#natureoftheway

In our last Behind the Lens blog post, which can be found here, Director and Creator Chris Yates explained what it was like shooting the studio portraits featured in Emmaus: The Nature of the Way. This time, he dives into what it was like to shoot the other styles of photos!

Switching between three incredibly different looks was not an easy task. We had to do a complete light change three different times. We first would start shooting the headshot, and then we would move to the seated position, finally ending with the “painterly” look, which took a completely different set of lights to begin with. All of this happened within 30 minutes — sometimes shorter — depending on the promptness of the subject.

Throughout each session, we shot tethered (the camera connected to a computer) so I could be at the computer looking at a correctly rendered photograph, directing the action and giving the okay on “the one.” Finally after each look, we would switch to a 35mm film camera shooting Rollei RPX25 film.

Hi everyone! My name is Robert Macaisa and I am the photographer for Emmaus: The Nature of the Way. Welcome to Pixel Peeping, where I’ll walk you through some of the work we did for Emmaus, and how we did it! We’ll be doing this weekly, and while you might hear my voice soon, for now we’ll keep it simple, with text and images.

Here is our first image: one of Fr. Marc’s location images. This is a nice one to start with, as it is a super simple environmental portrait. When you take a step back, it tells the story it need to tell, but when you break it down — it’s uncomplicated.

Let me take a step back first and clue you in on me. I’m pretty simplistic. I like breaking things down and simplifying rather than the opposite. When I started out as a photographer, everything was multi light and fill setup and full of pizzazz! But of course, the more problematic shoots came, and I realized I needed to simplify my process. I’m also a fix-a-problem-on-the-spot type of guy.

ANYWAYS…Back to the photos:

Fr. Marc is a bit of a romantic, so we wanted to capture that on camera, in a way that told his story without overselling it. Tastefully dramatic I guess, because he’s not quite over the top himself. Here’s the first thing — timing matters®. You’ll realize, especially with location portraits, that timing matters.

As an Angeleno — born and raised — you come to the beach expecting a hard sun and a cloudless sky. As you can see from Fr. Marc’s photo, we didn’t have that. I had two thoughts running through my head: “Yes! A dramatic environment.” and “No! Flat light. Damn it, no catch lights*.”

*Catch lights — reflections of light sources in the eyes. It’s cloudy, direct light isn’t happening anywhere near us.

Shooting at the beach is a crapshoot in a number of ways. People, hard light, people, light skin, people, ocean spray, ocean spray, ocean spray. Let me stop here and beg you, don’t change your lenses without protection on the beach. Do it for the kids reading this blog post.

So, we went pretty compact here with what we had on the shoot. A flag or two, the camera, the single lens and the talent. Luckily for us, the beach was somewhat quiet. We did, however, have to mess around with our spots to ensure we had clear shots. Once we set up, then came the biggest challenge in the midst of fog and overcast skies — how do we set Fr. Marc off? With each set of images, there’s a tight and a wide. “Let’s get the tight first,” I told myself. That’s what I should have said, but didn’t.

With the light so soft, we tried a few things. A couple of walks toward the water, switching the rose around, throwing things. None of it ended up working. So we simplified. Romantic looking longingly out in the ocean. But simplification here gave us a couple of wins.

Contrast was problem number one. I solved it by getting down and dirty and kneeling in the grass. Since we went with the 100mm lens, it doesn’t look exaggeratedly low, but it works here for a number of reasons.

The horizon was my biggest weapon here. I used it to separate his body from his head, and the two focal points. I had to play with it a bit to get the right balance here. Strategically, you end up with three visual cues and image areas. The sky, the ocean and the beach.

The beach isn’t perfect from all of us walking around it, which gives it texture. By timing the shots, I was able to set the roses off with the sea foam. Then his head, which most likely was the first or second thing you noticed in this image. Each level allows your eyes to take in different parts of the photo. Oh, and I shot at f/2.8. You’ll come to realize I do that a lot.

