Last thursday, the 13th, I spent the day with Philip Warner, aka Lithium Picnic. Philip used to shoot for Suicide Girls, but now is being sued by them. I have followed the story for a while now and heard he was coming to LA for business and I contacted him about studying with him. I thought since he needs some help with legal fees for the fight against SG, I thought maybe he would teach me some stuff, in exchange for his hourly rate. I booked 6 hours with him and got to hear some history behind Lithium Picnic, the whole court battle and the dirty fighting that SG does. I used to work for a company here in SD who used to fight dirty, very similar to SG. I know what he is dealing with, because I have gone thru it too. Large corporate type company with a lot of financial backing, (Read: Endless resources), and choosing to fight back, is an admirable thing, but costly as well.
The day started with some theory, both camera and business, then lead into the studio work where we went over the history of Lithium Picnic and how he shot, from year 1 and on. Towards the end of the day another photographer I admire and have had contact with, Steve Diet Goedde, stopped by to say hello. After shooting for a few hours and talking lighting, we went to the local coffee house and have sandwiches and started the photoshop aspect of the studies. Philip has an impressive way of using very little to his advantage, some things that look so complex and beautiful, were usually a very simple one light setup, and not alot of photoshop either. Some, but not a lot. All in all I had a great day learning with one of my favorite photographers.
Below is a picture I took of Philip and Steve, giving me "the look".