CraigC
Sixgun Nut
A discussion was started on my forum about different backdrops and I thought my response would make a good thread here. As a long time fan of John Taffin, one of the things that always struck me about his work was the photography, which I eventually learned was his own. It's probably why I've always preferred outdoor backdrops and natural lighting to studio pics. There's a picture in Taffin's first book that really struck me as a perfect sixgun pic. It's a plain blued Vaquero with fancy walnut grips, laying on a pair of leather gloves on top of an old stump. It's still one of my favorite pics.
An early attempt to replicate it from 20yrs ago. My first custom gun and my first digital camera.
I've also used pallets. This one was nice and "barky".
Still have this one out in the shop. It spent enough time outside to turn gray.
This is actually the weathered deck of my flatbed trailer.
A few years ago I found a section of old barn door at an antique mall. Had to screw it down to a section of plywood to keep it from falling apart.
The old barn door coupled with a smoked, brain-tanned buckskin.
Found these old saddlebags at a junk store in the mountains a few years ago.
Always thought this was one of my best compositions. An old picnic table that was damp from a recent rain. It was still overcast and the lighting was perfect to accentuate the contrast between it and two plated sixguns.
Two old logs behind the house.
A good fence post works too!
We've come full circle. We had a big wind storm two years ago and had some downed trees, so I took the opportunity to use the cuttings as backdrops. They started out looking like this:
Now they're nice and crusty. I really need to start a new one and keep it up off the ground so it lasts longer:
An early attempt to replicate it from 20yrs ago. My first custom gun and my first digital camera.
I've also used pallets. This one was nice and "barky".
Still have this one out in the shop. It spent enough time outside to turn gray.
This is actually the weathered deck of my flatbed trailer.
A few years ago I found a section of old barn door at an antique mall. Had to screw it down to a section of plywood to keep it from falling apart.
The old barn door coupled with a smoked, brain-tanned buckskin.
Found these old saddlebags at a junk store in the mountains a few years ago.
Always thought this was one of my best compositions. An old picnic table that was damp from a recent rain. It was still overcast and the lighting was perfect to accentuate the contrast between it and two plated sixguns.
Two old logs behind the house.
A good fence post works too!
We've come full circle. We had a big wind storm two years ago and had some downed trees, so I took the opportunity to use the cuttings as backdrops. They started out looking like this:
Now they're nice and crusty. I really need to start a new one and keep it up off the ground so it lasts longer:
