Day 349

349/365, a photo by Aaron LaRue on Flickr.

This is Michael.
 


I don't really remember how we met, but I know it didn't take long for us to become friends. Michael is a nice guy, incredibly laid back, and sometimes even a little quiet. But when you get below the surface, he's got a lot going on. He's incredibly creative (I've never met someone with more script ideas), so today's picture was more of a collaboration and I'm really pumped with how it turned out.  We had an avant-garde/experimental cinema class together, so things almost immediately went in that direction. I mentioned that I wanted to play with split screens and Michael was itchin' to play with some fake blood, so this is what we ended up with. 


The set up is pretty simple. We shot this at night against a white stucco wall in a parking garage, but I kept the depth of field just deep enough to get Michael sharp and just shallow enough to blur the background, so it almost looks like it's on a seamless. There's an SB-24 on a stand behind Michael's head lighting the wall, another SB-24 with an umbrella camera left as a key, and a 430ex II through my DIY ringflash as some on-axis fill. I think the ringflash made this picture, it adds just enough light on Michael's dark side to preserve some detail and makes the image a little more dimensional. I'm happy with the light, I dig the split screen, and Michael's eyes creep me out, so I think this one was a success!