When I stumbled across an old skeleton of a cow, whitened by age, I felt lucky. Especially when I realized it would make a great top. Like an ancient exoskeleton, it was perfect. Caitlyn tried it on for a little test shot of sorts and I put the bone in the back of my car… knowing it could still be used for something useful.
Weeks passed and it was still in the back of my car, until this past Saturday when I was trying to fit a bike in the back I had to take the bone out (temporarily) and set it on the sidewalk in front of Decades, a vintage clothing store in Salt Lake.
Hours later I realized I had left it there. I laughed about it with some friends and we hoped someone would make a funny joke of out it at least. I just had no idea I’d get to hear about the joke!
Not too long after a photo appeared on facebook, with a white bone that was eerily similar. The photo was of my buddy Dave Brewer perfectly posing for a spot on spoof.
I chuckled. It was perfect. I shook my head in wonder about how he pulled it off… how long would you even have to search to find a bone like that???
Turns out not very long, he was on a leisurely stroll when he noticed something in the dumpster behind Decades…
Of course he’s the type of guy that instantly took off his shirt and posed for a picture.
Sometimes the Universe is just too kind! Well done Dave and Sam and Caitlyn!
Photo Credits
Left Photo by Jake Garn, model is Caitlyn Christensen
Years ago Katherine and I used to shoot in downtown Salt Lake City almost weekly and last week we decided to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane and do it again. All natural light, just me, my camera and Katherine.
I usually don’t shoot on-location in Salt Lake City anymore, just too many people around… This time we went almost 6 full minutes without some guy yelling something moronic out the window of his truck. Three dudes, the guy in the back seat yells, “Nice ass!” as they drive by.
Sure, I was flattered, especially since I don’t even work out, but seriously, why is it that the majority of such shout-outs come from a group of dudes in a pickup truck with big tires?
An hour or so later we found this business down an isolated street and I just loved the peeling paint over metal and asked Katherine to stand in front, then I asked her to pull her pants down.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because it’s going to make a sweet picture,” I responded.
“But there’s a guy…”
Which was true, a delivery driver pulled up and was starting to unload his truck right around the corner… he couldn’t see us and even if he could it’s not like Katherine was exposing anything, she still had a dress on that could easily be worn without pants altogether… but Katherine is a girl, and she has experienced enough of the shout-outs from guys in big trucks to be suspicious of all guys she doesn’t know… and all I wanted to do was to make a cool picture.
The moral of this story? Not really sure, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with a reminder that if you happen to be one of the people yelling stuff at girls as you drive by you should know something, nobody is impressed.
(EDIT 4/2/11 – I updated this with a new HD video, much better than before)
The secret is this. Fall in love often and recklessly. Fall in love with your camera, fall in love with natural light, fall in love with the Elinchrom Octa, fall in love with your film but most of all… fall in love with your muse. Rinse and repeat for years, maybe even a decade.
I’ve been thinking a lot about muses lately. Muse is defined as “the source of an artist’s inspiration” which means it could be just about anything. I think models have always been a huge source of inspiration, historically and personally. For me being a muse is more than just beauty, more than just being talented, and more than being able to help create amazing images. A muse needs to make me struggle, to suffer, to really, really feel things I don’t want to feel.
The best of friends in life are the ones that push you the most I think, and by that same token the best muses for my photography have been models that made me work harder. Emotionally and artistically. I’ve had dozens of favorite models over the years but there are only a handful that have transcended to a muse.
Katherine Franco
My first muse, we met in 2001 – almost ten years ago. I met Katherine before I knew much of anything about photography, all I knew was I was interested in it and I wanted to know more. Over the years we have yelled at each other, she has made me cry, I’m sure I’ve made her cry, we’ve gone months without speaking, we’ve been on road trips, we’ve laughed until we were out of breath, we’ve talked for hours about boys, girls, love, life, pain and most of all I’ve tried to convince Katherine (over and over) that she is as close to perfect as anyone ever needs to be.
