Final Project – Food People

The final project for our lighting class was a series of 10 portraits with some kind of unifying theme. I chose to shoot people involved in the food chain — or cycle if you think of it that way. All my subjects with their food-related jobs posed in their personal workplaces.

Assignment 10 – Edgy Fashion

Photographer Jeremiah Stanley came and talked to our class this week. He inspired us to push the limits of photography a little by, for example, experimenting with hard edge light. So I grabbed my friend Tyler and did this shoot on the stage of Bocamino in downtown Gainesville. Everyone there for trivia night that Thursday got some unexpected entertainment.

Assignment Nine – Studio Fashion

We shot our assignment during class this week so we could use the j-school’s studio with two models. The young women brought suitcases full of fun clothing, shoes, jewelry and other accessories, and each of us picked out an outfit and spent about 15 minutes shooting one of the models. I discovered fashion photography is not really my thing.

Assignment Eight – Environmental Portrait

This assignment is another capture of “someone and their stuff.” I decided to shoot Bill Goolsby, the owner of Kutters Barber Shop, while he cut hair at his 250-square-foot shop. His father opened the shop on Waldo Road in 1959. I had to throw out some good photos because I forgot to avoid my own reflection in the mirror. Once I figured out how to stay out of the shot, I was able to use the mirrors to my advantage.

Assignment Seven – Food

Best day of class EVER!! We all brought in beautiful, delicious food and had fun taking photos of the dishes. Then while we devoured our feast we watched a documentary about photographer Eddie Adams, “An Unlikely Weapon.”

Assignment Six – Sportrait

Our assignment this week was to find an athlete and shoot them with their stuff. This shot came together so last-minute: I grabbed a pair of soccer socks, borrowed a uniform from one friend, snagged a soccer ball from another friend and woke up my model, my friend Louis, all about 30 minutes before sunset. Luckily, the sky smiled down on us.

Assignment Five – Light Painting

We’d been waiting for this week’s assignment: light painting with flashlights! Rob took us to Paynes Prairie during class to give us a demo and made it look easy. Then my friend Alex and I left for a four-day Society of Professional Journalists convention in Fort Lauderdale. The “Excellence in Journalism” conference was at a hotel right on the beach, so we decided to get up before dawn two mornings in a row and attempted to paint each other. Turns out capturing a beautiful sunrise is half luck and half getting-to-the-beach-WAY-before-sunrise. Finding two boys to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and run around with strobes and flashlights with you is also a plus.

Assignment Four – One Flash Remix

We practiced one-flash portraits and subtractive lighting again this week. I told my friend Tyler to dress real fancy and took him to a tunnel on the University of Florida campus that’s covered in graffiti. He looked like a rock star!

Assignment Three – One Flash

Now we’re pulling out the big guns: flashes! We started off small this week, learning how to shoot with one flash and an umbrella. Our goal was to experiment with subtractive lighting by taking three photos of every shot — one properly exposed according to our light meter, one with the shutter speed a stop faster and one two stops faster. I took my roommate, Carley, to a nearby graveyard before sunset, and she happily draped herself over some headstones.

Assignment Two – Reflector

This week we learned how to bounce light using reflectors.

Assignment One – Natural Light

This semester I’m taking a class, specialized journalistic photography, which focuses on lighting. Our instructor is Rob Witzel, the photo editor at the Gainesville Sun, who says photography is painting with light. For our first assignment, we practiced shooting using natural light. I grabbed a couple friends and made some quick portraits.