Concept Photography
I collection of fine art and conceptual pieces including descriptions. All of these pieces are available for sell for your office wall, bedroom, mysterious cabin in the woods, or as a gift for a loved one or someone you barely know.
…and when her legs became tired, she found herself by a tree in the dead of cold. Its leaves would return one day. One day soon.
She knew that the dead grass beneath her feet would be green again. She knew the frozen ground would thaw. She knew the barren branches above were still worthy, still serving the purpose for a perch to a bird that would fly away one day.
The fog too would pass and give way to blue beyond. If only. There was no doubt.
She knows she isn’t crazy, though it is their deepest wish to make others believe she is so.
**I shot this at f/10, at 1/100 sec, and ISO-100. The tree is located right outside my house, and across the street in this large baseball field. I would pass by it on walks and just liked the way it looked with no leaves. When I took the shot I knew that a lot of post-processing work would be needed. There were plenty of overhead wires in the shot, with a fence and football field in the background. So, I had to go in there and mask out all the wires and extraneous details that mixed in with the branches. Basically, the idea was to have a single person, by a single tree with a single bird that can be found somewhere in the branches. I wanted the sky and ground to be almost entirely obscured by fog and overcast clouds. Just a hint of light blue sky can be seen through the clouds and you can also see just a hint at how the ground falls off to the left. **
There’s this baseball field across the street from me. It’s not an official baseball field but people certainly use it for that. There’s this one tree towards the back of this field that has always interested me. It just looks spooky and twisted. I’ve been wanting to take a picture of just the tree but there’s no good angle in which to take it. On every side there’s either a High School, an Elementary school, a church, a road, other trees, etc. etc. in the background. But I had this image in my head of just that tree, surrounded in white, with a single person beside it and one single bird in the branches. So, I went out there yesterday and snapped a shot of it, knowing I would have to meticulously go through and remove the background.
She liked the sound of birds chirping, of bones breaking, and the whistling squeal of tires from off far away. When she came around here for the first time we would all commit her face to memory—those intense, bright eyes always seemed to fix on you, stay on you, never quite leave you. But when she left the room, we forgot her name. What she had said to us would soon be forgotten. Where she was going and why she arrived seemed to slip away as she passed into the distance.
Our wallets filled with feathers when we returned around to work.
The second time she passed through, we felt a pang of fear in our guts. Her breath smelled of shark’s blood and her words didn’t make much sense.
She took one of us away with her and we soon forgot his name. But when the doors clicked closed, our voices rose and we felt blessed for what was in store.
The last time I saw her, my friends were all on fire. She waved behind a window, smiling in an office without a door.
“There you are,” I said as the bird’s beak pierced my inner ear.
She said, “Patience rewards the sickest dog who slumps away in fear.”
**I shot this image at f/4, 1/250th sec, ISO-80, in my kitchen using a strobe about 45 degrees off to the subject’s left-hand side. The bird and background were comped in later. I had this image in my head for what I wanted but I didn’t quite know what it meant. I just knew I wanted Gina in full makeup, smiling while looking off into the distance, with some garish, nonsensical top on—hence the hair shirt. After I wrote the text for it I realized it was my take on the looming threat of cancel culture, how it ends up eating its own, and how the rules it subscribes to will arbitrarily change depending on its mood. **
I know at this point it’s a bit cliched to incorporate a face mask into pictures but I couldn’t get this idea out of my head. The best way to rid yourself of that kind of persistent idea bubbling to the surface is to just do it, right?
I’ve been working consistently since the pandemic started and I’ve noticed people are still reticent to go out as businesses reopen. I really think that once there is a vaccine or some way to make people feel better about not wearing a mask, business will boom. People want to go to movie theaters again. People want to go to the mall again. People want to get out and experience things without being shackled to their mask. I think the mask is really holding things back. Although I think it’s a necessity, I think people know if they go to patronize some business they’ll have to wear a mask the whole time. Who wants to sit through a movie while breathing in their own hot breath for two hours?
