The Ninja

A ninja, some power paint, snow shovels and a deserted warehouse.

That probably makes it sound a lot easier than it was.

First we had to get access into the deserted factory

Then we had to find a location that was safe.

Then I had to lower my expectations of what a real person could do as opposed to a ninja in a movie (I wanted him crouching against a wall 5 ft in the air….)

Then the fun began.

I think there were 2 people assisting and they love the powder paint throwing. To be honest we discovered that there is a real technique to it and we had several discussions and practices about how the powder paint should be placed on the shovel (spread out evenly in a line or a big pile in the middle etc etc) for the right kind of results.

When throwing paint for a photograph it is very easy to get focused on the look of the powder or the liquid and forget about the rest of the image so it is important to get that all ready and agreed first before bringing in the ‘messy’ factor. I like to look at them as two separate entities in the photograph and deal with them completely separately until they actually come together for the shot.

This shoot in particular had a high failure rate as the model had to get his pose bang on, avoid shutting his eyes and then the two paint throwers had to sync their throws so some powder was drifting down just enough while the next shovel had to hit at just the right time. Oh and then I had to capture all that at exactly the right moment. Between us there were certainly a few mistakes…. but we got there.

Just…