The post-production was intended to be reminiscent of one of my favorite pre-digital darkroom techniques, involving bleaching and toning the print as it comes out of the fixer, giving it a gritty, high-contrast look. The end result reminds me a little bit of that famous Albert Watson shot of Keith Richards.

The judges are all big cheeses in the photo industry…and I have to impress them on the merits of my work alone to win the Grand Prize: an expense-paid shoot at prestigious Milk Studios in New York City.

But if I get enough votes, I can win People’s Choice! And then I get…um….I dunno…a gold star or something.

Click this link NOW! It’ll just take you a few seconds, and the deadline is a few days away…

Thanks!

Along with photos of the bags by themselves, and toted by the model, I shot a bunch of atmospheric “place studies” that featured nothing but the environment and the light that pervaded it. These are some of my favorites.

It’s not until just this very moment, as I see these three images together in this post, that I recognize—besides the light—another commonality they share: an almost (but how could it be?) haphazard division of the frame by chaotic diagonal lines, that gives these images a dynamic quality alongside the tranquil feeling they convey.

And no, not quite haphazard.  I see with such automatic deliberateness that composition is second nature to me, even when it’s intentionally done in an off-the-cuff manner. And that’s exactly how I wanted these shots to look…unaffected…offering up for the viewer a chance to fall in love with a beautiful place, one casual glimpse at a time.

These shots were done in the lobby of the Jet Hotel in downtown Denver, using nothing but the lush natural light that flows through the sheer white drapes over the giant windows…the kind of light you just can’t get out of a can.

I’d actually brought a slew of lights, reflectors, the whole kit and caboodle…and I didn’t use any of it. The light in that big room was so amazing…why mess with perfection?

The models were pretty good, too. All amateurs, they were friends of the client, roped in for the day just to help out. Sometimes (well…frequently) I like shooting non-models…they can bring a fresh and authentic look that paradoxically comes from not knowing what they are doing.

We were fortunate to have at our disposal the awesomely appointed space at Cluster Studios, which happens to be quite conveniently owned by my roommate. Their cyclorama was painted chroma-key green and it wasn’t feasible to repaint it in time for the shoot…so even though I was using a seamless paper background, I had to block off all the green with white flats to prevent any zombie-tone color casts appearing on the models’ skin or clothes.

One cool amenity we had on the shoot was a 52-inch high-definition television surrounded by couches, which I could plug my laptop directly into, so we could all review the images right away and in comfort.

While I tweaked the lighting, I pulled Nicole (in the pink dress on the right) away from the makeup chair to stand in for test shots, and I gotta tell you, she loved seeing herself so large in a rumpled sweatshirt and her hair in curlers.

Oh, and I can’t forget the other cool amenity, which was the blasting PA speaker setup…which again, I plugged directly into my laptop with my 40,000-song iTunes collection. I love being able to play whatever a model likes to shoot to! And it’s all my music, so I’m cool with whatever she chooses….

I love answering these kinds of things, since (although I’ve never held a formal teaching position) I’ve always believed I learn the most by sharing what I’ve already learned with others.

Here’s his letter:

Hello Jeff,

My name is Jason Rowe and I’m a Photography student at The Art
Institute of Colorado.

For a class assignment, I was instructed to find a working professional in my field. Next, I was to ask them the following questions:

1. What is your favorite part of your job?
2. What is the most challenging part of your job?
3. What is one piece of advice you would give a photography student?

I realize you are busy and would really appreciate if you could take
a minute to help me complete this assignment.

If you are too busy, I understand and thank you for taking the time
to read this email.

Thanks again and Best Regards,

Jason Rowe
The Art Institute of Colorado

And my response:

Hi Jason,

You bet, I’m happy to help you with your assignment….  I’m going to answer in a little bit more general fashion, since I always find it so hard to come up with one “favorite” LOL

One of the things I like the most about my job is the variety….I’m not a cubicle kind of guy, and I get to do something different every day.   Some of it sucks…after all, I wear a lot of hats….similar to most small-business owners, I’m not just the photographer…I’m also the accountant, marketing director, and janitor.   But it’s worth it anyway….    Because, what I might like even more than the aforementioned variety is the simple satisfaction that I’m getting paid to do what I like….no, not just what I “like”, but something that comes from my soul.

The most challenging part of my job…..hmmmm, I’ll tell you two things again.  My first answer would have to be handling the business “chores”…..bookkeeping, scheduling, organizing, etc.    As a predominantly right-brained person, those critical tasks are easy to screw up or lay aside… I have to constantly remind myself that they are ***important*** and that many shitty photographers who are great business people succeed, but never the other way around.     My other answer to that question is simply that photography is its own challenge….there are always opportunities to learn and grow in my art. Being a good photographer (for anyone, as my theory goes) is directly tied to how you view and interact with the world…and therein lies room for constant growth not just as a photographer but as a human being.

