Sunday, Mar 25th, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Pedal Power Photography
There is a big project in the works for my friends at Trade Restaurant, which I had gone scene-scouting for in the neighborhood a couple of days ago. For the record, the actual “scenery” will be different, but while I was at it, and with the weather being so nice back then, I went for a little photo-walk along the waterfront in the South Boston.
Here are a few things I saw, and was willing to share! So often am I reminded that I truly love Boston.
Enjoy!
 The North End from the South End  Straight up  Rust and reflections.  Small boats, big boats.  the Underdock  Swim  Playground  Big boats, small boats.  Waterhut BAH-BYE!!
N
Thursday, Mar 22nd, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Black and White
Sunday, Mar 4th, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Tiny Russian Studio
I was going to start this post with: “this one is going to be quick and painless”, but then I remembered this very line miraculously triggers totally unexpected verbal diarrhea, contaminating the well intended laconism.
[Having said that, Louis CK (god, I can't help but see "Clavin Klein" in that acronym, wonder how intentional that was) comes to mind when he was ranting about the "n-word". To paraphrase him, not the "nigger" word, but the actual "n-word". How, when someone says it, they mean exactly "nigger", they are putting the word "nigger" in your head, without actually engaging their articulatory apparatus in pronouncing it, but at the same time making you responsible for thinking it. All of this is to say that my opening sentence is somewhat like Louis CK's "n-word" rant].
Back to the post. My client this time is a MA-local woman-owned small business specializing in sterile CSM/Hypalon and Nitrile Gloves, and Sleeve/Glove Systems. Don’t ask me what half of those words mean; all that matters to me is size, color, translucency.
I received the product to be photographed by mail, the night before the shooting day, and unpacked them at my studio a couple of hours before the scheduled shooting time. I don’t really need to see the product to deduce that I need an arm, whether a mannequin one or a one attached to a human. Luckily, I share the house with the creative genius by the name of Alessandra Mondolfi, who I thought just might happen to have mannequin arms laying around. This is actually how I picture their apartment: various mannequin parts just scattered around, kitty whiskers flying in the air defying gravity, sculls of unknown creatures in the kitchen… Just kidding. About the mannequin parts part.
Anyway, Alessandra happened to have both left and right mannequin arms which she generously let me borrow. I got really excited because I would get a chance to bike to my studio with the arms peeking out of my trailer, just enough to boost bypassers’ imagination. However, when it came down to the actual “transportation of”, my borrower’s consciousness took over my ornery giggly desires, and I packed them nice and careful to avoid damage. You really needed to know this piece of information.
How about I begin every paragraph from now on with “Anyway,”?
By the way, I think it’s about time you should remember the opening sentence. See??!! What did I tell you??!!!
Anyway, … knock-knock on the studio door just by the time I have finished setting up and “dialing it in” (which also involved my jetting to the hardware store to purchase some fishing line; I saw no other way of stabilizing the arm other than suspending it in the air, and my studio just happened to have an amputated pipe coming out of the wall right at the ceiling and, luckily, not too close to the background).
As my client confessed, last time she was at a professional shoot, they were still using just film, so being able to tether images from my camera onto a big screen definitely did the “impress the client” part. What? Someone uses it for purposes other than impressing clients? Fools.
Seriously, however, this feature definitely helps in identifying smaller imperfections that might not be noticed on camera’s LCD and fixing them as you go versus spending (honestly:wasting) post-production time. My strategy in this respect is pretty simple: if I know how to fix something on the set, and do it reasonably quickly, I’d rather do it then, instead of wasting my time later getting rid of mistakes that are easily solved during the production. Don’t get me wrong, I am pretty good pals with Photoshop for some serious retouching, but why on earth would I consciously degrade myself as a photographer in the first place?
Enough of the banter, I know you are all dying to see those fabulous pictures of the sterile gloves and sleeves. You have never seen them before. Well, not at this level of the quality, right?
(Sometimes I fear that people who don’t know me well may take it at face value. Oh well… This stuff is diarrhetic by nature, so I can’t stop)
Drum roll, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you GammaSupplies Gloves:
Pretty, right?
Some of the challenges of note: white glove/sleeve on white background = tough, but we managed! It’s called mad skills.
Next - correct positioning of the arm in the air: suspended by the fishing line is great, but who said it’s going to be turned facing the camera correctly? Solved by tilting the arm at the thick end/shoulder to prevent from turning.
Another one - wrinkles! Rubber wrinkles. Especially when it has been sitting in a USP box squished with other gloves. We blew some hot air from the hairdryer through it, solving the issue to a degree. However, the client was also insistent that some of the softer wrinkles remain as to showcase the softness of the rubber that the gloves and sleeves are made of, which is important, if this is an asset in the industry. This was left over for post-production time, and, when I was working on that, it actually reminded me of retouching portraits. I strongly distaste the plastic-y look of completely de-wrinkled, smoothed out photoshop face. Ew. Same method (enhancing natural features, subduing the imperfections and highlighting the good-looking aspects) was applied to post-production of the gloves, keeping in mind that the client did not want an entirely wrinkle-free image of the product.
 OH HAI, BEAUTIFUL! This beauty right here posed another set of challenges to yours truly, besides the very obvious whiteness. The sleeve was much wider and longer than the previous gloves, which resulted in generally sad look and droopiness at the wide end. We made a few awkward attempts at trying to manipulate the inflexible mannequin arm, and decided to use a live arm (my client’s) instead. She cheerfully stepped into the role and turned out to be perfect at modeling. This solution definitely meant post-production (photoshopping out the rest of the arm and shoulder sticking out of the sleeve, and also getting rid of the arm lines seen through the translucent sleeve material), but luckily we only had two of those products. A contributing factor was that our whole photoshoot (eight products) took under two hours, which to me translated into not really stepping on my toes with a bit of extra post-production with those two products.
All in all, the client raved about the finals, which I delivered the following day, since they were needed somewhat urgently…As a matter of fact, let me quote her (an email I got from the web-designer who referenced her to me):
“natalia was terrific to work with thanks so much for the recommendation. she was fast, professional, quick to grasp the important subtleties of the product and a great on-the-spot problem solver.”
YAAAAY! Music to my ears.
While we are on the subject of bragging, let me show you a few other product shots I took at the studio, at various times. Here’s one of High and Mighty Beer, gathered together for a glorious group shot.
 a very happy bunch and a little closer look at the bubbles that happen when pouring:
 Bubbles! To finish this exciting post on an even more exciting note, here’s a studio shot of my cycling commuter glasses. They cover exactly half of my face, and I like the “pose” of my subject there. There is nothing more that I can offer to say today.
 cycling commuter glasses - proper and righteous  uber creative composition! Hopefully, next time I’l have something actually smart, funny, and informative to say!
Cheerios,
TR
Wednesday, Feb 29th, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Assignment, Pedal Power Photography | Tags: assignment photography, bicycle framebuilding, bicycle photography, environmental portrait photography, event photography, facility photography, Firefly Bicycles, framebuilders photos, natalia boltukhova photography, Parlee Cycles, Pedal Power Photography, Peloton Magazine, photography, Seven Cycles
Hi!
Back in October, when cyclocross started to take over my news feed, Peloton Magazine contacted me to hand off an important mission: photograph a few of the most prominent framebuilders in New England. Sweet!! That’s exciting! Originally the hopes were to get 7 of them in front of the lens, but with the time frame (one week) this soon proved to be impossible, so we settled on just three - but what three!
I’ll go in the order I’ve visited the shops:
Firefly Bicycles (also, Tyler is my landlord and I really want to keep living in this awesome house).
I have been to their location before, once at their official opening party, and, second time, to borrow a wicked big pair of compasses for a project, so I had a clue or two about the image I wanted to produce. The big animal sculls on the walls definitely steered me in the direction of “wild wild west”, with some “badass” and “cool” flavor to it, all in all linking back to the art of bicycle building.
 They are that cool. And badass. Yes. If you order a bike with them, they may even smile. Being still a very new shop, albeit run by seasoned industry pros, Firefly crew is constantly reinventing, redesigning, and generally moving in all three dimensions of the bicycle framebuilding.
 Precision designing and adjusting. Talk about measure twice, cut once! It’s only three of them: Tyler, Jamie, and Kevin (the latter wasn’t there on the photo day), so the work is often shared across the board even though each of them definitely have specialties in which they would easily qualify as magicians.
 Firefly's Magician Jamie at work. Technically speaking, I normally try not to post two similar photos, especially of the same subject, but the light in the above one is so magical, I would feel like I’m ripping myself off by not including it. Of course once I took this shot and felt all biggity about it (look at the light! and the outside ambient light coming through the garage door opening!), Jamey whipped out his pink respiratory mask… Now how do you resist that? You don’t.
 Pink respiratory mask is essential to the magic performed by hands. The below very geometrical composition is so descriptive, in my opinion, of someone who is a designer/constructor/builder by nature. And Tyler is exactly that, to me.
 Innovativeness and careful execution of new designs has become Firefly's trademark What I have never associated Tyler with is modeling which I think he has proven me wrong at:
 This is Tyler's personal totem. If not for the size he'd probably wear it as a necklace.
Seriously, he was a perfect model! Executed exactly what he was asked to, up to the very look in the eyes. Tyler, if you ever decide to add a little modeling career on the side, and need a recommendation, you’ve got it.
In our closing arrangement at Firefly’s own mini photo-studio, Jamey was just as awesome, and I was definitely grateful for the availability of studio lights and modifiers that Firefly had invested in pretty much at the same time they got their first machine. Smart move if you ask me.
Smart, badass, and cool. Can it be any better? Probably, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see what future Firefly will have to show off.
Unlike my connection with Firefly, about Parlee I only knew from looking at their bicycles and a few story bits here and there from teammates that used to work there. When I arrived at the Parlee Cycles headquarters in Beverly, MA, I knew I would have to come up with the idea(s) for the photos pretty quickly. allow me a small lyrical digression here.
It is pretty curious that most people who don’t photograph professionally, may not even realize how much goes into a good non-studio photograph. Forget the composition, the light, background difficulties, etc. When a photographer comes to shoot an assignment, an environmental portrait in particular, it has to have a plot, a story. It is one thing when you are working with a familiar environment and a totally different situation when you are thrown into something completely new. You know the general subject and who your subject is, but what’s available in the environment to tell their story is not always going to be “cooperative”. With Firefly the “story” was already in my head, I just had to deal with the technicalities of telling it, whereas at Parlee Cycles I am trying to weave the story while frantically setting the lights up and moving them around as I go. Meanwhile, the “candid” phase of work is going at a very candid pace, which means that if your subject is very good at what they do, the time to capture that perfect shot is exponentially decreasing.
Here are a few of the examples of the “candid” photos that I took (and you’ll be able to notice, there is big window light and remote lights set up and moved around, if you watch light/shadow carefully).
 Carbon work at Parlee: fast and efficient The real beauty was to watch Bob Parlee do the work on the fork: focused, concentrated, yet seemingly relaxed and very calm, reminded me of a fine woodworker. At one point I caught myself wanting to put the camera down and just watch there, unnoticed.
The natural lighting at Parlee space, plus the train tracks right outside (literally two feet from the shop), put me in “No Country For Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” mood, stylistically speaking. This I will again return to in composing Bob’s portrait.
 Bob Parlee at work And here’s the perfect example of how your story line depends on what’s the environment got to offer. There is table football in the middle of the shop - of course I am going to use it!! Such a candy. And there is your story: bicycles we have hung on the rack behind Bob, windows showing a peak of outside environment, and this table football/game table. What is business if not a game and what is this pose that Bob is holding, leaning ever so slightly onto the table if not inviting you to take up the challenge if you dare? My storytelling is done at this point, what you pick up at is up to you, and your end or beginning of the story.
