A magical sunset in the middle of nowhere... and Codral flu tablets...

Hi again everyone.

I know I know – two blog posts in two days… what’s going on? Well despite #1 still gallivanting overseas and my body fast falling under the grips of a wicked dose of the flu, I managed to fill my day with some photography which was great.

This morning was spent down in Fremantle with my good mates @JBcamera and @jonathanpmh on a photo walk / excuse to drink lots of coffee / wander the streets with a camera. These are really fun outings and I wish we had the time to get out and do them more often. I did feel rather guilty about leaving my wife at home with two screaming kids but she has always encouraged me to pursue photography.

As it turned out we spent most of the morning frequenting a couple of well known coffee shops interspersed with a stroll down the Fremantle port photographing the old buildings and the ships that were coming and going from the port. Happy times.

Ok, to the images accompanying today’s blog. Today’s shoot saw me out in Jarrahdale, a little town about 40 minutes drive south of where I live in Kelmscott. It’s a really quiet place, surrounded by forests, both natural and forestry planted. Needless to say, logging had been a big part of the town’s history, but all of the timber milling has been moved to another location. That left behind some really cool, heritage listed ruins of the old timber mill. There isn’t a lot left, just a couple of undercover structures and a big open space full of, well, nothing but gravel really. The place has a fair bit of character but it can be a little hard to find “the spot”.

Anyway, this afternoon’s model was Tanayah. Like Dani, Tanayah has been a friend for a few years now and is also always eager to come along on a photo shoot where she can. Tanayah also brought a friend along; Cynthia, who is an upcoming fashion designer. The black dress that Tanayah is wearing is one of Cynthia’s creations. Cool.

Once we got to the location and set-up ready to shoot, we only had about an hour and a half until the sun was due to set. We started out under one of the undercover sheds, using its length and parallel converging lines as a runway of sorts. Because it was quite dark already and we weren’t in any sort of direct sunlight, I had to slow the shutter down quite a bit in order to bring in some of the background. It was actually a similar situation to that I found myself in a few weeks back when we shot Serena in the empty warehouse. Looking at the EXIF data from those shots, the Nikon D700 was set to manual mode, spot metering, shady white balance, 1/10^th second shutter speed, f/11 @ ISO800. Needless to say the camera was mounted down quite low on my Manfrotto tripod.

But anyway that doesn’t really matter as I want to talk about these images. It’s funny, we were in this pretty cool location and I end up setting up out in the open in the middle of the gravel; which for all intents and purposes could have been done anywhere, and not 40 minutes away in Jarrahdale. Not to worry. I had always intended to use this setting (out in the gravel, that is) as a fallback if it got too dark under the buildings on the site.

So there we were, out in the open and the sky started to turn that gorgeous golden color. These series of shots were taken in the space of about 5 minutes. The light is being supplied by; you guessed it, my beloved beauty dish. I did end up using the parabolic umbrella too when we were undercover and sheltered a little from the wind, but the beauty dish suited these images better, with the light being more controlled and not spilling too much into the foreground. Once again too I had my Bowens Gemini heads and TravelPak battery supplying the light, and the whole lot was being triggered with the ever reliable Bowens Pulsar radio triggers.

The Nikon D700 – Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM II combo was still mounted low on the tripod, at about Tanayah’s knee height, but I was quite a way back this time, about 15 meters away in fact. This really compressed perspective and kept the background nice and tight. Everything was still locked down in manual mode, but this time the shutter speed was at a much more comfortable 1/200^th second, f/7.1 @ISO 800. Love it. Just love the shots.

So there you go, a successful afternoon up in the hills. I really do enjoy location shooting, especially with everything locked in manual and with the Bowens equipment putting out lots of juicy, but manageable light.

Ok, past my bedtime again. Flu setting in badly. I, along with #1 who is back in a few days, will talk to you soon. Take care everyone.

PS - if anyone out there knows of a good watermarking program that doesn't turn all of your images a wonderful yet sickening shade of cyan, please let me know. Ta.

Still here... just...

Hi everyone

Just a quick blog post to let you all know that I am still alive and kicking, but just taking a bit of a break after my wife and I had our second child a couple of weeks ago. Oh yeah, #1 is on an overseas holiday (the lucky thing) so it’s just me for now.

So what I thought I’d share is a couple of images I took a couple of weeks ago for Dani, a local model. Dani has been a friend for a few years now and has been a great support to us here at Timography. Whenever I want to try something new or simply have a spot in my calendar and wish to fill it with a shoot of some description, Dani is always willing to help out.

This particular shoot was organized with the intention of showing another photographer and friend how to use studio lighting, as my friend had not had the opportunity to shoot in a studio environment before.

Ok, to the lighting in these shots. It was really simple, just one light and a foam core panel. The lighting diagram template that I use to represent the studio set-ups does not have a foam core preset so I have used a circular reflector to represent it but I’m sure that you get the idea. The umbrella was actually by beloved Paul C. Buff 86” Parabolic umbrella. I love this thing. Like my other favorite; the beauty dish, it provides a nice soft(ish) light that is really easy to control. But unlike the beauty dish, it lights your model from head to toe – literally. These umbrellas are not available in Australia as yet, but I rang the company in the USA and placed my order, their customer service was great and I had my umbrella in my hands five days later! Oh yeah, the whole thing + shipping only cost $168AUD to get it to my front door. Sweet.

So there you go. A simple set-up that gives pretty cool results. Sure, it’s not the most complex lighting set-up that you have ever seen, but that’s not the point. In my opinion, photography is about presenting the subject in the best possible light (pun intended). If the viewer starts to decompose your set-up and spends 2o minutes trying to figure it out, have you really done your job? Shouldn’t they be more interested in the subject? Lighting is the tool that we as photographers use to our advantage, but it’s not the star of the show; the subject is – right? Subtly is the key; it’s not a contest to see who can set up the most lights and make the image look like one big and expensive drivers license photo. That’s what I think anyway. It’s all about the subject – the end.

Speaking of the parabolic umbrella, I have been wanting to try it out on location ever since I got it, but being such a huge “sail” in a strong breeze I have been reluctant to do so. Have a look at the image on the right, which I posted shortly after I received the umbrella, as an indication of its size. The top of the umbrella is about 4 inches from the roof and the bottom of the umbrella is only about 12 inches from the floor. I have recently purchased a couple of hefty sandbags but I still am unsure that they would be of much use. I usually work alone for these random modelling shoots like the one I have tomorrow afternoon otherwise an assistant or two holding it in place would do the trick. Tomorrow’s location however is up in the hills in a bit of a valley so hopefully there won’t be much breeze around. I will take it and the beauty dish but the weather will determine which one gets used for the shoot. I’ll post some images of that shoot in the next couple of days. Wish me luck!

Keep shooting what you love and I’ll talk to you soon. Hopefully #1 will be back by then too…