Saturday, June 19, 2010

Shadows and Surf and using one hard light





I've been doing a lot and I mean a lot of water shoots. It's risky taking your gear into the water. I've had two hot shoe adapters snap now, used to connect my Cybersyncs, and luckily both times I wasn't in the water so the flash unit has fallen on land and has not broken. Yes, it rattles a bit now but still works A-ok. Nice to trust $300 of equipment on a $5 attachment. Always have to consider the weakest link. I've made some mods and have tethered my flash to the stand and rigged a more stable connection between flash and umbrella holder. I use one light, hard, because I can't risk having anything that becomes a sail with the wind and have it die in the lake. I've recently thought about getting a water proof bag but worry about the heat from the flash and shooting in 80+ degree weather and high humidity. Hopefully soon I'll do some underwater shoots after I get my waterproof DSLR bag. So the natural light portion of the post. I've started a shadow project inspired by ANTM. Hold a drape, patterned fabric and let the sun cast shadows onto my subject. I made a behind the scenes video for one of my shoots. The second half of it is one of my water shoots. It doesn't show when we venture further out into the water but you get the gist as far as variable shooting conditions and shooting without an assistant. Enjoy!