So I spent last Saturday night shooting in a photo area at the Coilhouse Magazine launch party.
Originally, the idea was to shoot solely Polaroid. But Polaroid is expensive. So the decision was made to shoot some Polaroid, some digital. Which was fine by me, as I'd been giving a lot of thought to this "digital" thing folks've been talking about.
I ended up taking about 300 digital shots, 35 Polaroids.
And I'll tell ya, digital? It's a fad. Be gone in a few years, max.
But it ain't too shabby.
The challenge, and this is what kept it interesting for me, was to try to replicate my style using a digital camera.
Complicating the situation was the fact that we were a)indoors, b)shooting at night and c)using strobes.
Fortunately, Andrew Yoon was shooting with me, and was able to give me a quick tutorial on how strobes work.
Apparently it has something to do with magic.
And frankly, my digital shots turned out far better than my Polaroids. Which isn't surprising, as I tend to hate my night-time Polaroid shots in general, knowing what some good daylight can do.
So here's a shot. I like it, as I like many of the digitals I took. There's an ease, and a greater degree of latitude. I was able to experiment, blocking the strobe to play with the shadows, putting my subject directly in front of the strobe to back-light them, without any worry that I would "waste a shot."
Good times, no particular hurry to do it again.
Oh, and this lady, no idea who she is. She showed up in one outfit, then she, and several others did a costume change halfway into the night, going from hipster to Ultra-Goth Thunderdome Girl. I asked her if it was hard to breathe, and she giggled out a No.
I made the shoot quick anyway, lest her neck get stuck like that.
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Yeah, this dude. I first described him to others at David Bowie from Labyrinth. But was quickly corrected by Jamie. This guy here is Elric.
Elric with feathered shoulder pads and double moon boots.
You know your party has taken a turn for the ultra-goth when not only does this dude walk in, but several minutes later a whole gaggle of wildly attired folk follow. One girl had wings for arms. Wings for arms.
But this guy put them all to shame. Perish, that's his name, that's the name on his business card. I shake my head, not in shame, but in awe. I am really just far too lazy to ever even consider doing all this to myself. I gotta give the man credit for that. King Hell work ethic.
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Drew was my wing-man last Saturday. He's the one set up the strobes, worked out the lighting, gave me a quick tutorial on how it all worked together, took first crack at many of our subjects.
Guy's just so damn nice, folks just can't help saying yes when he asks them to pose.
And he's a damn fine shooter, to boot.
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This dame was put out that I wouldn't give her the Polaroid I'd taken of her. Said, in a half-crazy/half-sexy Russian accent, "not fair."
And I'll tell you, it gave me a twisted joy to say, with complete sincerity, "life ain't fair. anybody who says different is selling something," which, I know, is a wee mangling of the original quote, but still entirely satisfying.
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The first time I asked her to pose, she declined, said she was feeling sick, said maybe it was something she'd eaten earlier in the day.
An hour later she's thrown up...somewhere, felt much better. Rinsed out her mouth with a few bottles of beer, rallied. Which you just gotta respect.
Now, not only did she want to pose, she posed like a champ, actually wouldn't stop posing. Which worked out great.
For this shot we got "too close" to the strobe, but as soon as I saw it develop...wait, no, not develop, but show up on the screen (by a process I still consider some kind of voodoo), I knew I had something. Took a few more shots of her blown out like this, but this is my favorite of the bunch.
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