Tag: dramatic lighting

Scale and Spectacle: Industrial Heritage as Portrait Stage

Savana Steinhoff’s portrait in front of the Rio Grande 5771 locomotive at the Colorado Railroad Museum showcases Greg Urbano’s artistic vision in environmental portraiture. The photo employs effective lighting, wardrobe choice, and spatial awareness to highlight both model and industrial backdrop, reflecting broader themes of coexistence and cultural significance in contemporary photography.

Woman in a red dress stands in front of a yellow Rio Grande locomotive at night, lit against a dark sky.
Savana Steinhoff poses in front of the Rio Grande 5771 locomotive at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado.

Among the most ambitious entries in Chapter 4 of Greg Urbano’s Top 100 Journey, this photograph from Portrait Slam 2024 represents the photographer’s engagement with large-scale environmental portraiture under challenging technical conditions. Created at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, the image positions model Savana Steinhoff against the imposing facade of Rio Grande locomotive 5771, transforming industrial artifact into dramatic backdrop and exploring the relationship between human scale and mechanical monumentality.

The composition immediately announces its ambitions. The locomotive dominates the frame, its iconic orange and black striping creating bold graphic elements that could easily overwhelm a human subject. Yet Urbano’s placement of the model—centered beneath the Rio Grande nameplate, her crimson dress echoing the warm tones of the engine—establishes a visual hierarchy that honors both subject and setting. The photographer has chosen a low angle that emphasizes the locomotive’s imposing height while maintaining the model’s presence as the compositional anchor. This decision reflects sophisticated spatial awareness, particularly valuable in workshop environments where multiple photographers compete for optimal vantage points.

The lighting strategy reveals careful planning and execution. Shot during the blue hour, the image captures that transitional moment when artificial illumination and residual daylight achieve balance. The locomotive’s exterior lighting creates warm pools of color against the deepening twilight sky, while additional lighting—likely strobes positioned to camera left—illuminates the model without destroying the ambient atmosphere. Stars visible in the darkening sky suggest either long exposure techniques or composite work in post-processing, adding a dreamlike quality to what might otherwise be straightforward location portraiture.

The choice of wardrobe proves integral to the photograph’s success. The flowing red dress provides both color contrast and movement, its flowing fabric creating visual interest against the rigid geometry of the industrial subject. The model’s pose—casual yet purposeful, one leg slightly forward—suggests confidence rather than confrontation with the massive machine behind her. This approach differs markedly from more aggressive “beauty and the beast” tropes often employed in automotive and industrial photography, opting instead for coexistence rather than contrast.

Within the context of Chapter 4’s documentation of workshop and collaborative shooting experiences, this photograph demonstrates the photographer’s ability to execute complex concepts under time constraints typical of group shooting events. Portrait Slam workshops challenge participants to work efficiently in unfamiliar locations with coordinated models and lighting setups, requiring both technical proficiency and decisive artistic vision. The inclusion of this image in the Top 100 Journey suggests Urbano views such collaborative environments not as limitations but as catalysts for ambitious work.

The photograph also reflects broader themes in contemporary portrait photography, where environmental context carries equal weight to subject representation. The locomotive serves as cultural artifact—a symbol of westward expansion, industrial heritage, and American rail history—while simultaneously functioning as pure visual element. This duality enriches the image beyond simple fashion or glamour photography, situating it within traditions of documentary-informed portraiture.

Ultimately, this work from Portrait Slam 2024 exemplifies the photographer’s mature approach to environmental portraiture: technically sophisticated, conceptually layered, and visually arresting without sacrificing authenticity or becoming mere spectacle.

Vertical Ascension: Modernist Form in Downtown St. Petersburg

The black and white photograph of the Signature Place high-rise in St. Petersburg captures its architectural monumentality through a minimalist lens. Stripping color emphasizes form and texture, while a dynamic composition highlights urban development. The work reflects the photographer’s evolving vision, merging documentary and artistic interpretation within contemporary architectural photography.

Black and white low‑angle photograph of the Signature Place condominium tower in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, showing strong geometric lines and modern architecture.
Black and white architectural study of the Signature Place high‑rise in downtown St. Petersburg.

In this striking image from Chapter 2 of the photographer’s Top 100 Journey, the Signature Place Condominium tower emerges as a study in architectural monumentality and photographic restraint. Shot in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, the photograph transforms a contemporary residential structure into something both documentary and abstract—a meditation on verticality, light, and the geometric language of modern urban development.

The decision to render this scene in black and white proves essential to the image’s success. By stripping away color, the photographer directs attention to the fundamental elements of architectural photography: form, texture, and tonal gradation. The building’s repetitive window pattern creates a rhythmic grid that draws the eye upward, while the dramatic contrast between the illuminated facade and the darkening sky suggests a specific moment of transition—likely the golden hour, when natural light rakes across surfaces to reveal dimension and depth.

Technical execution demonstrates thoughtful consideration of both optics and exposure. Working at 35mm on an 18-35mm lens mounted to a full-frame Nikon D610, he selected a narrow aperture of f/18 to maximize depth of field and ensure crisp detail throughout the frame. The resulting sharpness allows the viewer to appreciate the building’s material qualities—the interplay of glass, concrete, and steel that defines contemporary high-rise construction. A shutter speed of 1/8 second at ISO 100 suggests the use of a tripod, essential for maintaining clarity at this exposure length while preserving clean shadow detail.

