WAK PHOTOGRAPHY

Aisling in Cratloe

2011-03-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Quick upload of some reason photos taken with Aisling in Cratloe woods. We didn't have anything particular in mind. I was trying to explore ideas etc. Got a few that I really like so I thought I'd post then here. Hope you like them too.

For this shoot, I traveled light and limited myself to small flashes. It was shot quite late in the evening when light was fading anyways. So we were competing against time and had to constantly re balance the light when it got too dark. I did not want to black out the background. I didn't want to push the iso too high either to avoid noise. So there was a lot of tweaking in between the snaps. ( no assistant, no remote power control meant I had to do everything myself. ) I am grateful that Aisling was at least patient.

1.This one here is shot in natural light.

2 Lights used. Bounced umbrella camera left, snooted flash camera right.

3.Same cross lighting setup but the umbrella is now moved towards a more centre position. Snooted flash to camera left and a mini beauty dish just above and behind model with another flash, clamped onto a tree branch.

4.Light setting nearly similar to above, just further apart from the model.

Dream of flying

2011-03-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done any shoots just for fun. Been preoccupied with a lot of non photography related stuff. Anyways, happy new year everyone. Even though it's now March! It's been a good year so far. Last week happened to be the first time I got to relax a little and do some creative work.

I sent Tatyana a text, whom I knew wanted one last shoot before she heads off to Australia. She's trying to get into Med School over there so good luck Tatyana. She also found the location, did the styling and managed to get Sarah McCarthy on board as the MUA and her new hairdo was done by Claire Ambrose.

We didn't have much sun for the day. At least it stayed dry for most of the day. But we got plenty of wind and it was a chilly day. The wind meant it was difficult to set up lights with large modifiers on it. Like a large octabox for example. Even with Sarah holding the lights on a monopod, it was impossible not to get the lights blown away. So when we shot outside the hangar, I used a beauty dish and snooted flash instead. When inside the hangar, I wanted to accentuated shadow and highlight, again I used snooted and grids, eschewing any large light modifiers.

Anyways, check out the photos, hope you like them. Click on the images for a larger version.

-Sam

Bridal Test Shoot at Castle Oliver

2010-06-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything. That's because I haven't really shot anything for some time. Been busy doing other things which were supposedly less productive. Anyways, finally got off my backside and got together with a couple of cool people and did a test shoot at Castle Oliver. www.castleoliver.ie . Check it out, such a cool location for a wedding venue!

I had this wedding dress hanging in the store room which I got off somebody with the promise I was going to thrash it. Never got round to it. Glad it was still in good shape for this shoot. We complained lots on the day about how the dress was asymmetry, a real pain etc but the dress just looks great in the photos. The details on the dress look so beautiful. Makes you think eh? Just because it doesn't look good immediately doesn't mean it won't turn out to be awesome in a photo. Something to think about when you're shopping for your wedding dress. Now I can't wait to thrash it, especially when we're expecting a nice hot summer in Ireland.

I had the pleasure to work with a couple of people for the first time. Kathryn who played MUA for the day and Aisling who kindly offered to model the dress for me.

Check out their profile:
http://www.modelmayhem.com/1618144
http://www.modelmayhem.com/1059711

Please note, we weren't going for that happy bride look so they'll be no smiling bride in this photo set!

The first exercise of the day is to look for symmetrical framing location. I've always wanted to do a shot like and this alcove with the windows around provided some beautiful light. One just can't beat diffused window light when it comes to beauty light.

Another window light shoot. I wanted to practice classical potrait poses. The sort you see in classical paintings. So the poses were rather rigid but elegant.
Again, window light. Aisling is rather good at the poses which made my life so easy. Styling is just fab too, isn't it? Kathryn would be the person responsible for it. I also have Carol to thank for lending me her accessories.

Mona Lisa smile. :-D

Okay, here I decided I'd try something radical with the colour and overall setup. Bright sunny days aren't great for photos. All the cool outdoor location in Castle Oliver are nowhere in a shade. Sure, one can overpower the sun etc but it's very hard to stop your subject from squinting. If you're getting married, pray for cloudy weather or shoot later in the evening when the light is kinder on your eyes. After the photos are done, may the sun magically reappear again for that perfect wedding! :-D

More attempts to overpower the sun. Like the above, it's just bare flash. One really doesn't need any modifiers when trying to overpower the sun for that shiny finish.

