The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets From One of the World's Top Shooters

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    And I always thought I was better looking than William H. Macy.

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    This was shot with nothing but straight-up natural light—the trick was getting the rest of the indoor practice facility blacked out—I had to race around to find the facilities manager and convince him to turn out all the lights. It was shot on a tripod using a 50mm lens on a Mamiya 6×7 camera, medium format.

     

    Daunte Culpepper
    Remember, You’re Not Spider-Man
     

    “Sometimes, when you’ve got a camera in your hands, you can convince yourself you’re Spider-Man.”

    Sometimes, when you’ve got a camera in your hands, you can convince yourself you’re Spider-Man. I mean, Peter Parker’s a newspaper shooter, right? Quick change of uniform and he’s out there slinging webs and diving off buildings.
     
    Or climbing rocks.

    I was shooting a University of Alabama home football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium, which is like going to church with your cameras. I mean, these folks take football seriously.
     
    The band and the cheerleaders were all lined up on the library steps doing a lively number, and I thought it would be cool to shoot them with a long lens from a higher vantage point. There’s a ceremonial rock out in front of the library, some sacred stone that actually looks sort of like they swiped it from Stonehenge. It’s about, oh, eight or nine feet high.

    Perfect, I thought. I’ll climb the rock and get my long lens view! An elderly couple was standing nearby, and I asked them to hold my cameras for me, and my shooting vest. They were sort of puzzled as to why a complete stranger would hand them three very expensive, motor-driven cameras and an article of clothing, but they were willing to go along. They looked trustworthy and not capable of running very fast.
     
    I took a few steps back and started sprinting. Wham! I went from Spider-Man to Wile E. Coyote in a heartbeat. I mean, I just pancaked myself into the side of this rock. And not content with making a fool of myself just once, I tried it a second time.

    Same result. Even worse, ‘cause the very public humiliation of the first go caused me to run at it harder. I sort of slid down the face of the rock, just like in the cartoons.
     
    I looked over at the couple, who were staring at me with their heads tilted, like a pair of puzzled cats. I got to my feet, retrieved my gear, thanked them, and staggered off. Simple fill flash in the locker room was looking awfully good.

    I’m sure those folks told everybody they saw that day about how “that photographer fella” did the damnedest thing…just ran into the rock—twice!

    How to Get This Type of Shot

    In a shot like this, forget about front-to-back true color. I mean, you can get close, but precise color control? Fugheddaboudit. You walk into a locker room like this, and you don’t know if the fluorescence is warm white or cool white, or when they changed the bulbs last, or if they’re GE or Sylvania. Then there’s that tiny window off to the left, and then how about the tungsten bulbs in the makeup mirrors? Plus, you’ve got blond hair (lots of it), bunches of different skin tones, red shirts, and white boots.

    Do you have time in a fluid situation like this to sort it out and walk around with a color meter and do some testing? That would be a no. You have to think and move fast. The action is frenetic, the pace is fast, plus every minute you’re in there means your lenses are getting a thicker coat of hair spray.
     
    Whaddaya do? Go for skin tone and let everything else go to hell in a handbasket. It’s really all you can do. When I shot this, I went with the tried and true film solution of a full green conversion on the strobe, and 30 points of magenta on the lens. Now, I would highly recommend doing a preset white balance. To do this, find a white wall or carry a collapsible gray card (18% gray on one side, white on the other, collapses to a small circle and fits easily into your camera bag). Fill the frame with the white wall or the card. Shoot with either available light or flash. The camera will register the preset, and give you a good white balance for that particular mess of a room you are in.

     
    Surprise Me
     

    “This was guerrilla filmmaking. We got the lights ready, set the fire, and shot like mad.”

    Surprise me.
     
    That’s the best advice I ever got from a picture editor.

    The art scene on the Lower East Side of New York in the mid ‘80s was,