I’m Mike Kelly, Photographer, and This Is How I Work
Photography is more than just a literal depiction of reality and often requires the hand of an artist to connect the truth with their own vision. This is what Mike Kelly does with his hit series Airportraits .
With Airportraits, Mike has captured the busy routes of many major airports in photographs that show dozens and dozens of aircraft as if they were all taking off or landing at the same time. This is, of course, a digital hand trap; he combines several photographs into one image, so that giant jet planes are linked together like a flock of birds.
By day, however, Mike is an architecture photographer whose travels have allowed him to realize his unique side projects. Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Alan Henry recently spoke with Mike about his photography series and we decided to dive a little deeper. This is how Mike Kelly works.
Location: Los Angeles, California. Current job: Architectural photographer – This means that I usually photograph houses and buildings for architects, designers and a large number of resorts. One word that best describes how you work: Actively up-to-date mobile device: iPhone 6 and iPhone 5 (one for home use, one for international) Current computer: iMac 27 “5k with full capabilities
What apps, software or tools can’t you live without?
Flightradar24 on my iPhone, I like to see what goes and goes above me. iKiteSurf , because I’m hopelessly addicted to kiteboarding, and SunSurveyor, which instantly tells me where the sun will be, any time of the day, anywhere on earth. Very useful for photography. Obviously, there is Photoshop and Lightroom, which are used in every project I shoot. A sturdy tripod – I personally use Really Right Stuff – is the basis for almost every one of my photographs. The camera doesn’t really matter as long as it takes a picture when I tell it to! And Spotify, while I think the user interface is terrible, it’s still better than iTunes.
How is your workplace arranged?
A home office that alternates with utterly spotless cleanliness for one week looks like a bomb went off until I break down and make it perfect again. The standing table is in “sitting” mode 95% of the time until I read an article on how poor posture is killing me.
What’s your best time-saving shortcut or life hack?
Delegate tasks to people who are better at them than you. And in the name of all that is holy, let these people do their job without interfering with them.
What’s your favorite to-do list manager?
Gmail Tasks popup in my inbox. I’m a simpleton.
What device, besides a phone and a computer, can you not live without and why?
External HDs. I now see at least 25 of these orange durable LaCies in my office. I am constantly traveling and a backup obsession, so every job I shoot requires backing up hundreds or thousands of files of 50 megapixels or more. I pass through them like water and they give me peace of mind. If I travel halfway around the world to take pictures, I don’t care what happens to the camera as long as I come home with the pictures.
As far as Airportraits go, it’s obvious that each photo is taken individually, but do you take them all in one day?
Images are taken over a set period of time depending on the desired effect. So, for example, at London Heathrow, I wanted to capture the morning influx of passengers that hit Heathrow during the first three hours of the day. The light at this hour has a surprisingly warm ethereal quality, so I set up my camera and shot each plane between 6 and 9 a.m. to capture the effect. Obviously, the color and quality of light changes throughout the day, and it would be impossible to mix harsh daylight with morning light and maintain that soft golden feeling. However, most of the images are taken between 10 am and 6 pm or something like that to capture as many flights as possible in constant daylight.
The exception was Sydney, because Sydney has such a complex runway program, I had to record these departures several days in advance, because when I was there, the weather was so changeable that I could not get the planes to take off in the same direction in for one solid day, so I went back to the same place for several days.
What equipment do you use for shooting?
I used a Pentax 645z with a 45-85mm lens or a Canon 5DS R with many different lenses – tilt, standard magnification and telephoto lenses, depending on the desired effect. All images are also panoramic stitched from multiple images, so many of them are over 100 megapixels, which means that the file sizes are enormous.
I also noticed that you have visited many beautiful places around the world – do you have any favorite places?
In terms of places to visit, I really love London and all of the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. I’m pretty sure I’m going to retire in New Zealand, it’s incredible. But my favorite photo is too difficult to choose. It’s like asking me to choose a favorite child! I like all of them for different reasons, and all the stories behind each one.
What day-to-day activities are you best at? What’s your secret?
Booking flights (does this happen every day?) The secret is to play chicken with the airline. Much easier to do when you are traveling alone, but if you know what games they play, you can often get a premium plane ticket for a fairly low price, provided you have the time to fly it. This is especially true for reservations for points – on some of these trips, I waited literally until the last day before my trip to get discounted first and business class tickets using points. But it definitely takes a little courage to do so when the alternative is a few thousand dollars ticket, or a rough draft on the bus for 14 hours if the airline doesn’t stick to historical schemes.
If none of that counts, let’s cook the steak. I make the best steak in the world. The secret is to salt and cook it at a low temperature in the oven and finish with a sear. Check out the “reverse lookup” method to find out more.
What do you listen to while you work?
Death Cab For Cutie and Sigur Rós are almost repeated during 90% of my waking hours. The other 10% is Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” playlist, which doesn’t really change anything for me. I just like to pretend that I am more cultured musically than I really am.
What are you reading now?
Open Andre Agassi – I recently finished it and I was sad to see it end. The opening chapter is perhaps my favorite thing in all literature. Plus, The Little Book of Silence is on my desk all the time, and I mention it quite often to help me relax.
How do you replenish? What do you do when you want to forget about work?
I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy flying wherever I go and what cabin I am in. This is a great opportunity to recharge without distraction, to completely shut down. They say, even if I wanted to work, I could not, because the Internet is so slow, or there is no Internet, or I am so happy that I eat airplane food that I cannot pay attention to it.
What is your sleep pattern?
I never set my alarm unless I have an early morning assignment, which I try to avoid. Instead, I get as much sleep as I humanly can, which doesn’t quite sound like a good answer, but I find I am SO much more productive when I’m well rested. I can work all day without interruption if I get a good rest, and if I’m tired I can’t concentrate at all and just spend the day on Reddit. If I sleep ten hours, I can work peacefully like no one else.
Fill in the blank: I would like ____ to answer these same questions.
Elon Musk.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Work hard and be brave. From one of Casey Neistat ‘s old long videos that I consider to be gold.
What else would you like to add that might be of interest to readers and fans?
Someone once sarcastically told me that I could never make a career in photographing architecture. I proved them wrong. Then someone said that I could never make money photographing airplanes. They have been proven wrong too. Obviously the best way to get me to do something is to tell me I can’t do it, so don’t come up with any ideas!