I recently realized that I when I listen to music I respond waaaayyy more to the mood a song creates than I do to its lyrics. I always hear how the vocals are sung and never hear what’s being said. Maybe that’s why I like metal?

It didn’t take too long for me to understand I react the same way to photographs.

And as you know, light controls most of the mood of a photo. Sure, so does body language, but when the two meet…

So, these are test shots. I was working on super controlled, film noirish lighting. Like the first Scary Self Portrait post I wanted the eyes to go entirely black, with the exception of two small, piercing, catch lights, made, this time, with an underpowered, tightly gridded monolight. The key light in the above photo is pointed down, off my right shoulder.This picture only uses one gridded mono light, positioned directly underneath my camera & pointed up. The grid is so tight & focused none of the shadow hits the wall.This one is the combination of the two. and as a bonus, here’s me in a luchador mask.

Sally Carle, an interior designer and home organizer from Bethesda, Maryland demonstrates how to thoroughly clean a toilet, Sunday, December 4, 2011. Aside from a minimal amount of bleach, she uses all green products.

I made this wacky wacky photo shoot for a fun story the New York Times did on Extreme Cleaners.

Sally’s a regular germ-slayer!“Blue is for the loo. Pink is for the sink.”Aside from a minimal amount of bleach, she uses all green products, like toilet paper made from recycled material and Seventh Generation cleaner.

This photo even made it onto the New York Time’s home page for a bit!

The El Mateo!
Luchador mask courtesy of the limited edition “Weird Sports” book by Sol Neelman.

Check it out: I’m in good company.

What better way to sell aprons than to set stuff on fire, right?

We cracked a few eggs, too. LITERALLY!

So, if you’re a person who’s easily offended by exploding yolks, don’t go any further.

Seriously, though. The egg breaking photos are pretty awesome.

My neighbor Kristen Rigney owns City Sparrow where you can buy retro styled, HAND MADE, aprons & pot holders. …one pot holder actually got a little singed during this shoot.

The idea behind this shoot is to illustrate the follies of an unskilled housewife.

So, if you want one of her aprons, she’ll be selling them December 3rd at the Charm City Craft Mafia’s Holiday Heap.

..or online at www.etsy.com/shop/CitySparrow.

Let the eggsploding begin!The egg got everywhere. The ceiling, the floor 15 feet away from Kristen, on my shirt. I got a little of the white on my camera, too, but none in my hair, surprisingly. Obviously, Kristen wasn’t so lucky.

In case y’all haven’t heard of The Image Deconstructed blog, it’s an amazing resource! It deals with photographers’ mental processes & as a whole, gives insite into how photographers think — and sometimes feel — when they’re making pictures. It’s the brain child of Ross Taylor, who — and it should go without saying — is Rossome!

Here’s my specific entry, but I truly and whole heartedly recommend seeing some of the other photographers’ work being deconstructed. (each word is a link to a different post, by the way. Isn’t that super clever!?)

PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Rickie Fowler made 18 pitching attempts for a blind hole-in-one stunt at the Red Bull Capital Drive in the Georgetown waterfront in Washington DC Saturday, June 11, 2011. Rickie Fowler ultimately pitched one ball, the one he hit in the above photo, in fact, into the hole positioned over 100 yards away, seen below.

I got a call back in June from Red Bull Photofiles to photograph this promo stunt for Fowler’s U.S. Open stint. …and the photo above also ran in Red Bull’s new magazine The Red Bulletin.

In addition to a video crew, I was one of two assigned photographers. The other being Steve Boyle. He was down on the ground level and I was stationed up top. My options were somewhat limited, but I was guaranteed a pretty cool perspective.

The light was absolutely gorgeous!

…right up until Rickie Fowler got out of his SUV. And it stayed grey and drizzly until he got back in his SUV. If we have to search for silver linings, the light was ultra diffused. So… No Rickie Fowler raccoon eyes.

If you guys haven’t seen the Red Bulletin, it’s a pretty friggin’ cool magazine. Super-visual. I’m not just saying that because they’ve paid me once, either. It’s pretty legit.

