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

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.”

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Creating the Photograph: Mary Ann Wamboldt’s “Pink Kiss”

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 Mary Ann Wamboldt is an Ontario based creative who shoots weddings, portraits, and a number of other things including travel photography. She’s been published a number of times and has won even more awards for her work. So when she submitted “Pink Kiss” to our Creating the Photograph series, we were very intrigued. The photo doesn’t have a whole lot of post-production and instead focuses more on in-camera techniques and lighting to get the look we see. There isn’t any sort of post-production trickery or layer upon layer–instead there is just Mary Ann’s own creativity and technical know how. Here’s how she got the shot.

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Creating the Photograph: Pauleth Ip’s “Dying of the Neon Light”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

As working photographers, oftentimes we’re essentially guns for hire, executing concepts assigned to us from art directors, companies, or private clients. We may have creative input, but ultimately, the concept still belongs to someone else. This is why I feel it’s important to pursue personal projects whenever possible between paying assignments, as they play an integral part in our growth as photographers. Personal projects allow us to exercise our own creativity, and affords us opportunities to try new techniques and pursue creative visions without the burden of success. As the old adage goes, we learn more from our failures than our successes, so fail, and fail often, but fail on your own time and learn from your experiences.

This is why I started this personal project.

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Creating the Photograph: Ronen Goldman’s “Danger Close”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Ronen Goldman is a surrealist who finds a way to channel feelings into images. We’ve featured him and his work on the website before but nothing could prepare us for this story. To preface this, it’s the story of an agonizing wait to hear about whether the life of someone very close to you will be in jeopardy. Those feelings were channeled by Ronen into a photo shot on film. And by all means, it is fantastic.

Here’s Ronen’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Chris Gampat’s “The Underground Club”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

I’ve done a number of posts for our Creating the Photograph series partially because they help me to show off a different way or thinking about a problem that needs to be solved on a set. So recently when working with the Fujifilm GFX 50s on a shoot, I tried to find a way to deliver that “club” type of look that’s becoming so popular again in photography. I’ve written about it before, but not a whole lot and not in terms of practical application.

So here’s my story.

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Creating the Photograph: Travis Singleton’s “There’s light in the dark side”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

In the early 90’s, photographer Travis Singleton got his hands on a Minolta XD-5 35mm film camera. then he took a break from photographer and went digital. Born on a small farm in rural Nova Scotia, he grew up on the east coast of Canada. Even during his younger days, he had an interest in photography. “As I didn’t have the money, I would buy the rolls of film to take pictures but often didn’t get them developed.” he tells us in an email. “Or I would put the roll aside to get developed later, only to forget.”

Fast forward way ahead to 2015, and his company, 20two19 Photography, started to get noticed through social media by local businesses, and has now worked with a number of businesses and professionals in town including the Shawn & Ed Brewing Company, Dundas Museum, Dundas, WIllow Salon, The Red Door Cucina, the Dundas Farmers’ Market, Jax Sweet Shoppe and others.

Besides all of Travis’ commercial work though, he still manages to get creativity; and sometimes he finds the inspiration in his adorable daughter. When the family went to go see Star Wars Rogue One recently, he was inspired by the film to create this pretty awesome photo.

Here’s his story. Be sure to follow Travis on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Website.

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Creating the Photograph: Tomasz Kedzierski’s “Tribute to Krzysztof Kieślowski”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Tomasz Kędzierski has been a pretty fantastic and creative analog film photographer for a while. We’ve featured his work a number of times on this website. Besides the Square Lips project, his homemade pinholes and his solarigraphy, he’s done some higher end work too. Most recently, he was working on a shoot where he was shooting with Provia 100, and to ensure that he got the shot right, he used a Leica Sofort first before switching back to his Hasselblad 501C.

Here’s his story.

