When I finished this series last year I neglected to upload the final two images from this series to the blog, so here they are!

The first image is from a local shoe repair shop in Warner Robins, GA. The owner and subject is Bob Harte. When I walked in his shop I fell in love with the old machines and rugged quality of all the tools laying around. Bob told me that many of the machines he uses to repair shoes have been in his shop for over 50 years.

The second image was taken on a chicken farm just outside of Perry, GA. The owner and subject is Pat Ellis. The Ellis farm is a supplier of chickens for Chic-Fil-A restaurants. Contrary to shoe repair, the chicken industry is as high-tech as they come. I was amazed at the amount of technology that went into raising chickens. Almost everything on the farm was computer controlled, from feeding to humidity and temperature control.

As you can see, the lighting in this last image was quite tricky because there was almost no available light in the photograph, but I knew that I wanted to show the depth and size of the building. I used a tripod and a slow shutter speed to catch the available light and a speedlight with an umbrella for the main light on the subject. The most difficult part of the session was keeping the chicken under control. I managed to snap this frame just as she (the chicken) was looking at the lens.

Let me know what you think, I really enjoyed this series and met some very interesting people along the way. It’s a great subject that is relevant anywhere in the world. I hope to continue working on it in other parts of the country and beyond.

Tim Lewis is the owner of Lewis Farms Nursery in Elko, Georgia.  Tim was born and raised in Elko, and he and his family live in the same house he grew up in as a boy. My goal was to capture Tim in a natural environment and pose, surrounded by the plants he cares for.

I am having a difficult time choosing between these two shots. Please let me know which one you think is stronger.

Charlie Jones, owner of Jones and Son produce.

Juan Martinez is the owner of Guate Mexo – Tienda San Juanerita,  a small food and convenience store located on N. Davis Hwy in Warner Robins, Georgia.  The mango flavored Mexican soda is terrific and I highly recommend it!

Ricky Nelson (left) and Juan Martinez (right) stand outside Ricky's storefront.

Ricky is the owner of Nelson & Son’s Auto Detailing on 601 N. Davis Dr. in Warner Robins, Georgia.  This photo was taken outside his business.

Here is the original version with only natural light (see comments below).  The final image was lit with one 580exii on 1/2 power from camera right.  The flash was positioned at a 90 degree angle from the subject to eliminate reflection in the window.  A second 580exii was used on camera with a homemade diffuser modifier for fill.

Quite a difference from the lit image above.

]]> http://www.johndcorson.com/blog/2010/03/21/ricky-and-juan/feed/ 2 http://www.johndcorson.com/blog/2010/03/16/new-project-small-business-owners-and-employees/ http://www.johndcorson.com/blog/2010/03/16/new-project-small-business-owners-and-employees/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:19:02 +0000 jcorson http://www.johndcorson.com/blog/?p=440

Angelica Felton, an employee at "Sista's Soul Food" in Warner Robins, GA

I am starting a new project here in Georgia on small business owners and their employees. The goal of the project is to photograph owners of interesting small businesses and their employees. I am looking for very small businesses that offer either interesting products or services, or have exceptionally amazing owners or employees. The initial project will last 2 months, although it could continue through the summer, depending on how much time I have to devote to it. For the first time ever, I will be shooting this project entirely through digital capture. This is a huge departure for me, since all of my previous documentary work has been captured on medium or large format film. The greatest motivating factor in this decision was my purchase of a large amount of digital equipment. With this purchase, my digital assortment of lenses and lighting equipment is much more comprehensive than my current film setup. I also no longer have access to a darkroom, which makes analog capture very difficult in terms of work flow.

I will be posting new images here hopefully each week. Instead of featuring commentary on each new photograph, I will simply post the highlights, in the hopes of adding more content without the need to explain each image with text. Stay tuned and please offer comments and suggestions. Now that I am out of school, it is hard to find peer critique for my work.

Update – The original image for this post was the incorrect one. I have replaced it with the current image which I believe is much stronger. So if you notice the image is slightly different, you are not going insane.

You can follow this project and see the most recent images in this series here.