When I was working at Foothill College, I started my day by photographing some of the cameras they had in stock. There was a pretty random collection of cameras available, and I decided to treat them like the high-end products they were.

At the time, I was using an old light-painting device called a Hosemaster. This device would allow me to sculpt the light with a number of fiber-optic tools. I would work in the dark, carefully painting each camera with light to bring out the shape, texture and details of the body while controlling exactly where the highlights fell.

The final photographs were focus stacked and built up by hand, frame by frame, with the light. The goal was to create extremely sharp, polished product photographs while still giving the images some character.

One of my favorite details is actually in the lenses. The controlled lighting creates reflections in the glass that become almost as important as the cameras themselves. Those reflections give the photographs a sense of depth and make the lenses feel like objects rather than simply black circles on the front of a camera.

Looking back, these are a good example of how much can be done with a camera, a dark room and a little patience. Before everything became endlessly automated, sometimes the best way to make a photograph was simply to paint it into existence.

LENS REFLECTIONS

Infinite Possibilities Within the Lens