blairbunting

Blair Bunting MLB Portraits

Photographing High-End Portraits at MLB’s Spring Training

As I am a commercial photographer in Arizona, I often get the call to photograph baseball players during spring training. This work is unique and different from any other mid-season sports photo shoot -- including baseball. They are the kind that I cherish because of the calmness on set.

Photographing Cars with Jay Leno

Every so often, a photo shoot comes along, and in the middle of it, you find yourself taking a step back and mentally trying to reckon with the idea that you should be paying just to be there. Sometimes, it is the subject, and sometimes, it is the experience; the photo shoot I’m talking about today was a bit of both.

Sandra Day O'Connor Blair Bunting

Remembering Sandra Day O’Connor and an Incredible Photo Shoot

Photographing Sandra Day O’Connor was unlike any other photo shoot I have ever done before or since. It began with a phone call from The New York Times, asking me to meet Justice O’Connor at her house and create a portrait of her against a white background.

Massive print of photo taken at the edge of space

The Making of a Massive 94-Inch Print of the Curvature of the Earth

After releasing the Photoshoot at the Edge of Space, I encountered an unexpected turn of events. Ordinarily, when I release images -- be they of trains, cars, or athletes -- I receive a smattering of emails and messages inquiring about the availability of prints for purchase. These queries typically come from fans, some devoted to specific race teams, others enamored with a particular athlete or train locomotive. However, the response to my Edge of Space series was unprecedented; I was inundated with requests, not just from individual enthusiasts, but also from esteemed museums.

What Camera Do You Bring on a Trip to the Edge of Space?

When making PetaPixel’s documentary about Blair Bunting’s U2 photo shoot at the edge of space (which you should really watch now if you haven’t), one thing we decided not to focus on was the camera gear. But we love talking about cameras and lenses, so Chris sat down with Blair the evening before his epic shoot to discuss the equipment he was bringing up in a U2 spy plane.

Photo Shoot at the Edge of Space Blair Bunting

The World’s First U2 Spy Plane Photo Shoot at the Edge of Space

Eight years of discussions. Six months of training. Two days of final preparations. Much was required to give photographer Blair Bunting two hours at the edge of Earth's atmosphere to conduct the first-ever photo shoot at near-space where he captured images that have never been made before and will likely never be made again.

The Mercedes C1000 car photographed by automotive photographer Blair Bunting in Phoenix, Arizona.

Photographing the One-of-a-Kind Mercedes C1000

Some cars exist in myths and legends. They can be so rare that even a car enthusiast might only see them by the good graces of another. The Mercedes C1000 exemplifies this.

A motorcycle mechanic photographed for a lifestyle photoshoot by Blair Bunting. The portraits were photographed on location at universities and shops across the US over a period of a month.

Using Manual Focus on a Commercial Photo Shoot: Try It At Your Own Risk

There’s something about the passion that exists between a mechanic and a motorcycle. Their hands and tools are their paintbrushes, and their grease-stained nails are their paint. I was fortunate to witness them create their art and document it all while creating my own.

Aventon Aventure

My New Favorite Photography Accessory: The E-Bike

Away from the world, the city, and the light pollution, I stood in a green forest where the breeze couldn’t even penetrate the trees surrounding me. It was an area that only existed to me in my imagination after multiple times of poring over Google Maps and allowing my mind to wander.

Blair Bunting

Music and Photography: How One Art Inspires the Other

Of all the arts available to mankind, my heart belongs to music. Perhaps it’s a sentiment that doesn’t serve my self-interest much, as my only achievements in the arts have come through photography.

Blair Bunting Train Photo

Photography and The Art of Moving Forward

The tracks begin to ring. I listen closely with the engine roaring louder and louder as each second passes and ready my camera... my finger resting steady on the shutter.

What is Split Color Lighting, and How Do You Use It?

After I published a story on sunglasses for photographers, I got a ton of emails asking how I lit the series. So, while on the road for a recent photo shoot, I took some time at my AirBNB and wrote out how I approach what is called "split color lighting."

Canon 1D photo of a train

Revisiting the Canon 1D, 20 Years Later

It was my first year in college. I was going out every day to teach myself photography, Harry Potter had just come out in theaters, and Canon entered the digital photography world with its very first fully backed flagship, the Canon EOS 1D.

The 1934 Chrysler Photo Shoot That Brought Us Out of 2020

It wasn’t that the phone hadn’t rung for an entire year, it was that the shoots were always too risky; my urge to be on set was always overruled by my commitment to ensure that making art did not lead to someone contracting COVID.

Vaccinated: So That Others May Live

One week before what would be my only photoshoot of 2020, I received a phone call that broke me emotionally. My producer, friend and all-around incredible person, Eric, had taken his own life.

Friends Brought Together by an Automotive Campaign

If there was a theme in automotive advertising photography for 2020, it would be minimalism. This not only applies to aesthetics, but also (and more importantly) to production.

The RF 28-70mm f/2 L: Canon’s Bag of Primes

It’s heavy, expensive, does not have image stabilization, and is impractical for most photographers. It also happens to be one of the best zoom lenses ever made.

How COVID-19 is Impacting the Commercial Photography Set

Has COVID-19 impacted the look of ad campaigns? Maybe, but probably not by as much as you might think. What is impacted, however, is the way that a commercial photography set operates for the foreseeable future.

Modern Cameras, or: A Look at Two Decades of Progress

Twenty years. They have gone by fast. I can remember the first time I saw a camera with a screen on the back of it at a sporting venue, and now a camera without one is considered vintage. However, the look of modern cameras is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes.

The Lie of ‘Medium Format-Level Image Quality’

I, like many of you, watched the Sony a7R IV announcement live stream on Tuesday. I saw them put up the video of the camera and its specs, which I thought looked good as an evolution of their R platform. However, when the lights came back on in the room, the kind man that is the VP of their alpha division debuted the camera to the world with the line: “medium format level image quality”

The Art of Lighting Porsche Racecars

Photographing a Porsche is a special experience for me, as I am a racing fan, and Porsche is racing. They are the essence of speed on the curving tracks they have graced around the world, and on a photo shoot, they are just as incredible sitting still. It is for this and many other reasons that I count myself lucky to stand behind the camera while photographing the art pieces that are Porsche racecars.

Using the D1, Nikon’s First Homegrown DSLR

It is June 15th, 1999. The box office is being dominated by the release of the first new Star Wars in 16 years, even though it is tainted by one Jar Jar Binks. Until this day, photography was largely dominated by a technology that had existed for over a hundred years. It was a technology pioneered by George Eastman in his invention called, the Kodak. Over the many years from 1885 onward, it became known to the photographic community and to the world as “film.”

Photographing NBA Star Dwyane Wade in China

Doing a photo shoot in China is different than anything I have experienced on any set anywhere else in the world. Heck, just getting from the hotel to the set is like playing a video game when it comes to driving on the roads... or sidewalks, for that matter. However, to go to a country expecting it not to have a different culture is ethnocentric and prepares one for nothing.

Why Aren’t Cameras More Expensive?

It was January 2009 and I was preparing to shoot the newest campaign for the television show, Deadliest Catch. Truth be told, I had made very little the year prior because the world was experiencing a market recession, and the first budgets that many companies cut were in advertising. But then came the phone call saying that I had been awarded the photo shoot. I immediately called the camera store, for I actually didn’t own a camera at the time, having sold my Nikon D3 in the preceding weeks.