Runaways

It's been awhile since I've shot something themed. I had to travel to San Luis Obispo(SLO) for work on August 27 and 28, and decided I would contact some models who would be interested in doing a shoot that wasn't glamorous. I belong to Model Mayhem, so I messaged Mallory Ann and she agreed to do a shoot with me. She asked if she could bring along a kid named Tyler to join in the shoot. After checking out his MySpace account, I agreed.

The day started out with a heatwave in SLO, reaching 104, and by the time we met for our shoot the temp was 100 degrees. Apparently Thursday nights in SLO, is Farmers' Market night, so the streets were packed and nowhere to park. After meeting at a local hangout, we walked around town looking for a deserted and rundown area to shoot. Apparently the city keeps every street in the downtown area well maintained. Fortunately we found a brick wall to use as a textured backdrop. the only problem was it the brick was new and clean. Arrrggghhh!!! Anyway, this shot was done using three flashes and my 24mm - 70mm lens.
Strobist info:
SB-900 Red Gel TTL 1.0 E/V Camera Left 4 degrees with 1/4 grid spot
SB-600 Blue Gel TTL -1.0 E/V Camera left 90 degress and set on ground
SB-600 Blue Gel TTL - 1.0 E/V Camera Left pointing at Mallory Ann on light stand

We then decided to use the seedy motel I intentionally stayed at for the remainder of the shoot. This shot was done with on camera flash set to -3.0 E/V for fill and the global E/V set to -0.7. The red light is from a red gel mounted on my SB-600, set to +1.0 E/V and pointed directly at the window from outside by HAL (Human Activated Lightstand and co-worker, Corey Russell. Thanks Corey!!! Great job as my Key Grip

This shot took several takes to get the lighting, pose and mood to our likings. We definitely had a fun time, and the sushi was really good, too. If you are ever in SLO, go to Shin's Sushi, good quality Sushi at an affordable price.

What did I learn?
1) Make sure you scope out the town first and pin-point areas of interest for shooting
2) Meet your models ahead of time and get in a test shoot. Unless you are really experienced with photographing different facial structures, which I am not, you end up taking many pictures. But heck, that's the beauty of digital, memory cars are relatively inexpensive.
3) Practice shooting in mixed lighting environments, too, so you really understand the capabilities of color correcting gels.

All in all, it was a worthwhile experience, fun shoot, good company, excellent sushi and I made a couple of new friends, too. Hopefully they had a good time, since I look forward to working with them in the future.

That's a Wrap!!!