For the above and below, we decided to try something with a little more attitude. Okay, not the sort of pose you'd see in a normal wedding picture but who knows. Maybe some of you would like to try it? Alternative weddings / gothic weddings, anyone ? I'm game, send me an email! I'd even give you a discount for giving me the privilege to shoot it! Kathryn and I did however joke that she looked like a child bride in these ones. Aisling wasn't impressed.

Ok, that's that. Hope you enjoyed that. Till next time.

Limerick Strobist Meet : Meelick

2010-03-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Meelick community hall was location for this month's strobist meet. The plan had been to shoot to the theme of Hollywood Glamour. But somehow, I don't think I adhere to it too much. I have done very little studio work as I generally work outdoors. The other boys on the other hand arrived with their Elinchromes. The community hall was a large place so we were able to have 5 light setups and background. Good fun.

This time round, we had a stylist and MUA so the models were better kitted. Enjoyed the experience. I even got the chance to do a portrait for Neville, who wanted profile shots for his webpage. He is a tango dance instructor.

I'll start with Neville's shot, probably my favourites from the day.

The above 2 images had to light sources. 2 soft box to camera right and left, firing perpendicularly to Neville.

( I added a slightly sinister twist to this image. Pure natural light. The low contrast feel is due to the smoke from a smoke machine )

Anyways, if you're looking to learn a bit of Tango, look up Neville Gawley here.

http://www.limericktango.com/

I only used the modelling lamp here. One large octabox directly above Gemma.

This was Barbara's first time modelling. I just love the expression here. One softbox to camera left.

One modelling lamp from the octabox directly above Ania. Also her first time modelling. Did very well.

Simple cross lighting. Two soft boxes, one to each side of Laura, aimed perpendicularly to her.

Thanks for reading. The Limerick Strobist group try to meet as often as possible. All levels of photographers are welcome. Please follow our group on flickr for future meets.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/928502@N22/

One of photographers Dave made a video of the meet, you can see it here.

Cheerio until the next post.

Limerick Strobist Meet

2010-02-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

For this month's Limerick strobist meet, we met for a shoot in Adare Manor. I never realised how big the grounds on Adare Manor was and there certainly was plenty of locations to shoot. A big thank you to Jody for getting us access to shoot there.

It was a cold day out. Our MUA's car broke down on the way to the shoot and half our models dropped out 24 hours before the shoot. So things were a little messy but we had a fun day just the same. The locations were so varied and the models looks were different too. So there was a huge variation through out the day. Even amongst all the photographers, the style and approach varied so much even when the shots were taken on the same location. That made things really interesting. Since we were not shooting to a brief, we just shot whatever came to mind. Fun fun fun.

( one flash shooting thru a white umbrella directly above and slightly in front of models. I didn't have time to setup up an up light to fill some shadows from underneath so I told the models of lift their chin up. Sure, they look a little aloft but that's the mood I was going for. This location had some interesting tree features but I only managed to set up for two locations )

(This is where I was surprised by the result of the lighting when I decided to place a flash , gel with CTO, shooting thru an umbrella, just outside a door shooting through. The lighting looks so natural, reminescence of some warm sunset in some warm country. You won't think this was some dark, cold and smelly attic of a shed somewhere in cold wet Ireland)

( One of the location was a ruin of an old house somewhere on the grounds. It was cold, 2 degress out and the place inspired something of a pensive dark cold image for me. Here's one to the Echoes of old dead memories. One flash fring thru a shoot thru umbrella to camera right and just behind model. )

( It was really dark in this attic. Barely any light and and the camera had a hard time focusing. One bare flash about 15 feet away, firing wide at 24mm and one shoot thru brolly to camera light for fill. )

( There were lamp shades lying around the place. I just had to use it. haha. Lighting info as image above)

(I popped in next door only to find Tatyana bound in chains. Not sure what the other lads were up to but I shot away! Shoot thru brolly to camera left, directly facing model)

If you're ever in Limerick and interested in flash photography, we meet or try to meet once a month. So drop us a line. My main photography website is http://www.wakphotography.com/. Contact details are on it. Alternatively find us on Flickr. Search group for Limerick Strobist.

