Justin's Triumph

Justin's Triumph





I have found along my short time in photography that the best opportunity to create photographs is when friends lend their time and faces to pose for my camera. The benefits are wonderful - there's no pressure on me to get it right and no one's feelings are hurt over the exchange of money. Often times, there is no discomfort at all since we all know each other. But in truth, finding anyone - friends or not - to agree to meet and spend some time being photographed is quite difficult. Friends or not, let's face it, I am not the most outwardly person there is when it comes to asking complete strangers to pose for a picture. In the few times that I have asked, I am often met with a sense of skepticism and curiosity as to why. I generally don't have a good answer other than "I need the experience and you seem to fit the bill. By the way, will you sign all of your rights away on my model release form?"


A few short months ago I met a guy named Justin by way of the husband of a girl I work with. (Okay - nevermind the relationship as to how. Let's just say I found someone with a need for some photos.) Justin had recently won a motorcycle burnout competition at a local event. One particular magazine in attendance expressed interest in featuring his bike. In comes the need for a photographer. A few chats over a few beers and I agreed to help him out. This arrangement is the perfect setup for me - a bike, a girl, and a guy to model at my disposal. The opportunity to work with all of these new elements was a great deal of incentive for me. This also proved to be the perfect opportunity for me to play with some remote flash units to create new lighting situations.


Aubrey - Justin's girlfriend who is also pictured in this shoot - was somewhat timid and new to this whole "take my picture" experience. It was evident after the first few minutes of the shoot that she too was lending her time to help out her boyfriend. I was particularly thankful as the mixture of a guy, girl, and piece of machine made for some great photo opportunities. Aubrey was a good sport, and as you can see by these photos, has the potential to model professionally.

The bike itself is a 1960's custom built "Triumph" brand motorcycle. I tried to ask as many questions as possible during the shoot - as I am not all that experienced with motorcycles - about the effort put into the bike and how much of it is built from original parts. I suppose if you are a rock collector then you collect rocks. If stamps are your thing, then you should have many stamps. I was not surprised to find out that this particular bike is one of many in his collection that he builds from the ground up for fun. A guy needs to have his toys and as such Aubrey stands by him and enjoys seeing Justin engrossed in his bike hobby.


I did my best to capture the essence of the bike and its maker given the awesome location in downtown Winston Salem. We met on a Sunday afternoon sometime after the rain had passed. The sun was low in the evening and left behind a nice welcome cool breeze from the summer heat. We posed the bike in two different spots and exchanged many ideas for posing the couple. We even stole a few suggested poses from a copy of one of Justin's bike magazines. Some poses were a bit to risque for Aubrey. I chose to not push the issue and was honestly just thrilled to have their attention.

Hopefully Justin's bike and my photos will soon appear on the pages of his favorite bike magazine. I will be thrilled to yet again see my name in print elsewhere and also see the work put into his hobby on display for other readers. We had a great time. I look forward to many other opportunities to photograph another Justin and Aubrey. Thanks guys.

(Justin and I cut it up a bit with this silly self-portrait in the reflection of the bike's headlight.)