I’ve been very busy these past couple of months. I’m grateful for still having a job but I know a lot of people that can’t say the same. I’ve been seeing business owners losing their dreams and having to shut down their stores permanently. I’m seeing hard-working individuals losing their jobs, not because of something they’ve done (or didn’t do) but because some invisible threat kicked them out of their workplace. So, now people are having to not only worry about trying to get another job but have to worry about paying their bills for who-knows-how-long. Speaking for myself, if my place of business is unable to sustain itself through the end of the year, what will I do? I make my living by being a planetarium producer. There’s not a lot of planetariums around every corner. It’s not like if I lose my job as a line chef I can just get a job at another restaurant. The fear of losing my job as a planetarium producer would also mean that I would have to sell my house, sell all my things, uproot my life, leave behind loved ones, and move out of state.
But we all have our own stories. We all have that weight on top of us. Everyone’s situation is different.
This image depicts the magnitude of the ocean and sets it against a curled up female figure, exposed and in distress. While both beautiful on the surface, beneath the waves is crushing pressure and no room for breathing.
I think there’s something wrong with my car.
I know there are a lot of multi-handsy pictures out there but I wanted to try my own version. I wanted Gina here to be mostly in shadow with the majority of the shadows facing the camera. To do that, I placed my strobe light in a different room and shot it at her but mostly towards the black wall backing behind her. I set the camera on a timer and just walked around her placing my hands in various places. The compositing was fairly easy but making the dark tunnel effect was a little tricky since the image was already fairly dark.
The idea behind this is strength amongst possessive people. People will always try to claim you, to claw at you. Remember, you’re your own person. No one’s opinion is more important than your own.
I think everyone at some point has felt like someone has tried to claim them as their own. Sometimes it’s multiple people. I wanted Gina to sit with strength and to look into the camera with confidence. .
Everyday is a new chance to be a better person and/or more efficient monster. Whatever floats your boat. Honestly, I hate scrolling through my social media timeline and seeing inspirational memes made from someone else and reposted from people who can’t even run their own lives. This isn’t that.
I made this picture after mulling over this very thought: making a conscious decision to try and be a nicer person but failing as soon as I get in a long line at the check-out counter.
I wanted to take a picture with half a suit, no pants on, a purple smoke bomb, an umbrella, and outside in the sun. What does it all mean? Stare long enough and maybe you’ll come up with something.
Funny story about this picture though. I got all my gear, set up the umbrella with the purple smoke bomb attached to the handle, put aluminum foil in the canopy so the sparks wouldn’t burn through, and walked across the street to the big field behind the Baptist Church across from my house. I set up the shot, got it all in focus, took off my pants, set off the smoke bomb, and started snapping away. It lasted for about a minute and a half. When I was done, I was putting my pants back on and I see this guy walking over to me. Apparently, it was the preacher that lived next door to the church and he was asking me what the hell I was doing.
I guess it looked a little suspicious to have a guy without pants behind your church, setting off a purple smoke bomb hidden inside an umbrella and posing for pictures.
Well, we had a nice chat and he even invited me to come by for church services some time. I guess he thought I needed it.
A friend of mine told me they saw a mannequin in a store window that looked a little like me. So, I went downtown to check it out. Honestly, I don’t see the resemblance. However, I did find out that the person responsible for making this particular mannequin had actually met me this one time at a party. I remember he was super obsessed with TV Guide Magazine.
Anyway, happy window shopping this Festivus.
I took this photo in direct response to the #pmphotoassignments challenge by @petermckinnon. It’s an effort to capture a sense of isolation but it also takes inspiration from the Dead Poets Society–changing your vantage point to look at the world in a different way. It’s easy to get caught up in how the news makes the world seem dismal. Indeed, it may be a very trying time right now, but take a moment to look at all the people doing good: the volunteers, doctors, nurses, police officers, delivery drivers, grocery store clerks, educators, etc.
There’s a lot to appreciate.
Take a break from the news. Get outside–even if it’s by yourself–and enjoy a sunset.
Wash your hands, stay home, and keep being weird
I wanted to see what it looked like to plop an egg inside its own shell. So, I cracked an egg, kept half of the shell, added some additional egg whites to the egg yolk in a measuring cup, then added some food coloring to the inside of the shell. It didn’t come out quite like I wanted. I guess I need a faster shutter speed or maybe use a strobe light to freeze the action better. But, you know, still looks kinda pretty and neat.
Some heroes don’t carry swords.
Some alternate uses for bed sheets, light stands, strobes and LEDs, and paper.