Creating the Photograph

Creating the Photograph: Donald Bowers “Why Here! Why Now?”

Chris Gampat
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04/17/2019
4 Mins read
Young Brunette Woman riding bike on Beach

Last Updated on 04/17/2019 by Chris Gampat

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they created an image with minimal use of post-production and all about their lighting. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Here’s how you can submit.

Photographer Donald Bowers is based in New York City with over 12 years of professional experience. And for “Why Here! Why Now?” Donald decided that he wanted to play around and experiment a bit. For a bit of background on Donald, he’s a contributor to Getty Images and has had a wide variety of clients including Cohn & Wolfe, Grey Advertising, CNN and Heineken. He describes his work as inspired by polished photography with elements of rawness and unpredictability. He loves collaborating with clients and is always eager to find innovative solutions to challenges that arise during the process. To put it more concisely, he says that it’s “mildly wild and slightly styled.”

The Concept

I shot this a few years ago and my idea was simple in that I had been doing a series of spills and splashes. I wanted it to look accidental but out of nervousness or fear. The idea of the model set up a nice space to relax on the beach and then upon seeing (you know) her divorced husband with his new girlfriend, family member she hasn’t seen in a long time (or doesn’t want to) or anything just over the photographers back and out of scene. I picked the model who was genuinely attractive and fit but had some great character and was personable and fun and funny individual which she was. She was actually great in that sense. The funny thing is she actually did see someone on the beach she didn’t want to interact with or had a history that wasn’t the greatest. It didn’t occur during these splash series photos, but it did add to the happen-chance that I kind of like. It’s a simple idea, but it’s like a picture of someone falling or sneezing, the ability to stare at what usually is a split second before it just disappear so quickly. I was a big fan of MAD magazine as a young person and love satire comedy improv and general silliness. Behind it is somewhat of a “dark” theme but not the darkest–just your general run of the mill would you say awkwardness? That’s what it is: the awkwardness of life’s silly moments were no one necessarily gets hurt emotionally or physically; it’s just this slip trip or fall into the realm of surreal.

Gear Used

  • Canon 5D MK II
  • Canon 17-40mm f4
  • Paul Buff Einstein Lights
  • Orlit battery operated lights (use these more now)

The Shoot

In Image BTS1 you can see some light placement and the beginnings of the scene layout. I first shot the model, as I do all models, in a very loose and comfortable way. In this case I had her ride her bike on the beach around me as I worked the first shot. Images Bike 1 and Bike 2 show this beginning stages of allowing her to feel comfortable with a complete stranger that is photographing her on the beach. I’m a friendly person; but still, it’s nice to warm up to people right? Once she felt warmed up we moved on the the second shot under the umbrella. I shot this alone as it wasn’t exceptionally difficult amount of gear. Plus I didn’t have the funds to really splurge on an assistant at the time. As you can see in images Outtakes 1, 2 and 3 I also had her work though some physical movements to help in the humor side of the image and different types of spills and container props to add variety.

I shot with Canon 5D Mk II, a Canon 17-40 F4, and two strobe lights I believe they were Paul Buff Einsteins with the vagabond two battery which at the time made lugging this equipment to the beach somewhat tolerable. 600 Watts definitely captured the splash even on the bright Sunny day on a Florida beach. I aimed the Open Dished light at the splash area from my left and slightly behind her, and put the other light with an open dish slightly high to my right not directly above camera and not too high as you never know what will happen with the wind on the beach. You can see a little drop shadow from the left light that I used to capture the drink spill. I styled the shoot myself with random Walmart and target products just to give a cozy little beach set up

Post Production

Before

Not to much PP as you can see. Remove some people from background, clean up image.

After

Credits

Model: Emily Pennington

Donald’s Website: www.donaldbowers.com

Donald’s instagram: djbphoto71

canon Creating the photograph Donald Bowers einstein flash getty images lens strobe
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.