then the rooms for visually public one-on-ones. What for I do not know.

Upstairs the office drones flit about, working until the magnetic pull of the break room inevitably unsticks them from their desks in a willpowerless quest that places them at the foot of the messianic coffee maker that will deliver them to gloriously awake states of mind.

Apparently it’s long-sentence Sunday.

To The Right

Another look back on a week of shatterous experimentation. This time featuring the hometown player, the infamous Harpoon. Its flagship IPA is good stuff, though I must admit its Pumpkin brew in the fall bested the other nine pumpkin seasonals I sampled.

The surface that these bottles were broken onto was curved, the side of a large aluminum piston, which accounted for the directional bounces in breakage seen in the bottles. The next setup may use a flat plane to shatter upon, potentially changing the trajectory of post breakular impacts.

We’ll see.

Dressing Doors

An invitation to document, an evening of behind the scenes and decidedly front-of-scene coverage. A mob of fit women, moving and whirling about under the guise of dance passion.

Throughout the evening I was in and out of the backstage area (admittedly more like a conference room), capturing the mess of thirty girls’ handbags and winter boots, makeup and tights. Piles of early-twenties glamour detritus, beautiful in its own way.

So it’s all captured here as if it were exclusive. An open door that’s closed to physical entry, a glimpse of forbidden backstage prep. The troupe in its environment.

Between Acts.

Flipped

Wiping beer out of the contours of my the lens this morning, brushing out flecks of sticky glass, contemplating how to improve the setup for future shoots. Floating through hardware stores, imagining trash barrels and plexiglass in new arrangements.

After looking at this for the dozenth time I still can’t figure out how it flipped over and let loose that thick ribbon of beer from its side. Not to mention how the broken top made its futile lunge at the camera, escaping the carefully placed cast of the light.

Much rumination ahead.

Next Question

Fires in the belly (or lack thereof), anti-corporatism, environmental musings. Just a spoonful of what Ralph Nader covered during his speech tonight at Northeastern University. Generally interesting, though a bit scattered I thought. A bit too dumbed down and sweeping for my taste.

But alas a good photographic experience, glad to have been assigned to the event. Mostly it was man-at-podium drudgery, but thankfully I got to slip into his dressing room with some of the student reporters for a pre-speech Q&A.

Time, access, value to and fro, compensation, quality, all the variables on the mind tonight.

Embers in the youth.

Tsingtao Greenbottle

Another night of beer down the drain, so to speak. Another dozen bottles of brew broken, their contents held by tarps and plastic enclosures which, for the most part, have performed quite well. Can’t say the smell is great though, now in its second day.

While this shot turned out pretty neat, today’s shoot at large was incredibly frustrating. Broke about twice as many as yesterday but got just two good captures. Time after time I’d freeze the bottle just an inch over the breaking slate but the next shot in the sequence, even at about seven shots per second, would come up blank. Maybe some fizz in the air.

It’s getting better though. Understanding the setup more. Seeing how the flashes, backdrops, containment materials, etc can be improved for the next real setup.

Morning cleanup awaits.

Twenty Bucks

And finally it’s been done. Been attempted. Been started. This very shot concludes the many-month period of waiting for it to happen. Beer bottles breaking in a studio (bedroom). Honestly I haven’t been this excited about my work, the photos showing up on the LCD of the camera, in … ever. All homework tonight was shoved aside as I finally got to shooting this after about six hours worth of prep.

It’s been on my to-do list for so long. It was attempted a month ago outside, but self conscious about the ruckus I was causing (bottles breaking over and over) I bowed out early. So many hours of mental ruminations about how to set it up, how to light, how to drop, on what to drop onto, etc.

I’ll leave the monstrosity of the setup in place for the rest of the week, occupying a great corner of my room. I’ll cycle through different six-packs of bottles – tonight was Brooklyn (the favorite) and Harpoon (the local). One quarter drank, three quarters smashed into bits.

Phew. It has finally begun.

Bow Tie and All

An assignment, a photo created. The professor said come back next week with a portrait in hand of an “everyday hero.” After some ruminating on the subway home, I figured this dear fellow fit the ticket. Mentor, educator, business savvy sunna’o gun.

At last the self portrait lighting sessions have paid off. This illuminous setup was a direct descendant from some testing/practice setups I’ve been fiddling with as of late. Strobes, reflectors, angles and all. Harsh and heroic.

I’ll need another month of Photoshop learnings before I can figure out how to pull the lens flare out of him. Hexagonal forehead blue at top left and some green on the chin. I’ll figure it out.

Thanks young man.

On the Piston

An afternoon of light tests, but more importantly splash and shatter preparation. How to position flashes and the camera such that they’re out of harm’s way, whilst ensuring the necessary containment of liquid and shard.

Let me explain. This bottle is resting on a great big piston, weighs about twenty pounds, and it’s harder than granite. Maybe. Perhaps nearly equivalent. Hard enough that a glass bottle like this won’t need to fall far to erupt into a million pieces.

And so the final desired result is this shot (but with different lighting), catching the bottle in the instant after its glass has fractured and contents have begun to spill all about. Without deleterious effects to the small bedroom space in which it’ll occur. No errant glass pieces strewn about, no beer soaked hardwood floors, no black plastic/metal camera gear submerged.

Now that’s a project!

Closed Doors

A borrowed lens, a new perspective, two aching arms.  A giant telephoto (relatively speaking… they get much, much bigger) is with me for the weekend, and it, if nothing else, is a real presence. Two touristy girls approached me, asking to take a picture of them on Newbury street, citing my prodigious camera as proof that I could probably handle their dinky pink camera just fine.

Symmetry keeps popping up in my recent work. Mostly in environmental contexts – the windows in the background of a portrait, or in this case plain’ol exteriors. The more you look into it the more variances make their way into view.

I’ve come a long way in architectural photo practice, or generally photographing structures and lines with an acute attention to optical-perspectival quirks. If you don’t pay serious attention, the lines just don’t come out straight. Finagle for a bit and walk to and fro, and you’ll save a million in Photoshop time. (Upon further review of this casual edit… boy are things off…)

Continued learnings…