Inspirational Story

CLIENT: SC Living
EDITOR: Keith Phillips
ART DIRECTOR: Sharri Wolfgang
SUBJECT: Kara Robinson

The assignment was to create a portrait of Kara Robinson. Ms. Robinson's story is very inspirational. When she was 15 years old, Kara was abducted by a serial killer, stuffed into a plastic storage container, and transported to the abductor's apartment. There she was sexually assaulted and held for 17 hours. Ms. Robinson managed to escape her abductor when he fell asleep, then gave authorities details which led them to him (he eventually committed suicide as police closed in). The serial killer had already raped and murdered three other young women.

In August of this year, Ms. Robsinson, now 23, graduated from the SC Criminal Justice Academy and is a sheriff's deputy with the Richland County Sheriff's Department. She is a resource officer at a local high school. It was an honor to meet and work with Kara. She refuses to be called a victim. Her determination and courage are inspiring.

Here is the magazine's selection. It was lit with a large Chimera. The sun was diffused by a Matthews 12' x 12' overhead frame (which blew over right before the shoot). I shot it with a Canon 5dII with a 24-70 f/2.8 lens.



And, as usual, I had to shoot a little film too. The portrait was lit with a 22" beauty dish with a grid and a medium Chimera for fill. Two 24" x 36" Matthews flags helped control the light from the beauty dish. The background was gray seamless paper. I shot this with a Hasselblad 503 with a 150mm lens with extension tube. As you can see, the film was Kodak Ektar 100.

Diabetes Forecast Magazine

CLIENT: TMG/Diabetes Forecast
PHOTO EDITOR: Sara Elder
SUBJECT: Florene Linnen

Sara Elder, senior photo editor at Diabetes Forecast magazine, asked me to create an environmental portrait of Florene Linnen. While talking with Mrs. Linnen about possible locations, she mentioned that there was a river close to her home. After scouting, we decided to shoot there. We had light rain during the shoot, but that also gave us great clouds.

I used a large and medium Chimera to light the portrait. It was captured with a Canon 5dII and a 24-70 f/2.8 lens.

Here is Sara's pick for the magazine



Of course after capturing the digitals for the client, I had to drag out a film camera. In this case, I used a Holga, modified by HolgaMods (www.holgamods.com).

SC Living Magazine

Client: SC Living Magazine
Editor: Keith Phillips
Art Director: Sharri Wolfgang

Keith Phillips asked me to photograph the cover for SC Living magazine. The cover story concerned the football rivalry between Clemson University and the University of SC. We hired two models - Amanda and Brian Bluestein - from the Millie Lewis Agency in Columbia, SC to help us illustrate the story. Amanda and Brian were great to worth with. Their professional, fun demeanor contributed greatly to the success of the shoot.

Keith, Sharri, and I had brainstormed many ideas for the cover. We tried several variations and props. In the end, Keith and Sharri had quite a few options to choose from.

The image was shot on white seamless with a large Chimera as a main light and a 22" beauty dish with grid for a fill. I used a Canon 5dII with the 70-200 f/2.8 lens.

COVER IMAGE




Me with Amanda and Brian



Of course, I prefer this cropped version ... (no offense Brian).