16 Mar The DK & Morgan Show
DK and Morgan, two improv comedians from the Bellingham area, were a blast to shoot. They asked me to shoot some funny situations that they could use for marketing their show. As a photographer, it’s usually my job to entertain and make my subjects feel comfortable, in-turn getting a relaxed, fun image with a genuine smile. The guys made my job easy, in fact, I was the one who was entertained. Instead of worrying about getting a expression on my clients’ face I had to worry about missing good ones ’cause theses guys stayed in character and kept the jokes rolling. I don’t think I’ve laughed my way through a shoot quite like this before. I turned on the lights, pulled the camera out of the bag and these guys started a little mini improv show without me even asking. We setup a couple different scenarios that we thought would be comically strange and a good improv environment for advertising these goofs. Kinda like the… “caption this picture” situation.
Jesus and The Barbarian, one of the skits they perform, was fun to shoot. Morgan makes a great Jesus, looks like a clone of the painting my parent’s have of Jesus hanging on their wall. DK’s raging black mullet and Conan-like sword combo was pretty awesome. Morgan had forgotten a piece of his outfit out in his car and had to go fetch it. So he ran out to get it in his robe. We could tell once he got outside cause we heard screams of laughter from unsuspecting Bellinghamers who just saw Jesus run past them on the sidewalk. I have to admit, I don’t think anyone could resist a double-take if barefoot Morgan went strolling by, acting like it was perfectly normal attire.
The spot we shot in was extremely cool, everything was old rock, brick, and wood, which all had a lot of character and textures. Too many possibilities really, so we just walked around, picked a couple, and ran with it.
This next shot is setup to where we have one serious subject in the foreground and a goofy, mocking-type subject in the background. I wanted there to be a definite separation of characters here, so setting up a giant softbox and blasting the duo was out of the question. I used 4 lights, and varying combination of grid spots to accomplish the separation, notice the rim light on Morgan’s left shoulder, setting him apart from DK. Each subject gets their own light, plus one to expose the brick wall as well.
We also shot some stuff with a lot of negative space with the intention of integrating the entire picture for an ad and using the negative space for text and other goodies.
We finished off with some side-lit shots for some graphic/ad work. DK and Morgan were quite the comedic par. If you get the chance, you should definitely check out their show. They are currently working in and around the Bellingham and Seattle area.