Here’s a closer look at Bob Parlee for those of you who don’t see him often. If this face doesn’t speak “persona” to you, I don’t know what does.
My history with Seven began with shooting for Matt Roy and Maureen Bruno-Roy (collectively known as MMRacing). I hopped on their Crew list for a couple of Matt’s Ultra Endurance races and record attempts, and since Seven sponsored both of them, the photos were used by both Seven and Ride Studio Cafe (a joint venture between Rob Vandermark and Bloc 11 and Diesel’s owner Jennifer Park). Later Rob hired Pedal Power Photography to do some specific photographs for the 2012 Seven Cycles brochure as well, so I’d say this is as up close and personal as it gets in business relationships.
When I came in on the photo day, my designated guide was Matt O’Keefe, who I know from past bicycle-related events and MMRacing awesome parties, and from photography circles as well. Matt and his wife Susi (Susan Margot Ecker) both work with black and white photography, still regularly shooting film, which is rare. All of this is to prepare you that you will see a lot of Matt in the pictures to follow 
Seven is very well known for their design work, and ability to successfully work with weirdest and toughest requests. No wonder that some parts of their shop would feel like a science R&D lab, complete with bunny suits and safety goggles.
 A slight resemblance with a science lab, no? Both Rob and Matt treat bicycle framebuilding much like a science, and are very serious about precision and adherence to specifications.
 Rob and Matt talk it through before sending the frame to finishing. And this is just a cool, through-the-frame shot.
 Rob double checks frame's specs 
For the portrait shot, since my time was practically unlimited at Seven and Rob was so accommodating with his availability, I allowed myself to just explore the different spaces at their shop, including their own photo studio, managed by Skunk (another person I have known long before and was excited to see working at Seven!) and finally settled on the background of many Seven frames that apparently were all the prototypes ever made by Seven since Day 1.
 Rob Vandermark against the backdrop of every Seven prototype made since the inception (the wall obviously extends to the left and right) Another big props I have got to give to Seven is that they are so damn loyal (and so as a matter of fact about it) that it gives me hope for more businesses with a human attitude.
To conclude this long-winded bladibla, here are some photos of the article in October 2011 issue of Peloton with the photos that ended up being published.
 In print Hope you enjoyed and see you next time!
N
Wednesday, Feb 22nd, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Pedal Power Photography
Hillo there!
By virtue of bicycle racing photography I have photographed a handful of cycling weddings. I got to say, those tend to be the most fun-loving, laid-back, friendly, smile-inducing ones. Ones, where by the end of the night the bride and groom rip the camera out of your hands and get you drunk. OK, so maybe it didn’t happen exactly so, but, close. Besides, I am totally expecting it to culminate to that point at the upcoming wedding of Ms.Roz and Mr.Greg. Both exceptionally wonderful, cheerful, and super energetic people.
 Blood and Smiles! Yep, just so! See the energy I am talking about? How can anything she does be not fun??
Here are a few sneak peaks into the engagement shoot we did this past fall.
With Roz being an avid mountain biker and national champion (twice!) in downhill racing, and Greg enjoying shredding it in the woods just the same, not to mention their beautiful beautiful dog Boston, the woods were the first answer that came to mind for location. Not just any woods. Lynn is known to mountain bikers for its versatility that offers both cross-country, “hardtail” trails and freestyle, boulder-jumping, bmx-tracking, tree-stomping fun.
 Tree-stompin' Love: that's how you get engaged Roz'n'Greg style Yep, they just happened to have their cyclocross bicycles with them. You know, just in case.
 Greg gently helps Roz to get off the photo-set I love moments like this: if this doesn’t scream love and support at you, I dunno…go check with a doctor or something…
 When The Trees Were Big Cyclists make real good snugglers! Next time you see one, try it for yourself!
