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"How I Got the Shot" - POTD Winners
If you've ever participated in the Model Mayhem's "Pic of The Day" forum, or if you've ever viewed the Winner's Gallery, you no doubtedly have seen some incredible images that were created by members (including models, photographers, stylists and MUA's) from this site. I've seen a number of shots that have often made me wonder, "How'd they do that?" I love hearing how great images were created, or the story behind either the concept or the event that led up to it. So, I thought maybe we could start a thread for the winners to tell their own story. A chance for them to pull up their past winners, post the pic, and then tell us "How I Got the Shot". Who wants to be first? You can view the POTD gallery here: http://www.pbase.com/cseayphotography/y … y&page=all Oct 14 07 02:29 pm Link OK.. My first win. Dead Bugs!  A photographer/model friend, Valerie Place, and I were just driving around looking for interesting sights to shoot. It was a bit overcast as it had rained earlier. I had gone past this particular VW graveyard hundreds of times with my kids and I always took the brunt of the 'Punch Buggie' hits until one day I stopped, counted all of them (and the colors) and got both my daughter & son back big-time. I told Valerie the story, and how I always wished I had my camera with me, and she said 'let's do it!' so we drove over and spent almost an hour shooting within a five block radius in Riverside, NJ. The original shot was a bit flat because of the overcast skies, and something about having to remember all of the colors when I tagged my kids with 'No tag backs' prompted me to enhance the image into it's final form. Oct 14 07 03:31 pm Link http://www.pbase.com/cseayphotography/image/82746609  Andrew has this fabulous studio in downtown Omaha NE and in the upper floars of this old building is a floor that caught fire years ago. It's never been renovated so it's just a hallow floor with crispy walls. It was a beautiful day out so I suggested we get some fabric and open the huge windows upstairs and see what we could get with the light of the day. Andrew just happened to have parachute fabric laying around so we grabbed it and ran upstairs. No fancy makeup, no fancy hair, it was about the whole picture and not about me. The right gust of wind came along and we got this one. I think we loved every single shot we got, this just turned out to be a favorite because of the pose. That halo around the window is not photoshop. All Andrew really "photoshopped" in this image was to darken the edges a little bit. Oct 14 07 03:31 pm Link Working with Ken Volpe is always unique and you can guarantee that he will come up with something spectacular....he wanted to incorporate my dancing background with his "rope series" and this is the shot that we came up with!! It took a long time and some sore toes, but it was well worth it....  Oct 14 07 03:34 pm Link Win #2, Suffer in Silence  I had a photoshoot with Gloria J and we drove over to Whisahickon Park as part of our travels. I had previously gone past this great shell of an old mill there many times and thought it would be a good location to shoot. One of the spots inside the shell was the opening of the furnace/fireplace which apparently was still being used by local kids for fires at night. That is where I captured this image. I was working on the whole series of shots and my friend & muse Edyn was looking over my shoulder and commented as I cropped the color version of the image that it was a a very powerful image that any woman who has ever been abused would understand. Her statement caused me to look at it from a different perspective and I went to work creating the final image with the intent being to enhance the viewer's understanding of the pain & dispair of an abused woman suffering alone in silence. Oct 14 07 03:48 pm Link Win #3, Twilight Becomes Her  The accidental shot of the year for me. I was shooting a fall fashion spread for Passional Magazine at the last minute. The models & I had started at 3AM the night before and we were racing against bad weather, short daylight, forgotten wardrobe, missing shoes, makeup bags left at home (we fetched them), and just about every other possible 'gotcha' imaginable. I needed to get the shots of this one last outfit and the sun was setting so as I prepared my flash unit the model jumped onto the tombstone and turned to me to ask what position to get into. As she did I pressed too hard on the shutter (I just wanted to test my ability to focus in the dark) and the flash which was angled totaly wrong (in my left hand, arms length from the camera) fired and the shot was captured EXACTLY as you see it. The ONLY photoshop done to this image was to alter the name on the name on the headstone and add my signature. Oct 14 07 04:05 pm Link I love those "happy accidents".  