Rangefinder Magazine
August 2005

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Rf Cookbook by REED YOUNG
Daydreams

I know this might seem a bit negative, but I’ve realized that most people want to be something they’re not. I’m not just talking about less fortunate people. I’m talking about healthy, successful, well educated, highly respected people. Everything seems so relative to people’s situation. Not everyone obsesses over this, but you can’t tell me you’ve never though about being something or someone you’re not. Some people probably even imagine taking steps backward to a simpler life with less responsibilities. This is the idea I was trying to portray with this image.

I was lucky to find such a perfect location. I didn’t change a thing except for the light bulbs, which had to be daylight-balanced for the film I was using. The lighting for the shot was very simple: I just used the overhead florescent lights. Usually this flat lighting style isn’t my thing, but I wanted to give the feeling of a stark and depressing office.

Even though the office seemed huge, I still had to use a 40mm lens with my Hasselblad. This created greater depth of field and gave me more space to work with. I shot this for 1/8 at f/16 with Fujifilm 800 speed film. The depth of field was still barely enough.

The biggest technical difficulty with producing this shot was the reflection of the young boy. It was very difficult to see the boy’s reflection with all of the city’s lights shining through the window. I realized I needed to shoot this in three parts instead of two. It was clear that the boy would have to be shot separately from the window itself. I used a tripod to ensure that my camera wouldn’t move at all. Then I had the boy stand on the desk right in front of the window. I didn’t want the perspective to change a bit. After shooting all three parts, I combined the shot of the man in the office, the shot of the window and the shot of the little boy. I changed the opacity of the boy in Photoshop to make him look like a reflection.
This image is the second shot of a six-part series. In the series, I tried to touch on both the expected and unexpected aspirations people have. The other five shots can be seen in portfolio number four at www.reedyoung.com/.

INGREDIENTS
• Camera: Hasselblad 501 on heavy duty tripod
• Lens: 40mm Hasselblad
• Exposure: 1/8 at f/16
• Lighting: Daylight-balanced bulbs
• Film: Fujifilm ISO 800 film
• Assistants: Quala and CC