Digging Through the Greats: Following Instagram Favorite Jason Peterson Into The Light
I’m the North American CCO of an advertising agency. I love Chicago. I moved here four years ago. And I love photography in Chicago.
I was just at CES, where Instagram hosted a dinner for me to speak to 120 CMOs about how to use Instagram. The biggest thing, I said, is to have your phone with you at all times and shoot everything, all day. I have a simple philosophy: every day I shoot, and I have to shoot something better than the image I shot the day before.
The other biggest thing I told those guys is that it shouldn’t cost you anything. If your agency or your employees can’t do it, then find people who will. All the creatives I’ve hired I’ve hired off Vine and Instagram. It’s about doing thousands of hundred-dollar productions, instead of one one-milllion-dollar production.
WTC, Fulton Street Station, NYC
That’s the new World Trade subway station. It’s in lower Manhattan. A lot of people have shot it because it’s really epic and beautiful, but I wanted to capture it in a different way. I waited until 2 p.m., when the light was coming in through the top. It’s an amazing space.
Some people have shot some other great shots there as well. The biggest thing I try to do is find light, more than anything else. That, to me, dictates a shot more than setting something up. I’m always chasing light, and this is a good example of it.
NYC From Above
I have a deal with a helicopter company called New York On Air. They’re an “aerial content company.” I’ve been up hundreds of times with them, shooting NYC from above.
That was one of the early flights I went on. It’s a big trend, sticking your feet out of the helicopter. That was probably the first one. Even my buddy 13th Witness credited with me with doing it first. (He was actually with me.)
It was just that kind of thing, like, going into the helicopter is so amazing, but none of the photos capture how crazy it really is. Putting a piece of yourself outside of the helicopter actually gives it scale and perspective so you realize what it’s really like. If you just shoot a photo, it’s like, Oh yeah, that’s cool, but you don’t get the scale.
I’m a big Jordan III guy; that’s all I wear.
The Globe, Flushing Meadows Park, Queens NY
That’s at the World’s Fair in Queens. That was over the summer, late night. The sun was just going down. It was built as part of the World Fair in the ’60s. I love that scene. I was just sitting there, shooting the globe. People were walking through and I got these little kids, the one riding on the back. I liked capturing the giant, urban scale of a globe versus small human figures. It’s one of those classic, urban, city moments that happen all the time but that we don’t really notice.
The Bean
So the bean is something I’ve shot 100 times. This was early morning last summer and it was like, 5 a.m. There was no one there; it was tranquil. I really love it ’cause the light itself was directly underneath, so it made it look like it was hovering above the ground. I shot it a lot of different times. I’m going again tomorrow morning to get the winter version with ice all over it.
The Wave, North Avenue Beach
That’s North Avenue Beach. A lot of people, especially people from New York, have no idea how big Lake Michigan is. It’s massive. And on North Ave you can get this beautiful skyline shot of Chicago, especially when a storm is coming in or just leaving; the whole lake rocks like a bathtub, and these massive waves pop up against the shoreline. I shoot there a lot, but specifically when a storm is coming in or going out. It creates these massive waves with the city in the background.
Tunnel Vision
That’s in San Francisco. It’s a portrait of this kid @potatounit, one of my favorite Instagrammers. I believe it’s the Stockton Tunnel. It’s like 2 a.m., so there’s no traffic and I had him lie down, which I thought was awesome. But flipping it kind of really messed with it; it changes the perspective from looking down a tunnel to more of his perspective. That’s probably one of my favorite shots I’ve shot in the last six months. I love that kid. He’s crazy.
Blue Line Train
That’s the Blue Line train, in Chicago. I set up with a long exposure on a tripod as the train came whooshing by. I’m literally four inches away from that train.
I love black and white because black and white is timeless, but I don’t want to limit myself. To take the color out of that train would be a crime. So I try to use selective color when the shot warrants it.
Big Air in Milwaukee
That was awesome. It was in Milwaukee. I got invited by Tony Hawke; he had a skate contest to get a bunch of skaters on his team. That’s one of his skaters. This kid was trying to do this trick ten different times, to skate up the wall and hold the pole. This was the first time he got it. But I love the little kid in the bottom right corner. Just his expression and the way the light hits him. It turned out to be a really nice shot.
That’s one of those weird, crazy things that happens to me because of IG: Tony Hawk follows me and I get to hang out with Tony Hawk.
Bike With Shadow
People always ask, How do you get your silhouettes? And the answer is that I shoot silhouettes. I’m always looking for light that silhouettes people. You can’t fake it it in an editing app or Photoshop, ’cause none of the light’s gonna match. So I just look for different times of day to shoot. Often early morning or sunset, when people are naturally silhouetted.
People also ask me, How does everything look so white? It’s ’cause I’m just shooting it, like that picture is all on white cement. All I do is take the contrast and push the contrast up so high that everything turns white apart from the silhouette.
I also do a little cleanup, to make sure everything looks white and the figure itself doesn’t get—sometimes if you make the contrast really high the figure starts breaking up. But I always shoot those things on purpose. I think I have a couple of things that are my style, and one of them is that I love to shoot things that are super white and super high contrast.
Bike Rider With Long Shadow
That’s NYC last fall. It was one of those things where the fall light was casting massive shadows. I shot it from my office window at Havas, New York. It was one of those things where I was just looking out the window, waiting, waiting, for cars to clear out, and then that guy crossed the street. This is one of my favorite shots that I’ve ever done ’cause the timing was so right and the shadows themselves were so long. Especially in a square frame, the composition is pretty amazing. I didn’t do that much apart from just capture it.
DTLA
That’s DTLA. That was last spring. This was high noon, so there was super harsh light on buildings. I had a sunroof on my car and I literally parked in the middle of the street, looking directly up. Most photographers don’t like shooting harsh daylight, but for me, since I’m often shooting contrasting black and white, it’s better. There was very little post done on that photo ’cause the contrast was so great.
Silhouette With Chain
I’ve shot that location four or five times. It’s a store and restaurant in Chicago called Ikram, kind of like a Barney’s-type of store. It actually doesn’t look like that except that it has these awesome round windows that are backlit, so I’m not creating the silhouette, it’s happening already. That’s one of my friends who works for me, Todd B. They also have a restaurant, so on his birthday I took him out for lunch. I love shooting that window. I love the scale. I was able to capture enough little detail that you can totally tell who he is: a hip-hop head. I think it’s a perfect example of a real silhouette. I just darkened it a little bit around the sides, that’s it.