Blues - Jazz Guitarist Chris Vitarello Portrait Session

I've been in Croatia this past week and have had the honor of hanging out with guitar giant Chris Vitarello. He's the real deal: he's been touring and recording blues/jazz/rock/jam band music for the past 25 years. It's been really cool to hear his stories of playing with some of the greatest musicians in the world. Last night I asked him if I could take some portrait style shots and he was totally down.

My mom and Chris' wife are taking a painting workshop

So Chris and I happen to be in beautiful Croatia just hanging out. Not much really happening in Porec, Croatia other than beautiful beaches, great Adriatica coastal cuisine, local wine and the laid back vibe. I saw Chris with a gig bag on the docks of Porec when the group arrived last week. Being a player myself I said, "Hey man, what's in the guitar case?" He said, "An old Gibson."

I thought to myself 'A Gibson Guitar?' that ain't no lettuce

Then Chris began telling me how he's a working blues/jazz musician currently touring with the legendary Bruce Katz. Super cool!

His wife, Christine Medina Vitarellow, is also an accomplished artist. Christine is a painter and has her own unique style that reminds me of a modern meets classic impressionist. Google her art work!

Here's a video of Chris playing with the Bruce Katz Band:

Fast forward hours later of stories of blues musicians and gear talk Chris said I could take some shots of him. So here's the skinny on the technical aspects of the shoot:

Behind the Scenes of Chris and Christine

We are all staying at Villa Gloria and after breakfast this morning I said, "Let's walk down the road for a quick portrait session." I had scouted out a location last night just down from where we are all staying. An old farm house made of stone that looks to be a couple hundred years old. Grape vines are growing up the side of the old building and it appears to be sort of abandoned. Perfect for pictures.

Chris brought with him to Croatia his 1979 Gibson 335 semi hollow body eletric. It's all original with the accept he put some new tuners on it. Christine bought it for him as his 20 year anniversary present. Rad gift! So of course we needed that as a prop for photos.

Since Christine is an art and has an eye, I got her approval for each shot. I first wanted to put Chris in a "contrived" rock and roll pose with the guitar slung over his shoulder. Christine was like, "I don't know...kind of contrived" She was totally right. Check it out:

Guitar hero contrived pose. LOL. Not bad, but I can do better...

More bluesy and the light looks great.

Most blues artist are purist when it comes to their guitars and amps. They prefer analog equipment, so I elected to stay in that vain when it came to the lighting. No off camera strobes. So the challenge to shooting a portrait without lights is to find the light. I call it light chasing. So I used the light bouncing off an old house next door, the bare sun light and a reflector. Straight up natural light!

I told Chris about Steemit and how Steemit pays content providers for their hard efforts. He really likes the concept and said he would sign up and share some of his music and possibly write a few posts. So be sure to check him out and give him some love if you are a lover of great blues/jazz music. I'll post again once his Steemit account has been approved.

Cheers from Croatia and thanks for all the comments. I'm off to shoot a model from Slovenia!

Mikey