Lots of fun things have been happening in the McNeil studio lately, including cool studio lighting setups, artist collaborations, the shipping of lithographs, and just plain old emails with fine coffee.

Lately I've been having traffic with my lithographs, which is very cool. They're limited edition prints and are quite beautiful; I'm just getting ready to ship another one tomorrow.

There is a fireplace on the far end that was heavily used this winter when it was chilly outside. It was my favorite place to do emails all winter; very cozy with a hot mug of fine coffee. I got a banana tree for father's day last year and it makes the place feel a little exotic, especially when there is snow outside the door.

Notice the green chromakey for the tabletop shot? I like this kind of setup because if I want, I just lift the object up and voilà, a chromakey background appears, just like magic. Sometimes white is better, because it reflects white values back into the subject and has a subtle open feeling with the lighting. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but lighting is one of the strengths in all of my work, starting way back when.

You know it's been a most excellent session because everyone was too tired to really do much but eat and maybe have a quick beer. I left the lighting set up until I took a look at all the photos on the laptop, and only then could we break everything down and call it good. This was all shot with a Nikon D800, which is a nearly 40 megapixel DSLR. It's an amazing camera for shooting in the studio because it has a mighty dynamic range, captures the most subtle details and the lenses are impeccably sharp. I'm impressed with it, to say the least. Okay, now on to the next phase of shooting.

Story and Photographs Copyright Larry McNeil, 2013 All Rights Reserved