Photo by Danny Fulgencio in the January Lake Highlands Advocate
A genius with metal and defunct machinery, Brian Maupin of Lake Highlands was our featured artist in the January 2013 print issue. I was particularly impressed with this photo Danny Fulgencio managed to capture. Turns out, it was a bit unintentional, Danny admits.
“After Brian and I toured his garage workspace, I couldn’t help but think of a mad scientist at work in a suburban laboratory, and that’s what I hoped to communicate in the photograph. Brian liked the idea so we set out to have some fun,” the photographers says.
“Here’s some geek-speak for my fellow gearheads: I used a tripod-mounted D800 with a 20mm at f/16, ISO 200 with a four-second shutter speed using three remote-fired flashes: one at right with a full CTO gel aimed at Brian and popping through a 2-foot octabox while two other blue-gelled flashes sat on the left: one fired through a white umbrella for the background, the other shot through a snoot for rim light.
“Jargon aside, here’s the fun stuff: This shot, the one published in our print issue, was actually the first shot we made. I accidentally had the flashes firing consecutively instead of simultaneously, thus creating the cool double-exposure effect. Better still, I didn’t expect the sparks to explode all over my feet with such ferocity, and when they did, I jumped up yelling, “Holy crap!”
Brian isn’t smiling for the camera. He’s laughing at me!
They say luck is when opportunity meets preparation. They might be right.”
