Tag Archives: lighting

Behind-the-scenes of the rooftop pool shoot

A week or so ago posted a picture of a lady in a blue dress next to a swimming pool and in this post, I wanted to go along give some insight into the background and the behind-the-scenes of making that shot.

I had with me my Elinchrom Quadra along with my Elinchrom 100 cm x 100 cm softbox hoisted up high on a light stand. Luckily for me, I had an assistant holding the light as the wind was blowing a gale without their assistance there was no way I could use any sort of like fodder modifier like a softbox as a thing was turned into Mary Poppins and flown off the roof.

In the shop below you can see that I had softbox roughly about 3 m away from the model. The placement of the softbox was as close as I can get without having the shot and I did this on purpose to ensure that had soft as possible light. Because of the high winds, I removed both external and internal diffusers as there was a high chance they were going to blow off the roof, and I really didn’t want to go collect them. 🙂

Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot
Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot

As you can see shot was taken in full sun’s on the left side of the model without the artificial lighting that part of her body would have been incomplete shadow and to be honest would have looked like crap, so the only way to get around that is to punch a light into the shadows to reduce the contrast between the left side of her body and the right side that was in the sun.

The light itself is fired by a remote trigger that sits on top of my camera gives me about 70 m range so was able to get back a considerable way and take the shot using a 200 mm lens.

After a little bit of mucking around and getting the exposure right to rest, you could say is history.

Model by the pool
Model by the Pool

It’s -6° and We Are Having Fun!

Wee bit ago I had the opportunity to participate in a collaboration between myself, two models (Laurynn and Rhett) , a make-up artist – Jakki from “Makeup by Jacklyne”,  Jaemi as our talented stylist from DayDream Styles and my lovely work experience assistant Emily.

Now the time of booking this photo shoot we kind of didn’t take into consideration the Canberra at this time of year gets very cold and on the very morning we shot this it was -6°. brrrrrrr

Me I was okay as I had thermals, gloves, beanie, double socks and not to mention a scarf and jacket. The poor models on the other hand were not so lucky and I must say they did a fantastic job considering it was extremely cold.

On the scene when it is -6°
On the scene when it is -6°

The make up artist was not faring so well as I was not sure she was really prepared for what was one of the coldest mornings we have had for a long time.

When I arrived on just before day break I cracked out my thermos with freshly made coffee and offered it around. To my surprise no one at that point wanted any,  what I can say after they had stood in the cold for a few hours they were more than happy to have a cupa, even if it was just to hold the hot cup. hahahahaha

The same was true for the gloves I offered to the make up artist, at first she didn’t want them but after s bit she was okay with the offer..

I must say the photos turned out really nice and the stylist did a fantastic job.  Her fiancee also needs to get an award for helping her set up the scene in the dark and freezing conditions before we showed up. 🙂

Look at how cute these guys look!
Look at how cute these guys look!

All in all it was a great day and you wouldn’t know looking at these photos that it was actually freezing!! That is the power of photography my friends….  🙂

If you are interested in having a one-of-a-kind photo shoot for your wedding or engagement drop us a line and I’m sure we can make it something very special.

Chasing the Sun with on Location Studio Lighting!!

Last Sunday I did an impromptu photo shoot that required a lot of running and a bit of organising to be able too pull it off!!

This was also probably one of the quickest shoots I have ever done. We pulled up at the location, I pulled out my lighting equipment, the model assumed the position and I snapped away.

Chasing the sun is always lots of fun!

Must say it was really handy to have a model which has a lot of experience she needed almost no guidance and very beneficial as we were chasing the sun setting and time is very limited.

I must say in the space of 10 minutes we captured a heap of images that not only matched my mind’s eye vision of the shot but also awesome in how they came together!! Here is just one of those images.

Fashion chasing the sunlight
Fashion chasing the sunlight

Other images from the shoot can be found my galleries of the menu on the left-hand side.

SSSSSSSSS is for Snake!!!!!

I must say I am a bit of a fan of snakes.  I like the way they look and their skins is sooo soft and smooth.  They also demand respect especially here in Australia where we have the most deadly snakes in the world.

Luckily for us this snake is not venomous all and was relatively well behaved. 🙂

I must say I really like the effects on the pupils for this shot when shooting in the dark… I makes her eyes almost look like black holes where you can get lost in.

Snake eyes
Snake eyes

Indiana Jones comes to mind when I look at this image.. Its like she has a whip in her hand and is ready to cracking it.

Whip snake
Whip snake

A nice close up shot of our snake friend… 🙂

Diamond python
Diamond python

Off setting the image to the left gives the image some extra interest.

Medusa and her snake
Medusa and her snake