A Portrait of Maddie

January 03, 2021 by Brandon Scott

We finally hung a picture of Maddie. Why has it taken so long!

Purpose

December 31, 2020 by Brandon Scott

Every blog post I write is written for an audience of one, me. This is no exception.

When we endeavor to do anything, we should ask ourselves why we’re doing it. I’m going to take this opportunity to define the purpose of my photography.

I wish to capture my response to moments and memories with photography that will be cataloged in books or albums for later reflection by myself, my wife, and my kids. I wish for nothing other than that. May I always choose techniques and find motivation in that simple purpose.

Photography and Meaning

July 01, 2020 by Brandon Scott

I made my first meaningful photograph when I was 13. I had no idea what I was doing, but I happened to use a slow shutter speed as I panned to follow my dad driving down the main straight at Hallet Motor Raceway in northern Oklahoma. The car was sharp and the background blurred due to the low shutter speed gave a sense of speed that made the photograph more interesting than it would have otherwise been. That picture, as a 20x30” hangs in my parent’s house to this day (34 years later).

Subsequent to that picture, I’ve made a horrid number of really bad photographs, meaningless drivel. I’ve played with composition, shutter speed, aperture, light, and tone. I’ve photographed bushes, bananas, tress, mountains, deserts, cats, dogs, girlfriends and zoo animals. Amongst the many failures, I made a few images worth keeping, but more importantly, I learned a skillset.

That skillset was given a meaning when I began photographing my own family. I look at the photographs I make of my kids and wife, and they have meaning. They have meaning because my heart is in each and every photograph. I love spending time with my kids as they explore, grow and express with an uninhibited nature that is only found in the young.

The lesson, without heart and emotional investment, my images are meaningless. My photographs now have meaning, and that makes me happy. Perhaps another lesson may be that the reward of the work put into building a skillset may only be realized in the future. Maximize the moment but don’t forsake the long view.

Maddie loved this beat up and well used toy.

A Day Trip to the Mountains

June 29, 2020 by Brandon Scott

We’re all getting to the point where we’re feeling constrained or hemmed in. I’m probably feeling it the most. We took the decision to take a day trip to the mountains not far from home yesterday, and it was a refreshing respite from home bound living. We stumbled upon a desolate playground and then made our way to a rocky paradise.

It was good to get out.

All images were captured with a new to me Canon 1DX Mark II with my Canon 35mm F1.4 USM II lens.

More COVID-19 Portraits

May 03, 2020 by Brandon Scott

This was a fun image; It was made just after Madeline began to pull-up confidently. She was standing on an apple box in front of a mid-gray background, and she is lit with a heavily pitched 24” square soft box just above the camera. The background texture was added in post.

More COVID-19 Portraits

May 02, 2020 by Brandon Scott

My girls have personality, of that there can be no doubt.

This is the simplest pure white background setup. The girls are sitting in front of a 2x3 soft box on a Profoto B10 set to deliver f/4 light on their backs. The key light is a Profoto Umbrella Deep White M about three feet directly in front of and above them, pitched heavily. A Profoto B10 was firing into the umbrella set to deliver f/4 light. So, two lights, two stands, a medium umbrella, and a 2x3 soft box all set to deliver an f/4 exposure.

More COVID-19 Portraits

April 30, 2020 by Brandon Scott

It’s April 30th, and we’ve been home sheltering in place since the 16th of March. I’ve been taking daily portraits of the girls for most of that time. It’s been and continues to be an interesting experience. The girls are happy to sit for a few seconds on their own terms. My direction has to be limited to maintain their interest, so really I’m just setting up lights and hoping to get something representative of who they are in that moment.

I’ll be posting some of the images I’ve been capturing in subsequent blog posts, and here is one to get started.

This is a one-light setup with a 24” beauty dish directly above the camera and pitched heavily to create a top down light pattern with a bit of fill.