Oct 14 07 04:07 pm Link  Ok, my turn... A while back, about 10 years ago, I went down to Mexico with a group from a church I was attending. The pastor was helping out another pastor from a small church on a little ranch called "Guerrero Negro". This was going to be a week long trip, and most of us were going to help build a shower facility for the workers and their families, as well as to bring them goods from over here. The drive down took 2 days, since it was about midway down Baja. When we got there, it was night time so we couldn't really see the conditions we were in. The following morning though it was all too clear. The workers of this ranch lived in small "huts" that were made out of cardboard boxes, or scrap metal. There was no plumbing to speak of, so they simply dug out little canals in the sand to get rid of any "waste water" from their huts. The adult workers earned about $7.00 per day, picking fruits and vegetables from before sunrise to just after sunset. The children, who began working by the time there were about age 7, earned about $1.50 per day and put in the same amount of hours. Needless to say, this was an absolute culture shock for us Los Angelinos. There was a fear of disease, concern about getting cut because there were broken beer bottles all over the place and under the sand, and of course excess bloating because you had no where to go to the bathroom...unless you wanted to do the trench thing. After about 3 days though, we somehow lost or fear and just gave in. We didn't shower and didn't care how bad we smelled. We were hungry, so we ate the food that they gave us. And we made due with a make-shift portapotty. The most significant thing for me though, was when I realized that we were bringing these people our junk...yet they were giving us their best. They fed us chicken (which were their own and which they killed that same afternoon) and handmade tortillas nightly. At one point, I was ashamed to take any food from them. So, the labor we did while building the shower room was actually a joy in the end. While there, I brought my camera (at the time it was a Minolta 7-something that I'd bought from my then father-in-law). I took a lot of photos, but the kids had the most profound impact on me. They wore whatever fit them, and cared nothing about whether or not it was in fashion. One kid even had a Michael Jackson "Thriller" t-shirt...the kind nobody would've been caught dead in during the current grunge era. On Sunday's though, they would wear their absolute best to attend church. I caught sight of this little girl just before she entered and asked her to stop. She did...I snapped one photo..and this was it. For me, it symbolized the contrast of our lives. My life, and the way I look at things since then, has never been the same. Oct 14 07 04:53 pm Link My favorite shot hasn't won the Pic of the Day yet but I haven't given up on it yet. I'll try again in a month or so. This is a shot of Playboy's Reby Sky that I entered and won with on 6/6/07. She requested a cover shot for her upcoming classical piano cd. We also won with a second image from this shoot. I'll share that one later.  Oct 14 07 04:56 pm Link Fun Thread Ed! Really fascinating to see what was behind some of the shots! Jessalyn, I've always loved that shot, but I never would've dreamed it was parachute fabric! After you point it out you can see it, but the stuff worked perfectly! This was my 2nd win. Meghan, Joey and myself had just finished shooting at a St. Louis Metro station which was up a ramp and across the tracks from where this pic was shot. While we were shooting on the train platform we kept looking back across the tracks at this 50 foot tall metal wall that was next to the Metro Bus dropoff point. As we were walking back to the car, we stopped at the wall and tried a couple of shots. The colors are all reflections from the lights of the buses parked 15 feet behind me! It was nighttime, my external flash was in the trunk of my car along with my tripod, and we had no light other than the reflections and the lights from the station. There was no planning, and we only shot at the wall for about 5 minutes. The funny thing is, we had talked about the PotD competition about 30 minutes before that, and Meg was saying how much she'd love to win! Now a local nightclub wants to use the image as their main advertising logo.  