 Fluffy Clouds and Blue Water! Sometimes accidental appearances in the background play out so nicely into the framing! Notice a couple of people on the next cliff over - makes it a little bit surreal, just a dash of Dali (colors remind me of his palette too).
At a certain point I unhooked my enamored subjects from the leash and let them play around…which yet again they performed brilliantly…
 Synchronicity in All  Aim! And that’s how energetic people rest:
And no, normally “rest” doesn’t mean that they spoon on the beach gravel wrapped in colorful scarves, but it served well for conveying their bright bursting energy, emotion, and warm undercurrent supporting their relationship. IMHO, of course.
 And that's how Roz and Greg argue - with smiles all over their faces! 
 Always Forward, Always Ahead!! Needless to say, I had as much fun as Roz and greg seem to be having in the pictures, and I can’t wait for the wedding!!
And that - is that.
Till next time,
N
Tuesday, Feb 14th, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Black and White
This photoshoot I did a few months ago at a small restaurant on Mass Ave at Marlborough St, called Cafe 47. The new website which uses my photos was built by this awesome small graphic design firm - Bending Brick Studios.
It is a cozy set up with intimate lighting, bare brick walls, dark wood, mirror lining atop side walls has clever food-related quotes which allow you to study surrounders (yep, I just made this word up, bite me) without appearing creepy. But I digress.
This very set up that I would have liked, or even loved, as a customer, presents some serious challenges for food photography. The best light ever for food is good hearty natural light coming through the big windows, plus some sort of diffuser. Can’t top that. And now here I am, at a place with tiny windows and at 7pm, with the Sun heading toward the other side of the globe. I brought a monolight with a bog softbox, reflector/white background and a couple of strobes.
Having shot a few photos with the industry standard “Jesus-Loves-You” light-through white background, I quickly got bored and turned 180. Oh, look at that awesome brick wall. Love brick. Plus, when you shoot pizza and pasta, all things rustic play to the advantage of the photo, n’est-ce pas? Oui-oui. Allons-y, mes amis!
 Pizza Margherita It was important for me to keep the lighting of the pizza the same (or very similar) to the one you get with the typical white background, but get the crust a little warmer, and not blow out the brick in the background.
And who doesn’t love the “from the top” shots of pizza? Once again, the rustic nature of the table plays nicely into the theme.
 Pizza Margherita, nice and round. When I shoot something of this shape and size, I prefer not to include all of it in the frame, too boring! Including most part of it still conveys the idea of its actual shape while also letting your eye rest on the other space: table, scratches, plate.
Biggest challenge with the below photo was not to resist the overwhelming urge to eat those little buddies.
 Meatballs Crostini Obviously, I succeeded. In postproduction, however, I did have to play with the color a bit, simply because there was so much red in the original file (the brick, the meatballs, the sauce, the hot strobes), that it was just too much.
After photographing a very appetizing pasta dish (below), which presented its own challenges with very white cheese being placed on top (read: you either end up with no cheese at all and an evenly lit rest of the dish, or you’ve got good-lookin’ cheese atop of a very dark plate of something; after re-arranging my main light a bit and turning the plate a few times, I found the acceptable combo which had both cheese and pasta evenly lit), we moved on to drinks.
 Pasta Now, I get pretty excited when I get to photograph drinks (expect a post soon on photographing a few beers for High and Mighty), however, when it’s done on location vs studio set-up…. reflections is the biggest challenge. After prancing around and playing with angles and reflectors (and getting a couple of shots that were pretty good without further post-production to eliminate unnecessary reflections), I shot from atop. And ahoy - not bad!
 Sangria and White Wine My softbox moved all the way to the left thus creating a nice light similar to the sun coming through the window in the morning. A strobe to the right and behind the drinks, and a reflector to my right, slightly in front of the drinks.
Next task - get a few interior shots, and away we go:
 Cafe47 Feast To remind you again, the restaurant leans toward a very intimate lighting, so for this shot I was operating with two strobes (one to light the table right at the front of the frame, another to light people at the bar, behind the table), and camera set to high ISO, low speed and medium aperture (5.6 or so) - to get the interior around and the kitchen window.
