Shooting Lowriders with Carlos Valencia,

As a kid growing up in Austria during the 70′s almost all American cop shows seemed fascinating to me. I particularly remember begging my mother to stay up to watch reruns of “The Streets of San Francisco”. I was visually struck by the huge buildings, huge palm trees, and all of the gigantic cars. Everything was so different from what was so familiar to me in Europe. This was probably the time when I started to develop my love for Americana.

Of course, growing up in Austria and Germany I was very jealous that the legal age to drive a car was sixteen and it completely sucked having to wait two additional years just to be able to get a driver license.

Finally, the day arrived when I turned eighteen and I got my first car. Don’t get me wrong, it was exiting to drive this 82 VW Rabbit (slightly underpowered with 50 horses), however I kept dreaming about driving around in a big 73 Chevy Impala Coupe…

Intruder Car Blub Banner

My love for cars stuck with me until today and my childhood dreams came true after moving to the US. Oh yeah, I got to own and drive a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible…

Now, my love of cars has found its way into my love of photography.
Last week I was able to photograph the 1955 Chevy 210 Farewell Photo Shoot for a friend of mine… but it did not stop there…

I  also had the opportunity  tag along and shoot some Lowriders with Carlos Valencia at a gathering of the Intruders Car Club.

Carlos Valencia is a freelance designer/photographer, one of the owners of Studio 8 in downtown Phoenix. You can also see some of his work in Lowrider Magazine.

Here are a couple of frames of the photo shoot I was able to grab while looking over Carlos’ shoulders. Everything shot  was made with  a  Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC Lens, one light (Paul C Buff – AlienBees AB-1600 through a medium sized white Photoflex Umbrella powered by a Vagabond II) triggered by Pocketwizards.

…and yes I was listening to War as I processed these shots.

Lighting Essentials Project 52’s fourth assignment was to shoot a local Entrepreneur for a vertical full page lead or cover 8×11.5, leaving enough room for a Title. The Forbes Magazine type of thing… Environmental Portraits..

Shooting to the provided layout of the Title was optional, but I made a conscious effort to frame the shot accordingly. For the assignment I had to deliver

2 photographs, the entrepreneur’s business description (faux, of course) and a paragraph that explains what the entrepreneur has done within their industry. They will both be vertical. One close up in environment, and one in a more expansive shot with more environment. We also would like to see your shoot planning docs, any sketches you are working with or have done for this image, and a lighting explanation

Ron Cortez | Project52 Assignment #4 | Photograph an Entrepreneur

But let me tell you there is nothing Faux about the Entrepreneur I photographed:

For those of you that don’t know Ronald Cortez (also known as Ron), he was born in the heartland of the coffee growing region Costa Rica. Throughout his life he’s developed an attraction to all things coffee. Being the son of a plantation worker, who was also the son of a plantation worker, gave Ron Cortez the absolute inside scoop on the coffee industry.

Ron Cortez of Cafe Cortez | Project 52 | Assignment 4| Entrepreneur

Ron was practically born in a coffee field and for the past thirty years he as been involved in the coffee industry in every aspect. The last fifteen years he has dedicated to running a highly successful coffee roasting company, Cafe Cortez.

Not only is Ron importing and roasting green coffee, he has also became a pillar of the Metro Phoenix Coffee House Culture. As mentor and educator in all-things-coffee, Ron Cortez teaches about green beans, roasting, brewing methods and how to go about “cupping coffee”.

After all, life is too short and there is no time for secrets. In the Entrepreneurial spirit, Ron Cortez is not holding back and is always willing to share with anybody who is interested in Coffee, entrepreneur and consumer a like.

Ron Cortez – Innovation Meets Determination, Finding a new Voice in an old Market!

Lighting diagram and set-up notes:

The shoot took place inside the warehouse of Café Cortez and I used one PCB Einstein 640 with a 30×60 Softbox. I postitioned the soft box to the left of the coffee bags on the pallette infront of the roaster. I placed another PCB Einstein 640 with the 8.5 inch reflector hiding it behind the roaster. To the right of the roaster I positioned a large silver reflector (oval 48×72). Of course there had to be a small glitch and discovered that my Paul C. Buff Cyber Commander was spontanously rebooting and the lights kept loosing sync. Changing the frequency on the Einsteins, setting them manually and using the CST trigger solved that problem. Set up and takedown was acomplished rather quickly (except I hate the assembly/disassembly of the large softbox – perhaps time to switch to a foldable one) and I did not have to worry about finding a poweroutlet.

