Vision Achieved - A year of brainstorming can be worthwhile

The best photoshoot of my life took place on October 6th, 2015 and my creativity still seems to be in some sort of a recovery mode. Not to say that nothing has been going on in the creativity brain since then, it’s just that no new *portraits* or themes have been dreamt up on such a scale. The end results from that day are the quintessential culmination of brainstorming, pre-visualization, more brainstorming, a bit of planning (and eventually, improvising), experimentation and most importantly, collaboration.

These elements don't come together over night and the fact that I first explored the location back in December of 2014, almost an entire year before the shoot, shows that it can take time to bring all the proper elements together. After my first visit the cavernous, sand filled vaults that once served as Washington, D.C.’s primary water filtration system began to play over in my mind for months on end as I constantly brainstormed how to best utilize the shapes and patterns found throughout the scene. Honestly, just about anything would look cool down there but I wanted to hold onto this one until I found a subject truly worthy of the setting.

Enter Shanna Lim's "Textures", a modern dance concept who's mysterious and angelic, other-worldly aesthetic would feel right at home within the arches and pillars of the sand filled caverns. Once I saw her performance I knew I finally found the subject for the caverns. Now all I had to do was set up a lighting scheme that would bring my vision to life. Going in, I wanted to 1.accent the arched patterns of the ceiling while 2.bringing additional light on Shae (it's DARK down there, like 3-4 second exposure dark) and 3.include some of the ambient daylight that spills into the caverns from dislodged manhole covers above. So three separate exposure levels all packed into one frame. 

A bare speed light placed about 60 yards behind the subject created the epic architectural pattern on the ceiling elements behind Shanna while also providing a subtle, yet distinct rim light that provided a bit of separation from the busy background. Another speed light was fitted with an RPS Studio Mini-Soft Box (seriously, the best little light mod in the world) and placed up high and to the left of Shanna, serving as her key light. One the power levels were dialed in the two-light combination stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn't know how well the back-lighting set up would work on the arches and once everything was locked in (and I regained my senses) we got down to business.

Moving myself around to different vantage points lead to completely different images but the lights and Shanna remained in the exact same positions. My vantage point was the only variable.

We even messed around with the sharp, distinct light that was spilling into the caverns from dislodged manhole covers above.

Probably couldn't do this again if I tried

One of my favorite aspects of that day was the work created along side me by Rachel Couch. She absorbed the scene and created hauntingly beautiful images unique to her vision that were completely different from what I was doing. Seriously drop dead gorgeous work.

Photo by Rachel Couch

And that is what makes photography so great. Exact same scene, subject, and time (we were shooting right next to each other at times) yet still completely different visions and outcomes. It’s not about the cameras and gear and endless discussions of technique and know how. It’s about achieving a vision or aesthetic unique to the creator.