That kind of segues into advice….I’ll tell it to you like the Greeks: Know Thyself.    Why do you want to be a photographer??  What is it about yourself (not just you as a surface individual, this dude who happens to be named Jason…but YOU, your innermost SELF) that you can bring out in your photography that will make it such a unique expression that it can be found nowhere else in the world, rather than a commodity to be sought at the lowest price?

This is something I ask myself every day, because this self-reflection is critical to developing and maintaining your visual style.   Your style is never a set of techniques…that makes you simply a technician with skills that are easy to replace.  Your style is how you express your unique viewpoint…your vision.  IMHO, this idea is critical *especially* today, when technology is putting picture-taking ability into everyone’s hands, greatly devaluing purely technical photography and the skills of button-pushing and exposure-making.   It’s easy to know a lot about equipment, and Photoshop….but it’s much more valuable to understand how to use those tools to communicate in a way that uniquely resonates with others.

Feel free to get back to me if you want me to explain further or have any other questions… Good luck, in general, and with your assignment!

Best Regards,

Jeff Navarro
www.navarrostudio.com

Petite redhead princess Michelle Irene was just what I needed…like all of my favorite models, she has multiple personas rolled into one. I first photographed Michelle last summer, shooting a wonderful series of nudes (which I should post, shouldn’t I?). With not an inhibited bone in her body, her attitude morphs continually from coquettish to bitchy to vulnerable to seductive, like a Swiss-army knife of feminine charms.

This is in fact, the first shoot to happen in my new studio! My able assistant, model/photographer/painter Sara Ford, did the hair and makeup. We took full opportunity to stretch creatively, especially towards the end, when we got crazy with lighting and props.

One of my favorite lighting techniques is to mix various types of light sources…continuous with strobe, tungsten with daylight, etc. Some of the images in the black bikini use this mixed lighting idea. Check the shot here, where she’s standing and grabbing her head…there’s a strobe in a large soft box coming in from the left, and a fluorescent bulb in a 12″ reflector on the other side.

Don’t get me wrong, digital is great stuff. I didn’t start my career as a digital photographer, though. The process of shooting film required a greater degree of involvement, and once used to the process it’s hard not to lament the old ways of doing things. The thing I liked most about the Type 55 film was the instant-gratification of having a useable image (much like digital is today) but having the super fine-grain quality of a large negative. There have been many occasions through my career as a photographer where I preferred the organic feel of this film and I, for one, am really going to miss getting my hands dirty.

When Dr. Penny Lloyd, a holistic veterinarian here in Colorado, contacted me about doing some promotional images for her business, the Type 55 was the first thing I grabbed before heading out to her mountain ranch. I knew the organic nature of the film would mesh nicely with the business image she wanted to project.

Dr. Lloyd is a licensed veterinarian who, in the interest of serving her patients better, took a turn down the alternative medicine path. This led to her cultivating an ability to communicate with and understanding the perspectives of her animal patients. Watching her interact with her horse, Bangwyn, was a lesson in communication and connectivity. She really speaks to animals. The weather was crisp and cold—and the scattered bright patches of snow on the ground lent an almost ethereal atmosphere to the shots. I captured some fantastic images of the two of them together.

I probably shot less than 20 frames that day on the Type 55, but each of the images came back with a powerful, emotional edge to them. When I submitted them to the art director for the shoot, she immediately fell in love with them. As a horse owner herself, the emotional connection caught on those timeless 4×5′s was something she couldn’t resist. It was only a matter of days before I had another shoot scheduled with her and her horse. Again, the results came back crisp and clean—typical of the high-resolution of the film itself (the highest resolution black and white film actually), but with the organic, hands-on feel left by the chemical patching on the edges.

It’s a careful process shooting with type 55. It’s an old-school working method that lends itself to a methodical, mindful approach to photography. It puts both the photographer and the subject in a special frame of mind that you don’t get with the rapid-fire, digital revolution…and there’s a shared sense of wonder as I peel apart the film, save the neg for scanning later, wipe the chemicals from my fingers onto my jeans, and pass the print around for everyone to see. Though I’m (nearly) a 100% digital photographer now, I still miss the physical process of film. Polaroid’s Type 55 will certainly go down in my book as one of my all-time favorites. I have no idea yet what I’m going to do with the rest of that box and a half in my fridge, but I’ll think of something to savor it with.