What’s up guys! My name is David Talley. I’m a USA-based photographer and teacher with a focus in dark storyline visuals. My mission as an artist is to help see the darkness of the world turn in to light. Mysterious imagery, adventurous storylines, and romantic undertones are blended together in my worlds to create a deeply relatable emotion that identifies with our human collective, and beckons us to rationalize a story about what comes next.
In talking with the Flickr Community team, I thought it would cool to see how I created the atmosphere of this image, titled “Entropic.” The backstory for this image is a man who is involved in a plane crash in the jungle while traveling home to see his wife overseas. It really hones in on feelings of distress, despair, romance, heartache, and adventure – all things we can identify with as human beings – and all things that require certain visual cues to be created in-camera.
In the video below (be sure to subscribe to my new YouTube Channel!), you can see how my friend Rob Woodcox built a dense-forest set on little more than jute-twine and bamboo poles in my dark, creepy basement. We hope you feel encouraged by the simplicity of the setup to pursue your imagination and build a great scene with the resources you have at hand all around you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnPgawNZwI
The shoot took roughly 9 hours from beginning to final execution. The shoot diagram looked like this:
To create this scene and communicate the story effectively, I wanted to shoot in a dense, dark forest. I live in Oregon, so going to a forest pretty much entails me walking out my back door. However, I opted for building a forested set indoors for a few different reasons. The arial set allowed me to have much more control over that dense feeling that is present in the image.
By creating the grid, placing the foliage atop it and shooting from above, I made the leaves feel much more dense, and we had more control over set placement. We were also able to have sparks on set, something we couldn’t do in a dry forest, and the fog that settled in the cool of the basement contributed to the visual presence of the image.
https://gifyu.com/images/Entropic.gif
Where you build your set will greatly influence the atmosphere of your image. When I think of the emotions I want to convey in my images and the story I want to portray, I look for the best possible place to build that image. For this shot, the foggy haze was key to the atmosphere of the final image and I wasn’t sure I could get the effect on location.
http://i57.tinypic.com/2lngxoo.jpg
Gear and props used in this shoot:
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Canon 5D Mark II Body, Sigma 50mm 1.4 Lens, Canon 85mm 1.8 Lens, Chauvet Fog Machine, Neewer Softbox, Vanguard Abeo Pro Tripod, Yongnuo flash trigger, Aperlite Speedlight, Swiss Utili-key, bamboo and other various forms of “borrowed” foliage, jute twine, blood, sweat, and tears…..
If you want to join me in a workshop, I’m thrilled to let you know I’ll be teaching these processes hands-on in Rio de Janeiro (August 28-30), São Paulo (September 5), Sorrento (September 11-13), and Jaipur (October 23-25).
I’ll also be a guest speaker with Rob Woodcox in Tokyo (Sep 25-27) and Vietnam (October 16-18). These are the most exotic destinations we’ve ever taught in, and we’d love to invite you along!
With over 30 hours of hands-on instruction over the course of the 3-day event, we will be giving you the skills to plan, shoot, and edit beautiful stories and portraits, and teach you how to build and run a photography business, while growing your social media following.
To sign up or learn more about my workshops, visit http://www.davidtalley.io/workshops.
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Thanks for reading guys! I’ll be back with more behind the scenes content very soon! And feel free to follow Rob and me on Flickr to see more of our work.