All the while my photography evolved (and for some years revolved) around her.
I’ve known Katherine longer than I’ve known my wife. She has always been a friend, never a potential girlfriend (even when we were both single) and that is important I think, at least for me. One of my favorite things about our relationship is the proof that you can be close to someone without letting it get complicated with… well, you know. Heather Hankins left a comment on my facebook page that perfectly describes this, “The inspiration from a muse transcends the natural instinct of sexual expression.” So well said.
If you want to become a better photographer and a better person, find a muse and shoot. I shoot a lot of people, and I’m always looking for my next 10 year model… but they’d have a lot to live up to because I absolutely love this one.
The greatest hits of the last ten years with my original muse. You’ll notice her change and my photography style change… over and over. This is important too.
Music courtesy of the INSANELY talented group Mountain Hymns. Listen to them for free at http://soundcloud.com/mountainhymns – by the way, the singer is also my cousin, Seaver Yates, of Farmington, Utah. He’s a pretty cool guy, but he sure bugs me about giving him a free steak a lot…
Anyone following my work lately knows this story, but for those that don’t here’s a quick recap.
I was going to lunch with my good friend Ryan Muirhead (find his photos on facebook) when we both spotted Brynlee at nearly the same instant.
To be frank, we were stunned. Brynlee had one of those perfectly exotic faces that photographers dream about. Ryan and I rounded the corner and both just stopped, he said these exact words, “You’re going to take care of that right?”
I just nodded…
Approaching random girls is a delicate art, one that requires tact and class… it’s best if you have a business card then you could just hand it over and immediately you come across as professional. I haven’t updated my business card design in years and years but it’s still pretty cool.
I, however, never have business cards with me. Ever. If you want my business card you’re going to have to come to my house where I keep the box of 1,000 cards… otherwise sorry. Before you judge me you should keep in mind photography isn’t my profession, so I usually have bigger fish to fry.
So I opted for the extraordinarily professional note left on the back of a contest-entry form (which was on the counter next to the register). It actually took a couple drafts… the first one I wrote with the tiny golf-scoring pencil that was next to the entry box and it was completely smudged by the time I finished.
So I went to my car, rustled around for a pen, came back and re-wrote the note. This time it was a masterpiece. She emailed me a few days later and the rest is history, Brynlee has definitely become one of my favorites to work with!
Well, this week she came around for another shoot, this time bearing some nostalgia. Ahhhh… there’s even a little pin-hole from hanging on her wall!
For once in my entire life I’m glad I took Ryan’s advice and pulled into Taco Time for a random Saturday lunch!
I can’t decide on which image I like best – in fact I love each of them for completely different reasons… so I’m going to leave it up to you, my blog readers. ONE of these images will make it into my portfolio. I love the idea just too much for it not to end up there, but the question is which one is best?
Black & White
Antique Green
Vivid Color
Leave a comment and tell me your vote. If you have a good reason for your choice feel free to let me know because I’d love to hear it!
All of the post processing was done in Adobe Lightroom using custom presets I created myself.
Here is the official “Behind the Scenes” video of the Steezy Marie campaign photoshoot. Courtesy of Marker!
Video & Editing: John Paul Studios
Creative Director: Jim Whitney of Whitney Advertising
Starring (in no particular order)
Hair: Steven Robertson
Makeup: Paula Dahlberg
Wardrobe: Michelle Boucher
Models: Shelby Boven, Madeline Villano, Ryan Muirhead, Steven Wood, Lauren Johnson
Photographer: Jake Garn
Photo Assistants: Ryan Muirhead, Steven Wood, Dave Brewer
Photo Intern: Alyssa Vincent
Mr. Muirhead’s Assistan: Braxton Duncan
Creative Directors: Jim Whitney and Robin Whitney
As part of The Hive gallery’s fashion month we did a live shoot at the mall (during open hours) for the public to come watch! It was tons of work, tons of fun and we had a great turn out of spectators! Here is a behind the scenes look with lighting diagrams (click them for a full size view) and video which will give you some real life peeks at how everything was set up! Enjoy!