Highway Drama

2010-01-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

This week I met up with Tatyana once more for a shoot. This time round the location is the newly constructed dual carriage way in Limerick. I've always wanted to do a shoot of some sort on a highway as I've always been fascinated by highways and roads. Finding one where you can do a shoot safely is kinda hard in Ireland. But these ones are not open yet so no traffic passing through. I thought I might as well do a shoot now while I still can.

I wanted a film noir feel to this shoot. I also wanted to incorporate a section of the road with the flyover. I love the way the strong lines of the flyover intersects with the roads. I wanted dark shadows. I always wanted some drama. Decided on 2 ways of lighting. 1. Using ambient light, nicely diffused through thick Irish rain clouds with a flash working as hair light. 2. Cross lighting, hard edge lighting and lots of shadows. Then I wanted lots of movement. Hence why the shoot with Tatyana again. It's not often you get model who can jump in her high heels.

We were there for a total of 30 minutes before the security guys showed up. Managed to talk them into letting us shoot for 30 minutes more. So we eventually shoot for a total of 2 hours. It was also starting to rain so by the time we had packed up and moved on, it was starting to rain heavy.

Here are the images. Hope you like them.

( cross lighting. Flash to camera left shooting thru Lumodi beauty dish and flash to camera right fired bare)

(same lighting as above)

(natural light directly above. Bare flash camera right)

(bare flash camera left)

Zack Arias' short film Transform.

2010-01-19T18:58:00.000-08:00

I'm posting this video by Zack Arias because it's exactly the way I feel about my photography at the moment. It's not a new vid, it's been on the web since February 09. But for those of you who've not seen this before, it's well worth checking out.

Terry Richardson shoots Pirelli Calender 2010

2010-01-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

Cool video of Terry Richardson shooting the 2010 Pirelli Calender. He uses on camera flash for his work. It's kinda strange to see that as the images from that sort of lighting always turn out pretty flat. But then, just as he claims, the images look raw. Consequently it's the contain that takes the center stage, in this case the models. Having said that, the girls are just gorgeous, you can shoot them in any light, they'd still look good.

NSFW though. Contains nudity

The Making of the 2010 Pirelli Calendar from Rafael Rubira on Vimeo.

And here's his official website: http://www.terryrichardson.com//

Street moves

2010-01-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

One of the thing I enjoy about photography is acquiring unexpected images. The original shoot location for this image was unsuitable so we had to move and then improvise. Tatyana, who agred to model for me on a short notice, is enthusiastic and fun to work. She can jump better than most models I've shot with and her ability to do so makes for interesting images.

Light info: Flash to right and left of model, bare. Grid flash to camera left pointing at background. Grid flash in front of model for some fill.

Links to other strobist clubs around Ireland.

2010-01-18T17:33:00.000-08:00

If you're an Ireland based photographer, you might be interested in checking out these 2 strobists clubs. I'm quite active in both of them and usually have great fun hanging out with the people from both clubs.

These two clubs organise their event via Flickr. Dublin strobist is a lot bigger than Limerick but the small size of the Limerick club means you get more shooting time at the events.

Check out the links:

Dublin Strobist

Limerick Strobist

Limerick Strobist Meet in Cratloe Woods.

2010-01-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

It was a nice afternoon for meeting fellow strobists from Limerick. This time the venue is Cratloe woods. Cratloe woods, while beautiful, can be quite hard to use as the a setting. Not sure if it's because there's so many options or somehow all those vertical lines just scream for some kind of symmetry and compositional harmony. Most of us started the day working with flash, but as the sun began to set, we had a lovely stream of yellow light filtering through the trees. It seem logical to abandon the flash guns and embrace the natural light then. Well done to Triona, Tatyana, Gemma and Laura for doing a great job braving the cold. It's a shame the snow's gone at this stage.

(2 bare flash on both sides of model, one bare flash behind model, one bare flash in front of model)

(crosslighting. One grid flash camera left and one bare flash camera right and behind model)

( one flash with grid, high and above model)

Winter Wonderland in Ireland

2010-01-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

Once in every 20 years cycle, Ireland gets a cold snap which results in considerable snow fall all across the country. I've been in this country for 14 years, I've never seen this much snow before . Not just snow, but snow that remained long enough to coat everything in the open, transforming the countryside into a wondrous winter wonderland. So on Sunday, which was suppose to be the day with the heaviest snow fall, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful country side and arrange a shoot. I didn't fancy the cold but I told myself, if I didn't do it, I'd regret it. But I decided too late but somehow manage to get a model 12 hours prior to the shoot. It almost didn't happen as things kept popping up and we almost cancelled twice.

