Your work seems to run the gamut from commercial projects to editorial shoots, to personal work. What do you enjoy most, and how do you multi-task so effectively?
Thanks for thinking I multi-task so effectively! Actually what may seem like “multi-tasking” really goes back to the first part of your question. I enjoy all of it whether I am shooting an ad, a working out series for a magazine or something that is self started personal work. I apply the creative view of what I am shooting to all of my projects which is why I do get hired and published. The client wants the vision I bring that is different than the vision of the next photographer.
What is your traditional gear set-up? Digital/film? Do you always use a tripod, or only in specific lighting situations?
I very often shoot both digital and film on any given shoot. My favorite choice is medium format film in my Mamiya 645AFDII and truly love the look of Kodak Tri-X especially pushed two stops. Outdoors Kodak Portra 160VC is just stunning and skin tones are perfect. With that said I have just used a few rolls of their new Kodak Ektar 100 and the colors, contrast and sharpness is breathtaking.
I have indeed also used the Leaf digital back on my Mamiya as well as the Mamiya ZD back and I am enamored with medium format digital too. Actually I might be the first person ever to have been published with the Mamiya ZD back with a magazine cover and two other magazine features. I have also used Phase One backs with great success. They all have their own advantages depending on what you are shooting.
But my decision as to what will be the main system on my shoots depends on need and speed and my vision. Very often I am shooting something that has a really short turnaround requirement, sometimes next day. So on those shoots obviously digital is the first choice. But I will shoot some film alongside. If I am shooting a project or assignment where I have more time and more creative latitude I will shoot film with some digital alongside. This past 3 day Memorial Day weekend I was shooting on two separate television documentaries and I employed digital, medium format film and even my 35mm film in my Contax G1 Rangefinder.
My choice to use a tripod is less about lighting and more about the shoot I am doing. Longer exposures are not something I deal with. But I am faced with wanting more of a precise fixed position or working with multiple bodies where one of them is in place is really the better choice. For example the following shoot I did with one of the top fitness models in the business, Jamie Eason.
In this shoot the client wanted black background and some specific shots as well as what I conceptualized. So it worked out better to create a fixed position so Jamie could ‘hit her marks’ and not be concerned about getting the right camera position on each frame.
I was also shooting tethered, so camera movement was more restrained, and I was also shooting in front of a 7 ft Profoto giant reflector. The results were exactly what the client wanted.
Not much in the way of extreme tripod use for me. The only thing extreme for my Induro has been getting thrown in as checked luggage on a lot of flights and coming out unscathed each and every time. I find that in itself pretty amazing. I have certainly had it out in the desert, again on another ad shoot. The client wanted a specific scene duplicated as in their drawing.
The Art Director verbally conveyed to me what he envisioned for background, horizon and sky. So here it was best to set up the shoot precisely with a fixed camera position…