{"id":5791,"date":"2016-02-20T12:55:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T17:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=5791"},"modified":"2018-03-09T08:24:31","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T13:24:31","slug":"portrait-kim-patti-master-woodworker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutrc.com\/?p=5791","title":{"rendered":"Portrait: Kim Patti – Master Woodworker"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of months ago, I met my friend Kim Patti and spoke about photography stuff. \u00a0While we were sitting around talking about photography, he relayed to me how much work he does with wood. \u00a0Dont know why but I had spent the several months previous wondering about a bunch of wood projects (this despite the fact that I am absolutely horrendous at doing anything with my hands).<\/p>\n

\"wing<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kung Fu Dummy Begins<\/h3>\n

I spoke to him about my desire to make a Kung Fu wooden dummy to practice on at home. \u00a0I found tons of youtube videos out there on how to build one using MDF – but even so, those things seemed amazingly complex. A couple of weeks later, Kim shocked me by calling and saying “Challenge Accepted! \u00a0Im going to start building one of these from scratch. \u00a0But we are going to build one the way you -should- build it . \u00a0From an actual wood trunk!”<\/p>\n

\"starting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The process started for me using an Adze<\/a>\u00a0that was made in the 1700s to remove the bark of one of the trees. I got to do that – and got to do some of the cleanup at the workshop. \u00a0I feel like an actual apprentice!!<\/p>\n

Turning the Body<\/h3>\n

\"s-l1600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once you have gotten rid of all of the bark,\u00a0\u00a0you have to reduce\u00a0the log to the size that it needs to\u00a0be by getting rid of the excess wood and making it smooth and round. \u00a0To do this, you have to spin the log and cut off all of the excess using a Lathe. \u00a0Want to get one that is 6 feet so that you can make this job easy? \u00a0Yeah, thats about 20 thousond dollars. \u00a0Or you can get this one for 6 grand<\/a> and give up your garage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_1680\"<\/p>\n

So what does he do when he needs to turn this giant log?! Instead of using a large Lathe, Kim actually built<\/em><\/strong> one from wooden parts right on his table!! \u00a0The amount of skill this man has is contstantly amazing me. \u00a0Now – I’m supposed to be helping here on this project – so my job is to physically turn the log while he runs the router down the trunk of the tree. No motor.. just hands. \u00a0But pretty ingenious when you come to think of the fact that he built the track for it, built the adapter for the jig, and built the table to do it on. \u00a0All out of wood. \u00a0Watching someone like this work has been incredibly humbling..<\/p>\n

I also dont think i can really explain how zen the entire process has been feeling. \u00a0I wish I had more skill in this kind of stuff. \u00a0With everything going on, all I want to do is run up to his garage and hide in there, working on this dummy, a table, some bookcases. \u00a0Kim explained to me about a certain kind of pride that you have when you make something with your bare hands. \u00a0As a photographer i can totally see what he means there. I am excited to see how it comes, and I love the fact that – clumsy as I am – im actually putting something together with my own two hands. \u00a0This thanks to another teacher that has come across my path – at the exact moment that I need to.<\/p>\n

Nothing is coincidental here. \u00a0Kim is another creative totem for me. I’ll talk about all of these in a bit.<\/p>\n

Making The Portrait<\/h3>\n

\"IMG_1695\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To stare into Kim’s woodshop is to stare into something downright amazing<\/em>. \u00a0The level of detail here is too cool! \u00a0The ambiance just screams that this man is a master. \u00a0The moment I walked into the garage, all I could see is a cool portrait of Kim in the middle of all of the tools that he uses to make his masterpieces.<\/p>\n

I wanted to give the portrait a intimate feel, and only highlight portions of the shop. \u00a0I also wanted to make sure I got as much detail as possible in the picture – I intend to print this puppy BIG! \u00a0To do that I used the Canon 5DS with a 24-70 lens. \u00a0I brought the ISO down to around 100, and shot at F11.<\/p>\n

\"initial-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Starting at 1\/160 I started dragging until I saw just a hint of the environment. \u00a0I knew that the lamp was going to be in the shot, but with all of the lights in the shot and the shutter where it was, I would not be able to light his face and make it look consistent with the lamp in the frame. \u00a0 I’d need to fix that.<\/p>\n

\"breakdown\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the setup here, we have 4 Canon 600EX-RT’<\/a>s setup. \u00a0Two for the background elements to the left and right and one for the elments at the front of the table. \u00a0From there, we set up another 600EX-RT high camera right, with just enough light to light him and give the intention that he’s lit from the lamp (My attempt to tip the\u00a0hat to Heisler<\/a> by motivating the practical<\/em>). \u00a0A flag at the bottom of that flash would prevent a lot of spill onto the silver part of the flash.<\/p>\n

Couple of pops later, we got the shot.<\/p>\n

Printing the Shot<\/h3>\n

\"IMG_1823\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I saw the picture, it had a little bit of an old world Geppetto feel to it. \u00a0I wanted it to have that rough old world artistic feel to it, but wanted to keep all of that detail.<\/p>\n

I have been having a lot of fun with the Canon Pro-1000<\/a> printer recently – so off to the printer it went. I paired the print with the Hahnemuhle William Turner 310gsm Paper<\/a> \u00a0(Amazon link:\u00a0Can get it here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Drove up there and handed it to Kim – ever thankful to run into yet another master along my creative way. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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