Standerd Slides

Subject: Shaun Murray
Photo: Joey Meddock

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Profile section, page 55

A few years back, I shot some stuff with Murray spelling out his name at night with a sparkler. Since I was making my trip to the firework store to get morters for the July cover shot, I thought I’d buy some much needed sparklers as well. I wanted to recreate the idea but didn’t want to directly rip off what I had done in the past.

We went over to his parents’ house to try this idea again. I took a few packs of sparklers, an intern, a flashlight and a tripod. Getting him to spell out his name backwards was nearly impossible so I had him spell it as if he was writing on a chalkboard, then we’d flip the image in photoshop so it would read correctly to the viewer. The hard part about that was making sure his t-shirt didn’t have any writing on it. If it did, it meant when we flipped the image it would be a dead giveaway what we did cause his shirt would read backwards. So rather than you figuring it out on paper, you are figuring it out here on StanderdSlides.com. Bonus.

Basically, I set the camera on a tripod, opened the shutter, had Shaun light the sparkler and do his thing, then pop him with a flash when he was done writing…all while the shutter is still open. When the sparkler ran out, he just threw it behind and got into position to pose. POP! Wallla…

-MEDDOCK