Mipso Trio is/are some friends of mine. My band, the Dogwood Deddy, opened for them to a sold out crowd at the Local 506 last year. Recently, they approached me for some photos and I proposed an idea I had been marinating in my brain. We did a few standard band shots on a seamless backdrop, then went to work on the spooky composition I had in mind.

Sometimes, to set off a good idea, all you need is a prop. My old friend Lucas could base a whole movie off a prop. The prop in question for this shoot was an old guitar, found in a cornfield by my uncle Steve. It had been cracked and crushed somewhat, and perhaps if I was a master instrument maker I could have salvaged it. But I already have too many projects of that sort, and I figured it was worth a photo, so I took the components off that I could use, and set it aside with the intention on destroying it in a photographically compelling way. Brainstorming over beers with Jacob, Joseph and Wood one evening, I proposed the photo that would be the death of this guitar.

The shoot came together fast, and without assistants I had to prep heavily to make the shoot run efficiently. We were strapped for time, but considering the logistics of a flaming guitar, I knew it would be a small shooting window anyway. I prepped the area in the wooded portion of my backyard, and did a few test shots the weekend prior, testing light placement and whatnot. I cleared the ground at the fire site and built a small bunch of wood to burn. Not bragging, but I'm pretty good at building fires. I take pride in 'one-lighters.' Even so, I knew I'd be employing the help of the foolproof trail fire starter: Denatured Alcohol. It helps if you have no assistant to blow on the emerging flames... I also built a ready-to-go fire on the perimeter of the woods, with lots of old leaves and pine needles in a pile nearby, to use as a smoke machine for the background.

All that set up, I then erected a seamless backdrop and a light in my driveway. When the boys arrived, blessedly with an extra friend to help out, I took some seamless photos of them to use in flyers, promo materials, website stuff. Here's a raw photo from that setup, and an alternate flyer I made for them using one of those photos. Note the use of special props, in this case, my chickens :)

Once we felt that we had that in the bag, I herded the lot to my backyard. Had to move some lights, the ones I was using up front on the first shot, back as well. Everyone helped, and it went quickly. Good thing too, as daylight was dropping fast. We got into position, and I shot a few frames to test the lighting. Once I felt like it was good to go, I lit the smoke fire in the background and set our helper on that detail. I think she enjoyed it, I mean, it's fire after all. I had prepped the guitar by loading the inside with dry twigs and leaves, and now I doused it with some of that denatured alcohol. Nothing left to do but light it...

At this point, the smoke in the background just wasn't popping like I needed it to. It seemed to be thick, but in the photos it wasn't coming out. No matter, the guitar was burning so we had to move. I directed the band and shot quickly. The guitar was going up in a flash! It burned for maybe four minutes, and all the while we shot, me directing them, and they sweating from the heat in such close proximity. I had Jacob, the mandolin player, try a few poses with the mandolin, and then had him set it aside and act as if he was tossing it on the fire. I knew I would be compositing the final photo at this point, and while I do like to 'get it in camera,' I also knew we wouldn't be burning a mandolin this day, so I got the elements I figured I would need. After we had a few that I liked of all the foreground elements, I also had Jacob hold the mandolin in air to use in the composite:

Then, to get the background smoke I had pictured in my head, I whipped out the old standby, a South Carolina smoke bomb, and I had Joseph parade thru the woods spreading chemical smoke all about as I shot.

In the end I used a few of these smoke shots as the background and the best looks of each band member in front. I think with a true smoke machine, a big kit of actual high-end strobes (as opposed to my speedlights), three assistants, and a few spare guitars to burn, I could have gotten this shot in camera, without compositing. Not having those things, I had to rely on good ol' PSPP: PhotoShop Post Production. But the real kicker is that PS is a given these days, and I have to convince people that we ACTUALLY BURNED a GUITAR in this shot! I take pride in that fact.

Mipso Trio, as you can see in the flyers, is playing the Cat's Cradle this Saturday, the 14th. If you are local, stop on by and support!

