The snow just won’t stop falling out here! We had to go out again today and work on more winter images. Today we shot cross country skiing against the snow covered trees, a great winter scene. We followed a similar formula as yesterday in terms of lighting except we used a small softbox on one of the heads.
Today the snow wasn’t blowing like yesterday, so we had a little easier time with the Quadras in the snow. We just put them in LowePro packs and put them in the snow, works great!
We also made a short video of behind the scenes, take a peek!
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The first big snowstorm of the season arrived today, and school was cancelled for the kids. Our neighborhood turns into a winter recreation zone with kids sledding, snowshoeing and building forts everywhere. I couldn’t resist going out and shooting in the snow, but the challenge was keeping my gear dry since the snow was still falling. I wanted to capture the snow in my shot, so I knew adding some flash and darkening the sky would accentuate the snowflakes against the gray sky.
I used two Elinchrom Quadras to light the shot. I placed these in LowePro bags, and put the heads inside plastic bags. This isn’t something I recommend, since the flash will get hot and eventually melt the bag to the flash. But since it was 20 degrees outside, and I was going to take time between shots to allow the flash to cool, I used this technique (do as we say, not as we do…). The great thing about the Elinchrom packs are I could control the output of them via the Skyport on my camera. This way you never need to open the bag and can keep things dry. I used my Nikon D3 for this image; this camera can take a lot of abuse and never fails. Tech: Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 100, F16 at 1/250. Two Elinchrom Quadras used at 400 watts with standard reflectors.
Just spent a fabulous weekend in NYC teaching a flash workshop for Photo Quest Adventures and catching up with friends. Talk about access…we had a little rain one day so Mirjam Evers just got us into Bathhouse Studios, 4000 sq. feet of shooting space with huge cycs and incredible backgrounds, a photographer’s dream studio. We focused on Brooklyn for the workshop, beautiful cobble streets, great access to bridges, way too many locations to cover in three short days. If you want to learn some flash photography techniques, we still have two more events this year, Las Vegas and Miami, both will be fantastic!
One afternoon after the workshop we had a chance to photograph a belly dancer near the Brooklyn Bridge. This location provides a great city and bridge backdrop right along the East River. Aisha, our energetic dancer, was game to dance on the rocks. I kept lighting simple on this, just one 39″ Elinchrom octabank and a Quadra for power. The light was positioned high and angled down to accentuate the almost ‘angel’ like appearance of Aisha and her ‘wings’. Sometimes all it takes is one simple soft light to get just what you need. Tech. Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens, f14 1/160 sec, ISO 100. Quadra at around 350 watts using the Skyport wireless trigger system.
We found a location near the Wyoming border recently that I have wanted to shoot at before the snow flies here in Colorado, and since it is snowing today we were lucky to get it done. Often times what drives me is location rather than subject. I keep a list of locations written down that I see in my travels, and make a note to photograph there at some point. The trick is finding the right subject and concept that matches the location. I may return to an area the next day or a year from when I find it. This area is a group of sandstone spires nestled in the rolling grassy plains of northern Colorado, really unusual to find this type of formation in this area. I recruited Chris, a friend, model and hard core skateboarder and biker for the shot. I knew we would have clouds moving in ahead of our first winter storm, which would add mood to the image. To light this shot of Chris we used two Elinchrom Quadra lights. The main light was to Chris’s left, a strip bank held high on a boom arm. Just off the right side of the frame is another Quadra with the standard reflector to add a highlight to his right side and give some separation to the background. We underexposed the daylight by about 2 stops. Tech: Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens, 1/250 at F8, ISO 100. Contrast was punched up in CS4.