The biggest technical note from this image is exposing with sky and water. Since everything is at different exposure levels, the only way to come away without clipping highlights or losing shadows is to look at your highest highlight (area between the horizon and the clouds) and the lowest shadow (his jacket). Try to compromise between the two in terms of exposure. This is what the original ended up looking like, in terms of histogram:

Try to cram as much of the two as possible. You’ll give your super awesome retoucher more to work with. The tight was a lot simpler, it just took a bit of coaxing to get the right reaction. I cheated him looking toward the sky, rather than toward the horizon to get that tiny little bit of catchlight. All that we needed.

And that’s how you shoot on a beach. Simple right? Until you bring lights into the equation.

-Robert

Camera: Canon 6D

Lens: Canon 100mm 2.8L Macro (love this thing)

Lighting: Mother Nature

In our last Behind the Lens blog post, which can be found here, Director and Creator Chris Yates shared the inspiration behind the photos featured in Emmaus: The Nature of the Way. Now, it’s time to learn more about how the photos themselves all went down. Read on for more!

Once the creative pre-production was complete, the logistical side of this massive undertaking was an ordeal on its own. I will often say that the only other time you could get 22 Jesuits to do anything at one time was mass. Now I can say that’s true about mass, or also letting a couple of college kids take pictures of them for an hour.

The studio portrait sessions were a controlled chaos. We more or less were able to automate the process between each man but we were shooting for hours and hours without a break. The studio portraits were completed over two weekends. For all the Jesuits who volunteered to participate, they had the option to sign up for a half an hour slot on two separate weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Our home base was the Jesuit Community Chapel on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, and we essentially took it over both weekends.

Setup would take about an hour, (which took two hours on the very first day so that we had an hour of testing the setup beforehand.) We started at 7:00 a.m., and unloaded two entire cars full of equipment, which in itself took about 40 minutes. We transformed the chapel into the perfect studio. A special shoutout goes to Bo Hamby for being our trusted assistant for both weekends (and often our photo test subject).

Photography. According to handy dandy Google, the word’s prefix, “photo,” refers to light and the suffix “graphy” sometimes means writing. Writing with light. It’s an interesting definition when you think about the art form.

My name is Robert Macaisa and I’m the photographer for Emmaus: The Nature of the Way.

Normally when I get asked by my clients to help them with photography, I usually end up asking the same question: What are you trying to say with the work we’re putting together? That’s the million dollar question! It’s the biggest challenge that gets me going for every shoot I do, every project I help out on.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. As photographers, I think that becomes our biggest challenge. We have to craft the photos that don’t just look good. We have to take photos that tell the thousand most profound words that bring emotion to the viewer.

In a sense, a major key for photography is storytelling. Whether it’s telling the right story to send a message, or to tell the story of the subject to the viewer, it has to be concise, it has to be punctuated correctly, it has to invoke feeling.

As photographers, we use art to tell our stories too. We pour a bit of ourselves into the work we make. Our influences, our experiences, our relationships — they’re all there somewhere within the photo.

That’s why every photo is different: every story and storyteller is different and unique.

A few weeks ago, you all had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Emmaus Director & Creator Chris Yates discuss the essence of all the photographs in Emmaus: The Nature of the Way here. We are going #BehindtheLens once again with Chris as he explains what photographers he looked to for inspiration when imagining what the Emmaus photos would look like. Enjoy!

Something we had to decide is the style of the photographs. These of course lean towards the editorial photography, mixed with a little bit of documentary style. We had two primary sources of inspiration: Joey Lawrence — or Joey L. — and Dan Winters. Both photographers are great portrait photographers and we looked to them for different types of inspiration.

I love Joey L’s work for his color palette and richness of color and tone. His photographs are very moody and elicit a strong reaction from the viewer. Dan Winters is an expert in lighting. His portraits are beautifully lit and he has made an art out of it. I also admire his sometimes unconventional approach to taking the normal portrait.

