The other day I heard the news that rock-n-roll photographer Jim Marshall passed away in his sleep. I’m guessing a lot of people don’t recognize the name but you definitely know his images – Johnny Cash flipping the bird, Pete Townsend at Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and on and on and on.

He was the primary reason I got into photography. In college and back into high school I was always into music made well before my time, particularly Jimi Hendrix, and the Dead. In my dorm room I had a Fender Stratocaster and a Fender P-bass, harboring illusions of playing music when I wasn’t working in radio. The thing was, as much as I loved music, I was an absolutely AWFUL musician. I could get a few technical things down but I had no real talent for it. I suppose on some level I knew that yet wanted to be expert in it one way or the other so I started reading up on that era – San Francisco, the Sixties, etc. I began hearing about these magic ballrooms and venues like Winterland in San Francisco and Fillmore East in NYC and these articles were always accompanied by these wonderful black-and-white photographs of just about every musician I looked up to. There were a handful of photographers that kept popping up – Herb Greene, Baron Wolman and Jim Marshall. The Marshall picture that really got me though was one of Duane Allman playing his guitar in a Holiday Inn bathroom.

I think it was the intimacy of that unguarded moment that revealed the possibilities of photography and laid the seeds for photography’s role in my life. I began photographing music around Penn State, primarily the visiting musicians invited by the Jazz Club or the occasional blues musicians that would come through town. At the time I worked a Saturday night shift as a blues DJ on public radio and my interest with that music nearly eclipsed my obsession with the Dead. Almost!

I would take my Dad’s Canon AE-1 that he lent me for an art class, load up some TMAX 400 pushed 3 stops or if I had it, some P3200 and shoot in these dark little bars and clubs. However, after a few experiences shooting mainstream concerts at the arena at PSU and the 3-songs and you’re out BS, I realized that Marshall chronicled a really unique time in American music. It was like everybody was figuring it out as they went and music wasn’t just a commodity. It probably didn’t help that I though most of the contemporary music at that point pretty much sucked!  Anyway, there are a bunch of really great remembrances of Jim Marchall out there and here is one of the best, plus a video of him speaking:

http://manginphotography.net/2010/03/jim-marshall-was-a-bad-ass/

http://vimeo.com/3105966

On 3/25/10 we finally got our own studio in Baltimore, MD. Now we have a place that we can shoot anything, 24 hours a day, and even hold small events and meetings. Stay tuned for the great shots I'll be taking there and posting here from time to time.

On 3/25/10 we finally got our own studio in Baltimore, MD. Now we have a place that we can shoot anything, 24 hours a day, and even hold small events and meetings. Stay tuned for the great shots I'll be taking there and posting here from time to time.

On 3/25/10 we finally got our own studio in Baltimore, MD. Now we have a place that we can shoot anything, 24 hours a day, and even hold small events and meetings. Stay tuned for the great shots I'll be taking there and posting here from time to time.

On 3/25/10 we finally got our own studio in Baltimore, MD. Now we have a place that we can shoot anything, 24 hours a day, and even hold small events and meetings. Stay tuned for the great shots I'll be taking there and posting here from time to time.

On 3/25/10 we finally got our own studio in Baltimore, MD. Now we have a place that we can shoot anything, 24 hours a day, and even hold small events and meetings. Stay tuned for the great shots I'll be taking there and posting here from time to time.

Just a pretty scenic near Lake Anna in Spotsylvania on my way back from Louisa County High School for the last of my winter sportraits.  I liked passing through the little town of Mineral as there is a tasty little barbecue shack there. Or at least there was – apparently it changed hands. So no BBQ for me but I got a nice dose of that National Geographic light you hope for when you are out and about; nice warm light from behind you, low, dark clouds ahead of you and everything pops. Sadly nobody had the decency to paddle by in a bright red canoe or anything.

It’s that time of year again – All-Area sportraits!  Every season after herding high school kids cats and hauling a bunch of gear to various high schools around the area I swear I am not doing the next one. Yet somehow the sports editor always makes the assumption I’ll be doing it and somehow it just happens. Anyway, typically the AA shoots involve a mix of studio stuff for the interior team mugs and location shoots for the athletes of the year. I tend to pack a bunch of Nikon strobes and various light modifiers for the location stuff since I have a budget of approximately zero dollars and no assistants aside from other staffers at the paper. Since they are typically pretty busy, I don’t like to bother them. The upside is the athletes usually have a friend or two hanging around and I enlist their service as a voice-activated-lightstand (those familiar with the teachings of St. David of Baltimore know what I’m talking about!) Anyway, here are a few pictures of the set-ups so far. I can’t show you the results till they run in the paper. The set-ups are fairly crude but they get the job done so I suppose that’s all that counts. I’m no McNally fer chrissakes!

I started out using a softbox on the flash but opted for bare bulb to overpower the sun. Gotta love the SB-800’s and the ability to sync at very high shutterspeeds. Like I said, not a pretty set-up but I was pleased with the results. To make things even better, Avery Green, the basketball player pictured, was really excited about the pictures too and was pretty collaborative during the shoot, which always makes things easier.

As for gear, I’ve got 4 SB-800’s, a couple extra SB 80’s with SU-4 slave units, a sack of Honl light modifiers (grids, bounce cards, snoots, gels) a variety of A-clamps, Justin clamps (these things rule!), super clamps, pocket wizards, 2 sizes of softboxes, a couple stands, a sandbag so the stand doesn’t fall on the athlete, a Strobies mini beauty dish, which works fairly well. Also, a D3, D300 and a variety of prime and zoom lenses. All things considered, I guess its traveling pretty light. Working outdoors using SB units can be challenging particularly if you are trying to overpower the sun. I would love to use the paper’s studio lighting gear out there but I also don’t have a generator or portable battery pack or much in the way of helpers. So, for now, quick and dirty is where it’s at. Like the Marines, I guess you just have to improvise, adapt and overcome!