Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and shoot photos of Frank Tarantino, 80, beside the old dairy barn he owns in Carmel Valley, Calif. Built in 1889, the barn housed the cows that produced the first batches of Monterey Jack cheese. Frank is working with friends to restore the barn before the historic building falls apart. He’s a classic old guy with an amazing piece of history. This is why I love being a photographer! For the first two shots I used natural light. I met up with Frank at the barn in the early evening and by then the sun was filtered through a tree. I moved him around to position one of the small slivers of sunlight on his head.
Then in the third photo we went to the other end of the barn. I zoomed my strobe and dropped it down a stop and then popped the light to his left with an off camera cord. I had some help holding the strobe up as I shot from a low angle. When I first chimped at the images on the back of my camera I liked the high key effect the of the strobed image. Later after looking at the images on my computer I decided that I prefer the ones shot in the natural light. I was in a rush to jump to another assignment but I did have a few minutes to walk with Frank and hear about the history of the place. I hope Frank gets his wish.
