Sincerely Selena

I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful young lady and non-Model Mayhem model this past Saturday, her name is Selena. Aside from FLICKR, Facebook, and Model Mayhem, I also have a MySpace account which was originally set-up by my 15 year-old son a couple years ago so I could keep an eye on him. I rarely use the account since it's geared toward teens, but this year I decided I would use it to attract potential clients and models.  Word of Mouth, or more aptly, Word of Post, has afforded me a supply of young attractive people, such as Selena to use for my photographic endeavors.

She professed to not being a model, but she has such an outgoing and positive attitude, I decided I would shoot with her.  We worked out the details and she liked my departure concept.  Earlier in the week a fellow KPA (Kern Photography Association) Member, Jeff,  asked if he could help out on one of my shoots.  Instead, I told hm to bring his gear and shoot with me so he could add to his Model Mayhem port.

We met at the first location near the Airport, where I photographed Tonya.  The difference is we would add a "hitch hiking" shot which included two wardrobe changes.  We spent some time going over the poses, which means me demonstrating them.  That's worth a good laugh to watch me "strike a pose".  This shot is similar to Tonya's pic, but not nearly zoomed out as much, and I should have had her stand closer to the front of the stripped yellow line.  The problem with this shoot was that the street was heavily traveled and we had to qickly set-up and shoot.  Set-up means me laying on the ground, get Selena positioned properly and C.J. to get the reflector angled properly.  Knowing that the sky was clear and that the sun was setting, I had C.J. use the gold reflector side and I changed my White Balance to Tungsten.  This would turn anything orange, blue.  This photo is not doctored, the sky looks bluer than normal since I also had my Circular Polarizer on my lens.

As the sun began to set we packed up and headed Downtown to "H" street and 19th., but on they way there I noticed I could see the Greyhound Bus sign.  We quickly pulled over, got out and set-up to take a couple shots near the Bus Station.  This is simple lighting, an SB-900 with a 1/4 CTO gel in a mini-softbox, held 45 degrees camera left and above the models head point slightly down.  Again, thanks to my son C.J. for being my Human Lightstand.  I dragged the shutter, which mean I was shooting at about 1/30 of a second so I could pull in the purple haze from the setting sun.  Figured she needed a prop, so I brought along my classical guitar.  I sold my acoustic awhile back and had to make due with the classical.  Quick note about Greyhound, you cannot shoot on their property, or even across the street from their front window. 

Once we wrapped up near the bus stop, we headed back to the vehicles to move to our original destination, but I noticed a glass brick store that we could use as a cool backdrop.  Jeff suggested we gel the strobes to light the wall, so I grabbed my SB-600, slapped it on it's mount and got it into position.  Well as I was moving the flash, it fell off the holder and hit the ground, AARRRGGHHH.  It didn't explode when it hit the ground, but is didn't Power On. Fortunately I had a spare SB-600 and Jeff brought one of his.  We strapped some HONL Gels on the flashes.  we also had to switch out the Mini-softbox and used Gobos to redirect the SB-900 through an umbrella.  The problem with an umbrella is that it is difficult to shape light  without it spilling all over the place.  Originally we tried a 1/4" grid, but it was too concentrated.  Anyway, this shot contains three flashes and came out nicely.  I received one comment on FLICKR suggesting Selena looked tense in this shot, I disagree.  I think her expression is one of impatience with a hint of playfulness. What are your thoughts?

What did I learn?

1) Find a more desolate road so it doesn't interupt your flow when photographing.  We literally had about 20 seconds to shoot on the middle of the road

2) Be sure to secure your flashes and move the lightstand with two hands, 1 on the stand and 1 on the flash
3) Be flexible, if I would have headed directly to our Downtown locaiton, I would have missed the Bus sign
4) Bring as many light-shaping tools you can carry.  Thankfully the HONL stuff is small, lightweight and easy to use

We wrapped up around 8:30 and everyone was starving.  Good thing there's a Sushi Bar nearby.   We sat around discussing life in general, the shoot,  what we would do differently, or what we liked while sharing a good meal.

Quick thanks to Selena, for being a fun young lady to work with.  Thanks to Jeff and my son for their help, patience and positive attitudes.  That's what makes night photography fun. Note: the picture above where Selena is holding her necklace was shot with my 35mm.

That's A Wrap!!!