A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of doing a shoot with a friend of mine, Justin Kaleb Driggers, who’s a musician currently based here in Northwest Arkansas. Another friend was kind enough to lend me the use of his property, a haven in the midst of acres of woods, separate from the noise and bustle of most of this developing area. I took a few minutes to sit and listen to the wind in the trees and feel the peace before Justin arrived, and we started shooting.
These kinds of photos represent the work that I want to do much more of moving forward. Music is a huge part of my life, and I love being able to work with those who are creating it. This is the kind of thing that I make good work of, photographs that I’m actually proud of. I hope you enjoy the images, and that they are just the beginning of a great deal more.
Thank you to Justin for being the subject for these photographs, and thank you to Cass for giving us a place to create them.
— Joel
P.S. I will also add that Laura Partain, who I discovered through Matt Day some months ago, has been a huge inspiration to me of late. Her work is simply beautiful, and demonstrates very clearly the fact that having the highest resolution camera isn’t what gets you great images. She pours her heart into what she makes. Go check her out.
Geeky Things
Camera: Fuji X-Pro2
Lens: Fuji 35mm f/1.4 & Fuji 23mm f/2
Location: Elm Springs, AR
Process: Lightroom, VSCO Film, Agfa Vista 100
Notes: Halfway through processing these images, I decided to try out some VSCO presets on them, which I haven’t used in a long while. Typically I use Fuji’s own colour profiles to edit all my files, usually going with the Classic Chrome profile as my base. But I was feeling something a little different with these, and wanted to go for a slightly more old-school feel. I’m really happy with the way they turned out. (And a little disappointed that VSCO no longer produces their Film packs for Lightroom.)