I guess imitation is the biggest form of flattery, so along those lines I’ve been trying to replicate the crazy look of Tim Tadder, who is my photographic hero. He is an absolute lighting master, and I think the best in the business when it come to edgy, modern outdoor commercial work. If you haven’t heard of him, check out his site. One of my favorite advertising shots of all time is his image a swimmer at the edge of a lake, shot from behind, pulling on her swim cap. See it here. It’s so beyond rad there’s not even a word for it.

Tim’s a super nice guy and really gave me some encouraging words and good advice when I went out on my own and started shooting full time, but he wouldn’t tell me how he got his look! So ever since, I’ve been trying to reverse engineer not only his lighting setup, but his post processing workflow in Photoshop. The other night I was messing around in the living room and I created the closest replicate yet. Not as good, but not too shabby either. I think you have to have the lighting just right in order to actually do the Photoshop work, which was a whole different story.

The subject? Sorry! I know this is sad, but nobody was around! It’s a self-portrait of yours truly.

I can’t really detail this too much right now, since this project isn’t completed yet, but I’m too excited NOT to say anything. To be super super super brief, I’m helping to illustrate a book on eco living and eco weddings by Angelica Weihs, a green wedding planner in Los Angeles. Here’s a note the author wrote to one of my couples:

Hi,
I got your contact from your amazing photographer Nathan. I am writing a book describing the path of an green wedding and portraying couples who have experienced them and the professionals who have helped them to manifest their vision. It is a lifestyle book, re-defining luxury as the chance to live consciously. I saw your inspiring pictures and would love to tell your story.

Look for an updated blog post in the coming months! Here’s an extremely abbreviated synopsis from one of my couples:

We used local indigenous flowers, conch shells, local palm trees as aisle markers, green transportation for the bride (a horse!), electric powered golf carts, local Bahamian food, etc. We have lots to say about out adventures in scouting out a sacred place, the elements(fire, earth, air, water), etc. Simplicity was our goal: we wanted our wedding to reflect the way we live our lives. Organic, healthy, earthy, conscious, etc. Bring it on!

I’m so psyched, honored and thrilled to be a part of this project. More later, stay tuned, I’m so bad at keeping secrets!

Took a break from designing some stuff and took a picture.

What is he saying?

Here’s a cool little project I got to work on the other day. Sona Dimidjian, a psych professor at CU Boulder, is doing research into how yoga helps pregnant women avoid postpartum depression, which apparently 10 to 15 percent of new mothers experience. That’s a surprisingly large number! As part of a community outreach program, Sona asked me if I’d be willing to photograph a pregnant yoga instructor doing a series of poses, with the end goal of publishing the photos into a poster and an e-book. She is also considering making a small bound book to give to them women who are taking part in her clinical study.

I figured this was a really awesome opportunity to help people out, so I cruised down to Boulder a few days ago and we did the shoot in Sona’s living room. Huge props to our instructor — I have no idea how she does it! Her baby’s going to be a yoga master! The shots for the poster were more for illustration than anything else, but I did snag a few nice candids of our model and her son. I’ll try to put up a link to the finished product when the whole project is done, since it promises to be really cool!

It’s been a while! Just a short note saying ‘check out the new web site’ for those out there with an RSS feed or who subscribe to this blog. It’s a sweet looking site! Click here to visit.

More updates coming soon, promise, it’s been a hectic winter. Spent a week in Florida photographing horses, revamped the office with all sorts of technonerdy stuff (new computer, w00t!), photographed a pregnant yogini for an outreach program on how yoga can help prevent post-partum depression!

Word up!