As part of The Hive gallery’s fashion month we did a live shoot at the mall (during open hours) for the public to come watch! It was tons of work, tons of fun and we had a great turn out of spectators! Here is a behind the scenes look with lighting diagrams (click them for a full size view) and video which will give you some real life peeks at how everything was set up! Enjoy!
We shot these in November, and for those of you that aren’t familiar with the Salt Lake City area in November I’ll spell it out for you, it’s not warm. Which meant we needed a heated pool or a plane ride out of Utah. The heated pool sounded cheaper.
We planned to travel south to St. George, Utah; an hour-and-a-half north of Vegas, which is close enough to taste yet far enough that you don’t get that Vegas after-taste, in other words a perfect place for this photoshoot.
Coordinating the nearly dozen people required for a shoot like this is hard enough, now try coordinating a 400 mile road trip on top of that. Yikes! So some of the details got put off to the last minute, one of those was the state of the pool’s heater, which we found out was broken about 24-hours before travel time. After finding out that a timely repair wasn’t possible we immediately decided that a high of 54 degrees Fahrenheit in St. George’s November was not nearly warm enough for any kind of un-heated pool activities. St. George’s November? Sounds like a Guns N’ Roses song. Hey GnR – loved you in the nineties by the way!
So there we were, no pool and lots of people scheduled for a pretty major project that required a pool (no, you cannot fake water in photoshop realistically – in case you were wondering). After about an hour of panicked phone calls to everyone that was important to the shoot I realized something… hotels have heated pools and we have lots of hotels in my hometown. So I called the manager of the Layton Comfort Inn to ask him some questions about their indoor pool. The main question being, “Hey, after you close your pool tonight can I bring a model in there and do a test shoot?”
“Yes,” was his response. Matt, the manager, and I go way back by the way.
Now I just had to find a model that was available with nearly zero notice at 8:30PM on a Thursday night, a Thursday night dominated by a cold November Rain no less.
If you are not familiar with the process of finding a last minute model let me tell you how it works. You get your iPhone (which is the most amazing device ever invented, and if you disagree then you probably don’t have one) and start a new text message, then you add between 3 and 7 girls to send the message to.
“Why not text just one girl and wait for her to respond?” you ask?
I’ve become an expert in girl behavior and here is how it works, if a girl is busy they don’t generally actually say so, they just read the text message and keep doing whatever it is they were doing when they got the message – thinking in their brain that they’ll respond later. Later usually means, “Hey, sorry I missed your text yesterday, what’s up?”
So I text multiple girls and if multiple girls say yes all but one of them is encouraged to “Answer quicker next time!”
Here’s a quirky little secret though, since there is a limit to how many girls I text I usually don’t go too far into my contact list before stopping… if you are smart then you may have noticed where this is going – girls with a first name that starts with a letter that is early in the alphabet tend to get more text messages about last minute shoots. So, if you are Zooey Deschanel and you’re wondering why I haven’t called lately now you know. Hey Zooey – loved you in Almost Famous by the way!
Christie Iba
Christie is not only absolutely stunning but she is also blessed with a name that starts with C and a text-response rate of less than 2 minutes, which is solidly above average! Christie had a problem though, “Can I call in you like 5 minutes?” she queried.
Fast forward five minutes. “Ok, I can come, where do you want me to meet? What should I bring?”
“My house, swimming suit.”
“A swimming suit?”
“Oh ya, we’re going to be shooting in a pool.” –Editorial note, I don’t like writing long text messages… so generally girls may not know exactlywhat they’ve agreed to!
