Photography

Member spotlight: Brian Rodgers Jr.

Last week I picked Brian Rodgers Jr. to be one of my picks for image of the week. He has been there before and he consistently produces excellent work. Well after that pick Brian sent me a time-lapse video of a personal project he worked on and I thought it was worthwhile to pass it on to you folks. What I hope you come away with after watching it is how precise and excellent Brian is in his work. He doesn’t let a spot of dust or stray reflection stay in the image… and this is for an image that he wanted to do for himself. Yes, it is time consuming and can be a little nerve racking, but Brian does it for the should goal we should all strive for… creating something outstanding. Too often we settle for pretty good, or we try to cut corners and hope others don’t notice… we labor like we are more worried about the time than the product and the final result… and yes time is money and this world demands efficiency. However, if we are striving to become a craftsman or woman instead of a laborer, then we need to slow down and get really good at being excellent so that we can begin to be governed more by the project and our skill than the clock. A reputation of excellence will open new doors of opportunities better than being known as a person who is able to do an ok job without wasting too much time. We want to stand out with our reputation of being excellent.

One of the reasons why I really like what Brian does is that he doesn’t let lack of equipment get in his way. He doesn’t have the latest gear and a large budget. He figures out how to make it work and he pushes his equipment to get the most out of it, instead of waiting for the next piece of gear that will be the key to making his images really look good. In this video you will see that it is not about fancy lights or perfect set ups… he shoots it in a parking lot and addresses the reflections issue by shooting it during the day, and then light painting key areas at night. He has to overcome some obstacles, but he uses his creativity to make it happen. Brian is a craftsman and he inspires me to try to be better at my craft. I hope this will inspire you to work on a project that you may have been putting off. Thanks for the inspiration and the beautiful work Brian!

ps. Brian did the music for this video as well… 😀

Get ready to take your work to the next level. Try some of our tutorials on PlanetPhotoshop or Layers. In fact, here is a link to some PremierePro tutorials. 

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