Anyways, hope you like the photos. This was shot in natural light as I didn't have time to set up lights. It was too cold and we had to move fast. I was too concern that Jacqui the model was going to get frost bite. At one stage, her poors fingers and toes had gone numb. But she was one tough model and fairplay to her for enduring the cold.

Guess what, the snow thawed the next day and just like that, the beautiful landscape disappeared. So glad I did this shoot now. We might not see this in Ireland for another 20 years.

New friends and Photography adventures in Sarawak

2010-01-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

(one flash to camera left shooting through speedlight prokit 6)

I was standing in front of the new Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak, or the DUN as the local call it. The newly constructed Sarawak State assembly building stands at the river bend of the sarawak river, a once strategic location right next to where old Fort Margarita stands. Once upon a time, this old fort guarded this city against raids from bandits and fierce tribal warriors travelling down the river. So when they build the DUN so close to the fort, I started to wonder if there was some symbolism attached to it.

Directly in front of me is the Waterfront. I have not seen this view of the city for more than 10 years. While much of the old city landmark remains unchanged, a lot of the old buildings are gone. Standing there, I thought to myself, I may have been born in this city, 17 years after leaving this place for Ireland, it now feels a little alien to me. I'm almost a tourist in my hometown. I took a few snap shots while Well and Phil make a few phone calls. They were trying to find me a few 'models' for a couple of photo shoot. I got to know Phil and Well through Flickr. They have generously offered to arrange a few shoots for me during my stay in Kuching. Not only that, they also offered to drive me around the city, source location, introduced me to 'models'. They were god sent, without them this leg of my trip would have been a lot less interesting and I would have missed out on the chance to visit some of the interesting locations they brought me to. Not only that, they also double up as VAL (voice activated light stands) during the shoots. All in exchange for exposure to some strobism and some info on the way I shoot.

(one flash to camera light shoting through speedlight prokit 6 high above model)

Well put down the phone and told me," We have a man who's willing to pose for us! He's an old Iban man with lots of tribal tattoo and he works as a guard at a local park! We just have to go find him!" I found this amusing as I've never quite source a 'model' or subject in this manner.

"Let's go," I said. So we hopped into Phil's car and drove to Taman Budaya. Unfortunately for us, our tribal tattoo man was no where to be found. Time for plan B, more phone calls.

We eventually found us a model. Well somehow managed to convince his sister Nolly to pose for us the next day. Nolly has done a few commercial shoots before and was happy to oblige us with a a few shots. Well also managed to access some traditional Iban customes for the shoot. As luck would have it, I also found out my cousins have recently opened a one stop bridal shop. My cousin's fiancee, Feon who is an excellent make up artist agred to do the make up for us next day at 8am.

( one flash camera left high and above model shooting through speedlight prokit 6)

I woke up the next day at 7am to the downpour of tropical rain. I forgot we were in Sarawak in the monsoon season. The weather in Kuching is as unpredictable as the weather in Ireland. I rang Well and suggested perhaps we should just call the shoot off. Phil later rang and told me we might have an indoor location as his uncle who lives next door to him has a wonderful collection of antique jars, gongs and tribal artefacts that would make for interesting backdrop. So we decided to go ahead with the shoot.

The make up began at 8am. On hindsight, perhaps a little too late. We arrived on location around 9.30 am and found out that indoor location wasn't really suitable. Well then informed me that we had to return the costum for 11.00 am as his niece was going to need it for a dance performance. That leaves me about 1 hour to shoot. For a fella who's only shooting fun, this suddenly feels like a paid shooting assigment with time constraints. The presssure was on. With only so little time left, I wasn't about to start moving expensive tribal antiques around for an hour. God knows what would have happened if we broke anything. Lucky for us, the rain clouds had cleared at that stage and the sun came out. We had some serious blazing tropical light at this stage. By god, it was warm and then there's the 100% humidity.

