Red Rock Federal Park hates Photoshoots…

Ask me how i know….

So today my friend Brenton and I set out for a photoshoot for two of his friends for a standard TFCD. It was more of a favor then anything, no biggy. Helping a friend is always aplus in my book, and if i get to shoot too, thats just gravy! Also I wanted to try out my Softlighter II outside anyway, so off we go.

The meeting time was set at 9am at the local Starbucks, seems easy enough right? Apparently not for this group… I ended up at a Starbucks a mile away, the girls ended up at different Starbucks, and Brenton made it to the correct Starbucks… It was bad, I was waiting at my location for atleast 15 min, before i decided to call and find out where the heck everyone was. Obviously after i spoke with Brent i felt like an idiot. But when do i not feel like an idiot atleast once a day.

So we meet, i figure i would go with a minimal lighting setup this time around. 1 b1600 and vagabond, and 2 580exs. 1 54″ softlighter and an umbrella. Yea you may say that still alot of light blah blah blah, but i was preparing the b1600 just in case we had to overpower the Sun, so there… there is a method to my madness.

We arrive at the Red Rock location that Brenton scouted the day before, “Lost Creek”, we park, and the girls then relaize the “Lost Creek” is a weee bit of a hike. But no worries the toughed it out. We get to teh location and are immediately greeted by what seemed to be an endless amount of children running around. It was quite the buzzkill. We wait a bit till the kids clear out, and try and setup, and yet another wave of rugrats come strolling through, however this time there is a very grumpy old woman with them.

After conducting some test shots, this woman decides to confront us and throw out the “Do you have a permit” line. And i of course fired back the “No, we are students on a photo project” line. Because obviously i dont have a permit. She muddles something and walks away. We continue. Not 30 min later, some official looking woman comes up, and say we have to pack up. We decide to oblige, when we are almost done packing up, another official looking man walks up and says, “This is a great spot for photos”, “Are you guys leaving already?” I explain that the previous officla told us to leave, he whispers to me, “Dont worry about it, just wait until we disappear” So we wait and sure enough we continue.

The shoot turned out nice. I learned the softlighter produces a very, very soft light that really cant be described. I believe its due to the nature of the design, It diffuses already reflected light. So its sort of like the same light you get with a beauty dish with a diffusion screen on but not as directional. Very good quality light. Almost too soft for some things. But for this particular type of shoot “Glamour-esque” it was perfect.

We tried many different concepts, though Brenton explained to the girls to bring multiple wardrobe changes, they failed to do so, so sadly we tried multiple concepts with the same clothing… eehhhh.

One of the girls was very natural in front of the camera, And for some reason this girls name escaped me all day. I only got it right once thorugh out the day. It was something fancy, and out of the norm. Naomisomethingoranother.  She was a natural beauty, very little make up and though it was her first time posing, was very natural in front of the camera.  Jenna on the other hand seemed very nervous, and took awhile longer for her to finally loosen up, but she finally got there. Just took a little more coercing then normal.

Here is one of the images from the shoot, about 5 min worth of post, just to update the good ol’ blog. I will post final edit later this week.  When im finally done with it.

5d with 50 1.4 USM. ISO 100, 1/100 @f10

Lighting setup for shot above

If you have any question abotu anything on this blog, feel free to email me at al@powersimagery.com , i am more than willing to help anyone that wants to learn.

Photoshoot went great!

So if you remember, i scouted a location for a photoshoot. Here is the outcome.

Photo collaboration: Al Powers and Cody boor | MUA/HAIR: Liz Prado-Emery | Model: Jmac |

Strobist:
-580ex at 1/2 with blue gel shot from upstair pointing at the painting and stairs
-580ex at 1/4 with 30degree Saxon grid for kickerlight
-47″ AB octabox feathered from the left

Razor Rob McCullough Instructional MMA sequence

So yesterday i got a call from my friend Ryan over at Triumph United, http://www.triumphunited.com, the best MMA gear around, to shoot an instructional sequence for him with  Razor Rob McCullough (http://www.razorrob.tv). I said no problemo, since Ryan is a friend, and always helps me out with gear. Rob and I set a 11am meet time at his gym, Xtreme Couture, Xtreme Couture Web, to do the sequence. These type of shoots are not too flashy mainly make sure there is a good amount of fill on the fighters faces and have a nice sharp image. So all i used was my 580ex on my bracket bounced upward in to the ceiling, with a 5d with my trusty Sigma 24-60 2.8, and went to town. We shot three different types of combinations.

