25 February 2010 - 22:07‘Deuce is Wild’ documentary

A couple of weeks ago i was fortunate enough to be in the latest episode of the ‘Deuce is Wild’ documentary featuring Jason Dussault and Chief Willard of the Semiahmoo Indian Nation.  This was episode 2 of a 13 episode documentary about building the Dussault apparel brand.  Chief Willard sported the latest Warrior ring created out of collaboration between Dussault and Bloodline jewellery.

The sky was not as ominous  as i would have liked that day so i added some clouds from my archives and set them to ‘darken’ with masking around Chief Willard.   I then grabbed a color sample from another photograph i liked (you can even grab the water/sky tone off of this image) and created a layer in photoshop and set it to ‘color’ at 60% opacity which gives an overall muted feel to this image.   Finally the image was duplicated,  ‘filter/other/high  pass’ was applied and set to overlay at 100% which gives the sharp contrast look.

This ended up being one of my more creative location shoots,  especially since after unloading,  i realized my small soft box with the egg crate modifier was missing!!  One of my location tricks is to run strips of electrical tape the length of my light stands. . . if i ever need any in a pinch – Voila!   The tape proved useful in adapting my ‘Gary Fong’ portable flash diffuser over my Hensel flash tube.  I originally had the light set overhead the camera, but after working around my subjects I much preferred shooting from the side… it  gives the effect of them looking at breaking light in the distance.   Below the main light was a 32′ silver disc adding a little fill, and the main light was turned downward spilling more light towards the disc than the subjects.

You can see how average grey the sky was in the next image  which is why i had to add the clouds.

It’s a little challenging being on camera while working. . . When you are behind the camera all you life,  it’s a bit of an adjustment being a ’subject’ for a change.

This was the bonus at the end of the day.  Part of the filming that day included an invitation to Chief Willards sweat lodge.   While I have always wanted to attend an authentic sweat lodge,  the prospect of being on a nationally televised show was little disconcerting after sweating for 1.5 hours in this dark intimate setting.  I recently added a new Thai tattoo that reads ‘never try, never know’,  so with that thought i went for it.  Of course you can witness all this one day on tv.