(Crosslighting. One flash thru speedlight pro kit to camera right, high and above. One grid flash to camera left and behind model)

This assignment was tough for me as I wasn't exactly clear in terms of what I wanted out of the shoot. I wasn't interested in just taking a picture of a beautiful girl. I wanted to capture colour, the patterns of the costumes itself, I wanted to portray all that in the right environment. I wanted to capture a little bit of Sarawak but I wasn't quite sure how. So I kept shooting, all the while restraining myself to simple poses. This is not high fashion, I keep telling myself, so no fancy poses. Nolly took to directions well and was a fabulous model. After just over 2 hours, we packed it in and called it a day. I wasn't so sure what I got out of the pics but didn't have time to process them till recently. It seemed ages ago but it was merely over 2 weeks. The break however allowed me to bring a fresh set of eyes to the whole editing process. I enjoyed the colour and the simple lighting we had managed that day.

(crosslighting: flash thru speedlight prokit 6 to camera right and grid flash to camera left behind model)

More models for the next day

Phil later tells me he had arranged some models for me to shoot somewhere near Serian, in a 'secret' location which he had previously visited. I was intrigued. Abang Syuk, a mate of Phil and Well who introduced the lads to this location at the first place, would be joining is. The theme of this shoot was suppose to be Iban warriors but we had a last minute cancellation. The guys were a no show. The guys however managed to find me a few replacement. I was told, they had lined up for me in short notice, a bidayuh girl in her traditional tribal costume and some a set of Malay girls who were sisters. None of these girls have had any modelling experience but I am grateful for what I'm given. No MUA this time though.

(one flash to camera right shooting through speedlight prokit 6. Some light painting in PP)

This time round, I was again stuck in a situation where I wasn't sure what direction to take the photo session. Normally I had time to ponder but not then. There were so many people waiting for me and I certainly didn't want to keep them waiting. I want to play with fantastical lighting but then I want to make it look close to natural. I am not sure if I succeeded in doing this but on that day, time was very short and the 'secret garden' while beautiful, is a slippery and dangerous tiny waterfall. So lots of limitation to what can be achieved. Time to go with my guts and just shoot. The whole lighting process made so much easier when the lads helped out with the lights. The surface were so uneven, there was no way I could set up lights on the light stands so their help was invaluable.

(one bare flash to camera right)

I wanted to capture the sisters together but compositional wise, it was a little challenging. Lookwise, the sisters were so different, so were the colour of their clothes. Would it work just the same if they all stood in the group or would it be better if could spread them out, yet still be able to portray them as one entity. It turns the different looks didn't matter. The tighter group shots worked better.

( one flash camera left shooting through speedlight prokit 6, one flash gridded to camera right just behind tree and model)

(lighting info below)

The light crew in action:

Last, something which I frequently forget to do, a group picture. Big thank you to Phil for setting up this group shot and allowing me to use the image for my blog.

Once again, many thanks to Phil, Well, Abg Syuk and all the models for making this a wonderful trip for me.

Thank you for reading. Please visit my Flickr page for strobist info on the shoot and my official website wakphotography.com for information on wedding photography services.

Melacca Love Story (a photo shoot in historical town Melacca)

2009-12-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

This photo shoot was done sometime early November during my trip back to Malaysia. I haven't been back in 3 years and this time round, my family took the oppurtunity to visit Penang, Singapore, Melacca and we'll be going to Kuching on our final leg. This shoot was done in Melacca on the course of a Sunday morning. A big thank you to Jess for being so enthusiastic. She started having her make up done from 5 a.m in the morning. I was myself on location by 6.30 am. By brother was unluckily dragged into the whole equation by becoming the driver and light assistant for the morning. We started getting first light by around 7 am. We started the shoot in the Stayuds ground. We had to move fast as the first tourist bus, unbelievably arrived around 8 am. It was not possible to shoot here at any other time of the day as the place would be packed full of tourists so we had about 1 hour to grab as many shoot here as possible.

We then moved to Jonker's Walk. This charming street is full of old houses of an era gone by. It was perfect for the kind of shoot I was going for. But the traffic in this place got busy pretty quick. We then moved to the street behind Jonker's Walk which I think was a better location for shoots. We spent the rest of the morning here, moving from one interesting location to another. I'd say, my overall feeling is that Melacca as a whole a friendly place to photographers. I didn't get any hassle all morning which makes the overall experience a pleasant one. This is my first time in Melacca. Let me tell you photographers, this town is cheap, relaxed, charming and an incredible spot for a photo day out. Highly recommended. We're even thinking about relocating here permanently. :-)

Light setup has been primarily natural light. Getting the model to step in and out of the shade to feather the lighting. When we did use flash, it was usually either a single bare flash for fill or using a speedlight pro kit modifier during the earlier part of the day. No reflector though it would have been handy for light fills but we continue shooting in the shade to prevent any high contrast lighting. I was travelling light so my gear was limited to a sony HVL F58am flash, Nikon sb28, a sony a900, a Minolta 35mm f2 and CZ 85mm f1.4, skyport triggers, a Honl grid and snoot, a speedlight pro kit and a manofrotto nano light stand. This is a relatively light setup compared to what I normally take with me to a shoot and seems to work quite well when shooting in the tropical light. But then that depends on what you're looking to shoot really. I find the 35mm a little narrow and sometimes wonder if a 28mm prime would have suited me better in this trip.

Some of the buildings in Melacca were full of rich colours like the above corridor next to the Stadthuys. These make for ideal shoot locations.

We had rented the dress from a local bridal shop. They also did the make up and hair for us. I bought the fan from Jonker Street.

I was shooting a mix style of classical portraits and lastly, action shots like those of a movie scene. It was fun trying different ideas. Somehow the whole thing unfolded in my mind like a old school romantic chinese movie. Hence the name of the set.

If you were ever in Malaysia, Melacca is definitely well worth a visit.

Thanks for watching. Hope you like it. The full set can be found here.

Big thank you to Jessi who as of writing appears to be the only model from Melacca registered on model mayhem.

A grand wedding in Adare

2009-11-13T04:01:00.001-08:00

I recently shot a wedding in Adare for the second time. I shot my first ever wedding as a second shooter in Adare in fact. This time round it was the wedding of Darragh and Fiona. The wedding was in Adare church and the reception in Adare Manor itself.

Adare is a popular location for weddings. The village itself is picturesque. I've seen some shots of couples here and there are frequently taken at the Public Park and the Abbey. Both locations are nice but it's just not very original as locations. So myself and my second shooter scouted the location, explored potential ideas. Try to see things little differently. While our ideas are not completely original, but I think it was adapted well to location.

I must say I was blessed with the fact that Fiona and Darragh were a good looking couple and have no problem posing for the camera. It certainly makes life very easy. A check out her dress, very sex in the city, just pure class.

We didn't do too many strobist style shooting here as we didn't have much time to play with lights. The ambient light in the location was perfect for dramatic lightings. Check out the images , I'm sure you'll agree with me.

Almost got sabotaged by the door man in the above image. The door was initially open, I had manually metered with the door open. Then without warning, he closed the door and boy did the light in the church drop by at least a stop and a half. I was rather worried this wasn't going to expose properly but it turned out great.

What a beautiful couple. Totally relaxed in front of the camera and the pictures show.

I'll link to the full album when it's ready to go. For more information about my wedding services, please check http://www.wakphotography.com/. Thanks for reading.

The Delivery Man and his flying dog

2009-05-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

This here is another sunny day shoot. I like blue skies and white fluffy clouds, I do. As a child, I must have spent many a bored afternoon daydreaming as I watched the clouds and imagine myself floating thru the clouds, carefree. lalalala

This shoot aimed to capture that feeling. I know a man, known simply as 'The Delivery Man'. You call on this guy when you have something important to deliver, and deliver it he will. Interestingly enough, he also has a Flying Bassett. A wilful yet incredible sweet dog, who is mostly a pain in the hole during the shoot.

We started the day doing a few cross lighting with the delivery man against a clear blue sky.

As before, the thing to do here is expose for ambient until the sky looks acceptably blue and the clouds not over exposed. The limitation with a lot of camera and with the sony a900 is that the max sync speed is 1/250th of a second. So you have to decrease aperature size instead to control ambient light. This however also limits the amount of light hitting your sensor from your camera flash. Even at full power, I had to use two camera flash at 6 feet, firing bare to fill the shadows.

Ok ok, the backdrop were composites of clouds from that day. I couldn't find a high enough place to clear the horizon. So I had to try and get rid of the trees and other what have you's from the image in photoshop. I was really upset!

The image below was tough enough to shoot. I mean this fella could really jump. How do you frame a 6 feet tall fella who can jump 20 feet in the air. On top of it all, you're shooting at 1/250th of a second, potential this will still cause blurring. I find if you wait for the fella to reach the apex of his jump ( ie where he is almost at a stand still for a fraction of a second), the image will be the sharpest.

