Meeting Of The Masters - Day 1

The day started out with Art Ketchum, a Chicago-based photographer known for his beautiful work photographing body painting and for a number of catalogs. He's what you might consider more of a traditional shooter, if such a term can be applied to a Master. He's an older gentleman with a gruff voice that is unmistakably from Chicago. He places a big emphasis on light metering, ratios and lighting everything very well. A typical setup for him would consist of 5 lights. He talks and useful information, the kind that you only get from years of experience, just comes out of his mouth. It's quite amazing!

Watching him work with the model was a good experience. He would talk to her about what he wanted, meter the lighting, talk to her a bit more, tweak the lights, adjust her pose, tweak the lights, take a test shot, tweak the lights, adjust the model... you get the picture. His constant banter and encouragement to the model made her laugh and feel comfortable while he got the lights exactly how he wanted them. Once the lights were dialed in, he'd shoot away while still encouraging the model and come away with some great shots.

Art ended up shooting a few different lighting setups and even let us up to shoot on one of his setups. Of course, with 5 different Masters in the room, everyone got involved in the shoot by offering suggestions on posing and encouraging us to try different things. Even though only one person could shoot at a time, just standing back and listening to the Masters talk and watching them pose the model was a very rewarding experience.

The next Master of the day was Ivan Otis. If there is a photographer who could be considered the opposite personality of Art Ketchum, Ivan would come close. Where I would consider Art to be methodical, traditional and somewhat reserved, Ivan is spontaneous, boundary-pushing and not at all reserved. His presentation was not for the faint of heart, as it contained R-rated language and really got the crowd going. He spoke about some recent work he had shot for The History Channel, as well as some personal projects he'd worked on that really showcase his photographic skills as well as his Photoshop skills.

Ivan has been shooting for almost 30 years and is completely self-taught. He doesn't really go with traditional lighting setups, favoring more spontaneous and experimental lighting depending on his mood and location. I get the feeling that he could show up anywhere and, if handed a camera and a subject, could walk away with amazing and unique photos.

Watching him shoot was a joy. He is so hands-on, making sure the model feels comfortable, cracking jokes, keeping the audience engaged and not spending too much time with lights or setup. I could seriously watch him shoot all day long and not get tired of it. He uses so many different techniques for getting what he wants from a model, it's quite inspiring. From having them mirror his movements to lots of physical contact to create an intimate working space to just good verbal instructions, it's not surprising to see why he gets so much out of his subjects.

The final part of the day was reserved for shooting. We all broke off with a Master and went outside to shoot in natural light. Once again, I got so much out of just watching them work and listening to what they had to say, both to the model and to us observers. Honestly, I hardly took any photos because I was so busy watching and listening! The great thing about shooting with them in an informal setting is that you get to see what they're shooting and ask questions about why they chose to do particular things, which to me is much more valuable than a few photos. With that being said, I did manage to get some good photos like the one of Kirsten that you see at the top of this post. Stay tuned for Day 2, coming soon...