Rust Rapture Collection
Rust Rapture Collection
I am starting to post some of my Rust Rapture Collection which is culled from 8 years of shooting Rat Rods (Old vintage hot rods whose exteriors have been left to the demise of mother nature…) “TENACITY” is one of my first and favorites. It is a 1938 Buick drivers door panel and door hinge. I have found several facebook groups who are interested in this same kind of work. They are RUST Avant*Garde, Rust Art and Rusted Art. This one is hanging on the kitchen wall of my brother in law and sister in Winston-Salem.
Fine art photograph TENACITY – 1938 Buick rat rod Drivers Door Hinge
Testing Neewer Vision 4 lights at US Money Reserve
Testing Neewer Vision 4 lights at US Money Reserve
For my Client US Money Reserve I spent the first full day shooting business portraits, and on day two we spent half the day running from office to office shooting candid office lifestyle photographs. This gave me the opportunity to test out my new Vision 4 lights. I was excited about the price, but failed to think about that fact that at that $200 price point, there had to be something that was missing. Indeed it was that I cannot control the output of the lights from the remote trigger on the camera. This is only a slight inconvenience to get up from behind the tripod and go dial up or down the f stop on the lights. They are battery powered and one battery lasted all afternoon.
Office candid lifestyle photograph 1
Office candid lifestyle photograph 2
Office candid lifestyle photograph 3
Office candid 4
Sunset rule wins again.
The 20 minutes after sunset rule wins again.
I was shooting an exterior of this apartment pool in Tucson last week. I always ask the client to arrange with maintenance to have the pool lights in the pool and the perimeter lights forced on at least 30 minutes before sunset. Normally these lights are on solar cells or light sensors and turn themselves on when the sun light dissipates and the ambient light gets dark enough to trigger them on. Inevitably, they turn themselves off way after sunset and too late for the perfect twilight shot. I was watching the sun go down and as it approached 20 minutes after sunset, I was concerned that this scene was going to be boring. The sun must not behave the same in Arizona. But I shot my bracketed shots anyway, and because I was so close to the pool, I decided to shoot and upper image and then shift down with my 17mm tilt shift lens and shoot a lower image so I could stack them together in Photoshop to get more room for the top and bottom of the image.
Entrada Real in Tuscon twilight exterior real estate student housing photography
International coupe KBL
KBL International coupe
New installation of one of my favorites ever – a 1948 KBL International coupe from my Rust Rapture Collection. Its new home is at Stitch Texas in Austin. Stitch is Austin’s favorite apparel development company and factory right in the heart of Austin. This is a team of expert technicians working with hundreds new and emerging designers every year to bring their innovations and dreams to fruition. Vesta Harman founded Stitch in 2013. My son Kristopher joined forces with her in 2104.
Rust Rapture installations
Rust Rapture installations.
Two new installations of my abstract photography collection called Rust Rapture.
First is a 42 x 36 canvas print of “Aqua Marine” a close shot of the front fender of a 1935 GM Truck rat rod. This is hanging in the Den of Ryan and Whitney Hsu in Winston Salem.
“Aqua Marine” rust rapture canvas print in Winston Salem
“Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Winston Salem
The second is “Fusion” which I extracted from the driver door of a 1940 Buick rat rod. This one is hanging in the entry foyer of the home of Robin and Wayne Mosle in Washingon, DC. This is a 60 x40 paper print on Epson Luster Paper.
“Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Washington DC
abstract photographer austin “Fusion” rust rapture canvas print in Washington DC
Both of these prints are interesting because they each have an anchor point to give you a sense for what you are looking at. Fusion has a small door knob in the top left. And Aqua Marine has a bit of the headlight on the right.
Fusion – abstract photography
It is not often that I print my Rust Rapture pieces on paper – normally I print on canvas because they print up so well in large formats like 2 x 3 feet. This client asked for a large format print on epson luster paper so they could frame it for their front foyer. This piece is called Fusion. It is from a 1940 Buick Rat Rod. These abstract photographs are all derived from the exteriors of old vintage hot rods whose exteriors have been left to the demise of mother nature – the heat, rain, sun and belt sanders. The resulting patinas are spectacular. Often these print can be hung in any direction but on Fusion, there is a door knob – yep that is a door knob in the top left which sort of need to be in the right place.
Mosle Installation of Fusion Abstract Photography
Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply Composite Portraiture
As my architectural photography work slows in the winter, it lets me enjoy my next favorite passion – composite portraiture. When I saw the Austin American Statesman article about Buck Moore Feed and Pet Supply closing after 72 years in business, I was inspired to ask the owners, John and Ken Bushong, if I could shoot their portrait for posterity. The shop was ideal for a photo shoot since it has iconic items like a 1920’s cash register:
Buck Moore 1920 era Cash Register
a 1930’s adding machine, and scales that are over 50 years old. I knew this setting would be perfect for a composite portrait where I light and capture the people first, then remove them and the lights from the scene, and then go around the room and pop a light on different areas and paint in those spot lit areas layer by layer in Photoshop.
Johnny Stevens spot lighting at Buck Moore
Spot lighting the portrait scene at Buck Moore
I love the drama that spot lighting gives you because each light pop comes from a different direction.
John and Ken Bushong composite portraiture
Portrait session and making a composite portrait
For Nolan’s final training session of the semester for the Independent Study Course for which I am a mentor, I had Nolan conduct a Portrait session and making a composite portrait with my friend Lane Orsak. Lane is an author, artist, collector and marketing consultant. We wanted to create an image that would represent him as an author – maybe even to use in his most recent book. We lit Lane with a key light with umbrella and a kicker light behind him with a Westcott softbox. Then I went around the room behind him and lit several angles on the couch and painting on the wall and we layered all of those spot lit scenes into the master Lane image.
Lane Orsak formal male portrait session making a composite portrait photograph in Austin
Light Painting an Orchid
Light Painting an Orchid.
For his lesson today, Nolan who I mentor in the independent studies program at Westlake High School, we light painted this orchid. We lit the plant with a small led flashlight and looked at each image on my ipad by using the Cam Ranger system plugged into the Canon 5d Mark 3 camera. We ended up with 10 different images of varying lighting on the orchid that we layered and masked together to create this final image. We back lit the flowers and front lit the flower buds. The back lighting helped pop out the dramatic edges of the flower petals.
Light Painting an Orchid by Nolan and Johnny
These are some of the light painted images that we blended together to make the final Orchid image.
Light Painting an Orchid
photography mentor for the Westlake High School, adding a sparkle to the day
- At October 27, 2017
- By Johnny Stevens
- In Fine Art
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So I am a photography mentor for the Westlake High School Independent Study class and this semester, Nolan Weinschenk is the senior student I am helping to learn photography and Photoshop editing skills. On our first day of training to prepare for shooting abstract imagery of smoke rising and curling from a stick of incense, I set up two 600 rt flashes with flags to block the light from hitting a black background, set the camera on the tripod and lit what I thought was incense. To our slight dismay, it turned out to be a sparkler. So we just went to the editing studio and I taught him 3 ways to replace a sky in Photoshop.
Photography mentor and Nolan on the set to shoot abstract smoke but surprised that our smoke source is not incense but a sparkler
Here is the smoke shot we ended up getting for his portfolio:
Nolan smoke abstract photograph austin photography