Now the flying Basset on the other hand has a short attention span. One thing I've learn from this shoot is unless your dog understands at least 2 commands, sit and stay, you have no hope of getting any proper shooting done for the day. For a dog with short attention span, you need a trainer or somebody who has control over the dog to stop the mutt from running around chasing other bitches or kids. Above all, you need to bring doggy treats to hold its attention and a towel to clean off the damn slobber. Failing that, you do a composite and I'm not admiting to that again.

In this instance, the dog got bored and flew away. That was the end of the shoot for the day.

The lighting setup was the same for all the shots. Lovely bare flash cross litted with the sun to camera right.

A big thank you to the Delivery Man. He models in his spare time and you can find his info on model mayhem. http://www.modelmayhem.com/570210

Crosslighting on Bull Island

2009-04-30T01:29:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post on a recent beach side shoot. My initial planned shoot for the day got a last minute cancellation so I invited Del and Dave to come along with me for some sunny day shoot on Bull Island. Shooting on the beach on a Sunday meant there were people everywhere. However, we manage to find ourselves a quiet spot, drew the occasional looks from passerbys. It was relatively undisturbed except for a bunch of teenage girls in the background who decided they needed to run their own photoshoot nearby the moment they spotted us.

The lighting plan for the afternoon was simple. Meter for sky to get a nice blue sky and then dial in the flash work to cross light

It was a 4pm sun so light isn't as harsh but nonetheless still required some power to overcome. I had to use 2 flash to crosslight with the sun. In some cases, it might just be too much power and the spread of light from 2 flash isn't even. Any overlap will naturally result in some hot spots. Diffuse light in this case would be good but the strong gust of wind makes difficult to set up brollies. Maybe a stofen would be another option but I was more concerned about getting some power to overcome the sun. I am currently seriously considering dusting the AB800 alien bee unit at home and getting a portable power pack for it so I can do more bright daylight shoot.

Here are a few examples of the shoot we did for the day.

2 sb28s to camera right, cross lighting with sun to camera left.

This was the original idea. A little kooky but not many of them shots worked out. Again, crosslighting.

Picture of strobists in the wild. Spot the annoying rival shooters in the background. They were quite persistent.

Just a few tips:

- The locals will know, there's hardly any warm weather in this country. Sometimes we're lucky, but never on the day you want to shoot. Consequently, expect your models to be cold. Always advice them to bring a long coat or something extra to keep them warm in between shoot. I usually shoot for 10 min at a time and then the models warm up for 15 min. Tedious process and cuts your shooting time by half. But them's the brakes if you're working alone. On big production shoots, ya get some assistants and probably bring along a portable heater. I get winded carrying my camera gear just climbing the slopes of Hellfire woods, never mind a portable heater.

- Models tend to frown in cold weather. Well, not at the photographer I hope (while secretly cursing them for dragging them out into the cold), but as a reflex reaction towards the cold. That makes them look quite cross in photos. Keep an eye out for this. Probably have to tell them to go for a neutral expression or figure an acceptable frown and clone it out later in PS.

- Find a natural wind barrier. The shoot got slightly easier later when we shot behind a sand dune. This will probably help if ya need to kill some ambient light ( provided the sun is on the other side of course) and you don't need to expose for the sky.

Okie dokie, that's it for now.

Oh yeah, here's the article on strobist about crosslighting.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/09/lighting-102-31-balance-flashsun.html

Dublin Strobist Meet

2009-04-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Del and I organised the Dublin Strobist monthly meet. This time we decided to use the Fast and Furious movie as the theme for the get together. I had organised 5 cars , 7 models and 3 MUAs for the shoot. I must say I was excited. It turned out, I didn't shoot much for the day at all. Spent most of my time running around seeing how everyone was doing.

The weather, was not perfect. It was however reasonable by Irish standards anyway. At least we got a few hours outdoors. But it threatened to rain all evening and there was certainly plenty of wind. Diffusing light out door was a challenge.

I'm going to post some pre and post processed photos for those of you who might be interested.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

Ghost Riders : The flash info for these are obvious enough

Bare flashes to camera right and left. Post processing in this one, I decided to go for a high contrast gritty look. But that kind of finishing really brought on all the blemishes on the skin. I spent a long time working on the skin and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it.

Another cross lighting. At least somebody helped me hold an umbrella so manage to get some diffuse lighting to camera right. Gone for a softer finish on the post processing here. That light patch on the right eye was a bitch to get rid off.