It is difficult to believe that 2016 is already over, but all of us here at Emmaus: The Nature of the Way are elated for all that is to come in 2017! While this adventure initially began in 2015, over the past two years, Emmaus has developed into what it is today. We are thrilled to announce how this project-turned-photography book will culminate in just a few months. Here is a quick peek into what to expect this year!

As many of you know, this photography book is more than just a compilation of photos and words — it also brings forth stories of love, death, fear, friendship, family and more. But there will also be another special aspect, a foreword written by a very special and influential member of the Catholic world. We look forward to announcing who it is in just a few short days!

There are also several other awesome pieces of the puzzle that will help bring 22 Jesuits’ stories to life. This will include everything from an audiobook to a website relaunch, both of which will highlight the people and the stories that have made this book what it is.

The biggest of all announcements is that Emmaus: The Nature of the Way will be hitting the shelves on April 22, 2017! We have been fortunate to have worked with The Marymount Institute Press and Tsehai Publishers throughout this journey. The book launch is just a few short months away, and we cannot wait to share the final product with you all! In the mean time, keep updated with all of our social media for announcements and giveaways!

Be sure to tune in again very soon to find out who wrote the Emmaus foreword!

We guessed that you all might be wondering how the journey of Emmaus: The Nature of the Way panned out after it began here. Consider this an early Christmas gift: you’re in luck because we’ve got the next piece of the puzzle for you! Take a read as Director & Creator Chris Yates discusses the next part of the journey!

Once I got permission from Fr. Deck, pre-production started in full swing. The most important aspect I decided from the beginning is output. What did I want this project to be? Obviously, a high-end coffee table photography book. With one shoot under our belts, it was important to make a decision about what type of photographs we would be taking — as this is the true backbone, and in my opinion, gives the project the great depth it needs. Immediately, I began to play with the divide between society and reality. Our studio shoots, coined “formal portraits” were to portray the Jesuits just as they are: as Jesuits. Paired with “environmental portraits,” bringing each man into their “element,” would lend an amazing juxtaposition between the two.

Everything that you see in each photograph is extremely intentional: the clothes, the color of the clothes, the glasses, the pins, the location, the depth of field, the hair, the hand placement, the foot placement, the chair…and I can go on and on. Everything that you see in the exceptional photographs, were for the most part, however, accidents. Controlled accidents, but still accidents nonetheless. We eagerly chase that moment that is captured in these photographs. Those moments you simply cannot construct, but you can plan for.

There is still more to come from here! Keep following along for some more pre-production insights from Chris!

Do you remember that awkward moment when you had this brilliant idea of photographing all 32 Jesuits living at Loyola Marymount University and the rector (also known as the Director of the Jesuit community) straight up said no? Good — because I do too.

Almost two years ago, when I brought this idea to Fr. Allan Deck — the rector — he was hesitant to move forward, as he did not initially take a liking to the idea. But I didn’t want to give up. I finally got him to agree to meet with me again a few weeks after our first meeting. I immediately went to work on my idea, which became an uphill battle.

The day of my first meeting with Fr. Deck, I had the class, “Archaeology and the Bible” with a Jesuit and Professor known as Fr. Fulco. I convinced him to agree to a photo shoot that weekend that would last “for half an hour” at most. Fast forward to that weekend, and four hours and many locations later, I finally had something tangible that brought the ideas in my head to life.

In the follow-up meeting I had with Fr. Deck, I let the work speak for itself. It was at that moment that Fr. Deck fell in love with the possibility of this project. He then gave me 10 names of Jesuits who would participate, believing that as a student with a full course load, a job and an internship three days a week, I wouldn’t have the bandwidth to handle much more. I then convinced the Jesuits I knew to participate, bumping the number up to 15. After our first shoot, word got around that this project wasn’t just a man with an iPhone taking photographs, but a legit setup. The rest of the Jesuits asked to participate, making our total number: 22.

Where did the journey go from here, you ask? Stay tuned to find out.