Limerick Strobist Meet

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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)