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Creating the Photograph: Rob Lee’s “The Ice Queen”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Rob Lee describes himself as a Massachusetts based portrait photographer. Rob got into photography when his son was much younger, and that grew and evolved into his interest in live concert photography. Then it evolved into portraiture which he describes as trying to balance both beauty and darkness. Indeed, he’s a man that likes the darker side of culture–as do many others. So a part of that was the inspiration behind his photo, “The Ice Queen.”

Despite its simple look, this image is a very clever use of light, reflectors and colors to make this scene effective. Here’s Rob’s story.

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Creating the Photograph: Jason Lanier’s “Snow Queen”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Jason Lanier has worked on a number of really, really super cool concepts in the past; and his recent Snow Queen project continues to show off that sometimes not everything needs to be created in the camera. On his YouTube channel, he uploaded a video taking us behind the scenes on the shoot where you begin to see a lot of what went into the image. Indeed, Jason uses lighting to create enough separation between the subject and the background but also to draw emphasis on key areas of the scene.

Over on his website and his blog, he shows even more photos from the shoot. But here’s what was going through his mind.

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Creating the Photograph: Dan Bannister’s “The Boxer”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Dan Bannister has been featured on this site a number of times but most notably with the Blacksmiths. His work has evolved and more clients ask him to shoot video in addition to stills. And so the idea behind “the boxer” is an interesting one. “Walking into a set and shooting stills of what you see when it’s been lit for motion can be a real challenge, especially when the client needs the stills at F11,” says Dan.

And so Dan tells us about how he tackled the challenge.

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Creating the Photograph: Trupal Pandya’s “Heads were to us what Money is to you!”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Trupal Pandya is quite the photographer. He’s documented head hunters in Nagaland, and soon plans to go back to continue documenting these people in an attempt to keep a working record of their culture. But he’s also got room to bring other people, and those that wish to go with Trupal can sign up for his workshop at his website.

In this piece, he talks to us about how he shoots some of the subjects.

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Creating the Photograph: Danny Alexander’s “Pink Rose”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Danny Alexander has tagged us in a number of his images on Instagram and we discovered him and his great strobist work this way. He’s a portrait photographer working in Louisville, KY. “I’ve slowly been turning my passion into a full time job and my work can be found in local and nationally published magazines,” says Danny. “Although I spend most of my time shooting editorial portraits, I do make time to work on creative personal projects. If I had to say I had a style in photography it would be that I take a strobist approach.” That’s perfect for our Creating the Photograph series.

In fact, Danny rarely works with just natural light. “I love the technical side of working with strobes to create interesting lighting in my portraits.” he states.

So that’s where the story of Pink Rose begins.

 

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Creating the Photograph: James Andrew Ridley’s “Zoe Ziegfeld as a Menorah” (NSFW)

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer James Andrew Ridley and I have known each other for a while now, and like me, he has involvement in the NYC Burlesque community. He’s a serious photographer, not only in the sense of his work, but also from the fact that he understands and values the idea of relationships. He works to develop a rapport with subjects and he keeps their comfort in mind. Sometimes, in order to make a subject more comfortable you’ll need to do things like working one on one. For part of a series that he’s working on, he did just that with burlesquer Zoe Ziegfeld. Then they turned her into a human menorah.

Here’s their story.

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Creating the Photograph: Chantal Routhier’s “Science Fiction Fantasy”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they conceived an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

Photographer Chantal Routhier was recently named one of Canada’s Top 30 Inspiring Wedding Photographers for two years in a row. Part of this for sure come from her special creative vision that’s evident in her “Science Fiction Fantasy” photo. Her work has been featured in a number of publications. She describes her work as fun, bright, and modern.

So when she showed us her portfolio, we just had to ask her about her image, “Science Fiction Fantasy.”

Be sure to check her out on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

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Creating the Photograph: Nathan Hostetter’s “Mirror Mirror”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

Photographer Nathan Hostetter usually works with natural lighting and tries to emulate some sort of film look to his images. His photos can be characterized as having some sort of elegance to them while also finding a way to show off the humanity in his subjects. So when Nathan showed us a few of his portraits, we were quite impressed with one he shot of Naomi.