Project 52 | Assignment 4 | Notes

Portrait of a Stranger - José

Assignment two at project52.org was to photograph a  stranger. I must say this particular assignment was an eyeopener.

I am sure that any photographer, professional or amateur, has suffered from some form of “photography-block” – including me. No inspiration, no motivation and the list goes on and on and then come all the excuses as to why you cannot take any “great” images.

Let me tell you, participating in a photography project will definitely help open your photographic eye, especially if your are not shooting on a regular basis

The assignment of photographing a total stranger was very liberating. At first I had no idea where to go, what gear to take and who to ask to photograph. But then I said to myself “screw it” and I put the 50mm prime on my camera, grabbed my smallest reflector disc (32 inch) and jumped into my car and started to drive.

Not really having a plan as to where to go I ended up at a park near my house and decided to get out of the car to look around and see whom I could ask to photograph – and there I saw this frail and elderly slow-walking man walking with a cane. I nervously approached him and asked him if I could have a moment of his time. Explaining my assignment to him, without hesitation he agreed to let me photograph him and take his portrait. And then there it was, a moment hard to describe – but it was a special moment, looking through the viewfinder, seeing a simple man who has probably endured a lot of pain, seemed full of wisdom and hope and perseverance.

At first I kept focusing only on his face wanting to just take a tight head shot but then I noticed the long shadows cast by him and some street lamps intersecting the path. Instead of waisting time trying to get this stranger into a pose I simply moved around to find a frame – The only words of instrucions from me were “Just be yourself…”

Hard to explain, but it simply clicked and I thought i just captured “it”.

After I took this picture, José told me that he was staying with his daughter and he had to stay close to his house in case there was an emergency. Jose just had a stroke about three months ago and his doctor told him that it was good for him to go on short walks.

I asked him if he would like a print of the photograph I took, but he said: “No – that’s o.k.” Then I thanked him for his time and we parted ways. This all took place in less than 2 minuts.

After the encounter with José I strolled a little bit longer around in the park and photographed three more strangers.

Wow, this assignment was quite liberating and a profound experience.

Now I know what Don Giannatti meant when he said;

Photographing someone you don’t know can be a scary proposition for many of us. I am fairly shy, or at least not that comfortable with walking up to someone and striking up a conversation. I usually will not do that.

UNLESS… I have my camera around my neck or in my hand. When I am ‘a photographer’ I can easily and without hesitation walk up to people and ask to make their picture. I do it a lot, actually.

Here is what I took away from Assignment Two, Photographing a Stranger:

Assignment two very well could be the holy grail to overcoming lack of inspiration, lack of creativity and/or motivation – at least for me.

Leslie

Playing at the River

A friend posing in an abandoned structure at the shore of the Salton Sea. This impromptu capture was taken in Bombay Beach, California during Harvest Moon. Krista was kind and brave enough to go inside this creepy place and pose to transform a spontaneous idea into a photograph.

Checking on Southwest Lightning confirmed that it was worthwhile to venture out and try to get some shots. Not wanting to go too far I decided to head north on the Loop 101 and found a spot to shoot from just north of the 101 on Hayden Rd. After getting situated with my tripod and camera I started to click away.While I was concentrating on framing a shot and making sure that I was focused I heard a car pull up near to where I was parked and sure enough there was a guy getting out of his car with a tripod and a camera bag.

There was no way to ignore each other, especially considering the fact that we both spotted each other’s Nikon gear from the distance. We quickly exchanged “hello” and it turns out that this  Nikon shooter is a fellow European, from former Yugoslavia. Ivan told me that he just recently got into photography and picked up a Nikon D40 but is already looking to upgrade to a D90 very soon.

Ivan set up right next to me and started to click along. How cool is it to keep meeting other photographers out in the desert during monsoon? Funny how small the world becomes when there is good storm brewing in the Arizona desert. Not too long ago, we ran into Tony Laubach of Tornados Kick during a Monsoon Storm, August 23rd 2009 at the I-10 and Ave 75 E Exit, east of Quartzsite, Arizona.

I am just surprised that I haven’t run into other local Flickr storm chasers yet…

This image was taken in Fountain Hills, Arizona near the Fountain looking towards Saguaro Blvd. August 21st 2009 was a beautiful day to chase Monsoon Storms in the Valley of the Sun. There were storm cells in every corner of the valley.