Shutter Mike Photography

Life Sciences Building at Glendale Community College in Glendale, AZ.  Gould Evans Associates – Architects

It has been a while, but this is another post in my series featuring the libraries in Phoenix, AZ.  So far I have featured the Burton Barr Central Library, the Cesar Chavez Library in Laveen, the Palo Verde Library in Maryvale, the Scottsdale Civic Center Library and the Arabian Library in Scottsdale.

This post features the Desert Broom Library in far north Phoenix, almost to Cave Creek.  Like the Arabian Library in Scottsdale the Desert Broom was designed by architect richärd + bauer architecture, llc.  The library sits on a desert site with track homes and strip malls encroaching.  But its materials of oxidized steel, glass and stone along with the design allow it to remain distinct and part of the Arizona desert. 

I featured just the bike in yesterday’s motorcycle photo collection post and today’s photo collection is the same bike but with a model featured as well.  I had to travel far out of my comfort zone for this photo shoot. The intimidation factor of shooting a live model, in front of a group, for a grade, with a five minute time limit made for an intense situation.  However, even though I do not see any potential photography career going down the portrait road (at least exclusively), I think it is a very good thing to be forced outside of your comfort zone.  To have the ability to shoot people, models or everyday people, in my back pocket is a good thing.  Plus the lighting and composition skills can be applied to much more than people.  So I started this shoot being adamant about having no interest in shooting people.  But after reviewing and editing my images I think I need to explore this area a bit more.  Architecture photography will always be my first passion, but photography like this can be fun and definitely worth exploring more.

This photo collection is quite a stretch from my usual architecture and nature shots.  This was actually an assignment for a Commercial Photography class I am taking.  It was shot at John Covington Studios in Phoenix.  This studio is designed for large scale product photography such as motorcycles and cars.  There is a large scale custom-made soft box unlike any you have every seen and all the lighting you would ever need.  The intent of the assignment was more to capture the bike and the model than to figure out lighting.  So all the lighting was set up prior to our arrival.  But we still got to work with and see how the soft box, hot lights and strobes interact to light these subjects perfectly.

The motorcycle is a Steed.  What naturally goes with a motorcycle like this?  A pin-up girl of course.  Check back tomorrow for part two of this collection that features a model with the bike.

California’s history is very much intertwined with the Spanish missionaries and the remnants of that period in history dot the California coastline.  The Spanish missions today are a combination of church property and state property and blend working parish with tourist attraction.  Most charge a small admission fee ranging from $2 – $5 in order to view the churches and gardens.  But with the well manicured spectacular gardens and historic church buildings it is well worth the small change to tour these missions and capture them with your camera.