A little bit about having a Plan B, people being late and importance of keeping your inner child alive and kicking.
While I was making photographs of fencers to tell you a bit about double exposure, one of the members mentioned to me that there is a “fencing” group that uses long swords, full armor and full contact. I quickly got in touch with HEMA’s (Historical European Martial Arts) coach Andrzej Różycki and arranged a meeting to have a chat about potential series of photographs. This is always an important moment when getting someone onboard for collaborations to make sure your interests “click” together one way or another. You can start experimenting with someone in your existing network. Maybe your uncle is into boat models, maybe your colleague is into skateboarding, or maybe you are part of a kite club – it doesn’t really matter as long as it resonates with you. People usually want to share their passions, and portraying it with your camera might help them in doing so.
Once you have someone on board, you can’t overestimate inspiration. In this case, I almost instantly decided to photograph them on roofs of parking lots around the city, which came from a chain of thoughts that was more or less something like this: swords – original “Highlander” movie – opening carpark duel. And that was that…
I can’t stress enough how important it is to have people’s willingness to help. In this case, Andrzej agreed to help out as a liaison between me and other members, and for that, thank you again Andrzej.
Aiming to have a bit of drama in the sky and reasonably empty carparks, I decided to photograph at sunset. Photographing at that time gives only a small window of opportunity to make things work (about 15-30 minutes) so planning is really important. Check your location beforehand, and see if there might be any access issues to for which you need to be prepared. Sometimes you’ll have to arrange access with security, and sometimes use advice from Werner Herzog, who once said: “Carry bolt cutters everywhere.”
When you make portraits, it’s good to remember that even though people you’ll photograph are not models, they know enough about their passion and they will help you in finding an interesting look. I usually try not to ask for things that don’t feel comfortable for them – in this case, wonky placement of the blade and only “for the camera” positions. It’s also nice to add a narrative, even if it’s just between you two. Once I shared the Highlander idea and mentioned waiting for the opponent, the remaining thing to do was choose angles, try a few positions, and choose what looked good and fire away.
I kept setup for this very simple, one source of natural light for the background, and one of artificial light – in this case three SB910’s mounted on a Triflash Lastolite bracket and large Mcnally umbrella on a stand propped by sandbags (I also used Flashpoint Ring Li-On instead on one of the occasions). Having one source of light makes things easier as you can move quickly when you change your mind with the angle or simply need to adjust something. It’s also fast to setup and take down, especially if you are a one man show. Mcnally’s 4 in1 umbrella is one of my favorite modifiers, as it can provide a quite large and soft source of light with the option to have only a small opening for light when you want a narrower beam while still being light and easy to carry.
Even though you should be ALWAYS on time and ready to work, others sometimes be late and you need to have a Plan B, especially when you are dependent on the environment you’re in. As long as you keep your imagination open for fresh thoughts, there is always something else you can try. Look for patterns and shapes you can juxtapose, etc. Try to see surroundings as a geometric tangle that needs to be organized, and make sure you know how light works around your location.
I was originally aiming for quite straightforward photographs of ordinary people that have a “sharp secret” but once I saw the option of using available light to pull out these strong graphic features and saw bold, almost abstract colours, I jumped on it which resulted in a photograph that is my favorite of them all. Heavy Metal LP cover anyone?
Even though you’ll start with an idea, it doesn’t mean you will have to adhere to it one hundred percent. Half of the success is to be flexible, experiment, and learn new things. This way we can produce something different, and even if it doesn’t work, you’ve learned something. Once you bag the “safe” shot, look around for something that catches your eye and don’t put your camera back in the bag until you leave your location.
