Walkin on Wabash
Working with new people in new locations is creative fire for me. The opportunity to assemble a team of beauty and talent and simply walk down a street can be a wonderful thing, and one that I don’t take for granted. There are many things to love about Chicago, but one of the things I love for photoshoots is the infinite number of lines and pockets of light that I can use for a photoshoot. Glass buildings suddenly become huge reflectors casting beautiful light on a model. Trees and objects cast interesting shadows that I use in the composition. My mind literally goes into overdrive and sometimes I have to reign it back in, making sure that I don’t short circuit.
For this shoot, I had the chance to shoot with the beautiful Angelika Rol. I had ran across her profile a couple of years ago, and knew that I would want to work with her at some point. I was a fan of her unique beauty. What I didn’t expect was the ease of fluidity and poise that she had in front of the camera. It was pretty much effortless for me, and the shoot had a great flow from beginning to end. This was also my 2nd time working with Joanna Boblak. She is highly talented at hair and makeup. And I appreciated her attention to detail and flexibility to help us create, but also leaving room for improvisation. Last, but not least, I was lucky to have a styling powerhouse for this shoot with Kenya Sherron. Once I saw her website, I knew that she was going to add the right kind of stylistic elements to this shoot. We went for a minimalist vibe with a retro spin, complimented with pink and white tones. It was perfect for the setting that we were using. I highly suggest checking out all their pages and work.
Model – Angelika Rol
Hair and makeup – Joanna Boblak
Styling – Kenya Sherron
Photography – Josh Eskridge www.josheskridge.com
Chicago, I’ll be back soon!……
Quiet Fury
James B. is one of the most powerful models that I’ve shot with. When I say “power,” I mean in terms of ability to add dimension to an image. This was a shoot where I wanted to get some solid male editorial looks. I wanted to harness the power of natural light in an ethereal way on my rooftop. We struggled with the elements for a bit. The wind was fierce that day. My 86-inch parabolic umbrella bit the dust in the wind. As I was trying to clamp the canvas backdrop to the panel, the wind blew it loose and it started flying around everywhere. I had a couple of seconds of frustration, then I realized that somebody wanted me to get different, better images than what I had intended. Instead of battling the elements, I worked with them. I asked Scooter to hold a light diffuser right over his head for each set. This change of direction combined with the talent of James led to some of my favorite images that I’ve taken. As I continually strive to “make images that matter” this set is part of that direction that I’m headed.
I wish James the best of luck with kicking off his modeling career. These images are for his portfolio and submitting to agencies.
Model – James B.
Hair, makeup and assistance – Scooter Ray
Photography – Josh Eskridge www.josheskridge.com
Water and Rocks
This shoot was a low-key, relaxed evening shooting with Christen McAllister (Heyman Talent Agency) at one of my favorite locations in Louisville, KY, which is Falls of the Ohio. It’s a popular location for many photographers, but the diversity of the location always plays to the unique style of who is creating and when. I was going for results that were natural and elemental, and showed a harmonious beauty with the surroundings. We shot against the jagged rocks with a perfect sun direction, which provided a crisp, colorful light, and then contrasted that with a softer look in the calm water after sunset.
A Morning with Miranda
I make it a point to go to Chicago at least a couple of times a year to do portfolio development shoots. I’m fortunate enough to have made friends with creative talent there, as well as in other cities. I think that it is important in one’s creative growth to step outside of your area and network with people from other regions. I’ve worked several times with Andrea Pascalau of Corsei Photography. She played many roles that day, from assistance to styling to location scouting. She let me use her incredible space in Lacuna Lofts on the west side of downtown Chicago. Our model was Miranda Berggren, who was amazing to work with. Being a photographer herself, she was very intuitive to what I was looking for with certain looks and settings. She has this ability to come up with unique poses, but still look fierce, yet graceful… bold, yet beautiful. I highly recommend checking out her photography fanpage, Miranda Ann Berggren Photography. She has an artistic eye, and I’ll look forward to seeing her creative vision grow in the future.
I was also lucky to work with Chelsea Blair of Chelsea Blair Beauty Artistry. She did a phenomenal job with the looks, and was a blast to work with. She is in the process of moving to Nashville, so I would recommend reaching out to her if you’re in that area and looking for quality fashion hair and makeup work.
Oneiric Reclamation
What started out as a conversation among photographers over drinks materialized into the biggest collaborations of talent that I’ve seen in my 5 years of photography. The concept and idea was simple…. 1 location, 8 photographers, 1 model each, 1 image each. The concept revolved around 1 word, “oneiric,” which means “of or relating to dreams.” The planning and coordination that went into it would take months. Project Oneiric was a way that all involved could contribute and see each individual vision come to life. For the complete story on the background and development of Project Oneiric, please check out fellow photographer Clay Cook’s blog post http://www.clay-cook.com/post/79418657163/project-oneiric
As the project developed, each photographer was paired up with a team that included a makeup artist, hairstylist and a stylist/designer. I was excited to be working with all new people with my team (Christopher Caswell, Rick Bancroft and Dylan Kremer). They are each talented in their own way, and using this combination of styles and backgrounds was something that was exciting for me. Each photographer was able to choose their own model for the project. As I thought about what kind of look and skill I would need for the project, I knew that I would need somebody with a diverse look. It would have to be somebody that could focus on the moment and maintain composure in a difficult pose and setting. The first name that came to mind was Brooke Taylor. I had worked with her several times before, and I knew that she would be the perfect fit for the role.
