Dec 7, 2016
What happens, Photographer, when you arrive on location, you have extremely limited time, and the setting is wrong? Russ Talks episode #8 finds Russ Harrington again in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with photographer Heather Beadles.
Heather recently asked Russ to spend a day in her studio, shooting her clients, with her equipment. Their adventure led Russ to an Olympic-Champion, now wrestling coach, at Oklahoma State University. The day allowed Heather--and now us--the chance to see how Russ responds to traditional portrait photography "rules."
You'll also hear a behind-the-scenes conversation about Russ' vision when he walks into a new studio.
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Finally, here is a brief excerpt from my conversation with Heather and Russ. As I ask Heather about her continuing quest for education, I then ask . . .
BILL: What did you want? Why did you do it? You've got a good thing going--it's not that you're a novice at this. What did you hope to gain from bringing Russ to spend the day with you at your studio?
HEATHER: After studying with so many different Master Photographers: Greg Daniel, William Branson, Tim Kelly, Elizabeth Homan, Tim Walden, Ken Whitmire . . . I've studied with so many amazing Master Photographers and you learn their way of lighting. You learn the PPA rules of lighting and posing . . . . I know the rules, I'm a Certified Professional Photographer. When you learn from so many different people that have amazing photography--you have to translate that back to your studio. I just needed someone to come and help me work with [my gear] in my space and Russ did that. He challenged me to get out of the box and to even MOVE the box--literally move the soft boxes to a different spot and choose a different soft box just to help me get out of the groove of I have what I have been taught. He basically broke all the rules.
RUSS: My goal is to get 12 or 13 differently lit scenario locations of an artist. The 700 or so album covers I've shot, I've became known for: When we leave this shoot, the merchandising people are gonna be happy, the designers are gonna be happy, the A&R people, the promotions people--everyone's gonna have these different images that they can promote the artist for a year or 18 months. I just became known for "I'm gonna break rules . . . ." I did a Tim McGraw record with two fluorescent lights from a K-Mart, and we put them on an old bus in Pennsylvania. And that was the album cover. Lit with two $10 shop lights.
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