Todays Shoot - Maris The Great

If you dont know who Maris is... HE WILL KILL YOU! or I will explain a bit... I first started conversing with Maris as he worked with my friends in Bury Your Dead. What he does, is, he MURDERS bands. Basically think of the most gory, brutal, murder photos, and thats what he does. oh and p.s. hes a homosexual zombie. self-proclaimed "zombie fag".

I love zombies! so horror + music + photography = my thing! So we ended up working together in 2006 on ozzfest as he murdered Walls of Jericho and The Red Chord, but havent crossed paths again... until today!!!!

Originally the idea was, I was doing a shoot with him and was going to be killed, however, my death will have to wait until the next time our paths cross.. So I just ended up doing a really cool photo shoot with him.

Because this was mid tour, I wanted to do more simple lighting, so I wasnt lugging around tons of gear, with a zombie, in crowded public areas where we would be mobbed by Maris fans, or on lookers.

We started in the dressing room, which was seemingly unused by the band anyway, so I started with a boomed light, took one shot i liked, then switched to split lighting - two umbrellas on dynalite uni400 jackrabbits tuned in just a little bit.

Remember, if your subject is wearing a mask, or facepaint, you have to shine about 1 extra stop worth of light to really get it to expose correctly, as facepaint doesnt reflect light the same way skintone does, it mattes it out a bit.

I shot with the canon mark 2 1ds - using the 24-70 2.8 - i was shooting at a 160th - at F10 (normally id be at 14 here, but had to brighten it up for the attire and facepaint) or to ummm, catch the brutal decaying skin of the zombie!





















































































I then had an idea to shoot him naturally, coming through the door, I shot these at 2.8 to get a real strong depth of field, but with the lights primarily being back lighting - i had to jump to ISO 1k and shoot at a 30th





























After those shots we went outside, for all the outdoor shots I generally used a boomed beauty dish, which is perfect because it brings out his mohawk and face perfectly. There are some shots where I dragged the shutter a bit to get a bit of a blur and bring in the red street ligthing, making it look really creepy! for those i exposed for a full second, other than that i was at a 160th - F14

check it out










































































































I was sooo pumped to finally get to do a photo sesh with the mighty Maris The Great! - this has been YEARS in talks and in the works, and it finally happened!

I also did a video of him stalking the band I was on tour with - IWRESLEDABEARONCE - you should check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RbDiLf9zFo

Hoping my paths cross with Maris sooner rather than later.

BEST ZOMBIE EVER!