So on Wednesday I talked about my “Hard Drive” being “Frozen”, which if you didn’t read Wednesday’s post, scroll down and read it. But in association to that post, I also talked about what was going on with me on my Instagram, and one of my friends messaged me about a couple guys putting up a mural (super late at night) and that I should go say hi.
So that’s what I did, I waited until I got off work (at 10:30pm) and went out to the wall. No expectations, no assignments given, just a good old meet up with some graffiti artists. Of course I had my camera in tow, as well as my 85mm f1.4 & 50mm f1.2, because I’d been wanting to go out and see if I couldn’t get my brain to switch back into creative mode. When I showed up to the mural the artist (Hippie & QVO) were painting, I introduced myself and we started talking about all kinds of things, almost as if we’d been friends for years (which I have to say is one thing I’ve found I’m pretty damn good at, making friends quickly and holding a conversation for hours if you’ll let me). Shortly after getting their names and talking about the mural they were painting, I asked (as if by muscle memory) “You guys cool with me breaking out my camera to see if I could get a couple of shots while you work?” Both were fine with it, and especially when I asked how ‘undercover” they wanted to be, as one thing I’ve learned from shooting graffiti artists is that some don’t want to be recognizable or even in photos at all, but in this case both artists were fine with what I got.
I slapped my 85mm f1.4 lens on my camera, and almost instantly went into creative mode. I looked for elements to incorporate into the shots, looked for certain positions the artist were getting into, how they held the cans, how certain parts of the wall looked with the different lights being shown on it, and I tried to not just focus on the artist but the environment AND the wall as main subjects too. Then, after about an 30-40 minutes, I swapped out my 85mm for my 50mm f1.2 and went back to seeing what I could get with a slightly wider focal length. It was fucking amazing I tell you, all the “brain fog” I’d been experiencing was gone, in an instant.
After about two hours or so of shooting, and of course gabbing here and there, I told the guys I had to pack up and head home, as I noticed that I unknowingly started talking more than I was shooting (which isn’t bad by any means, but I also didn’t want to distract them too much from getting their mural done). So we said our good byes, and they let me know that they were going to try and finish up by the following night. To which I told them, “Awesome! I’ll be back out tomorrow night than to see it and capture it”.
The next night I met up with the guys once again at around 11pm or so, and they were just putting the finishing touch to the mural. We talked a little more, while they moved to and from the mural, stepping back long enough to look it over before adding a little highlight here or an accent piece there, until they both sat back and took a long hard look at it before saying “I think it’s done”. As soon as those words left their mouths, I went and grabbed my bag my tripod and my “photography chair” (which is just a chair I use for long exposure shots). I helped them clean up the site, and we gabbed a little more while I set up my camera.
One of the things that I always love challenging myself to get is graffiti murals late at night, it’s not as easy as just setting up a tripod and shooting a long exposure shot (well sometimes it’s that easy, but most times it’s not). I like to get as straight of a photos as I can get, and stitch all the images into one long shot. So I broke out my tape measure, getting the distance from the wall to the front leg of my tripod, getting the measurement of the top of the wall to the center of it, and measuring out the hight of the center of the lens to the center of the wall. This takes a pretty good chunk of time to get all the shots I need, but when you come away with a killer looking pano shot, you really don’t care how long it takes. This one took me roughly about 30-45 minutes to shoot, as it wasn’t too terribly long of a wall.
After I snapped all the shots I figured I’d need, I talked with the guys for a little bit longer, as this would be the last time I’d see them in person (their flight home was right around the time I take lunch at work). We had only just met, but again it was like we’d been friends for ever. I never did mention how thankful I was for them unknowingly getting me through my creative slump, well until they read this that is.
To Hippie & QVO: Thank you for being so friendly and welcoming people, I truly feel blessed to be able to capture you both in your element of being creative individuals. I know you had no clue I was going through a “creative mind block” at the time, but thank you for helping me get past it.
To you (my friends and readers): It’s a pain in the ass when your brain won’t do what you want it to do. But sometimes the best thing to do, is not to do much or anything at all. If there’s any advice I can give to photographers out there that may be struggling, just chill and go shoot something you really like to shoot. Don’t get stuck in your head, don’t get over worked, and don’t give up either.
I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks (2nd) post, and I hope you enjoy the pictures I snagged of Hippie & QVO spaying their mural. Until next time, I’ll catch y’all later.
Andrew Hoyle - Grimlock Media
