Self-Tie with Mel
As I think about what to write for this set, I am reluctant to simply call it a “photoshoot”. Mel and I planned to tie with someone else who had to cancel and I was having a stressful few days, but we decided to proceed anyway.
I set up a bunch of LED tube lights so we wouldn’t have to mess with flash, and hung a sheet of mirror paper as a backdrop. Mel started self-tying, I started taking photos.
Not long into the shoot, a switch flipped in my brain. I chose to stop thinking so much about lighting and posing and all the other technical details of photography. I shot the entire set wide open at f/2.8 and got in close, and just took pictures based on instinct and what felt right in the moment. My camera felt like a musical instrument and I was jamming.
I can’t get into Mel’s head, but I feel like they experienced a similar sense of freedom from constraints of a traditional photoshoot. They never stopped to “pose” for pictures; they became immersed in the experience of the rope and I think that comes through in many of these images.
I’ll close with this advice I heard from a class on macro photography. Don’t take pictures “of” a subject. Take pictures “about” a subject. This set isn’t a bunch of pictures of rope. These pictures are ABOUT the experience of rope. I hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed creating them!
