The Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000

Nick Kartje asked me if I would photograph him and his brother Pete. They wanted to make some prints to give to their parents as a Christmas present. Since I happen to think this is an excellent idea, I was more than happy to help out with the shooting portion of their gift. In true Explosion 5000 fashion, I hauled out a truckload of lighting equipment and recruited a trusty assistant (Gus) to capture the Brothers Kartje.

Our first stop was Golden Gardens on the west side of Seattle. The temperature was barely in the 40s which allowed the Kartje boys to show off their full range as Midwest natives. To give you an idea of how chilly it was, my assistant Gus (from Minnesota himself) had a Patagonia shell fully zipped with the hood up and was wearing gloves. Lauren, Nick’s girlfriend, also hunkered down and braved the elements for the shoot. Since we were rolling with quite a bit of gear, it was nice to have a few extra sets of hands to haul stuff to and from the Explorer.

I originally scouted this location a few weeks back. I went out with my tripod, a light stand, and shoot through umbrella. Using the timer on my camera, I took several self portraits in between wind gusts. Unfortunately, the umbrella did not hold up after being blown over a couple of times. And while the results of this self-styled photo shoot will never see the light of day, the scouting experience helped me prepare for shooting Nick & Pete.

The key to making these photographs were my assistants. Gus was in charge of a Bowens 500 watt second monolight connected to a large Photoflex softbox. Also slung over his shoulder was a Bowens Travel-Pak battery to power the flash. Even though we mounted everything on stands, the howling wind would have blown my fancy equipment into the Puget Sound if Gus hadn’t held on tightly. I shot with my Nikon D300 and Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 lens. The advantage of shooting portraits with telephoto lenses is that it allows you to capture a narrower band of the background. In this case, the mountains actually look like mountains instead of a distant horizon. The downside to shooting at longer focal lengths is the distance it creates between you, your subjects and your lights. PocketWizards can allow you to sync things at these distances, but adjustments can be harder to make. Being the great friend that he is, Gus is a terrific listener. When I called out, “turn the power up to 4!” Gus dutifully responded and adjusted the light.

Next stop on the Kartje tour was Gasworks Park. If Golden Gardens shows off the natural beauty of Seattle, Gasworks highlights the marriage of this terrain with a thriving urban setting. The fun thing about Gasworks is there are always other Seattleites enjoying the park. On this Sunday afternoon I was careful not to include the “Frisbee team” practicing next to us. I’m only assuming they were a team because of the strange outfits and Rocky-esque music they played from a boom box during their “practice.”

Before packing up for the 806, we made one last stop at Kerry Park. The light and temperature were falling fast, so we only made a few frames. I was able to convince Lauren to get in front of the lens for several shots with Nick—seemed only fair since she’d been a trooper and helped out all day! After wrapping at Kerry Park, the whole team met over at my place for dinner. Nick picked up steak, potatoes and veggies. Once were sufficiently fed and warmed up, we looked at the days shoot on our 46″ LCD. With the whole gang in the living room, we picked “winners” and narrowed down which shots Nick would eventually have printed.

A big thank you to Nick and Pete for asking me to help with their brotherly portraits. They were fun to shoot and up for pretty much everything. Also a big thank you to Gus and Lauren for assisting—half of my gear would be floating in Shilshole Bay if it weren’t for them. To view more pictures, check out my set on Flickr or watch the slideshow below.