http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgatesphoto/

You can find some of my other work here :)

Smoke Show: Final Project

My final project was a bit of the challenge. It took me weeks to come up with a project that I had never done, was inexpensive and I didn’t need a model for (the end of the semester is a difficult time to find people who have time to help). I finally decided to look at doing a still life. This quickly proved to be boring, that’s when I came upon Smoke photography.

            With the help of the Internet and trial and error I was able to effectively capture smoke and the shapes and figures it creates. I loved and hated how quickly shapes were created and disappeared. It was quite the challenge capturing images that I liked. Lighting was the other challenge I faced. At first I side lighted the smoke, and as you can see in my contact sheets it was pretty unsuccessful. I panicked for about ten minutes before realizing that moving the light to be on a 45-degree angle and backlighting the smoke you were able to see it clearly. This was the must successful way I found to create the effect I wanted.

            I’d like to thank my friend Garrett for being an awesome photo assistant, and Serena for letting me smoke up her house at random hours of the night. 

Random from the weekend

Aegis Spring 2011, Photos

 

Birds of a Feather

 

Sweet Surrender 

Before I Die: A Collaborative Bucket List (Book Project)

Before and After, Color Negative restoration

Before

After

I was asked to do this by a friend. It's a photo of his Father's graduation. He plans on giving it to his Grandmother for Mother's Day. The negative was a disaster but I am glad I was able to help. What a thoughtful gift! 

Funeral Home Final: Beyond the Single Image

If you asked me a year ago if I wanted to photograph a funeral home I would have looked at you as if you had six heads. Even when I started this project, the facility was not something I was necessarily interested in. I originally wanted to do portraits of the 'clients' and the funeral directors at work. I was quickly told I would not be able to do this because of legal purposes, this resulted in the transformation of my project. At first I was completely bored with the idea of photographing the funeral homes. They looked just like the home I have grown up in, but with more tissues and candy, not to mention the insane amount of chairs. 

The project soon became a favorite of mine. Talking with the Funeral Directors I learned things that would never occur to me when it came to organizing a funeral. The Directors were some of the most interesting people I have ever met, and their stories amazed me. 

The photos have been edited to with an antiqued look to match the classic victorian style home, the look of most of the funeral homes I visited. This also made them look a little creepier then they really are inside. 

Enjoy.