I pack up my gear just as she arrives and we head over to the hotel, as we pull up to the brightly lit entry way I suddenly hope that none my neighbors drive by and see me pulling up to a hotel at 10PM with a beautiful girl that is not my wife… which leads me to a very funny story about my neighbors…
Unrelated Story about Jake Garn’s Retired Neighbors
Across the street from me is the nicest couple in the history of mankind, they are so nice that if I forget to take my garbage can to the curb on garbage day they actually do it for me. Seriously nice.
One day, about a year before my wife and I got married my neighbor stopped me at the mailbox and she asked me, “So, I see a lot of cars over here with lots of pretty girls and we were wondering, is the girl with the red car your main girlfriend?” So I had to explain that Jenny (my now wife) was my only girlfriend, all the other girls are models that I photograph.”
“Ooooohhhh, I see,” she said, “Well my husband is going to be sorry to hear that, he was pretty impressed with you.”
100% true.
Back to Christie Iba
I unload my Elinchrom 600RX Monolight with a Large Photoflex Softbox and put it right to the edge of the pool, as Chrsitie jumped in and got her hair wet… the pool was perfectly warm, the room looked great and this looked like it could work! The shot? Well it looked fabulous with the flash falling off perfectly across the water obscuring the other side of the pool into darkness.
I started calling everyone to let them know that our carefully planned road-trip was now a half-hazardly planned all-nighter. An epic all-nighter.
Stay Tuned for Part II of the story, where we actually shoot!
This is a lot of detail, if you just want the fun stuff then skip to the end watch the video and see the images. I won’t be offended!
The Idea is Born
Early February 2010
“Where do you get your ideas?” is probably the most common question I get, and the answer is… it depends. In this particular case the idea was born over a turkey sandwich at Trolley Square Mall, I was meeting with Emily Edmunds (owner of The Hive Gallery) about a fashion photography hanging in June and we got to talking about her newly opened gallery and the plans she had in mind. That’s when she mentioned doing a show about the artistry of cakes in April and she shared her dilemma with me, there would be cakes on display but you can’t really hang them on the walls… what do you put on the walls at a cake show?
To me the answer to this question couldn’t be easier, give me a whole bunch of cakes and I’ll have something to put on the walls. With opening night almost a full 2 months away I figure I have plenty of time to plan something amazing.
Pre-shoot Planning
March 22nd – 23rd, 2010
I don’t like to think of myself as a procrastinator, but let’s face it, when you have a to-do list averaging 10 projects long things more than two weeks away tend to get pushed to the back of your mind. Then it’s less than one week away and you realize something, this project is in SERIOUS need of a promotion to the top of my to-do list!
First things first, I asked how many cakes I’d be getting to use. The answer? Nine cakes with a dozen decorative cupcakes. Had it been 1-3 cakes it would have been an easy one model shoot with a hairstylist and makeup artist…. but nine meant I’d get the opportunity to turn up the volume a bit, so-to-speak.
I decided I wanted six models and three separate styling teams (one person for makeup and one person for hair on each team) plus a fashion designer to provide the wardrobe.
That sounded just about right… even with just several days notice this shouldn’t be a problem at all – one of the advantages of knowing lots of talented people! Even though I knew it wouldn’t be a problem it still takes a lot of coordination to get 12 talented people all in the same place at the same time. Beyond the styling team and the models and the cakes I also needed a couple assistants and wanted a behind the scenes video, so of course I asked the amazing John Paul if he’d like to join us, which leads me to a funny story.
John Paul Is Unimpressed
When you are booking 15+ people for a shoot (in four days) it requires dozens and dozens of phone calls, text messages and emails. It can get mind-boggling to get organized, especially with such a tight deadline, but for some strange reason I LOVE it! The thing is everyone uses a different form of communication more regualarly, so I need to know that this certain model needs to be texted, I can email some of the stylists but if I need an immediate answer on availability then a phone call may be necessary. In order to pull it off it means my descriptions of the shoot tend to be very brief, mainly just confirming availability and giving a general idea of the concept. So I send a quick Facebook message to John Paul (who has made several behind-the-scenes videos for me), since I was online and thinking about it.
