Nashville Bicycle Lounge

Wow, this blog thing really requires some, what would you say, sticktoitivness. It's been just over a month since my last post. I think that part of that is that I haven't been shooting much and most of my posts have been about past shoots. Recapping old shoots might be cool for the reader but it just makes me frustrated that I am not shooting more now.Well I did do a shoot recently for a new bike shop in town. The Nashville Bicycle Lounge will be opening this Saturday, April 10 and Dan, the owner and certified curmudgeon mechanic, asked me to do a shoot to show off his t-shirts. He got the models and the booze and left the rest of the shoot entirely in my hands. No Make-up artist, stylist, photog's assistant, or hors d'œuvre tray, I did the lighting and art direction and everything else. Here is the story of one of the photos:

That is the final, edited version of the photo showing both front and back of the masterfully designed logo created by Sharp Emmons. This is how we got there. I wasn't really sure yet what the final photo would look like. I wanted to show off the lounge area which is located in the back of the shop in between two work stations. I also wanted it to feel a little uninhibited, a place where you could really relax and have fun. First, a shot of the area from a ladder to see if the composition would work (handheld with available light). Notice that the models are prepping themselves with plenty of wine.
Then I decided a red gel on the background light would create a little of the red-light district look and add to the party atmosphere.

The key light was a 4 foot half dome with some warming elements above and to the left. You can see part of the light in the top left corner of this photo:

Some blue highlites on the Surly in the work stand just because:


We then added some props. Dan has been keeping all of the empty beer bottles and cans that have been consumed by he and others while working on the shop. Check out the coffee table and the shop bar in the background:

Still I don't have the finished shot in my head. This is a creative process and it is coming together one step at a time, each idea feeding off the previous. Dan likes a good party and is usually the last man standing. I thought that it would be funny to have a party going on around him that he has already checked out from so we experimented with a couple of versions:
And the winning frame:



A little Photoshop magic and there you have it.