Months ago, I sat down with my fellow ELK Collective cohort, Ms Erin Cry, to whom I’m also somewhat of a life coach for reasons unknown, and we discussed fun concepts with which to entertain ourselves.  As conversation continued, and as concepts began to amalgamate, we found ourselves diving deeper and deeper into morbid, soul scaring territory.  I blame the drinking.

Luckily for us, earlier on in the evening, we discussed ideas centered around obsessive tendencies.  If I remember correctly (and largely going off of what I assume my chicken scratches/”notes” translate to), crazy cat lady,  secret identity and leopard rocker turned into what you see before you.  C’mon in to see more.

I love throwing together conceptual shoots with friends.  It helps to have friends that are, much like myself, slightly on the wrong side of normal.  Makes it more fun, that is for sure.

Our setups were straight forward.  For one, while seated at the table, we had four lights, a couple cats, fake food and a whole lotta leopard print.  The other, with Rebecca against the wall, we basically removed the background light and kept the ratios the same with sidelight and a key light above the camera and on axis.  It is a pretty flat lighting setup which was a bit of a gamble, but the goal was to have the elements that were not leopard print, provide the contrast and visual intrigue after your eyes recover from the bombardment of the leopard.

Erin handled the styling, hair and makeup and our lovely model Rebecca made the rest pretty darn easy.  We were joined by Wayne and, as seen above his brother in fun, Garth (you should follow them on Instagram here).  Here are my lighting setups for the shots:

My key light was a Canon 580EXII through a homemade 4″ x 6″ diffusion box (matte board and white diffusion fabric) fit over the front with two Alien Bee 800’s through soft boxes on either side as my fill.  For the 4 light setup, another 580EXII filled in.

All fun and games, especially when getting to hang out with cool gals.  Stay tuned for another collaborative shoot with Erin and Rebecca where we actually shot for an awesome Portland jewelry maker.

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Happy shooting everyone and thanks as always for the read,

Tyson