I photographed Basil's house in San Marino, Ca. back in November of last year and just sort of jokingly told him that we should photograph him. The architects I was shooting for helped coordinate and actually paid for the shoot. It was really to document Basil's interesting and eclectic fashion tastes. It was the Prada boots and sunglasses that first created that little spark of "maybe this could work". Basil had never been in front of a camera before and brought all of his own wardrobe, including the crazy $7300 Tom Ford leather jacket. We all had a great time and we made sure to make Basil feel pampered and safe.
The first shot was one where it took about half an hour of agony sitting on the floor leaning against my assistant's knees. Sorry Curt and shooting very close on a tripod with the new Fuji GF30mm t/s lens. What made this doubly hard is that when you tilt, and this was a shot I had in mind from the beginning, but when you tilt that lens while it's attached to the tripod with its attached tripod foot, you end up tilting the camera back instead of the lens forward, forcing you to then readjust the camera and then readjust the tilt in order to not screw with your perspective and get both his hand and his face in the same plane of focus. And then, Basil was moving as. people are wont to do.
The rest of the images were with the equally outstanding Sigma 105mm f/1.4 ART lens and all on the GFX100s and not the 100II because when you're shooting with strobe and have to turn off exposure sim in the camera, the highlights are too blown out in both the viewfinder and the rear LCD to see facial expressions.
Basil with his vape
GFX100SFujifilm Fujinon GF30mm F5.6 TS lens30mmf/11.01/125s100 ISO0.0 EV
Basil
GFX100SSIGMA 105mm F1.4 DG HSM A018 lens105mmf/11.01/125s100 ISO0.0 EV
Basil
GFX100SSIGMA 105mm F1.4 DG HSM A018 lens105mmf/11.01/125s100 ISO0.0 EV
Basil standing
GFX100SSIGMA 105mm F1.4 DG HSM A018 lens105mmf/11.01/125s100 ISO0.0 EV
friscoron wrote:
It's interesting how much changes when you see his hair in color. Great shots! The first one is epic.
Yeah Ron, his hair was and is trippy. I just loved the whole vibe and the fact that he had never done this, and even though he is not classic model material, he was like a character actor and with each minor wardrobe change he would take on a different persona and took direction exceedingly well.
newyork wrote:
Great stuff Peter. Really love the first shot. Such a cool perspective.
Thanks Rich. Another maybe unconventional way of using a wide angle tilt-shift, although not the first time I've done a portrait with one but the first time with this new lens.
Obviously, I'm a lamer who lives in the midwest and I am just not California hip. I'm so lame that I need a first and a last name to identify someone. I think that the whole pretense of promoting celebrities who are not widely known using nothing but a first name, as if it unambiguously identifies their brand, must be an industry thing that I just ignore because of it's ridiculousness.
Who is Basil? What's his real name? What is his claim to fame? Wikipedia (disambiguation) did not help. So I Google'd "celebrity basil" and got a List of the Top 40 People Named Basil, and I'm having trouble identifying him on the list. I can't even tell if he's in the music or film industries, or perhaps something else. I have to assume that he's somehow associated with the entertainment industry or Peter wouldn't be photographing him.
Suffice it to say that the whole single-word-moniker marketing idea hasn't raised his brand-consciousness to the desired level among lame guys in the Midwest. I can't even identify him by Googling, which suggests the premise that he's so famous that he should be universally identifiable by a single word name was invalid, and the marketing effort has failed. I have to assume then, that "Basil" is just a stage name for his act (that I am not familiar with) and that he's not a famous person who has gained so much notoriety in our culture that we should recognize him by his first name.
The whole concept of single-name marketing is based upon the premise that famous celebrities with unique names, who were originally identified by their full names, eventually rose to such a level of celebrity that they became known by their unique first names. Example: "Elvis". Today the PR people try to market little known entertainment acts using a unique single name to create the impression that if you don't recognize their client as a 'celebrity' then your knowledge is somehow deficient, and the fault is yours for being ignorant. The use of a single word name for an act leverages this ambiguity and is intended to create curiosity on the part of the consumer, by making them feel as if they're missing something by not knowing the identity of an unknown 'celebrity'. What?!? You don't know this person? You should!
I have to confess, I'm so knowledge deficient that not only do I not know who this guy is based on the single name, but I can't even identify him after Googling him. I don't know who he is, but the world doesn't recognize him in the way it reccognizes Elvis. Or Ringo. I think his marketing people are reaching too far.
Of course, my ignorance of who's who in the entertainment industry is not intended to detract from the quality of the photos, which are truly excellent.
Obviously, I'm a lamer who lives in the midwest and I am just not California hip. I'm so lame that I need a first and a last name to identify someone. I think that the whole pretense of promoting celebrities who are not widely known using nothing but a first name, as if it unambiguously identifies their brand, must be an industry thing that I just ignore because of it's ridiculousness.
Who is Basil? What's his real name? What is his claim to fame? Wikipedia (disambiguation) did not help. So I Google'd "celebrity basil" and got a List of the Top 40 People Named Basil, and I'm having trouble identifying him on the list. I can't even tell if he's in the music or film industries, or perhaps something else. I have to assume that he's somehow associated with the entertainment industry or Peter wouldn't be photographing him.
Suffice it to say that the whole single-word-moniker marketing idea hasn't raised his brand-consciousness to the desired level among lame guys in the Midwest. I can't even identify him by Googling, which suggests the premise that he's so famous that he should be universally identifiable by a single word name was invalid, and the marketing effort has failed. I have to assume then, that "Basil" is just a stage name for his act (that I am not familiar with) and that he's not a famous person who has gained so much notoriety in our culture that we should recognize him by his first name.
The whole concept of single-name marketing is based upon the premise that famous celebrities with unique names, who were originally identified by their full names, eventually rose to such a level of celebrity that they became known by their unique first names. Example: "Elvis". Today the PR people try to market little known entertainment acts using a unique single name to create the impression that if you don't recognize their client as a 'celebrity' then your knowledge is somehow deficient, and the fault is yours for being ignorant. The use of a single word name for an act leverages this ambiguity and is intended to create curiosity on the part of the consumer, by making them feel as if they're missing something by not knowing the identity of an unknown 'celebrity'. What?!? You don't know this person? You should!
I have to confess, I'm so knowledge deficient that not only do I not know who this guy is based on the single name, but I can't even identify him after Googling him. I don't know who he is, but the world doesn't recognize him in the way it reccognizes Elvis. Or Ringo. I think his marketing people are reaching too far.
Of course, my ignorance of who's who in the entertainment industry is not intended to detract from the quality of the photos, which are truly excellent. ...Show more →
Much ado about nothing. I didn't think it was appropriate to include his last name here. Nothing more than that.
I love the shots, Peter. The last is my favorite not because it's in color (I prefer B&W) but because the full body shot looks great. I'm digging the outfit The focus and lighting is on point.
tazo wrote:
I love the shots, Peter. The last is my favorite not because it's in color (I prefer B&W) but because the full body shot looks great. I'm digging the outfit The focus and lighting is on point.
Thanks. There were some images that just seemed to want to be black and white and others where color made more sense. And then there's his hair.
The focus and lighting is on point.