My dear friend and former editor at National Geographic, Bill Douthitt had a cover to be shot that involved a bare chested guy with a mouse. He called me. No idea why.
It’s quite a serious science story, actually. Roughly put, the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) just broke a story about how researchers are engineering mice to act as “avatars” for a particular patient, so they could examine cancer biology from a more personalized perspective.
The cover notion called for a shirtless male, with a shaved head (to intimate, potentially, someone involved in a chemotherapy protocol) holding a mouse, proffering it towards the camera. The intense light is on his hands, and thus on the mouse, who is the star of the show. Easy enough to do, but the control of light was obviously my paramount concern.
Naturally, the mouse had a rep, and a handler. (Thank God, not a masseuse and a publicity agent.) She was a bit of a diva, ignoring my requests and crapping all over our patient model’s hands. But she did look at the camera once or twice, and those looks provided just enough personality for the cover shot.
Due to a tight budget, it was seat of the pants stuff. I set up a studio in my driveway. There was only one law governing the entire day. My unbelievably patient wife, Annie, has been historically gracious about obstructions in the driveway, a garage filled with photo junk, and even, quite recently, two mostly naked, body painted models running around our kitchen, preparing for a forest shoot in the backyard. But there was no give on this one. No mouse in the house.
Bill and I stayed in touch via the miracle of the internet throughout the shoot, as I was sending him samples of the lighting, the cropping, etc. I have great confidence in him as a picture editor and have spoken of him before on this blog. He was a picture editor at the National Geographic for 34 years, until he was exited, as they say. This happens a great deal nowadays in the print journalism game. We worked together quite frequently, until, of course, we didn’t.
Happens. When I was a staff photog at LIFE, I was shown the door. At Time Warner, they call it a “reduction in force.” So, in the hallway vernacular, I got riffed. Same thing happened to Bill, though they probably call it something different at the Geographic. Given their particular bent for reporting on the natural world, maybe it’s referred to as “the circle of life.” I digress.
Anyway, what started as a stark silhouette became a semi-silhouette, with a shimmer of detail in the face and body. The background was lit with two Profoto B4 flashes, punching the white. When the call came in to open the silhouette a bit, I introduced two Profoto 1×6 strip lights on either side, both sporting egg crates to control the flow of light.
Up front, a 1×3 RFI strip light, fitted to a B1 unit, also outfitted with an egg crate, washed some detail up into the bottom of his hands and forearms. Overhead, a B1 governed by a ten degree spot grid became a snappy, intense main light. Then it was all up to Eric, our wonderfully serene human model, and our rodent friend, upon whom we bestowed the name, Trixie. She of course needed some guidance now and then.
The lighting broke down like this: Two B4’s with heads wrapped in black wrap to pop the background; two B4 big strips for edge light on the model; one B1 overhead in a 10 degree spot for the main; and one B1 underneath in a small strip for under lighting the hands. Every light has a specific job. The camera is a D810, and lens is 70-200mm f2.8 Nikkor. Exposure specs: 1/200th @ f22, ISO 160, lens set to 170mm. The set sorta, kinda looked like the sketch below. The solid black overhead nixed any potential for ambient light to influence the equation. We brought space heaters on the set so our talent was comfy. Whole shoot, including the lunch break, took 2 hours. Setup was the key. That took a while, getting all the pieces in place.
Studio in a driveway? Sure made it easy to put the gear away. More tk…..
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With all the commercial work and big bylines, why doesn’t Joe shoot medium format?
Thanks for years of great teaching.
Matt
That is awesome… so jealous. Your picture always be amazing!
The best Numnuts I learnt so much all these years!
You are my great inspiration, i started learning light after attending you seminars in Gulf Photo Plus, Dubai, wonderful light set up for above photograph.
Really happy with the resolution of D810. Just don’t have much of a need for med format, as nice as it is. With my client base, everyone is happy with DSLR format stuff….
Joe, I’ve been learning lighting (and other client situations) from you for years now; thanks as always! 🙂
Cheers,
Man. Such a clean, artistic , well executed photograph. Love the lines of his palms to Trixie who has such a great look at the camera. Well done. I appreciate it the more I look at it.
I read your blog with interest each time and wonder what adventures you have endured!
Having Joe McNally as a neighbor would be very interesting – much more entertaining than the average family next door.
So the mouse is named Tri Xie ??
Great shot . Great stories.
I just heard your pal Chase Jarvis say his biggest regret is not buying the nicest equipment right up front. As a primarily speed light shooter, I bet this shot would have been hard to get right without big lights. Perhaps its time for big lights in my garage as well. Great post Joe!
Joe, you are truly my inspiration!! Love your ability to go with the flow and come up with something beautiful.
good to have this HUGE amount of photographic gear..
but this article took some commercial direction.
Smiled all the way through reading this post! Love the final image:)
Joe is one of the best instructors, learned a lot and the sketches are just amazing.
Had just picked up my Science from the office then saw your blog post that the cover was yours. I am very psyched that my two lives (science research and photography) have overlapped (need a venn diagram)
Joe, good post.
Always informative.
Enjoyed stopping to read it.
J
is this what they call a drive-through shooting?
I would have loaned Annie my cat. She’s great at catching mice (the cat). Would have had to keep her clear of the set for the duration of the shoot though.
Great shot Joe!
This very interesting creative evoking lighting.
Fabulous picture Joe. As always, the story is as entertaining as the image.
You realize that (almost) every scientist on earth would give up a body part to have their work run in Science, right? 🙂 Good job.
This is such a cool portrait. I love the nuanced light on this and it really guides your eyes through the shot and makes you wonder what the story is.
Funny thing, my wife and I were browsing my Facebook stream when I stopped on this photo and said something to the effect of ‘wow, check this out, wonder who shot this’.. Your wife had posted this so I didn’t recognize your name immediately, but when we both figured out is was you who shot it, we both simultaneously said ‘ohhh, that figures’ …totally in a good, awe inspiring way. 🙂
Hey Joe! Thanks for sharing all the behind the curtain stuff. Bummer on your friend getting the boot from NG. Your comment on Med. Format was also very interesting. Thanks again and I can’t wait to see your show in Santa Fe, hopefully soon! Thanks, Mike
Joe, you never cease to inspire me! The ability to think on your feet, work through and solve problem, and then create amazing images. Thank you.
This is so cool. A clean, crisp, beautiful image… and a diva mouse.
very cool, thank you so much….very kind words…..it was a fun shoot
If it’s not a rude question Joe – why do you no longer shoot with Elinchrom lighting – you used that brand for many years!
all that to shoot a mouse;) That’s so cool