2 flashes at camera left, front and back of model at 45 degrees, both fired bare.

In some cases I wish I had more time to look out for light spill etc. Awkward nasty ones usually mean hours spent on removing them. Time wasters.

It was a cold day so spent quite some time removing goosebumps and awkward coloured skin. Cold weather, not good for many things unless a person intends to capture goosebumps at the first place.

Tommys Gucci M3

2009-04-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

First of all, big thank you to Kevoto for assisting. Without him, I would have cracked up half way thru this shoot which I found to be rather tough. Big thanks to Climberhunt for sorting out the security people.

This is the first time where I had to shoot the car as the primary subject. When shooting in the dark, you need lots of diffuse light or the lighting won't be great. Bare flash just won't do it, you'll get patchy light.The trick is lots and lots of diffuse light. I find myself frequently underpowered, and that's working with 6 flashes, Shooting various accessories on the car is also a challenge because the shape of the accessories change constantly and the surface varies too. Good challenge. Learnt a tremendous amount in just 3 hours.

Light setup above is one brolly to left, one soft box to right, one flash shooting onto ceiling, one flash to rear of car for separation.

Setup above: One brolly to left, one to right, one to rear for separation, one bare flash just behind wheel.

2 brolly right and left of car, one flash aimed onto ceiling.

It's been nicknamed the Gucci M3 for a good reason.

One brolly to right, one bare flash behind wheel.

The above is one brolly to camera right, one bare flash on ground.

The above is one strip light directly above carbon grill.

Same setup as before except the flash bounced onto the ceiling was gelled CTO.

Kira at Glen Clare

2009-04-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my photoblog. This here is my first post.

I just want to say a big thank you to Kira (Raveness) for travelling to Limerick from Cork for this shoot. It's been a pleasure meeting her. Very nice person and a fantastic model to work with. Highly recommended.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/714678

This is one of those shoots that just evolved and evolved by the hour. That's because I had no idea what kind of shoot I wanted to do with Kira until we got to the location. Never worked with her before and no idea what her wardrobe would be like or how she'd look in person. I'm rather sceptical of portfolio pics these days.

This was our first time visiting Glen Clare. As I didn't want to keep Kira waiting, I had to make snap decisions on locations as well as clothes to wear. So whenever ideas pop into the head, we just rolled with it. She's a class model and she made life real easy for me. When I found out she did ballet for a while, I couldn't be more pleased. Hence the ballet type poses in some of the shots.

She had this 'can do' attitude about her too. So when I asked her to cross the river, climb a slippery slope, stay out in the rain for 2 hours, she did it all. What a trooper!

Below are some of the shoots we did.

The ballet session.

There's actually a knack to throwing them fabrics. You need to fold them a certain way so when you throw them in the air, they unravel. The fabric we used was a cheap curtain liner.

Earlier, I had decided to go for some darker themes. I kept thinking witches for this.

After the fabric / ballet shoot, it started to rain. I had two choices. One wrap up and go home or two, bring out the bin liner and start covering all the gear. I went for the later.

The alien looking lighting device below is a nikon sb 28 flash covered by a bin liner with a hole in it. The flash fired thru that hole and the bin liner was velcro'd to the flash. My camera was under another bin liner and the other flash also had the same setup. One thing I've learned is that tripods are better than lightstands when you setup in uneven terrain due to the fact that you can adjust the length of the tripod legs.

I was going for a drenched look so we continue to shoot in the rain.

However, I learnt from this shoot that even with drenched look, there's probably a secret or technique to make them look good even when wet.

1st, you probably need a model with thick head of hair. Failing that, ya just have to 'burn' the hair in post processing.

2nd, drenched hair doesn't equal untidy hair. Ya still have to make it tidy. Should have asked Kira to take her hair brush with her when she crossed the river.

3rd. All manner of debris will stick to your skin when wet. Best to just wipe em off on site and save yourself a lot of touch up time afterwards.

As for make up, you probably still need it but don't ask me what the industry people do because I have no idea. If you have any tips, let me know.

Then I spot the luscious green slope that would make for a great back drop. I suggested to Kira she climbed it and off she went.

And here's Kira totally exhausted from the shoot.

The rest of the set is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krispy_rabbit/sets/72157616689162259/

Thanks for reading.