Oct 14 07 05:19 pm Link This was shot in LIC Queens NY at the first ok corral shootout. It was raining on and off and I was lucky enough to catch Rania on the way back from shooting with ched in this white dress and we snapped 10-15 shots on the roof. No lights, no reflector, just my 70-200 and Rania The only post work here is some levels in the clouds and removed some gay graffiti from the walls. I really love this shot and the print is even nicer. You can't go wrong with Rania   prodigy~ Oct 14 07 05:20 pm Link http://www.stevethornton.com/MM_Images/ … ornton.jpg Most of my images are the result of planning and this one was no exception. I shoot this model every time I go to Phoenix; whether for a job or a test we always shoot. One of the times we had finished shooting I asked her to find an interesting dog to shoot with the next time I was back in town. She called me and said she had found 2 dogs that were great. I go to Phoenix about 3-4 times a year on average so the next time I went out I called her and she told me that it would be best if we shot at the house where they lived. So I met her at the house and looked around. Within 20 seconds I knew it would have to be a sunrise shot due to how the house was built and designed. (The model was not too thrilled about that but she knew I was right.) So after leaving the location I went to the modelâs house to look at her rather extensive wardrobe collection & decided what I wanted her to bring. She arranged for a make up artist/hairstylist to meet at her house about 2 hours before sunrise. So we then all met at the location, set up this shot, with the dogs, and I got the shot. Nothing to it. Steve Thornton http://www.stevethornton.com/ Oct 14 07 05:52 pm Link Oct 14 07 05:54 pm Link I've won twice and I have no idea how I got the damn shots... Luck...lol Oct 14 07 07:59 pm Link Win #4 (New Years Eve 2006), and apparently my last.... Lord Zagan  I was shooting one of the local nightclub events and saw Zagan, in his mask, in the crowd. I asked him if he'd step into the hallway and let me grab a portrait of him which he did and I snapped away. I didn't realize until after I had taken the shot (and Zagan had left for another club) that I forgot to readjust my settings for the additional lighting in the hallway compared to the darkened room where I had been shooting and the resulting images had some horribly blown out highlights. Well when you blow out the highlights that bad you can always convert to B&W and BURN baby BURN which is how this image came into being. Oct 14 07 08:20 pm Link Vance C McDaniel wrote: And here I always though that's how you got all your shots.. Oct 14 07 08:23 pm Link  Most of my images are the result of planning and this one was no exception. I shoot this model every time I go to Phoenix; whether for a job or a test we always shoot. One of the times we had finished shooting I asked her to find an interesting dog to shoot with the next time I was back in town. She called me and said she had found 2 dogs that were great. I go to Phoenix about 3-4 times a year on average so the next time I went out I called her and she told me that it would be best if we shot at the house where they lived. So I met her at the house and looked around. Within 20 seconds I knew it would have to be a sunrise shot due to how the house was built and designed. (The model was not too thrilled about that but she knew I was right.) So after leaving the location I went to the modelâs house to look at her rather extensive wardrobe collection & decided what I wanted her to bring. She arranged for a make up artist/hairstylist to meet at her house about 2 hours before sunrise. So we then all met at the location, set up this shot, with the dogs, and I got the shot. Nothing to it. Steve Thornton http://www.stevethornton.com/ Oct 14 07 08:34 pm Link - Oct 14 07 08:39 pm Link I didnt even know this exhisted lol  Oct 14 07 08:42 pm Link Steve Thornton wrote: Bwhaha... oh my wtf kind of dogs are those? cool shot! Oct 14 07 08:43 pm Link  I was shooting this test and I asked my Hair Stylist-M/U artist to use light to no make up. I had my wardrobe stylist go to the local outlet mall to find matching white tops. I waited till sunset & shot. Steve Thornton http://www.stevethornton.com/ Oct 14 07 08:57 pm Link  While shooting in North Florida I ran across this guy making âStuffâ out of palm fronds. I asked him to make a crown with palm leaf roses and I picked it up the next day. When we left the hotel I saw a couple of good sized leafs I liked so I whipped out my pocket knife and cut 2 of them for my wardrobe stylist to work with. My Hairstylist was able to get the crown in position and I shot. This is a rare time of day for me to shoot, middle of the day but I knew it would allow me to get blue water. So I had my assistants rig a one stop silk overhead to tone down the harsh shadows. Steve Thornton http://www.stevethornton.com/ Oct 14 07 09:10 pm Link Vance C McDaniel wrote: Don't knock it. As Napoleon once said, "If given a choice, I'd rather have luck in my generals than skill." Oct 14 07 10:15 pm Link I was at a festival listening to some live Scotish music when I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye. I watched him listening to the music for a bit and at the point when he seemed to drift a million miles away I took my shot.  