On February 29, 2020, I did a headshot session for my friend Nathan Miller in what I hoped would be a template for Distant Era creative portrait sessions. It was my second time working with Rose Nobs, primary makeup artist on The People of Light and Shadow series. I was busy shooting performance, headshots, publicity and marketing images for theatre and dance, planning Distant Era series, and working a full-time job in publishing. Something had to give, but none of us expected that it would be the whole world coming undone over the next few weeks.
In what was to be the last individual portrait session before the pandemic, Nathan, Rose, and I worked together to create a variety of looks, using practically every light and modifier at our disposal. It is my great pleasure to finally show off these images after two years.
Creative Portraits
Distant Era focuses on the fantastic, so even in a standard headshot session we like to try on different looks, experiment, and make some creative images to see what might happen.
We shot this session using small, battery-powered flashes attached to modifiers, favoring a small beauty dish sometimes and at other times a large reflective umbrella with diffusion. We used different color gels for effect; one of the most fun experiments resulted from firing a red-gelled light at the background to create a dark silhouette and then gradually adding a touch of light to illuminate Nathan’s face, careful not to let that front light touch the background and reduce the red effect. We played with using a pink gel on a rugged “cowboy” image. We moved the light behind Nathan to get short light and rim light effects. The trick to using these small battery-powered flashes is that because they don’t have modeling lights attached, there’s some guesswork as to exactly where they’ll hit.
Nathan Miller is a fantastic actor who delivers heartfelt, authentic performances. In this one session, Nathan effortlessly switched out one look for another as we experimented with character, light, and mood. At the end of our session, there were so many diverse photos that it was hard to make a final choice. These are a few of the top ones, and yet there are so many more!
Using the Work for Good
A veteran Chicago theatre actor, Nathan Miller will soon use his training to help others achieve meaningful change as a drama therapist.
Drama therapy uses play, embodiment, projection, role, story, metaphor, empathy, distancing, witnessing, performance, and improvisation to help people make meaningful change.
The North American Drama Therapy Association
Nathan recently accepted a slot for this coming fall 2022 semester at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology to start working towards an MA in Counseling Psychology! It’s a two year program that fulfills the educational requirements for licensure as a mental health counselor in Illinois. From there, he’ll work in the community for a while, take continuing education courses at arts therapy centers, with the goal of certifying as a Registered Drama Therapist.
The very best of wishes to Nathan on this exciting and admirable direction in his work.
Follow Me