Martin Wind

Martin Wind is a jazz bassist who has performed, toured and recorded with the top musicians in the world. We have been friends and colleagues (I am also a jazz bassist and we both teach at Hofstra University) for many years, so when he tapped me to create images for his upcoming album release I was honored and excited for the project.

I've seen so many photos of double bass players, and many of them look really similar. So, I wanted to do something that was unique and would draw the viewer in, while keeping the focus of the image on Martin and not so much on the bass.

When I pitched my idea to Martin that he should hold the bass on his shoulders, he was game to give it a try. So I helped him prop it up, and fired off a bunch of shots while he carefully held it on his shoulder.

Some of my bass playing friends have commented to me that the image has a sort of Atlas bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders vibe, which resonates with us bassists since just carrying the bass around (especially if you live in a city like NYC) is a labor of love!

I used my Westcott Peter Hurley Flex Kit to light the image using 2 1x3 LED panels as key and fill, and then added a large Octabox with an Einstein flash at low power to give me a bit more fill which makes it easier to color grade the image.

I shoot tethered into Capture One with a Tether Tools cable. From there, I exported the image into Affinity Photo, where I edited it to get the final effect. Martin is standing in front of a painted backdrop by Artery Backdrops.