Shooting for the Edit

Hello! Meet Brad Cran. He's Vancouver's official Poet Laureate for 2009-2011 and tax accountant by profession.
I shot him for TORCH magazine--They're featuring him in an upcoming article about interesting professions.
Fellow photo enthusiast, he's responsible for a very cool project in town that holds a photography contest for Vancouver's downtown eastside residents. The winning pictures are compiled in a book and calendar that the residents then sell for a profit.


http://www.hopeinshadows.com/

Most recently, he's also been getting a bit of publicity on his political statements regarding the Olympics.

Check out his very cool blog:
http://bradcran.com/vancouver_verse/

In regards to Photography:

So Brad was preparing for tax season when I was scheduled to shoot. He had only been in his new office for 2 weeks and was obviously very preoccupied with getting set up and corralling new clients. There was a locksmith drilling through a metal door frame, and phone calls every few minutes... not to mention walk in clients that he attended to with much care (this was not an ideal photo shoot situation). Clearly he is in high demand. (I imagined that this must be what it's like to shoot a celebrity...I surrendered to a momentary fantasy of being in the White House shooting the president). :)
Knowing that he was a very busy guy and that it would be hard to get him out of work mode for long, I decided to keep things as simple for him as possible.
I scan the room and take a moment to do a little impromptu conceptualization.

Fact. Ok... he has two professional identities.
How do I represent both in one image?
Fact. aside from a standard desk and couch, his office is bare and the walls are white (not incredibly inspiring).

Unless I took Brad out of the office or concocted a magical set within his office, I knew that this image would rely heavily on lighting. But wait...there is so much more fun to be had. For once...instead of doing everything possible to spend as little time in front of my computer as possible, I decided to put my degree in Digital Imaging to good use.

Set up: 5 minutes --one strobe-- specular (with no diffusion) and one reflector for fill

Though this image was created in broad daylight, I was able to create a spot light effect and black out the background by pumping up my strobe to be several stops brighter than the ambient light of the room (a very convenient tactic when dealing with cluttered or unappealing backgrounds).

Shooting time: total of 15 minutes shooting time scattered in between phone calls and walk ins

Photoshop fun: give or take 2 hours. (well all those little numbers and layers are pretty time intensive but at least I could settle down in my peaceful office with good tunes and tea).

I wanted the letters and numbers to appear to be his essence...emerging from his being...in a state between his conscious and actualization on paper/screen. I used several layer effects and played with opacity and perspective to create shadow like figures.

Anyway. If anyone has any Photoshop questions I am more than happy to answer in exchange for a martini or a cup of tea + a cookie. mmm cookies :)

Happy Photoshopping!