We rented a theater for the day and worked with the house lighting mixed with strobes to emulate a live look. After spending time shooting all four of the guys together, it was clear that nailing the perfect “live” moment was going to be tough. We decided to shoot them all individually in lots of different poses that felt right for each of their personalities. Later, the selects were composited together into something that turned out really well.

Aside from being excited about the final image and how it looks in the CD packaging, it was pretty fun to see the posters around Minneapolis and up in the Pantages Theater at the merchandise table during their performances.

Here are a couple of photos I took while I was out with my dad at a farm in Sandstone, MN. Both photos were taken within 30 minutes of each other, just before sunset.

You can read about and view the whole piece here: Captured & Left Behind

This was on the side of the road in Cotton, MN (off of 53). I couldn’t resist pulling over to get a photo.

Nothing felt quite right until I went into an antique store. I was struck by all of the photos for sale; photos that have lost their meaning and sense of place. While I found the photographs interesting on their own, what I felt from them was an emptiness. These photographs are simply objects that have been left behind and now exist out of context.

The audio used was generated from a photo of my brother. More details on that below.

Note: If you view at full screen on a large monitor, please turn off scaling to view the images at best quality.

The details

I shot over 1,000 photos at antique stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona over the course of 6 months. To keep the piece under 4 minutes, I narrowed my selection down to about 60 photographs, arranged them and started looking for a way to make them into something more than a simple slideshow.

I was thinking about mixing in images of my brother to somehow show the contrast between photos that do and don’t have meaning to me, but that felt forced and like I’d be using taking advantage of my brother somehow.

I decided that I wanted to use audio to string everything together, but struggled with what to use. There’s a picture of my brother that sits in my dresser drawer and is etched into my memory. I wanted to use it somehow, so I found software that renders audio from the photo’s contrast and saturation information. The result was just what I wanted and compliments the photos well.

The audio used was generated from this photo of my brother.

I’m not entirely sure that I’m done with this project, but I feel good about where it’s at for now. I’ve got a lot of outtakes and other photos of weird antique store finds that I may put in a follow up post.

I’d love to know what you think.

Email me for pics or more details.

Canon 5D w/ battery grip and four batteries – SOLD
$1,000
I’ve got the box, warranty card and all accessories. I’ve had it for about 2 years and it has around 6,800 shots on it. I’ve used it mainly in the studio. There are visible dust spots at high apertures and I’ve never cleaned the sensor, but it should clean up nicely.

Canon 24mm f/1.4L USM
$900
This lens is near perfect. I sent it to Canon for service in March to replace the barrel assembly because it was soft at wide apertures. It’s working great now. Box, warranty card, soft case and manuals are included.

Olympus OM-1 MD w/ 28mm and 50mm Zuiko lenses
$120
Great condition with leather case and strap.

Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS receiver – SOLD
$100
Virtually unused with wrist strap and manual.

Canon RS-80N3 remote switch – SOLD
$20
Near perfect condition with box.