The goal of this project was to make a photograph of someone in their favorite room. My interpretation of this may seem a little strange because my subject is sitting in a 1947 Willy’s C2a. The subject is my father, Rusty Jackman. His most recent obsession is his vintage jeep. When I asked him what his favorite room was he simply said it was the cab of his jeep.
To make this project legit, I decided to photograph him in his jeep inside of his garage. It’s a fitting location because he is preparing to take his Willy’s on a 600 mile off road adventure called War Hero/ Trail Hero.
From the beginning thinking about this project I knew I wanted to incorporate the Jeep. I decided to light my subject through the windshield of the vehicle. To do this I position a portable strobe just outside of the vehicle pointing in towards his face from the passenger side of the jeep. I like to showcase my dad’s wrinkled face so I chose to use harsh specular light with no diffusion.
To show some texture from the room in the background I originally planned to use the sun spilling in from the open garage door. On the day of the shoot, however, it was too overcast to light the background up. I set up a second strobe just outside of the garage to light up the toolbox and shelving in the background.
I liked this project. It was a good opportunity to make an image of someone I look up to. It was also cool to maneuver the slightly difficult lighting situation. It took a bit of trial and error to get things right lighting wise. I’m pleased with the final result.
Kolton Jackman 