The composition employs a low vantage point that accentuates the tower’s dramatic thrust skyward. This perspective, common in architectural photography but executed here with particular effectiveness, creates a sense of imposing scale while maintaining architectural integrity. The building’s angular crown punctures the upper portion of the frame, while a lower podium structure grounds the composition and provides contextual anchoring in the urban landscape.

Within the broader framework of Chapter 2—Florida Landscapes & Cityscapes—this photograph represents an important counterpoint to the state’s more commonly photographed natural environments. Rather than beaches, wetlands, or subtropical flora, the photographer turns his lens toward Florida’s built environment, acknowledging the contemporary reality of rapid urban development along the Gulf Coast. St. Petersburg’s downtown skyline, transformed dramatically over recent decades, serves as a compelling subject for examining how modern architecture reshapes regional identity.

The image also speaks to the photographer’s evolving vision throughout the Top 100 Journey. Where other selections might emphasize natural wonder or environmental preservation, this work demonstrates equal comfort with urban subject matter. The modernist aesthetic—clean lines, geometric precision, monochromatic palette—suggests an appreciation for architectural form as a legitimate subject for serious photographic inquiry.

What elevates this photograph beyond mere documentation is its atmospheric quality. The graduated sky, rendered in smooth tones from deep black to luminous gray, provides a canvas against which the building performs. The partially visible vegetation at the frame’s base hints at the subtropical context without overwhelming the primary subject. This careful balance between architectural documentation and artistic interpretation positions the work within a tradition extending from early twentieth-century modernist photography through contemporary fine art practice—a lineage that recognizes buildings not merely as structures to be recorded, but as forms to be interpreted.

Metallic Army Men Still Life: The Alchemy of Transformation

Greg Urbano’s 2014 still life photograph of metallic army men illustrates a crucial moment in his artistic development. Through intentional composition and lighting, he transforms simple toys into evocative symbols of memory and mythology, balancing childhood nostalgia with adult artistry. The photograph reflects Urbano’s conceptual approach and mastery of his medium.

Metallic silver toy army men photographed in dramatic low light against a black background, creating an ethereal tabletop photography scene.
Metallic Army Men Still Life – Purpose-Driven Tabletop Photography (2014)

In the opening chapter of Greg Urbano’s photographic journey, this 2014 still life stands as a pivotal moment—a declaration of intentionality. The image depicts metallic army men frozen mid-action, their silver surfaces catching and scattering light across a void-like background. What began as dollar store plastic toys has been transmuted through spray paint and careful composition into something far more evocative: a meditation on memory, mythology, and the photographer’s emerging visual voice.

The technical execution reveals an artist learning to control his medium with precision. Shot on a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm f/1.8 lens wide open, Urbano exploits the shallow depth of field to create a dreamlike atmosphere. The foreground figures emerge sharp and detailed, their helmets and rifles rendered in crisp focus, while those behind dissolve into soft bokeh. This selective focus mimics the way memory itself operates—certain moments crystalline and vivid, others fading into impressionistic blur. The 1/20 second shutter speed at ISO 100 suggests a carefully controlled tabletop setup, likely using continuous lighting that allowed him to maintain the drama of highlights dancing across metallic surfaces.

What distinguishes this photograph within the “Beginnings” chapter is its purposefulness. Unlike casual snapshots or experimental exercises, this image demonstrates conceptual thinking from inception through execution. The decision to spray paint the figures silver wasn’t merely aesthetic—it stripped these mass-produced symbols of childhood play from their conventional context. No longer green plastic soldiers evoking backyard battles, they become archetypal warriors, their metallic finish suggesting both classical statuary and science fiction. They exist outside time, suspended between the ancient and the futuristic.

The composition itself rewards extended viewing. Urbano arranges the figures in a dynamic diagonal sweep that guides the eye through the frame. There’s a sense of advancing movement, of forces converging, yet the shallow focus and monochromatic treatment create an ethereal quality that contradicts any literal interpretation. These aren’t soldiers storming a beach—they’re specters, memories of conflict rendered as beautiful objects. The black background becomes an infinite space, allowing the figures to float free from any specific context or narrative.

The lighting deserves particular attention. The way highlights trace the contours of each figure—the curve of a helmet, the angle of a raised arm—reveals an understanding of how light sculpts form in photography. Some figures glow almost luminously, while others recede into shadow, creating a tonal range that prevents the silver-on-black palette from becoming monotonous. This careful modulation of light transforms what could have been a simple craft project into a genuine photographic study.

Positioned within Urbano’s broader body of work, this image represents a crucial developmental moment. It demonstrates his willingness to manipulate reality rather than simply document it, to transform found objects into vehicles for artistic expression. The photograph bridges childhood nostalgia and adult artistry, acknowledging the army men’s playful origins while elevating them through photographic treatment.

As a statement of beginnings, this work reveals an artist already thinking beyond the conventional. He wasn’t content to photograph the world as found; instead, he reimagined it, spray paint and camera serving as tools of transformation. The metallic army men become a fitting metaphor for the photographic process itself—ordinary subjects made extraordinary through vision, technique, and intention.