All they wanted was a simple group photo. Desiree, a good friend and stylist extraordinaire, sent me a message on Facebook asking if I would take a shot of the folks that work at her place of business, Steven Cole Salon (an upscale salon in Seattle’s hip Greenwood neighborhood). This was April of 2009. I immediately responded saying I’d love to do the shoot, but things were slow to take off. Several months passed and I discovered the likes of David Hobby (the Strobist), Zack Arias and I even met Chase Jarvis. The influence of these photographers lead me to radically change my approach to lighting and portrait photography. By the time we scheduled a shoot for Steven Cole Salon in September of 2009, I was fully immersed in off camera flash, watt seconds and soft boxes. The simple group photo was now going to be the culmination of hours of blog reading—it was, in no short order, going to be an Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000 Production.

Desiree and Steven Cole Salon gave me what amounted to total creative control of the shoot. They wanted a nice group photo, but how we got to that point was up to me. My original concept was to shoot each stylist individually on white seamless, then composite them all into a “group” photo. Only problem, I didn’t know the first thing about shooting on white seamless. I basically followed Zack Arias’s excellent (and funny) tutorial, piece of gear by piece of gear. Since I was yet to purchase strobes or any other light modifiers, I rented a truckload of equipment from Glazer’s here in Seattle. After a stop at Home Depot, I was dialed in. The photo above illustrates the set we built inside the salon. I stashed a Bowens 500 w/s Gemini behind each of the bi-fold doors to light up the 9′ white seamless. We also laid down two pieces of reflective white tile board. The key light was another Bowens Gemini outfitted with a Chimera soft box.

With the set built and all the clients gone for the day, we launched into the photography. Each employee took a turn modeling while I directed and encouraged them to pose with different props. I exclusively used the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX lens; and because I would need to composite the images together later, I used a tripod to maintain similar angles and proportions. After scrubbing through hundreds of photos, I later assembled the composite (at the top of this post) from these individual shots. Although it’s a bit more work, the composite approach has many advantages. First, it ensures even, consistent lighting for all the subjects. It also allows me to create a photo that seems like it was shot at a bigger space. Steven Cole Salon is quite roomy, but it’s not the cavernous white room that the composite implies. I also had literally dozens of different looks for each of th employees. Another advantage of creating a composite is being able to individually select the perfect pose for each of the subjects.

With the composite components in the bag, I wanted to try one other idea. When I scouted the salon earlier in the week, I noticed that the chairs were pretty cool and movable. I thought it would be interesting to contrast the black and chrome chair with the white seamless. To get a different look from the straight-ahead composite stuff, I climbed up an 8 foot ladder and photographed the stylists from above. Luckily I had Gus there to spot me…

And what would an Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000 production be without the obligatory lighting test shot of Gus. This was actually the first time Gus ever assisted me—and I definitely needed him. Not only was he handy on set, but we packed his Subaru full of gear after I filled up my Explorer. Gus has worked with me about a half dozen times since, and he’s now my go-to-guy for getting ambitious creative endeavors accomplished.

To check out more shots from the Steven Cole Salon shoot, check out Flickr or watch the slideshow below.

Seattle based designer and entrepreneur Stephanie de Villa contacted me earlier this year about doing some photography for her baby onesie line, baby deVILLE. After talking about some creative ideas and quickly Googling “onesie,” I put the full resources of Explosion 5000 Photo, LLC into the project. Earlier this month Stephanie launched the baby deVILLE website, featuring photography by yours truly.

There were three main deliverables for this job, two of which included talent (aka babies). For the first setup, I placed a mildly reflective white board on the ground on photographed individual babies lying on their backs. The purpose of this shot was to clearly show off the design while being worn by the baby. To get the angle I needed, I climbed up a ladder and shot from overhead. I was very fortunate to work with great parents who worked tireslly on getting their children to smile and look-up. All I had to do was hang out 8 feet in the air and blast off frames. I exclusively used the Nikon D300 and Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. I lit the babies with a large softbox overhead and off to the side, yet just inches away to get very soft light. Several feet behind their hid I used a beauty dish to provide a little fill and keep the top of their skulls from getting shadowy.