-llg

If you live under a rock, then perhaps you haven't heard of the Avett Brothers. I'm guessing if you are here, then you have. And if you've been here before, you know I've had a few occasions to photograph them in concert, in fact they were the first few images of my 365 blog, shot at the 2009 New Year's Eve show at the  Asheville Civic Center in NC. One year to the day later, I found myself in the same venue finishing my 365, while working on another project, which I'm happy to finally present to you now...

I'll let the video mostly speak for itself, but as you can see, I wanted to show some of the goings-on around the concerts this past New Year's in Asheville: the crowds, the lines at the door, the venue, the fans. Contrast that kinetic energy with a slow study of the band's equally kinetic performance, and you have a time warp that gives you an idea of what ringing in the New Year with the Scott, Seth, Bob, Joe, Jacob and the crew is like...

Mad love and respect to my co-camera operator, Krista Little, who has some great still images from those two nights on her blog.

Thanks for watching,

LLG

UPDATE: I figured since I was getting a lot of Avett fans coming to the site to check out the video, I'd post a few of the other Avett videos we've made, these from a show in Chapel Hill a few years back, enjoy!

And the rest, go ahead and click on the thumbnails for the slide show.

Hit the jump for a couple more...

I tried to make a few photos with HDR in mind, shooting bracketed sequences on a tripod, but back home here on the post-processing, I didn't like the look of a traditional HDR approach. Instead, I used one of the underexposed shots for the sky and another from later in the sequence for the cave itself, and did the masking and compositing manually in PS. So in a way it is HDR, in that it has a High Dynamic Range, just not processed the way most "HDR" is done these days, i.e. using pure software to generate the composite. I also decided to go for a more dramatic landscape, and to that end, I added some clouds in the distance and a lens flare to mimic the sun. This day, I'm not a documentary photographer. 

Once we exited the cave on the far side, we photographed on the beach for a while. I had brought my ND lens filters, so I dropped the 10-stop ND on a lens and shot some lengthy exposures of the waves and rocks. This one is 90 seconds at f/22, ISO 50. Gotta love what happens to the water over a long exposure like this.

Not as much post on this one, just some color toning and dodging and burning.

After hanging out for a little too long, we had to exit back the way we came, but the tide was well on its way in, and the cave can only be entered and exited under rock ceilings that would be completely under water in less than any hour. Got a little wet on the way back thru...

One more from the day, this one a mash of layers, really a lot different in its final form than the original. Purely for the drama of it, creating an elevated sense of the location, a dream memory of a beach that may have been the entrance to heaven itself. Right before a bunch of tourists walked into the frame...

Sometimes I'm torn between faithful representations of landscapes, and creating the drama after the fact if it wasn't there in person. Even so, it seems that I enjoy looking at the dramatic versions more...what do you think? Give me your opinion in the comments.

-llg

The Dogwood Deddy (the band that consists of my wife and I), will be playing a show here in NC in a few weeks. I used a recent photograph of my little cousin Max to create this poster, I hope you dig it. Click the picture to see it even bigger.

Know these guys? Come on in even if you don't...

There's a mix of photogs (yeah, you two) and non-photogs (hi, Mom) that visit this site regularly, and if you've been with me for the duration, you might even know these fellas, Joe McNally and David 'The Strobist' Hobby. I've mentioned them both before, and how much I've learned from them, but suffice it to say, I knew nothing about strobe lighting until I found David's blog in 2007 or so, and next week I'm teaching a class on lighting at UNC-G. It was through his site that I learned about Joe McNally, and read The Moment It Clicks, another wealth of information and knowledge that still influences my approach to photography and lighting.