As our team planned the shoot, we knew we wanted something that would fall within the general theme, but made use of the location. I had shot in the Icehouse before, so I had a couple of general ideas. Members of the team also contributed their ideas. We wanted it to be ethereal, but still grounded in reality. We didn’t want us to lock ourselves into one idea in the case that we wouldn’t have the setting or circumstances to make it work. We would leave ourselves open to improvisation. This is something that I’m familiar with, and the creativity style that I’m most comfortable with. Within our arsenal we had picture frames, smoke bombs, antique clocks, etc. We refined our ideas up until the day of the shoot, and had a general idea of what the look of the model was going to be. Christopher Caswell pulled some connections in order to get us a vintage dress and cape that we could use. The hair and makeup was going to be dramatic, but not overdone.
Finally, the day of the shoot came. Excitement, energy and anticipation filled the main venue of the Icehouse as teams started working on their concepts. I think that everybody was in awe at the amount of planning and the visions that were going into each individual set. I had the time to walk around a bit while Brooke was getting her hair and makeup done. Sets were being created here and there….. mannequins, carousel horses, beds…. it was apparent that we were all stepping up in a big way for this. It was a truly impressive sight. However, I knew that I needed to get my own set figured out, so Michelle Patterson Gleckler and I started scouting for our spot. I was somewhat disappointed that the massive hole in the wall one of the floors had been covered over. I had a vision in my head to do some levitation shots of Brooke floating out of the hole. This goes back to my improvisation comment, and why I almost never lock myself into one idea unless I’m sure of the setting and circumstances. We climbed floor after floor up the spiraling staircase, and each floor seemed to look the same…. big columns, dusty floors, little ambient light. Then we got to the 6th floor. The first thing that I noticed was the floor. The Icehouse is currently being totally gutted and renovated for loft condos. The concrete floor had just been jackhammered with the jackhammers still laying on the floor. This created a scene that I will probably never likely see again. Additionally, there was a large opening in wall, that was letting in just enough ambient light that I could use for my exposure. I’m a big fan of mixing ambient light and strobes on location, and this played especially well to our ethereal, dreamy theme. The next thing was…. what were we going to do with this floor? How would we incorporate it into our image? Thoughts ran through my head. Somehow I wanted to the floor to show action… like something just happened. It honestly looked like it just got struck by an earthquake, so this was perfect. I remembered seeing an antique chair in the hair and makeup room downstairs, so Michelle and I lugged it upstairs 6 stories along with my equipment. We placed the chair in the rocks and at an angle with one of the legs buried in the rocks. I would have Brooke falling out of the chair, which would require some assistance and the use of multiple exposures.
The team had finished Brooke’s look. Cell phone pics were taken; selfies were made. It was now time to rock and roll. I had let Brooke know what the plan and concept was going to be, and she didn’t seem to be scared away by it. We had her stand in the chair and Dylan caught her a few times. They were good images, but didn’t have quite the feel I was going for. I also wanted the dress to fill more of the frame, so we brought in a fan and placed it directly under the tail of the dress. That helped somewhat, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with the flow of the dress. With Chris’ ingenuity of tying the dress to the fan with a piece of fishing wire, we were now very close to our final image. We changed our strategy a little bit and had Brooke leaning to the left and Chris was behind her holding her up so that she wouldn’t fall. I reminded Brooke that we only needed one image, and she had to look totally in the moment. We counted to three and she ripped off 3-4 unbelievable poses; they were so good, it was hard for me to decide on which one we would use for the final image. Nevertheless, I knew that we had our shot. The rest would be the easy part. We had bounced around ideas of melting clocks, floating chairs and beams, etc. I had Michelle hold these items in several spots so that I could use them to create a composite afterwards and blend them into the final image. My camera remained on my tripod in the same location and settings for each shot. At the end, Michelle had a great idea to use a broom to kick up the dust that was on the floor. This ended up being a key element to the image. In the editing process, I spent several hours using several layers to create what I thought would be the final image. There were floating chairs, beams, etc, just as planned; however, I had to step back and question that. To me it was a cool effect, but totally unnecessary for this image. I started deleting the layers. I even photoshopped the clock out that I was going to have melting or exploding. What I did end up using was the dust. This gave the image texture, and also made it look as if the floor had just collapsed. I used 2 different layers to brush it into the right spots. I used a base layer of the setting to photoshop Chris, Dylan and Elizabeth out of the frame. Beyond that, the editing was pretty simple. I used some curves layers and sharpened in certain areas. It was much simpler than I had anticipated, but it was just right. We had our image with much less.
I want to thank my incredible team for coming together and each adding their own element of creativity in creating this image. I also want to thank all the people that came out to support the Project Oneiric event. Your support means a lot to all of us. And I’d like to thank my fellow photographers who all came together for the shoot and the event in order to create, support each other and to share this experience. It’s something I will not forget.
Model – Brooke Taylor
Styling/creative direction – Christopher Caswell
Makeup – Rick Bancroft
Hair – Dylan Kremer
Assistant – Michelle Patterson Gleckler
Assistant – Kylie Rhew
Assistant – Elizabeth Morrison
Technical details:
Lighting – Einstein shot into octobox, camera right, 1/8 power.
Camera settings – f/6.3, 1/40, ISO 1250
Black and white behind-the-scenes images courtesy of Michelle Patterson Gleckler. Group shot at the Oneiric event courtesy of Tina Smith.
