Road Trip with Craig Sheffer (One Tree Hill, A River Runs Through It)
Craig Sheffer, Mojave Desert. Leica M5 Camera with Cinestill 50D film
One of my best buddies in the world happens to be Craig Sheffer, who starred with Brad Pitt in the Robert Redford film A River Runs Through It. It was the 30th anniversary of the film and I get a phone call from LA that goes like this:
”Hey buddy, wanna do a road trip?”
”Depends.”
”Ever seen The Grand Canyon, The Great Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Yellowstone, Mojave Desert or any of that good stuff?"
“I’ll see you next week!”
After landing, we hit the road.
Monument Valley, Shot on Leica M10
It’s scorching. Air conditioning is on throughout the entire trip, but what a trip! From the Mexican border to the Canadian border and back, taking in the majestic scenery at every turn. Craig took on 100% of the driving and made light work of it. Lots of anecdotes of previous trips, occasional stops in unexpected places and we’re in our element.
I restricted my cameras to Leica only for this trip. Two M5’s and a digital M10, plenty of film and lenses from 15mm, 35mm, 40mm, 50mm to 90mm. I kept it light.
At The Mint - bar in Livingstone, Montana. The cast and crew of A River Runs Through It would frequent the bar while filming.
We met so many amazing people. I bumped into Tony, who is the new Ansel Adams of the National Parks. We spent a bit of time talking about cameras of course, and he was doing an amazing job in the Grand Canyon when we met.
From beautiful rivers and mountains, to astounding and colossal walls of the Vermillion Cliffs, this was in every way the adventure of my lifetime. Craig saw all of the locations he shot in once more, and would I go again? Absolutely.
To cap it all, in a very interesting way, Craig has a huge collection of film photographs he took while shooting the film. We took a portrait of Brad Pitt that has remained completely unseen to the world to a quality printer in Livingstone Montana and a large image was produced.
30 years after being taken, at that location, the photograph comes home to be made real. There’s something poetic in that, and that one of a kind print of a moment almost never seen is now hung on a wall in Santa Monica.
Livingstone, Montana. Shot on Washi 50D with a Leica M5.
Back From A Long Break!
It’s been very busy. The studio has now moved location, the website tweaked here and there, more investment in our equipment has been done… and we’re ready to go again! First up is a new magazine shoot for a German publication, a very well known musical artist and we also just became the official photographer for Predator’s Gear sportswear.
Thanks for your patience, Barefoot fans :) We know you love what we do, and more of our mega-scale photographic art projects are well on the way, with prints available in every size concievable!
More James Bond?
I recently had dinner with the stunt crew of the new James Bond movie which is currently in production. I don’t know anything about the story which is a state secret in itself, but we did get some shooting done!
Bond Girl. But which one...?
This wouldn’t be a ‘behind the scenes’ blog without some behind the scenes images! This image was taken in bright daylight in the afternoon. After dialing in the settings to my camera and lights, I made the scene look as if it is late night and neon lit. Here’s a couple of pictures taken during the shoot from my client’s cell phone.
You can do so much with lighting and camera settings to create the vision you want. I absolutely encourage anyone to develop their own style, look and to forget about the gear they’re using. You can make beautiful images with a camera, natural sunlight and a strong idea! You can use tools like I do too, but whatever you want to create, make it indelibly yours and make it beautiful.
Of course, we all had waaaay to much Thai food after the shoot to the point I could barely move! A wonderful way to spend the day and a fabulous way to end it off.
Thai food, and a great evening with the stunt crew
Cult Movie Director, Dario Argento Shoot!
Dario Argento has inspired me for 30 years. Visually, his works are a masterpiece of colour, composition and lighting. His tour-de-force technicality in visceral movie making is legendary and he is a known influence on his good friends Quinten Tarantino, John Carpenter and many more. He’s not referred to as “The Italian Hitchcock” for no reason!
I was having dinner with him while we flipped through my portfolio. I will never forget the moment when this master of visuals sat back, looked at my work and simply said “Bellissimo!” with no hesitation. Magical.
Next day we were shooting! Dario doesn’t do photo-shoots like this. Not ever. We went deep into an industrial steel complex, lit the scene and began shooting. It was an instant synergy. Having the maestro himself as my subject, I put him into a giallo film noir! We’d discussed film noir the night before, and it seemed only fitting given the over sized trench coat he was wearing and the massive space we were in to bring out that look.
Dario Argento, Shot by Martin Brown, The Barefoot Photographer
I have many more to come from this shoot. I will see Dario again in August for the launch of his auto-biography and be doing the photography to cover the event. I will take a print in of this image for Dario to sign as a one off, signed by myself and Dario as a true collector’s piece.
Until August for more work with the Maestro!
Martin
Shoot With X Factor's Soheila Clifford
So, I bumped into Soheila Clifford from the X Factor TV show and did a shoot the very next day with her!
Shot in the steel factory of Magna in Sheffield, the venue kindly gave us access to the ground level where all of the steel equipment is for some exceptional Steampunk shots.
There are many more from this shoot to be developed, and once again I am incredibly happy that a very talented artist expressed a wish to work with me to create something that reflects them.
Are you next? Call us on 0800 112 0 115 and we can talk about a shoot to fit your aesthetic tastes