TSRA Calendar Photoshoot

Every year, (for the last few years), I've shot the TSRA calendar.  It's a class piece.  Takes about 15 set-ups with firearms and a couple of background shots of rock or bark.  12 months, front and back cover and at least one extra image.  I pick the guns, supply the backgrounds, do all my own styling, shoot, edit, sequence and send off the shots.  It's a fund-raiser for the TSRA and a very effective one.  Without taking undue credit from the hard-working folks who do the computer work, printing and mailing, plus sell the thing, I can take credit for morphing it from an ungainly mess of bad images to a fairly sophisticated piece.

  There is even a little bit of a video up on the Blackfork6 Channel on youtube.  Not very good because I was dang busy trying to do all the above.,

  Just got started.  First image of the project was a Colt and a Savage owned by Jackson and I in a drawer at the studio.  Simple, with a little styling and natural light.  I used a couple of light dams to keep bright spots out.  Uhh.. Not much styling or propping.  It's what the drawer actually looks like.  Sometimes I have to clean a pistol at work.  Still:  You work with what you have at hand.

Nikon 300 on an old Tiltall tripod.  Windowlight and light from a tungsten desk lamp.  I'd like to have about three more of these in the bag before the real photoshoot starts.  The backgrounds and props are the real difficulty.  I use the same backgrounds a couple of times and then they are done.  I've got an old tattered American flag that has made four calendars.  Can't go there again.  Always on the lookout for fresh backgrounds.  35mm on the Nikon zoom.

Update:  Vintage firearm ads that Huffpo thinks we ought to be bothered by.  Wimps.