When A Man Loves a Motorcycle // Tallahassee Magazine
When A Man Loves a Motorcycle // Tallahassee Magazine
Tallahassee Magazine assigned us to photograph Steve Pearce for a feature in their May/June 2024 "The 323" section. The story, written by Marina Brown, profiled Pearce and his six decades of motorcycle adventures, and our assignment took us out to the clay roads of North Florida for an environmental portrait session.
Photographing someone on a clay road in North Florida is about as far from a studio session as you can get, and that's what makes it fun. The location is the story. Clay roads have a texture and a color that's distinctly North Florida, and for a feature about a lifelong motorcycle rider, that setting connects the subject to the landscape in a way that a sidewalk or a parking lot never could. As Tallahassee photographers, we know these roads well, and they offer a visual character that photographs beautifully when the conditions are right.
Outdoor environmental portrait photography on unpaved roads comes with its own set of variables. The surface itself can shift in color depending on recent weather; dry clay reads differently than damp clay. The canopy cover along many of these roads creates patterns of light and shadow that change as you move down the road, and finding the right spot where the light, the background, and the composition all work together takes some scouting. We worked with our Canon mirrorless system and selected lenses that let us place Pearce and the motorcycle in the broader landscape while keeping the portrait sharp and focused.
One of the things we enjoy about assignments like this is that the subject brings their own visual energy to the session. A motorcycle is an inherently photographic object; the lines, the chrome, the mechanical details all add interest to the frame. Photographing Pearce with the bike meant finding compositions where both the person and the machine contributed to the image without one overpowering the other. The bike is part of the story, but Pearce is the subject.
Working on location in rural areas around Tallahassee is something we do regularly as editorial photographers in Florida. Not every assignment takes us to the Capitol or a downtown office. Sometimes the best photography in Tallahassee happens on a dirt road outside of town, and features like this one for Tallahassee Magazine are a reminder of how much visual variety exists in this part of the state. We appreciate the range of assignments that keep our work as Florida photographers varied and interesting.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for Tallahassee Magazine and appeared in the May/June 2024 issue and was written by Marina Brown. The Workmans are a husband-and-wife photography team based in Tallahassee, Florida, and we work with publications across the state of Florida, in Washington D.C. and around the United States. You can explore more of our editorial photography in the archive, see more of our work across our website and connect with us on how we can best serve you!