The next setup involved the talent against a white seamless. I blasted the 9 foot roll of white seamless with two Calumet 750 Travelites, and lit the babies with a 500ws Bowens Gemini through a large softbox. The individual shots were pretty easy, but the group shot proved to be a little tougher. It’s tricky enough to get one baby to do what you need him to do—multiply that by four and you have a totally different animal. Again, the parents really saved my ass here and gave their children great direction while I ripped off frames as quickly as my lights would recycle (about 1 every second).

So as not to subject the babies to needless blasts of 2000 watt-seconds, I used a weirdly shaped doll as a lighting stand-in. We actually found the doll at the location and it worked out well. Evan climbed onto the set to monkey around with the doll at one point, and I grabbed this slightly bizarre looking outtake.

I shot the entire session tethered to a MacBook Pro and previewing the images in Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta. Since Lightroom does not yet support tethering for the D300, I used a nifty little program called Sofortbild to grab the files from my camera. I then setup Lightroom to auto import any images captured by Sofortbild. This setup worked great as it allowed Stephanie, her assistant and the parents to see what kind of images I was capturing. It made the whole photoshoot a much more interactive experience, which ultimately benefits the quality of the final finished product.

The final deliverable was to shoot every design/color combination of the onesies alone on a hanger. I used the same white seamless setup and hung the clothing from a lightweight boom. About a week later, I photographed a bare hanger at Studio 806 against white. To get the final image, I removed the boom from the product shots and composited the hook part of the bare hanger into everyone one of the design/color combinations. The end result is a hanging onesie that doesn’t seem to be hanging from anything.

As you might imagine, the logistics of coordinating 5 babies, many wardrobe changes and multiple setups can create a hectic environment. Much of the success of this photoshoot comes from having a client with a clear vision and parents who worked tirelessly to make their babies cute. Since I was able to focus on the technical and creative aspects of the shoot, it allowed us to work quickly and avoid any major baby-disasters. I wish Stephanie the best of luck with baby deVILLE—if you have a little one at home, I highly recommend you check out her site and order some new threads for your critter.

For a look at everything we shot, check out my Flickr set or view the slideshow. Stephanie also has some behind-the-scenes photos on the baby deVILLE site.

My good friend and frequent creative co-conspirator, Jill Marasigan, recently launched a design and event planning business, P31 Collaborative. Jill asked me to photograph some of the interior spaces that feature her handy work with the intent to use the final images as part of her professional portfolio. So far the collection includes a house in Queen Anne and a loft in South Lake Union.

While it seems simple enough, interior photography is trickier than it looks. The first task is to find an angle that encompasses the “spirit” or “feel” of the room while still highlighting a few key features. Using a wide angle lens and dialing it back to 11mm may seem like the way to go; and for some shots, that approach is perfect. In other cases I found that using narrower focal lengths and being selective is more effective.

Once composition is set, lighting is the next thing to figure out. Both times I shot for Jill, I brought my ENTIRE lighting kit. Back in October, this consisted of a Nikon SB-800, a LumoPro LP-120 and several stands, umbrellas and reflectors. When we shot the loft in February of this year, the kit had been expanded to include four monolights, softboxes, grids and snoots. Even though I upped my watt-seconds by a factor of ten, accurately lighting an interior still remains a delicate balancing act that requires clever problem solving and attention to detail.

The shot of the spiral staircase above was made using two speedlights, umbrellas and the Tokina 11-16mm lens. The stairs are on the second floor of a Queen Anne home that belongs to a Seattle night club owner. I loved the way all the wood, metal and lighting work together in the space. To get this all in view, I wound up lying down with my camera inches off the floor. To get the nice glow coming from the wall lamps, I used a slow shutter speed (1/25th second) to allow for some ambient light. I used speedlights to fill in the rest.

At both the house and the loft, I shot the Nikon D300 tethered into a MacBook Pro and Adobe Lightroom. This allows me to quickly and accurately check focus, exposure and composition. It also allows the client (Jill) to review the images and provide creative direction. Personally, I find that real time feedback from the client invaluable. For technical shoots like this where the smallest details are important, it is incredibly helpful to get the whole “team” involved in creating and reviewing the shots. Since Adobe Lightroom does not have tethered support for the D300 (although it should be coming in LR 3.0), I use a nifty little program called Sofortbild. Using this in conjunction with Lightroom’s auto-import features makes shooting tethered quite simple.

