Lesson Info
23. Shooting a monkey with a gun
Lessons
Meet your Master
01:26 2Learn from the journey
15:24 3Using inspirations
08:43 4Photography is stopping time
09:27 5Albert's library of ideas
08:30 6Tips on preparing for a portrait shoot
12:10 7Setting up the studio
04:56 8Understanding studio collaboration
07:35The importance of casting and hair & make-up
08:59 10Foreground studio set up
08:46 11Studio session with a model - set up 1
11:23 12Studio session with a model - set up 2
05:55 13Studio session with a model - set up 3
08:01 14Picking the best shot
03:36 15Working with photoshop
13:14 16Creating a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock
04:18 17The gigantic question... Colour or black and white?
07:55 18One day with Kate Moss
05:06 19Learn to have your ideas ready
06:14 20Using Polariods
06:29 21Creating beautiful photographs of hands
04:45 22Controlling natural light
05:38 23Shooting a monkey with a gun
06:27 24Choosing your format
07:13 25Composition and lens
04:47 26Shooting landscapes. The Isle of Skye
15:18 27Planning and ideas for a landscape shoot
06:32 28Creating still life images
13:48 29Photographing the Lost Diary
10:53 30Shooting album covers
03:09 31The Strip Search Project
10:28 32Shooting Las Vegas landscapes
08:24 33Photographing Breaunna
07:21 34Balancing daylight, God bless America
03:45 35Creating the Maroc Project
10:21 36Creating the Maroc shoot
08:11 37Photographing sand dunes
04:09 38Photographing Moroccan children
10:42 39Advice on making portraits
10:12 40How to be alert to finding photographs
07:35 41Making a portrait of Mike Tyson
02:39 42Creating intense colour in a photograph
03:04 43Portraits of rap stars and a Golden Boy
08:40 44Photographing Jack Nicholson
04:20 45Creating a portrait of David Cronenberg
02:14 46How to light only using two $10 bulbs
07:29 47Studio fashion set up 4
10:47 48Studio session with a model. The geography of a face
13:05 49Look inside the picture
02:56 50Creating memorability in an image
02:54 51Combining nudes and landscapes
04:52 52A perfect print
07:50 53The business side of things
06:50 54Conclusion and farewell
03:55Lesson Info
Shooting a monkey with a gun
(upbeat music) A lot of times, people ask me how did the monkey project happen? Where did the monkeys come from? I was actually photographing an advertising campaign and they used a monkey, called Casey. They brought the monkey to the studio, a chimpanzee. I had absolutely no idea what expectations. I haven't photographed. I've photographed some monkeys in Africa, but not in a situation in a studio in New York, you know. So anyway, the chimpanzee came in and to cut a long story short, I shot with this monkey for about eight hours. I can only say that we bonded. That was the rather odd part about the story is that I actually bonded with this monkey. At one point I went upstairs and the monkey and I sat on the kitchen, and I made the monkey a cup of tea, and the trainer came in and said to the monkey, "You gonna don't forget the tea is hot." So the monkey blew on his tea before he sip his tea. So I sat there in this kitchen of mine, kinda I find myself chatting to this monkey. It was a...
very strange kind of experience. But the monkey was kind of obviously having a very good time. At the end of the day, after this long shoot, doing different things, they were two things happen. One thing that happen I realized that whatever I did, I could get that monkey to copy what I was doing. In other words, if I put both my hands here, the monkey would put, it would copy whatever I did. So if I did a classic evil scene, or evil thing, et cetera then he would just simply do that. I thought that was kind of interesting. I thought this is, I'm able to recreate where the monkey just what I can actually do with a actor or a human being whatever. So it stuck on my mind that. And then at the end of the day, when the monkey was leaving, the monkey actually didn't want to leave me. He got a hold of me and he didn't want to leave, he was screaming which was quite terrifying. He just wanted to stay with me and hang out with me, which was very flattering I might say. Eventually they tore the monkey away from me and got the monkey into it's box, and they got the monkey out of the studio screaming. I thought about this for a while, it always stayed with me. And about six months later, I thought, you know what, I'm gonna get a stylist and a prop person and let's put a shooting together before Casey and really make him a star as it were. I got masks for the monkey, I got various, I did a magic monkey with a wizards outfit. I got several chains, you know. A chained monkeys. I came up a bunch of loose ideas about monkeys. (upbeat music) I don't know why I thought about it was a monkey with a gun. It was something, I'm not a, of course any thinking person, I'm not a fan of guns. But I just thought there were something strange of a monkey with a gun. That later became a very well known shot of mine. In fact, it was one of the few things that I couldn't get the monkey to do is to hold the gun properly. I wanted the monkey to hold the gun like this. And every time the monkey took the gun, the gun was quite heavy, and it will always let it fall. So I ended up shooting the gun pointing downwards, and then flipped the shot up there. I was in front of the monkey when the monkey, he has the mask on, and I started shouting and laughing. And the monkey would just simply copy me. So there was all these picture of the monkey with the mask. The monkey looking sad, I could actually make the monkey look sad. The monkey would look down and looked very sad. So I could do all of these things with the monkey. So it was a perfect, it was actually a fun day, and I actually did all of these pictures. I did about 20 or 30 different situations with the monkey in that one day shooting. It was a personal project with a monkey. People loved it later on. Years later, the prints became quite valuable. Everybody bought them and most of them are sold out. The monkey with the gun was sold out a long time ago. It's this idea for you to be on all of the time. In other words, trying be working all the time. I had the advertising job with a monkey, but there again, at the end of the day, I was thinking how can I turn this whole situation to my advantage, not just doing advertising job with a monkey. How can I make it into something that's more art driven, more of an art project? As far as the camera was concerned, I really had greatly opted for a Hasselblad. I shot a lot of them with a 120mm lens on a Hasselblad. And also against white. I didn't want to have any intrusion of that. I wanted to make them conceptual. There's a lot of people that have taken animals into the studio and done sharp pictures of the animal. But once again, the thing to emphasize here which is pretty obvious, it wasn't just a shot of a monkey. In fact, I did very few pictures of just the monkey. There was a concept behind it. It's conceptual thinking again, comes to the rescue of the shot. Concept planning, planning, planning, planning. Like in real estate, location, location, location. It's planning, planning, planning. (upbeat music)
Ratings and Reviews
Richard A. Heckler
"Unless you're Mozart"...this course is an invaluable asset. I'm a pro, humanitarian/documentary photographer, & wilderness...and I've learned much from the 40+ sessions here. This is truly a Master Class...next best thing to being with Albert. And although I could watch studio sessions forever, this course offered a very balanced curriculum of technical information, artistic encouragement and guidance, and a open, generous window into the thinking of a gifted artist and photographer, sifted from decades of first class experience. Kudos to all involved. Excellent!
a Creativelive Student
I purchased my first CreativeLive class in 2011 and have continued to purchase many classes over the years. I have learned so much from the many great instructors. This one is not a technical class that will tell you to set your camera at f4, 1/60, ISO 400 and you can get this shot. If you are looking for that, there are many other options. If you have a solid working knowledge of photography, this class is so much more. The way it was filmed is like you are there with him in conversation or in the room with him watching him shoot. To see and understand the how and why he does what he does. Not to take anything away from other classes that have helped to give me a strong understanding of photography, this is my favorite CreativeLive class so far.