More recent print

I also recently shot a story for Birmingham Magazine called Best of Birmingham for which I made several portraits of the winners of different categories. My favorite of which was photographing Frank Stitt at Highlands Bar and Grill for three different wins: Frank for Best Chef and Best Local Food Advocate as well as Highlands Bar and Grill for Best Service (for which I also photographed a server, Goran, who has been there since Highland's opened their doors).

The main photo I wanted to get was a classic portrait of Frank shot on large format with simple, natural light. We chatted a bit about what we both wanted out of the shot and I was pleased to know he wanted his kitchen staff in the photo with him for his "Best Chef" shot. I went with the same natural light setup I'd thought about for the solo shot and applied it to the whole group with the goal of creating a photo I could visualize hanging in the restaurant's kitchen at the turn of the century. An image with a certain amount of pride and dignity to it. (I don't know that I could have pin pointed it like that in the moment, but thats the emotion that came with the idea of the group shot and the chef wanting to give credit to his team.)

Enough rambling. I ended up shooting the main shot with a Crown Graphic (127mm) on Fuji FP100C45, recovering the negative, and scanning that. It turned out super gritty and made my day.

While waiting on the kitchen crew to get ready we chatted a bit in the dining area during which time I shot much more casual frames of just Frank which, to my surprise, ended up running as the cover. Below is the cover as it ran for the September issue.

Matthew Mayfield

I've been MIA for a while it seems (to me) but at least for good reasons. Lots of running around town making photos. Lots of trying to put out other weird little fires (it's the little crap that takes so much time).

One of the _good_ things that has taken some of my time lately was to photograph Matthew Mayfield for his upcoming full length release. We had a specific goal and to my delight it called for shooting film and working with a bare bones setup. I love, love, love simplicity.

He had a specific idea in mind. Think old. We shot on the rolling white wall with the Crown Graphic, RZ, and Leica. On the large and medium formats we shot instant film as well (mostly to scan the negatives of them...as it lends itself to the feel we were going for).


Above is a photo of the setup, mid-shoot. Talk about simple. Wall, subject, camera, north light in the studio. Done.

scan of steph's dad's beard

It has only grown since this. This was photographed over memorial day weekend in Monroe on Fuji 100C45. #nerdnotes

Totally bobo mobile electric lioning

I'm still on the road sans computer so here is a totally bobo phone post. It's a phone picture of a 4x5 fuji 100bw45 of Garrett in his awesome backyardpatiothing. I shot helen back there too, but differently. Film shot to come eventually.

We just went to council crest and saw mountains. Pretty great.

We head to San Diego today by train and we are both pretty excited about it. I'm hoping to find a way to shoot 4x5 out the window or some such.



[ed. note: fixed the image...uploaded a scan later]