Very nice capture.

Yes he was. i have more work on here as well.

Bruce

Thank you so much Dixie! I work hard at it.

Bruce

Thank you for your kind word Rex

Hi Micki--I think you can find more of my topics if you go under my name. Thank you for your comment.

Bruce

Thank you Bob

Thanks for your comment Jean

Thank you Rex

This was taken last Friday night. The model wanted this image but I refused to capture it until he grew his beard a little more. The coat is actual made from a real buffalo and weights a ton. The pipe is from the Blackfoot tribe. Blessed by an Ojibwa medicine man with a buffalo prayer. This is a five light setup.

How This Was Captured
Thus us a five light setup. Starting from the background, the first light is a monolight with the reflector on it pointed toward camera right. Also in the background is a snoot just kissing some light on the side of the granddaughters hair. I used a 22" beauty dish with a diffuser sock camera right. I the foreground very low I used a 9"x36" strip light with an egg crate. For fill on camera left I used a Westcott silver reflector. If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to e-mail me. aiyanastudio@gmail.com Bruce

This is one capture I did the other day in one of my senior living facilities. This woman is 98, has Alzheimer, and is blind. I finally came away with this image for her granddaughter. I feel I just gave the best present in the world to the granddaughter. I can’t think of what else I could do that would be more important or have more impact on another person life. I only wish I had something like this of my own Mom.

This image may not win a merit but it will grow in value.

Thank you for your comment. I won't know my schedule for a few weeks yet. I will let you know as soon as it's finalized on my end.

Thank you for your comment sarge. This is a high merit award image from many master photographers. The chaps may have confused you a bit, but the pose and lighting has been designed for the subject, and his facial features in perfect harmony with the pose. One thing about photography is we never will reach the top, it's a continuous journey.

Thank you

Erik LeBlanc was born in California and raised in Arizona. Before going to collage Erik spent his time on a ranch being a cowboy and doing what cowboys do. After Erik left collage, he returned back to a life of a cowboy. As Erik stated "a cowboy's life has freedom". He spent many years on the circuit as a bull and bronco rider. He never got hurt, but felt it was only a matter of time, so he retired from that life and went into a career as a farrier. Erik got very well known as a farrier, shoeing horses throughout Arizona. His wife of 26 years works with him every day,
With the look of the old west, Erik is the headliner for a movie called Bannock which is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2013. The storyline goes something like this: He left Mexico and reappeared 12 years later after his sister's family was butchered. He came to set things right. When asked if being a movie star would change his way of life, Erik said "I like my work too much to ever throw it away."

How This Image Was Captured
This capture was accomplished by using seven lights; I considered a reflector as a light. The first light was my background light which I placed two feet from the black seamless, facing more toward camera left. This still allowed some separation for the back of his hat camera right. Next I have two light: one camera left and the other camera right at 160 degrees at axis 45. The light on camera left had a snoot on it about seven feet way from Erik, pointing at the front of his hat. On camera right, I had a light with a 10 degree grid on it. This gave me just a kiss of light on his chaps over his shoulder. Above Erik's head, I used a strip light at f/3 just to define a little more of his hat. The key light was on camera left at f/8. I used this light in two ways: one, giving depth to his face setting the ratio. and two, rimming his shirt and fingers. The next light I used was another strip light on the floor. This strip light took the shadows away from under his hat. The only thing I had left to do was use my Westcott silver reflector as a fill camera right.