Breaking Football Stereotypes

Today I did a studio assignment for Vox. Last night, when I heard that I was going to have to do studio work, my reaction was 'crap!' I felt like I'd forgotten everything that I'd learned in Advanced Techniques. But once I got into the studio and started doing it, it came back.

So, my assignment was to photograph a football player in a way that breaks the stereo of the dumb jock. I got advice from Josh on how to light it and I came up with the idea of putting Andrew behind a desk with a pile of books and a pyramid of apples on it. And for a little something extra, there would be a pear in the pyramid for the observant.

But, when I got there, I found out that the idea that Andrew had discussed with Beth was just the torso of the athlete, with him holding some books. I ended up adding an apple.

Here's the shots I captioned:







One of the challenges for me was trying to get rid of the shadow that cast by Andrew's hand/arm onto his chest and getting rid of the reflection on the apple of my two lights. None of the pictures chosen were ones where the reflection was gone. (I achieved that by having him bend the apple back slightly.)