To create a narrative environmental portrait, I had three fellow photographers with one Elinchrom and two Triton strobes, as well as a lonely Speedlite.  The Tritons were placed behind the subject through the doorway, with the Elinchrom resting beneath the camera pointed at the foreground and up the stairs.  The Speedlite, attached to a PocketWizard, was placed directly at the feet of my subject (aka Tre).  And once the exposure and lighting was perfected, I placed a handful of potato starch in Tre’s right hand.  One.  Two.  He lobbed the starch over his head.  Three.  I released the shutter, capturing the four flashes while dragging the shutter to 2.5 seconds in order to absorb the ambient light and the fall of the potato starch.  The effect?  A man and his dog, come upon the viewer and suddenly something mystical transpires.  The man is not who we think he is.  Neither is his dog.

Location: U District, Seattle, WA

Model: Tre Williams

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM Zoom Lens

24mm, 2.5 sec at f/11, ISO 400, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5