My Top 12 Guitar Photos

[Mike Buckley]

Three years ago I began photographing my friend's 12 guitars. I finished the project this week and selected my favorites shown below. Some of the images have been displayed here at the Cafe in the past, some not.

Photo #1: Gibson True Historic 1957 Les Paul Custom "Black Beauty"

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Photo #2: National Reso-phonic Style "0" Delphi

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Photo #3: Fender Stratocaster

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Photo #4: Fender Stratocaster

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Photo #5: Yamaha G65-1

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Photo #6: C. F. Martin & Company JC-16RE Aura

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Photo #7: Yamaha G65-1

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Photo #8: Cordoba Iberia Series Model C7-CE

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Photo #9: C. F. Martin & Company Backpacker

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Photo #10: C. F. Martin & Company D-35

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Photo #11: Gibson ES-335

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Photo #12: Gibson ES-335

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[sonuj2]

All of them are fantastic. Great job!

 

[bpdougd]

All are splendid but #11 does it for me. A sensual, almost abstract study in form and (visual) tone.

 

[atlanta_man]

Impossible to pick a favorite. Great photography of terrific subject.

 

[Palouse]

Love 'em all, but #10 tugs at me for some reason!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Shekar, Doug, atlanta man and Nick!

#11 does it for me. A sensual, almost abstract study in form and (visual) tone.

A favorite of mine for the same reason plus I like its minimalism.

Love 'em all, but #10 tugs at me for some reason!

I can't imagine why.

 

[Binnur]

All beautiful Mike. #11 is so special!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you also to Binnur!

 

[pictureted]

Wonderful shots with each chosen to bring out the unique nature of each instrument. 11 is my favorite too, but I have the cherry finish bass (EB-2) from '64. 4 and 5 bother me and remind me of a classic guitar photo dilemma. Do you de-tune the guitar to line them up as you did, or leave them at their odd angles?

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Ted!

Do you de-tune the guitar to line them up as you did, or leave them at their odd angles?

I de-tuned the guitars with permission of the owner so the tuning knobs would be attractively in line. He tuned them after I returned them to him. Some of the guitars were unbelievably out of tune when I was done photographing them. I probably should have tuned them before returning them but I didn't.

 

[pictureted]

Thanks, Ted!



I de-tuned the guitars with permission of the owner so the tuning knobs would be attractively in line. He tuned them after I returned them to him. Some of the guitars were unbelievably out of tune when I was done photographing them. I probably should have tuned them before returning them but I didn't.

I understand, but if pretty vs natural? When I see them aligned, I know it's not now playable. It's the musician in me, rather than the photographer. BTW, your shots are exceptional.

 

[Mike Buckley]

pretty vs natural?

That's definitely a choice every photographer has to make and it's not that either choice is right or wrong.

The lighting styles I used were not natural in the sense that one would rarely if ever see a guitar under such lighting conditions. So, it was very easy for me to justify also making anything else about the scene unnatural if doing so was required to make the photo I envisioned before releasing the shutter.

Another reason I chose to align all of the tuning knobs: Part of the project involved making a set of photos of each guitar for comparative purposes and part of each set included at least one close-up of each headstock as displayed in Photo #4 and also a close-up of the tuning machine when it was the type displayed in Photo #5. It made sense to me (and still does) that the comparisons of the various headstocks and tuning machines would be easier to appreciate if the tuning knobs are aligned in all of the photos.

Just my way of looking at this stuff.

 

[Kry27]

Impossible to pick a favorite. Great photography of terrific subject.

As said!

 

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Roland!