Oct 14 07 10:21 pm Link http://www.pbase.com/cseayphotography/image/80955268  I was the first model that Andy shot off of Model Mayhem. Heck I was one of the first few to give him his first tag/welcome. I read his entire profile and learned about the process called wet-plate collodion photography, the technique they used in the Civil War to take photos. I showed up at his home in the middle of Missouri that he shares with his wife. I curled my hair, caked on a ton of hair spray (since it was crazy humid outside) and called it good. He had mentioned that lots of makeup doesn't work well with this technique so I just didn't put on any at all. Fresh out of the shower. In the 4 or so hours that we worked together we got 17 images/plates. About 9 were considered the good ones, but this one wowed me and it was instantly my favorite. We had stood up his old wood picnic table on end and I leaned against it for the shot. It was one of the last shots that we did, as it took me a while to get used to posing for these shots. It's difficult but I learned quickly. You have to hold very still and just any pose wont work for the mood that the tecnique sets. Oct 14 07 10:24 pm Link I just looked at my only win and DAMN I need to re-do it LOL I see several things wrong with it now with the better equipment I've acquired that I can go back & fix. Oct 15 07 12:23 am Link Jessalyn wrote: I actually went through all of your port today because I've been seeing you on the forums and I loved the work that I had seen from quick browsing. Oct 15 07 12:28 am Link You know, I really need to win one of these days so I can actually post on this thread. Hmm, anyone want to stack the votes? But no, I would never do that. I'm just happy when I get the occasional vote. All of you guys rock and you should know that. Oct 15 07 12:29 am Link  Since I'm the photographer who took the image I guess I can comment on this. The wardrobe stylist (Muse Me, MM#118184) conceived of this shot. the "skirt" is actually her sister's (Kat Aragon, MM#3581) wedding dress. Simple lighting. 5' octobox top/down camera left. I believe the camera (Canon 5D, 24-70 2.8l lens) was set at f/8 1/125, iso 100. Oct 15 07 02:27 am Link Steve Thornton wrote: I always wondered how you pulled this one off Steve, for the life of me I was trying to figure out how you killed the shadows. I keep forgetting that some photographers actually have assistants to do things like that. Oct 15 07 03:32 am Link  Well, I wish I had some incredible, or touching story as to how I got this one, but the reality is it was just a little more than a snapshot. I shot this a little over a year ago during a dedication ceremony for a new public park. The park was being built next to the Santa Monica airport, where planes were assembled during WWII. One of those planes was the DC-3. So, for the ceremony they flew in some original WWII planes, including two P-51 Mustang. There were also guys dressed in vintage uniforms (part of an enthusiast group I think), who brought some vintage military vehicles. The guy in the photo was dressed in a Paratrooper uniform from D-Day. I saw him smoking a cigarette, so I asked him to stand in front of a Deuce-and-a-Half, then shot about 5 pics of him. Since I wasn't doing the typical "Just stand there while I snap my camera phone", and since I had a somewhat pro looking camera, I think he was a little skeptical and was wondering exactly I was up to. I really wish I could find this guy to send him a copy of the image. Oct 15 07 03:59 pm Link [img]http://img1.modelmayhem.com/051215/02/43a182f1f39d0.jpg[img] This image was originally a color digital image shot with a Canon 10d. The wall on the left contained a large distracting window. I liked the models on the right, but hated the entire left side. I tried various ways of making the left side more pleasing to the eye. Nothing seemed to work until I got the idea to simply take the window out and clone in white where the window was. This helped and I kinda liked the empty space to the left, but it was still missing something. During all this messing around, I tried a varie5ty of things that included both black and white and color versions. I kinda liked it both ways, but was leaning toward the black and white. So, I created the frame for the mirror in photoshop. When I