Anatomy of a Portable Studio (Halloween Shoot, 2011) [part 2]

For part 1 of this article, click here

The Shoot—Positioning

I hit the streets with the big camera rig over my shoulder, layers of warmth, and an assistant strapped with a bag of backup gear and the pop-up backdrop. We went down early (barely dark) and hungry, so after a quick slice of local pizza we started shooting. Right away my assistant, Tom (a local college student) spotted some friends of his, so we hit them up first. It was pretty easy to convince people to pose; no commitment, no signature, no cost (now), just let me take your photo, take this card from me (I printed up 200 cards with the website address and a little reminder of what just happened… for those too hung over the next morning to remember!), and a request to visit the site in the next day or two. I didn’t commit to any pricing (and in reality I hadn’t had time to think about it), but all I told people was that they would be able to download a facebook-sized photo for “cheap”. I ended up pricing them at $4 for a 640x480 download, which is obviously a bargain and no way to make a living, but most of my subjects were probably college students with little spare cash anyway. And this wasn’t about making money in the first place.

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Anatomy of a Portable Studio (Halloween Shoot, 2011) [part 1]

A few people have asked about the setup I used for my Halloween shoot, and the editing that went into the photos. So here’s the background, the tech, and more!

Background

The first question is simply “why”. Easy enough; I’m new in town and figured this would be a fun way to get to know some people, get my name as a photographer out there, and with any luck, make a little money. It’s hard to make any real money selling $4 facebook-size images, and I know that’s the only thing most people will buy, but that’s OK. It’s fun, it’s a good experience, and again, it gets my name and face out there.

I did something similar two years ago when I lived in Pasadena, except that I set up a studio on my front lawn and photographed (with parental permission of course) the kids that came trick-or-treating. However now in Ashland, where I live, no one comes knocking, so I figured I’d better bring the studio to them! Hence this idea was born.

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Halloween Night in Ashland, Oregon

What a night, and what an edit! Exactly 400 photos are now online for public consumption. Some absolutely insane costumes out there on Monday night. What a great time!

In a future post, I’ll talk photo-geek about what I did (and why). This worked out really well, and I definitely know a few things I’ll do differently next year. This is the second time I’ve done something like this; two years ago I set up an outdoor studio at my home in Pasadena (click here to see a few of those photos).

This time, I went mobile.

Click the photo to open the gallery launch page.

Halloween Night in Ashland, OR (a Preview)

I went into downtown Ashland, OR last night (Halloween night) armed with my 1Ds Mk III and 24-70 rigged with an orbis light modifier, and an assistant carrying a pop-up black backdrop. I had no idea Ashland was this insane for Halloween. I printed out 200 cards with the URL for the photos on them, and handed out 190 of them. I left only because I was exhausted, and it got to a point where most people asking for their photo to be taken were probably going to be too drunk to remember to look for the photos afterwards.

Here’s a preview of the photos to come… the zombies were out in force with some seriously impressive makeup!

The full gallery will be on PhotoJoseph.com/Halloween hopefully today.

Update on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by Joseph Linaschke

The photos are live! Head on over to PhotoJoseph.com/halloween to enjoy!

International Center of Photography, NYC

I stopped into the International Center of Photography while wandering around New York this week, and just had to grab this photo. I stalked the shot for a while; fortunately the subject was quite entranced and was there for a long time, as I had to wait for other people to get out of the way. The path cleared, I fired two shots, and in the second, someone walked part-way into frame.

Patience and timing… two major components of photography!

It’s funny, a security guard stopped me. But I think he was waiting for me to get my shot before telling me “no photography”. Nice guy :)

Photography, Appreciated, at the ICP @ October 2011 | Fuji X100 @ ISO 3200, ƒ/8, 1/20