Here is one of them.

Right outside leg kick transition to flying punch and end with left body kick.

Razor Rob showing technique, as well as sporting some T*U gear. (click on the image for a larger size)

Having shot both MMA and Boxing events, and dealing with fighters, i must say that MMA fighters are so much more humble and nice. Rob was very kind, courteous and very cooperative. Make sure to watch his next fight in the WEC at 155lb, he is a beast.

TRV$ and DJ AM performance at LAX Nightclub, Las Vegas, NV

TRV$/DJAM perform for the first time back in Las Vegas, NV since their horrific plane crash. Travis Barker and DJ Am compliment each others style so well, and created an overwhelming force of energy through out the night club. It was probably the coolest thing in a nightclub i have ever seen. I used a 5d and 17-40L for most of the shots.  Flash used was a 580ex with a Newton bracket bounced into a Lumiquest Midibouncer. With the drummers shots I used the exact same setup, however i added an additional 580ex high camera left to add a bit more flare to the performance, triggered with the 580ex on camera.
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Promotional Photoshoot for Tao Nightclub for their SuperBowl event

So i get a text last week, asking me to do a promo shoot for Tao Nightclub for an upcoming SuperBowl event. As long standing clients of mine i rearrange my schedule to suite the day they need. I get the gist of the shoot stating its for the promo ad and electronic bill board yadda yadda yadda. But i ask what they have in mind they explain we want club environment but have the girls looking sassy in football costumes. I say ok cool i have a couple ideas.

Sooooooo i bring what i feel is necessary, I wanted to do something cool upstairs in the beach area, and maybe utilize a huge Buddha they have. But when i get there, the coordinator(a good friend) says we will need to shoot the girls and our designers are gonna cut them out. i think darn it!!! Tao nightclub doesn’t have a blank wall anywhere, or any real big curtain or anything, i told him he should have told me i had a backdrop with seamless paper so it would have been so much easier. He says he forgot and told me not to worry about it, just do the best i can, and try to find a plain area. No biggy.

So i wanted to try a beauty setup with the new ringflash, where i use my 5 ft octabank high above camera angled down to get that kinda beauty look and they use the abr800 to bring out the shadows a bit and rim/kicker on both sides….

well that idea did not work well at all in test shot, so i scratched that. Went with my very trusty setup ring fill with octabank high cam right.

they needed individuals and group shots

Link to the full set is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38283834@N00/sets/72157612613596536/
here is what i got.
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A new family member. Out with the old, but in with the older?

Ok well i was lucky enough to find someone wanting more reach than the 5d could offer. So we traded my 40d with a sigma 18-50 Macro 2.8 for his 5d body. My impressions.

Build:
40d and 5d are on par, however i would give the build to the 40d, I dunno why but it feels more substantial in my hands. Everything feels just a little bit tighter on the 40d. But the 5d def feels ahead of my old 30d back up.

IQ:
Well there isn’t much to say, we all know the 5d images seem quite different than the 40d. Just better. Maybe its the depth you see. Or the better looking OOF areas, i dunno, just something about it is better. Not to mention the lower noise, and the better white balance.

AF:
I hate to say it but the 40d is miles ahead of the 5d when it comes to focusing, i didnt think i would notice much of a difference but man, its true the digic 3 and the cross sensors do magic. The way the 40d locks on to focus is sooo much faster. When i point at something It snaps to it. the 5d is a bit slower. even with the 85 1.8, its substantially faster with the 40d than it is with the 5d. Its the name of the game, thank god i have my 1dmkiiN for the fast moving stuff.

All in all, if i didnt need the extra Noise performance, and the DOF of the 5d, i would still have the 40d. Definitely without saying the 40d is a much more well rounded camera. But if Picture quality is your only concern the 5d is for you.