Coronavirus - Day 6

March 17, 2020 by Brandon Scott

This is the sixth day the kids have been home due to the Coronavirus. We chose to pull them out of school on Thursday the 12th of March, and the schools officially announced their closure the following day. The first few days were novel. Ashley is doing a fantastic job creating education structure and programming. By now though, the novelty has well and truly worn off.

I’ve decided to start a daily project of attempting to create interesting pictures daily during this time of social distancing. It should help build my creative muscle and push me as a creative photographer. I made the first image in this project this morning. One has to start somewhere.

Portraits of Maddie

March 01, 2020 by Brandon Scott

When Izzy was about the age Maddie is now, I made some very simple portraits of her sitting in a Bumbo. Ashley asked me to make a proper portrait of Maddie this weekend, and i was drawn to the simplicity of those portraits of Izzy. I love that the simplicity of lighting and set allow personality and expression to dominate.

Sisterhood Can Be Rough

February 28, 2020 by Brandon Scott

Izzy protecting her ears from Maddie’s crying

Maddie at Nine Months

February 11, 2020 by Brandon Scott

A marked difference between Maddie at eight months and nine months is her lack of desire to sit still. She’s mobile and won’t be confined.

Back in the Saddle

January 26, 2020 by Brandon Scott

I’m back!

I took a brief break from posting due to a self motivated diversion. Somehow, I came to believe that I needed to move back to film. So, I sold my M10-P and worked with my M4-P for the second half of November through the middle of January. That meant developing, printing and scanning film. The trouble is, I don’t enjoy scanning, and my goal is to make books, not single photographs. Film does not make sense for me given the desire to produce books.

So, I sold all my film cameras, and I’m finally decommissioning the darkroom. I have a new M10-P, and that’s all I’m going to use. The only important aspect to equipment is that it satisfies the needs of the user. The M10-P is perfect for my needs, and I should not question that, again.

So, I’m caught up and back to posting regularly. Maddie is 8 1/2 months, Izzy is almost four and Katie is now 9. I hope to create a body of work, collected in books, that will bring them back to home, family, growth, and love.

How Did We Get to Six Months!

November 15, 2019 by Brandon Scott

Isabelle Mae and Madeline Elizabeth - 08 November 2019

Time is Flying! Maddie is Five Months

October 15, 2019 by Brandon Scott

Fall is Here, and It's Time to Roast Marshmallows

October 07, 2019 by Brandon Scott

Sunday Morning Play Time

September 30, 2019 by Brandon Scott

Isabelle and Madeline - 29 September 2019

Some Weeks I Struggle to See

September 24, 2019 by Brandon Scott

This past week, I made a total of 39 images. I suppose some weeks I find it easier to see the unique and special in the everyday and some weeks it’s a bit more of a struggle.

Maddie at 4 Months

September 09, 2019 by Brandon Scott

These pictures are meant to be a mere marker of time and growth. Rarely am I expecting anything more than a simple portrait in a context that shows size and development. On occasion though, we wind up with something a little more telling…

Isabelle and Madeline - 08 September 2019

Portraits Project

September 03, 2019 by Brandon Scott

I make a lot of photographs of our family and mostly they are photographs of the everyday. I use a relatively small portable camera and single lens to capture moments and stories that include environment. These are photographs that provide context and do not isolate.

I decided to start a new project that is the opposite of my everyday photography. Using a large format camera and white background that completely removes context, I will make four portraits of each girl twice a year. The girls choose their clothes and poses to express who they are on that day.

I made the first series of portraits yesterday, and I unfortunately made a mistake during development that ruined a single sheet of film. So, Katie Rose has three portraits and Isabelle has four. It will be interesting to see their development over the years.

For anyone interested, these portraits were made with a Shen-Has 4x5 field camera, Nikon 210mm lens, Ilford HP5 rated a little over E.I. 800 and developed for 15 minutes in Kodak XTOL developer diluted 1:1.

The next series of portraits are scheduled for early March, 2020.

First Day of Pre School 2019

September 03, 2019 by Brandon Scott