Jake Peterson's Blog » People

The Bonnie Springs Models

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:00:35 +0000

I never have been real big with working with models as subjects but ever since I started in Aviation the need arose to get better. It’s a common thread in photography to evolve or parish, thus is the same with life. At Bonnie Springs we had four great models, two cowboys and two saloon girls. The Marshall had his town well under control.

Melissa was one of our best models at the shoot. In my mind the saloon girls both had a unique side to them as far as where their background came from. Melissa seemed more like the east coast girl that just came out west, while Charmane (below) had already been out west for some time and had a harder life. With Melissa’s fair tone soft light was key. Here it was a diffuser on top to block out the hot spots from the sun and a gold trigrip below bouncing light back in.

Charmane was a lot simpler to light. She was on a covered porch that acted as our diffuser. With no hard light behind her the background faded away. The only light source that was desired was a simple gold reflector trigrip bouncing more light into here face and hair. The big trick with each of these two was feathering the light on them instead of full beam from the trigrip. It takes a little practice and is far easier with two people then just one.

The Marshall was the exact opposite of the saloon girls. Edgy, gritty and rough was exactly the looked needed to make the marshal seem like he has seen it all. Getting the desired affect here was real easy, a gold reflector on this backlit subject made him pop out and the background stay dark. All really simple tricks that can yield to some nice results. It’s fun to play with these things.

In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 70-200 VRII, Trigrip Diffuser, Trigrip Reflector on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

Precon Photo Safari

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:00:07 +0000

Every time I go out shooting it is a different experience, usually because every time I go out either I get the shot that I wasn’t thinking I was going to get or something else comes up completely that i was predicting. It’s one of the best parts and the most frustrating parts of being a photographer. Well for the last couple of Photoshop Worlds I have been too I have had the great honor of assisting at the Precon Photo Safari with Moose Peterson and Joe McNally.

What sets this one apart from all the rest is each one is different from the last. It’s whatever wherever we can find. A year and a half ago in Orlando it was PBY’s, Trimotor’s, Mustangs and Jets at Fantasy of Flight and Stallion 51. This past March it was a Civil War Reenactment group at a plantation outside of DC.

What will today’s Precon be? What will these crazy guys come up with next? I don’t know but I can’t wait to find out and share it with everyone. Stay tuned.

In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 70-200 VRII, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

This Time in Color!

admin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:00:11 +0000

Black and White wasn’t the only thing going for these guys, the light which wasn’t the greatest when we first got there, was getting better and helped create a lot of nice shadows. Shadows can be a very powerful aspect when included in the composition. For a lot of those shots when the light was harsh the shadows were great to have. The reenactor below, who couldn’t keep a straight face if her life depended on it, posed beautifully on the staircase where the shadows actually add to her surrounding.

Then of course you have this General who was probably the quietest out of all the reenactors but made a very convinsing somber man. It seemed like the only places we had him were besides buildings, but that’s okay his shadow did wonders.

As you can see the background made everything with these guys and the buildings on the Sully Plantation were just killer. The General was a great sport and stood here in front of this particular buildings for a good 20 minutes before he finally walked away. In case any of you were wondering none of this was flash everything was just natural light.

Now in case anyone was wondering why i choose to use a 70-200 for these shots instead of something like a 50 f/1.4, it’s for two reasons. The first and most important, when working with people you haven’t worked with before and you’re in a big group, getting physically close to them with a camera can be very uncomfortable for that person. The 70-200 gives enough range that I don’t have to be close. The second reason just has to do with courtesy, since there was 60 of us there, if everyone got up close then there would always be someone in the shot. It’s just more polite and easier to move around this way.

In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 70-200 VRII, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film

The Reenactors

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:24:58 +0000

This past week at Photoshop World has just been a blast and it has gone by so fast that it’s hard for me to be back in my office already. Every Photoshop World is a little bit better than the last, partly because the staff is always trying to improve the experience for the participants. Photoshop World always starts off with Precons, this year there was ten different ones. For the Photo Safari it was off to Virginia to meet with some real Civil War reenactors who did a outstanding job portraying people from the period. You might of course notice Honest Abe there who happens to be none other than infamous Russell Brown, not a reenactor but certainly a convincing President. Heck I’d vote for him.

Now this was by far the most challenging of Precon shoots I’ve been to so far mostly because it required communicating with very accurate reenactors, which has never been my strong suite. So I might have, sorta, kinda sponged off of a few other people’s idea’s when it came to the positioning. Hey if it’s a good idea why knock it.

Now while I was out there I was thinking of black and white. I was also thinking of tin types. SilverEfex has a great filter for both, which was what these were converted in. Tin Type’s can be a lot of fun but I find a limitation on how often they can be used, mostly because the subject matter just doesn’t support the conversion. This is one of those instances when it fits absolutely perfectly.

The two gentleman above are a general and a governor. Both played their characters brilliantly to the point where it was difficult to get them to talk about themselves! Even so they made for excellent subjects. The Governor bellow posed especially well, he was so relaxed watching the 60 or so photographers move around the place.

In the Camera Bag:
Nikon D3, 70-200 VRII, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film