But what you’ll also be amazed by is how simple his lighting is–and that’s what makes the images!

Here’s Nathan’s story!

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Creating the Photograph: Ken Kiefer’s “Affaire de Coeur”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com

When it comes to underwater portraiture, one of the best photographers out there has to be Ken Kiefer. Ken has loads of experience and like many of us, he also still has a big fascination with comic books and heroes. So the story of how he created the image for today’s Creating the Photograph post surely comes from comics. When seeing an Iron Man costume, he wanted to photograph it underwater–but it wasn’t possible. However, two other costumes were.

Here’s Ken’s story!

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Creating the Photograph: Alexander Co Dela Cruz, Jr.’s “Blue Diamonds”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Alexander C. Dela Cruz, Jr. is a Strobist Events Photographer based in Manila, Philippines. You name it: he’s probably done it even though he’s only been shooting since 2012. Alex has done what photographers really should do: make a minimal investment in gear and really focus on just creating awesome images with what you have.

“I got literally hooked with photography back when I had my hands on my first camera ever – a Chinese-manufactured MP4 player with a VGA camera.” he tells us. “I then upgraded to a GE Point-and-Shoot, and eventually wanted better images and total control over them. I’m a self taught photographer and a proud one, getting inspiration daily from your site.”

That inspiration has translated into a number of awesome portraits. And to that end, Alex is very much a true creative.

Here’s his story on how he created the photo “Blue Diamonds.” Be sure to also follow him on Facebook.

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Creating the Photograph: Debabrata Ray’s “The Red Girl”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Debabrata Rey is very highly focused on portraiture. He does loads of personal projects and also works on a bunch of fashion projects. One project of his that really caught our eyes was of a photo called “The Red Girl.”

You see, Debabrata works on putting forward a true creative vision as we’ve seen from his tattoo project and his People of Copenhagen feature, His method is very specific and he’ll make sure that everything in the scene is perfect before he even picks up the camera. It’s part of what helps him deliver incredible photos.

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Creating the Photograph: Peter Barrett’s “Travelocity Ad”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

“In the end what you end up with is a shot that looks very much like two ladies snorkeling in crystal clear Caribbean waters.” says photographer Peter Barrett when explaining his idea for a photo he created for Travelocity. Pete does a ton of travel and documentary work that you can catch on his Instagram channel, and this is evidenced in our previous interview with him on the site. Pete has been shooting photos since High School and started shooting professionally in the mid-90s on various projects. Indeed, he’s a highly accomplished photographer that continues to both create and capture–the dream of many aspiring professional photographers.

So when it came to creating an image for Travelocity, he had to find a way to make something ordinary look a bit more vibrant.

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Creating the Photograph: Chris Gampat’s “Everyone Loves Pizza”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

My first personal project release in years was a very exciting moment for me. It took a year of planning, a couple of months of execution, lots of pizza boxes, and a ton of refining to ensure that it would garner enough internet hype. I’ve shared a number of my photos here on the Creating the Photograph series but one of the best photos of my recent series “The Secret Order of the Slice” is part of a philosophy that I’ve been trying to teach readers here for a while through the work of accomplished photographers: that genuinely creative ideas and good content are king. Further, that when you find a way to reach out to someone’s emotions through creativity, you tend to find a way to quickly appeal to them and to many others.

And I was right: Pop Photo, UFunk, SomeECards, ShutterBug, Creative Boom, Neatorama, So Bad So Good, and others picked it up. Some of them illegally; but that’s another story.

Here’s the story behind the series and this shot.

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Creating the Photograph: Jason D Page’s “Lady of the Lake”

Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.

Photographer Jason D. Page is a light painter who has been shooting since 2004; and in order to create the “Lady of the Lake” image for this series, he needed an eight minute exposure. He typically lights scenes by taking a light and painting very carefully–which can be very tough to do. In fact, Jason owns LightPaintingPhotography.com.

Here’s his story.

 

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