Improvising and responding to the environment is key to any photograph, and it is not different with interiors. The office shot above is the result of ditching standard techniques and experimenting with a unique feature of the location. The other two walls of this office (the ones you cannot see) are opaque, white, glass doors on slides. Instead of opening the doors and shooting a strobe through an umbrella or softbox into the office, we blasted right through the glass. I put a monolight behind each closed door, dialed it up to nearly full power, and snuck my camera lens in through a tiny opening. The result was soft, even lighting that accurately simulates the natural environment of the room.

Without question, the toughest room to photograph is always the bathroom. Reflective surfaces, tight quarters and plenty of corners, doors, shelves and knobs make these spaces a virtual lighting minefield. It took a sausage factory to shoot the loft bathroom below. My camera is setup on a tripod just outside the bathroom door. Above the camera is a large softbox and Bowens Gemini 500 watt-second strobe to provide general fill. Just inside the bathroom on the right is a closet with a hamper. I put a Calumet Travelite 750 on the hamper with a 42” diffusion disc to soften the light. This light lit the drawers below the sink. To light the inside of the shower, I put another Bowens Gemini with a standard umbrella reflector pointed at the back wall. The finishing touch was a LumoPro LP-120 on a stand by the camera. I bounced this flash off the ceiling at an angle that would light up the back corner. In post production I removed hot spots on the TV and far tile wall by cloning properly exposed portions of the same surfaces. I applied a slight vignette to give the scene some depth and wa-la: SAUSAGE.

These photographs showcase Jill’s prowess in selecting and designing everything from room layout to tile to furniture to fixture and art selection. Perhaps my favorite thing about shooting interiors is the opportunity to interpret another person’s creativity and vision. To see more of Jill’s work and learn about everything P31 Collaborative has to offer, stop by their website here.

My Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor D 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6G DX ED IF VR lens is fucked. About two months ago I was camping in Ozette, WA with Sharat, Caitlin and Emily. We climbed up on a rock that dropped off a good 160 feet into the ocean. To take a few pictures of Caitlin and Sharat sitting on the edge of the rock, I decided to use my 35mm f/1.8 lens and hastily put the 18-200 in my bag. Forgetting that I placed it in an unzipped pocket, I unknowingly knocked it out of the bag when I changed my camera battery. After taking a few more shots, one of the annoying little kids up on the rock asked, “Hey camera guy! Hey camera guy! how many lenses do you have?”

“I have two. The one on my camera and one in my bag.”

“No you don’t. You only have one. The other one rolled off the edge.”

“My other lens what?!”

Oops. Apparently a group of 4 or 5 boys watched the lens roll off the edge of the cliff. Just as I realized that I accidentally kicked my lens off of a 160 foot drop, one of the boys showed up with it in his hand. He chased after it for me and rescued it from the beach. As he handed it over he said, “looks like it’ll still work.”

Not exactly. The UV filter is completely smashed, and some of the glass in the lens is cracked. It is stuck at about 35mm and will not telescope in or out. Part of the plastic casing cracked, exposing a circuit board and some electronics. The focus ring cracked and won’t move. Not really working condition.

As I backpacked the corpse of my beloved lens to our campsite, I thought about all the good times we had together. It was absolutely indispensable when I was in Vietnam and Cambodia. Every picture I made on the trip was with that piece of glass. Many of the iconic images I captured at the World Series of Beer Pong IV in Las Vegas were with this lens. It is also the lens I used for countless sunsets, cityscapes, sports and people shots. I learned a lot using this lens.

As valuable as the 18-200mm was, at some point it stopped being the MVP in my camera bag. It was the Swiss Army knife of lenses—the proverbial jack of all trades, master of none. If I did not need the range and flexibility it offered, I preferred to shoot with one of my more specialized, faster lenses. Using my extreme wide angle zoom and fixed focal length lenses forces me to think critically about composition—I can’t just twist and zoom for the shot. Of course the real test came when I flew to California the weekend after smashing the 18-200mm. Normally I’d rely pretty heavily on that lens, but mixing up the 35, 50 and 11-16 turned up some pretty good results.

Rest in peace, Nikon 18-200mm VR. I bought you in February of 2008 from Glazer’s Camera because Ken Rockwell said you were awesome. You served me well. At least you went out in a blaze of glory, and didn’t break in some lame way like slipping on snow in the street. I will send you to Nikon to see if they can replace you, but I kind of think they’re going to say I’m fucked. Oh well. If you’re interested in how I photographed this lens for this post, check out this setup shot.