Some of you might be pleased to hear that all the equipment needed for this photoshoot was pedaled over in a bicycle trailer! (given the short distance from my studio it would have been a shame not to)
Cheers!
TR
Howdy.
Following up on the New Year’s resolution (which I had reflected upon in my previous post) to keep up with regular updates to this very blog, here’s another post. This time it is about an assignment from Stuff Magazine.
A few months ago Stuff has commissioned me to photodocument the hiding of a 20 dollar bill. Now how does that sound? Awesome.
Let me shed a bit of light on this. These guys here, by the name of Rich (occupation: psychiatrist) and Steve (occupation: lawyer) had an odd idea come to their minds at a casino: “What would happen if they stashed $20 in a different spot every day and announced where it was? Who would care? How far would people go to grab it? Could money be raised or made by giving it away?” (this has been creatively copy-pasted by me from their own website).
We met up in Boston Common, with Steve showing up a few minutes before Rich. We made some small talk and cracked some ice while I was unpacking my gear from the backpack. To outdoors shoots like this I usually bring 3 lenses: a long zoom, a wide zoom and a normal prime. A couple of strobes, just in case. Better not need it in the end than regretting you left it out.
Rich walked up leisurely biting on an apple. Now, I might be a bit paranoid by nature but I am highly suspicious of psychiatrists, especially when they are doing anything that can be metaphorical which is when I start to question how on purpose they are doing it. But then again, sometimes, banana is just a banana. Even when it’s an apple. Enough with the crazy talk, however. Let’s get to the pictures and challenges.
I was happy to have an overcast sky (=diffused light vs burnt shadows and blown out highlights), although these conditions often leave me wondering where my “natural light bulb” is exactly, you know, when it’s so cloudy that no shadows are cast and the light is diffused that you can’t really tell by looking up here the sun is. That’s when I virtually patted myself on the back for bringing strobes. Go me.
Apple consuming aside, Rich turned out to be a great idea generator. After a few warm-up shots, where I had them climb a tree and assault a statue of a little boy:
 Hiding the 20 in the Boston Common ……and climbing up the big one….
 Washington to Keep the Jackson ……Rich did not hesitate to jump straight into the trash bin, without a second thought. Psychiatrists…you don’t say.
 Talk about throwing money away.... I was impressed. But now the game was on and I had to make the next move, and although I knew that it is virtually impossible to beat this trick, I sent the guys over to the other side of the pond to try to hand the money over to the ducks. I stayed on the opposite side and pulled my long one out.
 Total Proof That Money is Poof that has no value in any other reality but human After much fun had by all, especially the ducks, we returned to the Little Boy Statue to reinstate our superior power over it. Again. With a different face expression.
 Hiding Plenty of Twenties I scrolled through all the photos I took and feeling pretty happy about the “footage”, set the guys free to actually hide the bill. Where exactly you may find out here: http://www.plentyoftwenties.com/category/pastfinds
When I packed up and set out on my bike, a couple of touristy-looking ladies wondered if I were cycling across the country, the backpack and all… Sweet, naive ladies. Did I lie? Did I blow up their rosy hot air baloon?
And one last question for you:
WHICH ONE DID GET PUBLISHED IN THE STUFF MAGAZINE?
Till next time!
TR
Tuesday, Feb 7th, 2012 by admin |
Filed under: Assignment, Tiny Russian Studio
Hallo [sic].
I haven’t been as diligent about blog posting as a productive artist/photographer should be, but what are you gonna do? I’ll try to be better. Now that I have a bunch of the assignments and projects that have been completed, I have good content for a bit. Now if only I can stay focused…
Here’s how I hope I’ll throw it down for now:
- I’ll keep one blog for both Pedal Power Photography and Tiny Russian Studio; the headline should give you a clue which one I am posting for.
- When posting about assignments or out-of-the-box projects, I’ll try to highlight challenges and how I dealt with them, or any other interesting aspect of photographic process[es] involved.
