Stevhan Hand – 2015

I put out my weekly call to action through social media late last week. With the holiday season starting, well, tomorrow. I wasn't expecting to have anyone able to shoot this week. And in came Stevhan. He said that he was getting more and more interest in one of his many talents, stage performing, and that he wanted something to show potential clients inquiring about his very unique act.

If you follow everything here at UNEX you probably remember the photos I took for Finite Automata a few months ago. The location we used was actually the basement of Stevhan's house here in Atlanta. 

We sat down and discussed something that was a little outside of the "norm" here of what I generally do. However outside of the comfort zone is where things really come together. Below are a few photos from our time together last night.

I also took a chance and shot a roll for my 52 rolls project. As I am posting this blog entry it is currently developing. If you liked these photos be sure to check back in December to see a few more images.

Week 34 – Mystery Roll? – Exchange Select Color Print Film 800

"Hey dude, I picked up this camera at the thrift shop and it still has film in it. Wanna shoot it and see what happens?"

Stories that start this way, end either really well or really poorly. I'll let you know how it ends when it happens. This is not quite that story. 

A friend of mine, Nik, from  Super Awesome Laser Media is an avid thrift shop shopper. At least once a week I get an update as to where all the fun photographic toys are. He tagged me in a Facebook post the other day saying that he had come across an old Minolta 35mm camera with a pretty decent lens. He said that I needed to shoot the rest of the film, develop it, and see what happens. I was super excited to see what would come.

When the day came to deliver the camera, he was unable to bring it...but did have a surprise for me none the less. Another roll that was in a random camera.

"Usually if the battery is good enough to rewind it I will pop out what is inside" he told me. Followed up by  "this one took a while, so there is bound to be something on it". And there was. A grainy mess taken sometime within the last 10 years or so based on the uniform of the service member. Below is what was on that roll. 

Nikki Nuke'm – 2015

I really had a lot of fun shooting this set of images with Nikki Nuke'm. If you follow the 52 rolls blog you may remember seeing a few photos of her during the DragonCon entries. She is a burlesque performer here in Atlanta, and it was by sheer luck that we happened across each other.

While I was building the flash diffusion panel (see the extra blog) I was also looking for new people to shoot in new ways. Luckily I was able to peel Nikki away from playing Fallout 4 for a spell and shoot something interesting and fun.

I had a REALLY hard time selecting images to show you all. And there is a pretty good chance I will be revisiting these photos in the near future. There were a couple that I had to re-construct in Lightroom/Photoshop because the backdrop was a little small. Also this was my first attempt at medium-heavy retouching. As my skills improve, hopefully my final delivered images will too.

The DIY Photography Diffusion Panel - Feat Nikki Nuke'm

In my quest for spending the least possible on new toys and equipment, I came across a DIY that caught my eye. Coming from a motion picture background, I remember working with silk panels and the effect that it has on the quality of various lighting situations.

For those who may not know, a fabric diffuser allows light from one source to be diffused, or spread out, over a wider distance. This causes the light to be "softer" or have less hard shadows and in a studio setting allows the light to be more even. 

When pricing them out I noticed that things were a touch out of the range I had to spend (for what it is). 

So I hit Google. There were many DIY options available. Each with different fabric types and construction. I decided to go with a PVC plastic frame and Rip-stop Nylon. By rough estimation of pricing I figured I could build something that is pretty much the same as the screenshot above for a much cheaper price. 

So ignoring my dimensions, this was the basic plan. 1 yard of the Rip-stop was $6.99 from Joanns fabrics. It comes on a bolt with a length of 59". So for about 7 bucks I ended up with a piece of fabric that SHOULD be 59" x 36". Spoiler alert, this will come back and bite me a little bit. 

Next I headed over to my local hardware store and picked up a few lengths of 3/4" PVC pipe, 4 90º L-bends, and a T-Connector. I had the associate cut things down to length so I could transport everything easily in my car. Based on my rough calculations I decided that I wanted a .5" pocket on each side so that I could further break it down for travel. So the piece of fabric would become a 57" x 34". I ended up needing to have 2 pieces cut to 57", 1 to 34", and 1 piece cut into 2 16.5" lengths. We sat for about 15 minutes measuring, and running the numbers to come up with these dimensions. And in the end all of the supplies came to be about another $8. 

Now is when things get fun. And through most of the build process I thought that the powers that be just didn't want me to build this thing. As I was walking into my apartment I dropped one of the smaller lengths, which promptly fell to the lower level and into a bush. So I had to find a way to fish that out. I don't have a photo of this...mostly because I spent a lot of time tromping around cursing while trying to figure out how to get to the piece.

Even after all of the measuring, and remeasuring it became very obvious that my numbers were off at some point during my planning phase. I really should have measured the raw nylon before just trusting the size of the fabric. But no worries! I figured I'd just "rig it together".  I had part of a roll of Gaff tape tucked away in my closet. I was able to get the four corners tacked down before–

–I ran out. I considered briefly just using Duct Tape, and decided against it. After more cursing, and a call to my local supply shop. I remembered I had one final trick up my sleeve. 

I had a few clamps available in my old Grip kit. So I was able to stretch the nylon to a respectable level and clamp it in place. After all of this running around and problem solving I think I have everything all set up. 

With everything it place, it was time to begin testing. Luckily I had just the person willing to donate her time!

But before that a few final notes. In the MK2 of this design I for sure want to re-measure the fabric before deciding on my final dimensions. I believe that the next design I will have a pocket sewn on the top and bottom of the smaller sides in which to aid in stretching the fabric. I also could easily design some sort of "kick stand" out of some other pipe fittings. If I decided to do this I'll be sure to update everything. 

See more of this set on the News blog coming soon!

Week 33 – Creepy/Cooky – Arista EDU 400

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I probably should have mentioned that last week. Titan and I shot this set for Zivity based around a sort of Wednesday Adams vibe. I loved the setup, and the images that came off my digital camera (I'm currently trying to narrow down 82 photos to around 15). 

While shooting digital I wanted to make sure to fire off a roll of film as well. Because we were in a hurry, I didn't exactly take my time as much as I should have. But at least I had a few nice shots on the roll. Hopefully it will be sooner than another 6 months before we are able to work together again. 

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