After my test shoot with Katrina (a.k.a. Cheat) we scheduled our next shoot for 6:00 PM. I've wanted to shoot at dusk and catch some beautiful clouds. Fortunately we had a tropical storm blow in Friday night, May 1, which brought some rain. Saturday started out a little overcast, but the sun made it out and dried the ground.
This session's theme was "Stranded." I envisioned a beautiful women in a dress stranded miles away from anywhere along a dusty road. I was trying to find a backdrop similar to the movie Thelma and Louise, but a majority of the perfect places were behind fenced areas.
Anyway, Cheat and her friend, Angie, arrived at 5:30 PM. We loaded up the Jeep and headed out to Northeast Bakersfield where the landscape is reminiscent of the Mad Max movies. Lots of oil pumping equipment and minimal foliage. It was still pretty light out so I used a gold reflector for most of the shots. Thanks "Ang" for being my Reflector Babe.
After a half hour the sun hid behind some clouds and the wind began to pickup. Rats!!! I pulled out my SB-900 and hot shoed it. However, I still knew on-camera flash pointed at your subject looks cruddy and something I try to avoid. Instead, I bounced the flash off the gold reflector to finish my shots. The wind and cool air was getting to the girls so we packed up and headed over to Hart Park for a wardrobe change and ditch the wind. This is one of my favorite shots from the "Stranded."
Albeit, I used a filter during "post" called Bleach Bypass by Nik Software, but I really like the overall effect. Once Cheat changed into her boots we set-up for more casual shots that would include some background foliage and landscape for a sense of place. I've been reading Joe McNally's Hot Shoe Diaries and wanted to play around with dragging the shutter and using studio lighting techniques, but outdoors.
I tried different angles, different flash output, camera E/V, and basically tried everything I read. Cheat is such a great sport. Of course Mother Nature was still toying with us and Cheat had to keep adjusting her hair while I was catching my SB-900 with the umbrella even with a 5 lb ankle weight. Interesting that the umbrella acts as a parachute when the wind blows. lol.
I really like the pic at the top of this post. It's my favorite for this wardrobe and locale.
Strobist info:
SB-900 Camera Left 45 degrees, 6 feet high, angled downward and feathered, 1/4 CTO Gel and diffuser shot thru white umbrella, i-TTL Mode
SB-600 Camera Right 90 degrees, zoom set to 70mm - Camera level (need to buy a Snoot), i-TTLMode
Camera - Commander Mode with Flash turned off and E/V set to -0.3
Camera info:
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO:100
Focal Length: 70 mm
Focal Length: 71.3 mm
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
More photos from the shoot are on my web-site.
A big thanks to those who follow my blog, and That's a Wrap!!!
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