- I do art too!!! And I’ll post whenever I feel like I’ve got something I am comfortable with sharing publicly.
Short intros rule, so I’ll jump straight to the point with the first posting of the 2012. HOLY SHIT, THAT’S MY FIRST POSTING IN 2012!!!!
Ok. Sorry.
A few weeks ago a fellow business and a neighbor in the building where my studio is at, QRSTs Screenprinting and Embroidery, has asked me to take a few photos of the facilities and the work day in general. Now, Peter Rinnig, the owner, is the nicest guy ever and used to be a professional artist (paintings), so he digs the environment that artists/photographers/creative people need to work in. He left me to my own devices to wander around and do whatever I needed to get the best out of it.
Let’s take a look?
 Step Into QRSTs Factory Ink, Ink, Ink everywhere - my kind of paradise!! I was a little worried, however, that with my affinity for dunking my apparatūs in all sorts of damaging substances, water included, that this paradise may quickly turn into hell. I’ve asked one of the guys at the factory which desk they were not using and that was the farthest from the ink and staining objects, so I can set some of my equipment there. Since my studio is literally next door, it made sense to just put the camera around my neck and grab a couple of lenses in my hands. Given the high risk of getting dust, ink, and/or other by-products, I didn’t mind making another trip to my space to pick up my travel photo bag for extra protection.
 QRSTs Ink - any color!! For the above shot I’ve used two Nikon SB-900 flashes, one pointed up and bouncing off the ceiling (white), the other set up on one of the upper shelves, slightly behind me. Being quite short myself, I’ve used a step stool to get a bit more of the all-around image.
I am convinced that in my past life I lived in Spain and died in a corrida. As a bull. I am draw to all sorts of reds, so no wonder this shot was one of the first I took:
 Rad Kupcakes (sic) Having made a few screen prints myself, I’ve always wondered how they get those ity-bity lines to print… Photo emulsion is the way to go, no doubt, but I haven’t really been successful in getting the tiny lines myself. Here’s the “big secret” revealed (for me at least): high pressure water stream pushing out of a very small nozzle.
 Preparing Screen Prints Now, if we move into the main space, you’ll see one of the guys working with the printing machine. Absolutely everyone who works there is super cool, friendly, and seems to be enjoying their work. This guys in particular did a little dance for me too
 Printin' Tees  Close Up of Printin' Tees In the same big open space there is what looks like one of the big library aisles: rows and stacks of the screens made for the clients over the years, in case they need a re-run. Not sure how long QRST’s keeps old screens for, though, you’d better check that for yourselves
 Screen "Library" To shuffle away from the screen printing, here’s something QRST’s also does: embroidery and digital screen printing. Once you see the digital screen printing machine, if you’ve ever had [an access to] a pro grade photo printer, you’d be exclaiming like me: ” oh this totally makes sense!”
 Digital Printing One mention though, to be able to handle those, you gotta be of a special breed:
 Born to Be Wild YOU GOTTA BE WILD!! The taking of this photo was surrounded by high risk, since this guy is so wild, you’d not want to get him upset….
Below are a few photos from the embroidery lab at QRST’s, and some might be able to tell that I just got a hold of a new macro lens and was enjoying testing it out in the field.
 Embroidery Close Up  Thread “That’s all she wrote” for now!!! See you next time (soon). TR
Thursday, Jun 9th, 2011 by admin |
Filed under: Black and White
when recently tornado danced around massachusetts and even touched down in Springfield, I couldn’t sit still. Packed my gear, got kitted up, jumped on my bike and headed toward where our date was going to be. But just as with many of them, the harder you chase, the faster they run. At least I got the aftermath sky. I say worth it. And I am not giving up on that date either. It’ll happen.
Friday, Apr 29th, 2011 by admin |
Filed under: Black and White
Photo was taken at one of Working Man’s Stage Race stages. All this drama with the dust cloud and rough road and silence of the cars parked nearby…and a bike riding a car.
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