Well, today, I got to meet this dynamic duo in the flesh, when the Flash Bus, David and Joe's educational tour de light,  made a stop in Durham at the Cotton Room at Golden Belt. My friend Krista and I signed up as volunteers for the day, arrived at the venue at 6:30 AM, ready to work, and here's David-the-Frigging-Strobist-Hobby and Joe-Freakin-McNally walking through the doors. I tried not to be star-struck, but I couldn't help but gush a bit when I found myself on the elevator with them, me bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (freshly caffeinated) and they not-so-freshly awake and still pre-shower. I'm surprised they didn't kindly suggest where I could stick my enthusiasm. I couldn't help myself; after all, McNally has a number of National Geographic covers under his belt, and I feel like I owe Hobby many thousands of dollars for all the free knowledge he has given out on his site. They were, of course, pure gentlemen, very gracious of everyone there volunteering, joking with the crew even at 6:30am, even with the added challenge of a venue that was, while beautiful and full of natural light, exactly the opposite of what they needed...

What they needed was a dark room. What they had was a giant room full of windows, and beautiful sunny day in NC.

What to do? Block the windows. It was too early to get any light-blocking material from the local camera shops, they wouldn't open till the event started. Producer Drew Gurian, another on the list of awesome dudes I met that day, asked if anyone had some dark seamless paper. I had a relatively fresh 9-foot roll of Thunder Grey at the house, I said. "We'll buy it from you, if you can get it," said he. What? The Flash Bus Tour needs MY help?!? The entire production is in jeopardy, unless someone with the preparedness of an army of Boy Scouts, someone with foresight of a sage, can acquire a roll of paper and save the show from this natural light disaster?!? Wait till they get a load of me...

Ok, maybe it wasn't that critical. I ran home and got the seamless as the crew continued to set up, and David sent out a tweet asking if attendees had some paper to contribute. Within an hour, we were all on ladders, gaff tape in hand, blocking the windows with paper and fabric. The Flash Bus crew was awesome to work with, all nice folk, and very grateful to all us volunteers for the extra work we were putting in. Apparently this was not a common problem on the tour, but it all seemed like any other day of photography to me, putting out fires, moving furniture, and making it look like there was never any problem to begin with.

The event itself was great, informative without being overwhelming. As I said, I have voraciously consumed all the instruction these fellas have dished out in the last few years, so I wouldn't say I heard anything new and ground-breaking in regard to working with small strobes. What was more instructive to me was to listen to David and Joe talk about their general approach and philosophy, both at the precise moments of shutter-clicking, and to the game of being a photographer in general. It was inspiring to hear how David has carved out a niche for himself right in his own backyard, giving back to the people around him and building a community of local photogs and business people that help each other out.

"What's that? You want this Lumiquest Softbox LTP? Remind me again, who's your daddy?"

Joe dropped a lot of knowledge on the inner mind of the working photographer, the one who's working under pressure but maintaining a calm, controlled composure. He said that photography was "a non-stop process of experimentation," which resonated with me. David made the analogy that working with light is like cooking, not from a recipe, but adding a dash of this here, a sprinkle of that there. It was these little anecdotes that I jotted in my notebook, not any camera settings or color space recommendations.

Drew and Joe team up to make TTL Magic.

I'd explain what was so funny, but really, you just had to be there.

Krista and I smash lunch next to the Flash Bus.

By the end of the day I shot quite a few candid frames myself, and was feeling the drain of a long day. The crowd was leaving, the volunteers and crew where tearing down the paper shutters, and Joe and David were conversing with one another. Now was my chance to take a picture of my heroes together.  What to do...throw up a couple 580 ex2s with grids and isolate their faces? Toss one flash into a large softbox and go for a TTL solution? NAAAAHHH. I moved them over to an open window to catch a little of that pesky natural light that we had spent all morning blocking out. I'm not above a small sense of irony, and they were happy to oblige. Thanks guys. And thanks to Cali, Grippi, Jeff, Drew, Phil and Karen. Was great to have you in NC, land of BBQ, bright sunlight, and giant gummy worms.

-llg

Nowadays, Shea blogs and writes a lot, and he must have a heap 'o folks following his moves, because anytime I have a sharp spike in traffic to this blog (like in the thousands sometimes), I can be sure that it's because he Stumbled one of my photographs. Thanks again, Sheaman!

-llg