It all has to end...
There was a time, long ago, in what seems like a galaxy far, far away... that the only photo sessions I did were outside of the studio. Just me, a friend, a camera and a field. Somewhere along the way, I found myself choosing the reliability and consistency that I could have in the studio. I leaned into that. Near the end of last month, some friends and I headed out to the mountains so I could, once again, shoot outdoors. September brought another outdoor shoot by way of a creative concepts group that I am involved in. They had organized a Star Wars themed session at Bear Wallow Mountain, and invited me to come along and shoot. So I took the opportunity to get a little bit (ok a lot) of excercise by hikinh up to the top for some amazing views, and some good times.
Back to the Studio.
After having a great time with the outdoor concept, and being a little less than serious, it was time to continue that with a Jester themed studio session with Catt and Tessa. During this session, I decided to take a plain, low-texture canvass backdrop Ive had rolled up, and cut an arch out of it, and place it in front of a simple black paper backdrop to simulate a hallway, or dark, grand hall... or something. I placed a strobe behind the arch to skip light across the dark paper behind, and use a purple gel because, well, I felt like it.
Both Catt and Tessa brought some amazing styling to the party with their costume design, all that remained was to have a good time, and capture some worthy images.
Rule of 3s...
Apparently there were three sessions in September. Maybe thats a thing now? But if only 3 sessions—make them amazing.
As some of you know, I have decided to focus much more heavily on creating darker, creepier and more elaborate concepts for the remaining months in 2025. My session with Emily was no exception. Bat! I wanted to challenge myself by shooting darker content on a darker background—only using the strobes to carve out the parts of the environment and subject that I wanted to be visible. This style of lighting was intentional, and gave the black and white images more of an 'old Hollywood' vibe, of which I must admit my adoration. Em did a wonderful job creating her 'bat wings'... so I absolutely needed to shoot a bit wider that I would normally to get all 9ft of her wingspan into the frame! I really love the way the image came out!
