I’m not ALWAYS behind the camera. Sometimes I help move some lights around and edit other photographer’s photos. I’m definitely not above photo assisting. It’s a great way to pick up new techniques, and free food! My superstar friend Douglas Sonders got the call to shoot Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his #88 NASCAR for the National Guard up the road in Charlotte, NC. Besides the obvious benefit of getting to meet Dale Jr., I jumped at the opportunity to help Douglas with the studio shoot. Quantity was the keyword of the day, and we got a BOAT LOAD of diverse images of Dale, his #88 NASCAR, and various soldiers representing the National Guard. The beauty of shooting in a studio is it’s a controlled environment with the ability to knock out many angles in a short amount of time. The Phase One IQ140 camera and ProFoto lights got very little rest from 7am till 7pm as you can see from the behind-the-scenes video:
Not only did I get to assist Douglas on the shoot by moving lights and getting my fingerprints all over his tethered laptop, I got to try my hand at compositing a set of images with full creative freedom. Browsing through my vast collection of locations, I decided to go for a hot dusty mid-day American Western theme. The Western look screams iconic America, and the long straight roads create a tension of speed.
I was able to piece together a fancy before/after slider to see exactly what changed in each composite.
Further down are clickable high-res final images, Enjoy!!