Urban farmer (and my neighbor) Matt Fouse with his chickens in his Baltimore backyard  Monday, September 12, 2011.So, if you wanna see even more photos of this nut, and/or buy some prints, a coffee mug, a t-shirt or a magnet with one of the photos featuring Matt & his chickens click on the link below. It’ll help support my fast life.

http://mattrothphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Matt-Fouse-and-his-Chickens/G0000kdkGQ3GZk1c/

Mychael Wright, a friend of mine, agreed to let me make a few lit portraits of him about a month ago. It was a few days after Hurricane Irene came through and his power was still out. So, I used a portable battery pack.

Recently I’ve been trying to make as many portraits as I can. That’s my theme for this year. PORTRAITS PORTRAITS PORTRAITS!

The idea is that I’ll have a new body of personal work to show off and, of course, a whole mess of mistakes and successes to learn from.

One thing I’ve dealt with recently is content. Recently, I’ve been forcing content into my lit work. Lets take this shoot, for example. I think the most beautiful image is the one up top. …granted, Mychael’s a beautiful man. The bottom line is, there’s really no “story” being told. This picture’s all about mood. The weird thing is, it was the easiest for me to make & think up. …so, I treat photos like this as plan “b” or “c.”

When I ask my friends for edits, they typically respond much better the moodier photos over the forced-content stuff. That sounds obvious, but I suffer from that classic photographer problem: I put too much stock in my effort.

After all, when all the lights are packed back up, and the armpit sweat has dried, the strongest image still wins.

So, thanks again Mychael for “sitting” for me.

If you want to see more images of Mychael and/or you want to buy prints, purchase a usage license, or get a t-shirt or coffee mug, among other things with Mychael’s picture on it, check out the gallery below:

http://mattrothphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Mychael-Wright/G000040NZiQlx1l4

These are photos from a shoot held on the Bryn Mawr School campus in Baltimore, MD, Sunday, June 19, 2011 for The Collective’s “aLIVE” show at the Creative Alliance Fri Aug 26, 8pm.

This shoot was a lotta fun and it went exactly how I like em’ to go… a little crazy near the end.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that recently I’ve been lighting almost exclusively with, what I’m calling, my big dumb light — a Paul C. Buff Einstein 640, modified with an 86″ PLM. It’s a cumbersome thing, but MAN! does it throw a ton of nice light around.

I also designed their post card.…not too bad for a button-pusher, huh?

Since I’ve been in Atlanta I’ve been wanting to make a portrait of Rick and Mom for her Birthday — which is TODAY!!! August 17th!!! Happy Birthday, Mom!

They got married last summer, and I really like Rick. He’s a great guy, wonderful to my mom, and they make each other happy. They get each other. …but sometimes they’re a little gross with the cutesy baby talk. yick!

But there’s always a catch, isn’t there?

For the last month or so, Rick has been putting this prescription cream on his face. It’s not the kind that makes your face pretty. no no no. It’s quite the opposite. He jokes around saying stuff like: he looks like the Phantom of the Opera without the mask on. It’s not that bad, but truthfully it looked like his face was ringed with psoriasis.

Understandably he doesn’t like the idea of being photographed looking like he does.

The good news is, he’s on a new ointment now! …and he’s a good sport! I guess he’s in stage two of this treatment? This one works to reverse the damage of the other one. So, at the time of me writing this, his face is looking waaaay better. …but it’s still red — more like a giant birthmark than a chemical burn.

The other day, after eating lunch, I was talking with them about getting their portrait made on Mom’s birthday. And then I noticed he wears those glasses that turn into sunglasses when he goes outside. I asked if he had any other glasses for the shoot. He has some old glasses that don’t look very good. Just joking around, he suggested we just take the photo with a bag over his head. …so I thought, well, why not? That’s a cute photo idea.

Admittedly, I don’t think this was a very good execution of the idea. The lighting could be better. I’m still trying to figure out the potential of my 86″ PLM and how versatile it is. But all n’ all, it was a fun, short shoot.