13 — Never Fear Those Mountains

At the start of this year Spadgerina came across tattooist Dan Morris, on Pinterest. Instantly falling for his sweet, sweet style she very nicely asked me if I’d buy her a tattoo for her birthday. Let me tell you, it’s very hard to say no to a face like this.  She cheekily booked the appointment a few weeks earlier than her actual birthday saying “It’s still May, what more do you want?” — I let that slide because I’m such a nice guy.

Before finding Dan, Spadge already had the concept for her next tattoo. She’d been inspired by a line from some Mark Sanders lyrics:

“I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, never settle for the path of least resistance”

It’s a pretty long line and she’s got some pretty skinny (Sparrow like) legs, so she wanted a visual representation of the words rather than getting the actual text tattooed.

Dan works out of Rain City Tattoo Collective in Manchester, so on Thursday night I drove us over. I took my “backpack studio” with me in the hopes that Dan would let me shoot a portrait of him after he’d finished the piece on Spadge’s leg. Surprisingly he came across as quite a reserved guy when we met him, so I was stoked when he said yes.

I LOVE taking environmental portraits! Especially in a location like this; I think it tells you so much more about the subject. To make this shot a little bit different I mixed free lensing with strobist lighting; I’m pretty happy with how it came out.

Image 13 of 52

Never Fear Those Mountains - Never Fear Those Mountains Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 1 Photographed by Rick Nunn

Rain City Tattoo Collective is such an awesome space

Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 2 Photographed by Rick Nunn

The studio is filled with a lot of awesome/creepy stuff including babies nailed to walls, smoking ducks & vintage toys .

Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 3 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 4 Photographed by Rick Nunn

Robots are awesome. 

Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 5 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 6 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 7 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 8 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 9 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 10 Photographed by Rick Nunn
Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City 11 Photographed by Rick Nunn

Behind The Scenes

Liverpool tattoo convention was on the day we were at Rain City which meant that all the other artists were away; giving us the place to ourselves. Bad ass.

Never Fear Those Mountains - Rain City Setup Photographed by Rick Nunn

Lighting Diagram

Lighting Diagram for Never Fear Those Mountains

Equipment

  • Camera: Canon 5D MkII
  • Lens: Canon 50mm F/1.4
  • Flashes: Canon 580ex & 430ex
  • Accessories: 1 tripod, 1 light bracket, 1 shoot through umbrella & RF-602 Triggers

Camera Settings

  • Shutter Speed: 1/80th
  • Aperture: F/1.4
  • ISO: 50

Dan was a super awesome guy, with pretty alright music taste too… we had a great day and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of us ended up under his needle again in the future.

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