put the image into the mirror, I didn't like it the way it should look. Mirror images are reversed, but not like this appears. I liked it like this better....even if it's wrong. I added a bevel to the image in the mirror to make it look like a beveled glass mirror, and added a drop shadow on the wall to add realism. Once I had everything nearly complete, I had many layers...well...ok...and a virtual layer mess...nothing was labeled and I forgot what was what. I did a black and white conversion...but when I did, I only converted one layer. The image in the mirror was still in color....the rest black and white. I liked it, flattened all the damn layers and called it "done". Oct 15 07 06:07 pm Link  Here it is. Oct 15 07 06:08 pm Link Laura Ann Photography wrote: Hah. I got ONE win ONCE that was part of a three way tie. Oct 15 07 08:13 pm Link The system's fine, and even if it's not, it is what it is. We've all put images in the Competition that we were very proud of, and they didn't even sniff a vote! It happens, but it's not because the system is broke, it's because the other entrants are on that excellence level also. Sometimes it takes more than an excellent image to win, sometimes it has to spark the voters interest and imagination! Regardless, this isn't the thread for that discussion, and it's off-topic. Oct 15 07 09:46 pm Link  J3 Race Team Porsche on turn 17 at Sebring Racetrack just after sunset. Sebring & I have a lot of history both as a photographer and as a participant of the race. I have shot the race & before that I crewed on 2 different cars. So I know the track well and knew that turn 17 was going the best place to get this âHeroâ shot for the team. I had to go to the track steward and get permission to be on the track, which I was granted. I had then to go to the security office & let them know what I was doing. After the last practice session the crew prepped both cars (This one, the 79 car, finished second and it is a 12 hour race) and rolled them out to turn 17 where I was waiting. I then waited for the sun to drop behind the horizon. At that point I knew I was only going to have 20 minutes to shoot so I told them where and at what angle to place both cars and shot several angles. I then asked the crew to roll the 78 car out of the way and I screwed my 14mm f2.8 lens onto my 5D & shot a series of images on the 79 car, one of them was this one. The clouds you ask? Just dumb luck, well that and at this time of year in Sebring it is not unusual to have clouds in the afternoon. Photoshop work was to remove the signs, banners, traffic cones, motor homes, trucks, trailers, scaffolding etc on and behind the walls. I also imported the blue channel as a B&W layer to give the asphalt more body. Nothing to it. Steve Thornton http://www.stevethornton.com/ Oct 15 07 10:49 pm Link Diable wrote: Yes I do sometimes have assistants but I still have to know to ask for it. Also if you buy a California Sunbounce "Sunswatter" you can do the same thing but on a smaller scale and it works GREAT. I own both sizes and they go with me if I'm shooting. On my last trip to Europe they went, as did all of my California Sunbounce gear. Oct 15 07 10:58 pm Link  This one was shot at the end of a long day of shooting. A friend of mine arranged for about 6 models to do a group shoot with both of us. I took 3 of them and he took 3...and, as I'd shoot with one, the other two would either be changing outfits or getting makeup done, then we'd rotate. After shooting at an old farm-style house, we went to a nearby park. There was a dry river bed near the middle of it, so we did some shots over there as well. As the sun was setting, we were walking back to our cars. I liked the light I saw though, so I asked this model (Monique) to just sit down and enjoy the sunset. She did, and this is what I got. Oct 16 07 05:36 am Link  i'd seen this derelict building off the freeway for a couple of years, one day i went in to see what it was about, i accidentally knocked over a broken door, i decided to come back the next sat to fix the door, honest i brought a model with me in case i needed help holding the nails we got in .. oops when i was there i looked at the big window, and looked at the time.. i figured that the light would be coming through the window in the morning, so we made plans to shoot at 10 am, i asked her to wear old style clothes.. i goofed around with some lights.. and i might have used acros 100 speed black and white film, or maybe fuji 400, i think it was acros, but i dont know.. anyways, i walked around shooting and this one came out nikon n90s, sb-24, 50mm 1,8 Oct 16 07 06:25 am Link Ed, I would just like to say that this is a very cool thread. Nice work. Oct 16 07 06:52 am Link |
