Frank Peck
Biography
Photography found me when I was very young, and it saved me when I grew older. My Business consists of stills work as well as wedding/business videography, so I’m what you may call a Hybrid-Shooter.
American-born and German-based you can truly say I’ve grown up between the new and the old world. As a child I spent lots of time watching the exciting Skyline of NYC from across the Hudson. Later–on I was brought up in the colorful seventies in a blooming western Germany, just across another river close to France. My dad led the way, he was a determined self-taught photographer and a dedicated filmer with his Konica Super-8 films, editing with scissors and glue!
When I was 10 years old I was handed a totally unexpected birthday gift: A Minolta XG-7 with a 50mm 1.4 lens, which I still own today. This set me on a wholly unexpected path. Starting out with analogue film developing in black and white in the basement. For myself working with light is an almost spiritual way to try and get something buried deep inside, to the surface. So I tried to create something out of the everyday struggle I was experiencing, to share it in a way that makes whoever sees it, feels moved and touched.
So now it’s been 40-some years since photography made me want to be an artist. I never really reached a place of purpose and understanding unlike as a creator, I think I have.
The passion came first, the business came second….it’s about making yourself happy, then all else falls in place.
It’s still an exciting journey for myself, as my goal for the future is teaching others with the same passion and spirit:
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others succeed.” – Napoleon Hill
Why do you enjoy working with Rotolight and how does it benefit your work?
The word “photography“ originates in French “photographie” meaning “drawing with light“, that’s exactly what these Rotolights deliver. They are so much more than just another strobe, combining a High Speed Sync RGBWW flash with zero recycle time is just a game changing tool when it comes to creating images. In my use-case it’s the compact design and the portability that just about beats everything else on the market.
What has been your most memorable shoot?
1. A marketing campaign from a satisfied international customer illuminated on advertising pillars everywhere you go in Southern Germany!
2. This campaign featuring actual pastors and nuns, was realized with the Rotolight AEOS (with the Illuminator as Diffusor) as main light, flash triggered and 3 Neos I’s as back and Hairlight in a rented Studio!
3. And of course winning the 2021 Rotolight Contest with a real wedding photo shoot in an abandoned lost place near Berlin, Germany and just solely lit by two Rotolight NEO II’s.
What advice would you give to people getting into photography?
It’s not the folks that know every detail about the newest cameras and have watched every youtube-channel possible that deliver the most stunning work! It‘s those folks that fall down and get up again, know how to set up a shoot, respect the people they’re working with: The teamwork makes the dream work! Being modest and nice helps, and definitely know how lighting can change your game, because everyone is a good photographer in perfect available light, the professionals are the ones that can create magic in any given lighting situation.