…the communication continued over instant chat…
John Paul: What is the shoot for?
Jake Garn: It’s for a gallery show in a couple weeks, they told me they could get a TV and show your behind the scenes video at the opening if you’d like!
John Paul: I’m not sure that would be very interesting to watch, just a video of people standing next to cakes? Unless they just want a simple behind-the-scenes video, I don’t know…
Jake Garn: J.P. I don’t think you understand… I, Jake Garn, am doing a shoot with nine cakes, a dozen cupcakes and six models. If you think those cakes are leaving the set in one piece then you are mistaken.
John Paul: I will be there.
Directing the Styling
March 23rd, 2010
I have an extraordinarily talented group of stylists I work with and we’ve worked together enough that I don’t need to discuss the exact details of the looks I want, generally I just need to give a starting point and let them run with it… that formula has made some amazing things happen! I’ll give you all a sneak peek at the actual email I sent to the styling team while pre-planning the shoot (not all stylists had been confirmed quite yet).
Everyone is Booked!
March 24th, 2010
After dozens of phone calls, emails, and facebook messages everyone is booked. Six models, three hairstylists, three makeup artists, three photo-assistants, one fashion designer, one videographer, all the cakes and the shoot location. It’s at this point that I always send out a confirmation email with details and instructions for everyone, here is the actual email. Notice it is sent just two days prior to the shooting date, when I say I work well under pressure I wasn’t kidding! (also I still didn’t have the name of our final makeup artist)
Day of the Shoot
March 26th, 2010
A big shoot day is always exciting, and in a perfect world everything goes off without a hitch. We do not live in that world, but that comes later.
Early in the week I knew I wanted to make a trip out to Pictureline (our local photo store) to pick up some backdrops, yet the entire week went by without me getting around to it. So in the afternoon I decided to make the 20 minute drive and pick up a backdrop! Well three backdrops and one camera bag later I headed back to my house, loaded the car with gear and headed over to the location.
A big pet-peeve of mine is after sending out clear instructions and an address is receiving phone calls right before the scheduled time about how to get to the location. When more than a dozen people are involved it quickly gets quite chaotic with everyone calling for directions, so after I received the first call I was kind of annoyed, especially since she wasn’t even close to the location and she was lost… then I got the second and third call and they were also stuck in an equally far away location. Which got me concerned.
I double checked google to make sure I had sent the right address, I had. But then I had a thought, I double checked a business card at the reception desk and sure enough – the address in google was WRONG! It wasn’t 1992 East, the actual location was 1992 west. Everyone was 40 blocks away. Crap.
About 45 minutes of phone calls later everyone is either on their way, or at, the correct location. Man that was stressful, and really weird. How does Google have an address wrong?
After that everyone gets to work! Except for me, I don’t really need to do anything for a couple hours, so I go get pizza for everyone. Oh, and if you think that the beautiful, thin girls I shoot are thin because they starve themselves then you’ve obviously never been to one of my shoots! Five pizzas and an order of hot wings later the styling is getting close so I focus my attention on the light and backdrop setup.
The assistants have already unloaded and put together the lighting equipment and backdrop so I let them know which light modifiers I’m using and what the placement will be, then I start hassling the stylists about staying on schedule. This would also be the time I gave direction or suggestions if I wanted something in the styling to look differently but on this occasion everything was looking perfectly whimsical!
Which means it was finally, almost time to shoot… and the shooting is better described without words:
Behind-the-scenes Video by John Paul
And it’s a Wrap!
Richard Hinton was the lucky winner of the Facebook Contest which means he won a print of his choice AND a blog post covering a topic of his choice! What did he choose? Well he wanted a behind the scenes look at the prepping, the shooting, and the wrap of a big production photoshoot. Sir, your request is granted!
