Day 35

35/365, originally uploaded by Aaron LaRue.

This is Kyle, he fell on his motorcycle.

Kyle has been like my brother since I was 12, taking his portrait for this project was inevitable. I had planned on shooting a movie today, but woke up to a text saying one of the actors had a conflict and bailed (welcome to college filmmaking). After reading The Moment It Clicks by Joe McNally (his blog is here) this morning, which is fantastic and a must read for up and coming photographers, I was inspired. Right as I had finished, Kyle had texted me, and I knew what my picture for today would be. 


On Wednesday, Kyle went on a motorcycle ride to Piru lake. It's a fun trail ride that is somewhat challenging, you can ride straight out of the garage from where we live, and you get to take a dip in the lake. After going for a swim, Kyle took a spill going pretty fast. He got bucked from the bike, and after floating through the air his shoulder broke his fall. He stood up and assessed the situation, and realized he broke his collarbone. It was too painful to lift his left arm, so he had to ride 15 miles through the hills without his arm (or the use of his clutch) to make it home. 


He went to the doctor, and this is what he got:



He's out of commission for a while, probably the rest of the summer. As you can imagine, he's pretty bummed about it. For his portrait, I had him take off his shirt to show his brace/sling/bruises. We went into his garage and I set up his motorcycle, still dirty from the ride, on a stand. After a lot of tinkering (Kyle has been my most patient subject so far), I ended up with a flash through an umbrella to the right of the camera, and another one dialed down behind kyle and to his left. Letting his eyes go dark make this photo super moody, (hopefully) showing how stoked he to be busted up.