Adam and McKenna are engaged? Didn’t see that one coming. Actually—that’s a lie. From the minute these two met, they’ve had one of those relationships that seem to be hotter than first season of Gossip Girl. After months of disgustingly cute Facebook PDA-ing, Adam proposed to make things official in March of this year. If these two look familiar, it’s because they are. This isn’t their first go-round on the Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000 (see Movember). Adam, a fellow blogger himself, also has endeared himself to this photographer because he actually leaves comments on my posts! For these reasons and many more, I was delighted to make a few photos of these two.

(Note: click photos for larger versions)

The first setup of the day was at Gasworks Park. I had an idea to feature Adam and McKenna in various poses on their backs, but make it look like they were standing up straight. My trusty assistant, Gus helped me setup a Bowens Gemini strobe with a 7′ Octodome (on a truly badass stand). I climbed up a ladder with my Nikon D300 and Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 lens to photograph Adam and McKenna laying on the hill.

Gus even suggested the corny-as-hell idea of having Adam and McKenna spell out an A & M.

For setup #2, we walked up the hill and placed most of the park, Lake Union and the City of Seattle in the background. We made a few quick tweaks to the Octodome, and we were off and shooting.

With the day dwindling, our light was falling off fast. I wanted to squeeze in one more location before the sunset on Seattle for that Sunday. Adam, McKenna, Gus and I took off for the little park halfway up the hill behind Golden Gardens. After using some of Seattle’s lakes, skyline and greenery as the background, I wanted to feature some its forests.

The way I’ve heard the story is this… Adam was supposed to propose to McKenna in Europe. Adam was scheduled to meet up with McKenna in Paris after skiing the Haute Route with a few buddies in April. The ever impatient Adam decided to jump the gun right before the trip; and hauled McKenna up 4,000 vertical feet to pop the question on top of Mt. Si. Since then, they’ve been recreating what their proposal might have looked had Adam selected a different venue. The above is a rendition of two people getting engaged during an Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000 photoshoot. Aww.

Newly engaged couple OR Seattle’s latest Nightly News duo?

Of course none of this would have been possible with my trusty assistant, Gus. He’s a huge help with setting up the lighting, being a stand-in and suggesting ideas. He even does all the crappy stuff like carry 50 lbs of sand bags and run back to the car when I forget stuff—all without complaining. Thanks Gus!

To catch more of Adam & McKenna (including bonus PDA), check out my Flickr set or watch the slideshow below.

The conditions were such that I simply had to take some photographs. February Seattle was being treated to unseasonably spectacular weather, it was the weekend and I just adopted a new member into the Explosion family… a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. After enjoying a literal boat-load of sushi on Friday night, I got a phone call from UPS around 9:30 PM saying that my new hunk of glass was at their Seattle hub. Sharat and I bombed down to Georgetown in the Explorer and picked it up just before Josh, the UPS customer service rep, called it quits at 10 PM. Since I knew Saturday was going to be as clear as Friday, I made up my mind to be at a particular spot in West Seattle as the sun came up. Sharat quickly translated my proclomation into reality by iPhoning an almanac: surise at about 7 AM. The best light of a sunrise occurs in the hour before the sun becomes visible. This meant getting to my spot around 6 AM, which called for a 5:30 AM wake-up time. On a Saturday. I know.

I noticed a lookout point on Admiral Way when I drove over to West Seattle earlier in the week to meet a couple of friends. The photographer bell went off in my head and I began thinking about how I could shoot it. Immediately I settled on shooting a sunrise because the silhouetted buildings with their lights might look great against the mountains and morning sky. With the convergence of the weather, the weekend and new gear—Saturday was going to be my moment of truth.

When the alarm went off, I rolled out of the rack, loaded the rig and took off down the viaduct. After monkeying around with camera dials and tripods for a good hour, the sun was up and the magenta sky was gone. I jumped back in the truck and cruised over to Ballard. By the time I arrived, the sun was just starting to cast its first rays on the other mountain range that borders Seattle, The Olympics. The shot at the beginning of this post is of a tree at Golden Gardens with Shilshole Bay and the Olympic Range in the background.

My hour in West Seattle was relatively private. A cabbie pulled off to watch the sunrise for a minute, and two older women power walked by; but they were too busy chatting to look over the rail. In contrast, pre 8 AM Golden Gardens buzzed with all breeds of early birds: dog walkers, exercisers and book readers. As I exchanged friendly hellos with these folks, each one of them gave me a kind of nod that said, “isn’t this morning fucking great?” I shared the sentiment, and responded with a corresponding nod that said, “hell yeah it’s fucking wonderful—I love this city.”

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.

Reid Anderson. Bass.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 112mm.
Program Exposure. 1/10 sec. @ f/5.3. ISO 1600.

The Bad Plus @ The Tractor Tavern.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 18mm.
Program Exposure. 1/8 sec. @ f/3.5. ISO 1600.

David King using a toy drum during a cover of Aphex Twin’s “Flim.”
Nikon D300. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Aperture Priority. 1/30 sec. @ f/2.8. ISO 1600.

Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 200mm.

Program Exposure. 1/6 sec. @ f/5.6. ISO 1600.

Ethan Iverson. Piano.
Nikon D300. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Aperture Priority. 1/30 sec. @ f/2.5. ISO 1600.

Nikon D300. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Program Exposure. 1/30 sec. @ f/1.8. ISO 1600.

Nikon D300. Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Aperture Priority. 1/15 sec. @ f/2.8. ISO 1600.

The Bad Plus played at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard on May 22, 2008. The show was originally supposed to take place at the legendary and now defunct Crocodile Cafe.

This was by far the rowdiest jazz concert I have attended—and that’s saying quite a bit because I’ve been to a number of performances with Andy Szumowski. Several guys standing behind Sharat and me were yelling out song suggestions at every pause. It reminded me of an evening with Andy at the Jazz Standard in New York City back in September 2005. Russell Malone was playing a mean set, and Andy was pounding Jameson and 7-Up (his preferred drink at the time). Every note or lick the band played that agreed with Andy’s inebriated sense of musical taste was complimented with a raucous “YEAH!” or “COME ON, NOW!” By the time Russell came out for an encore, Andy was in full force and without provocation yelled “HENDRIX!” Russell turned, looked at him, shook his head and said into the microphone, “how about you stop drinking? Ha!” In his khaki shorts and stained white t-shirt, the enthusiastic Andy Szumowski had certainly succeeded in becoming the focal point of the performance—not bad considering he wasn’t even in the band.

Now had Andy and I been at the Tractor, nobody would have shot him dirty looks or even noticed his severely intoxicated screaming. This crowd wanted “amazing” and was not afraid to demand it. Of course The Bad Plus delivered, and the crowd let them hear their appreciation. The stellar jazz performances I’ve witnessed over the years are too numerous to count (Branford Marsalis performing A Love Supreme outdoors, Ravi Coltrane at Iridium playing “Giant Steps,” Brad Mehldau covering Radiohead in Chicago, former Miles Davis’ sax player Kenny Garrett in downtown Flint, Medeski Martin & Wood jamming to “Brigas, Nuncas Mais” in Ann Arbor—just to name a few); but not since I saw D.D. Jackson at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival in 2002 had I witnessed a crowd interact so viscerally with jazz musicians. The fact the The Bad Plus came out for THREE encores underscores this connection. It was obvious they really did enjoy playing for us.

I made all shots with my Nikon D300 camera. I tried to not disturb my fellow patrons so I elected not to use a flash. All are with a picture control setting of Neutral, some with +3 saturation and others with only +1 or no extra saturation. The black and white image of David King is a conversion done in PhotoShop using the Calculations feature. The two-tone image of Reid Anderson was created in PhotoShop using Threshold.

Last Sunday Jon Caldwell and I ventured out to make some pictures. Jon had spent the weekend touring Dana (his girlfriend from Chicago) around all the picturesque places in Seattle and had plenty of ideas for places to shoot. For sunset we decided to hit Golden Gardens Park in Ballard. We set up on the beach and pointed our cameras west at Shilshoe Bay and the Olympic Mountains.

For sunsets and sunrises I use a technique I heard about from my dad. First, I point the camera straight up and get a meter reading. Usually I set the camera to Program Exposure mode and just take a picture. I pull up the EXIF data on the LCD, read the shutter speed and aperture setting the camera came up with, and then plug those values into the camera using the Manual Exposure mode. Chances are these settings will not be perfect, but it’s a good starting point. Once I’ve got the manual settings loaded, I start taking pictures of the horizon. Constantly checking the LCD in between shots helps me adjust shutter speed and aperture to get just the right balance. When I use a tripod I typically leave the ISO at 200. If I’m shooting handheld and there is not much light I’ll crank ISO to get a shorter exposure time.

For the shots at Golden Gardens I used my Nikon D300 with the 18-200mm VR lens on a Manfrotto tripod and head. I could have easily shot hand held, but I also used a Cokin ND Graduated 120 filter. I think it’s easier to adjust the Cokin system when everything is stabilized on a tripod. I have not had too many opportunities to experiment with the ND graduated filter, but I like what it does for situations with a wide range of light like sunsets.

Shortly after sunset we packed up and drove a few hundred yards down the road to Ray’s Boathouse. I wasn’t originally planning to stop there, but they have a great neon sign and I couldn’t resist pulling over. I set the camera to Program Exposure with auto ISO, jumped out of the Explorer, grabbed a few shots, and took off.

By the time we arrived at Gas Works Park the sky was dark. Jon and I setup tripods and experimented with long shutter speeds. Gas Works is great for night photography. Point the camera at an old, rusty piece of machinery and leave the shutter open for 20 or 30 seconds. Review image on LCD. Tinker with camera adjustments. Repeat.

Below is a view of The George Washington Bridge from a hill in Gas Works Park. This shot is a 20 second exposure. I tried a few different white balance settings and did not like what I was getting. I finally got decent result after custom white balancing the D3oo using an ExpoDisc.