TSRA Calendar, 2014

  Shot in the studio.  Every year I have to come up with 14 new firearms and 14 new backgrounds.  Sam's Coyote Bar and Grill has been my source the last two years with his collection that hangs at the restaurant.  It was much easier/faster to shoot at the studio than go on location.  Jackson kept things moving along with picking and transporting and giving me a second set of eyes on the photos.

  I set up two shots in the studio and was able to shoot one, move to the other and then go back for a correction if I needed it.  Used the Nikon 300 and the 18-200 DX lens.  Most of the lighting was softboxes with a main and then a big overhead to fill the reflections, plus a silver card for the shadow side.  It was a mess of tape and reflectors plus all the shims and wax globs under the guns.  The Good Doctor Sneed  couldn't make the shoot this year since I had let it go so long but his rifle racks were used on the 3D shots.

 Like most years, it's a little pistol-heavy.  Pistols fit the format and are easier in nearly every way because of their size.  One little soft-box and a silver card.  I stood on an applebox and shot overhead.

Same shot with a background change.  Just out of the shot are the stands, clamps, tape, reflectors, et.  Telephoto at the 200mm end.  Harder to get rifles to relate than you might think.  You don't want to drop a firearm....

Big overhead softbox turned way down is just out of sight overhead.

Adding old vintage cameras.  Some of the shots are pretty similar but they get looked at one at a time for a month, not in a group so it helps cover the similarities.  Plus, you do want them to have the same esthetic.

Here is a different approach.  I've shot a calendar with most of the guns suspended like this.

Always have to have a few new backgrounds.  This is a hand-made building stone from the wreck of a building near Shiprock.

Thanks to everyone who helped!  None of these projects get done alone.  Let's hope it makes the TSRA 100K!