Black Widow* - First On Location Shoot for 2010

* click on each image to see a larger version

I received a TXT from Jenna asking if I wanted to work with her again, but this time with a classic car.  As long as we have a theme, I replied.  We threw out some ideas and the initial thought was to shoot at the abandoned Porterville Drive-In.  Jenna also contacted a friend, Ashley, to see if we could use his '55 Chevy Bel-Air.  Turns out Ashley is very knowledgeable about the area, and after shooting at a couple places, he took us to an abandoned farm.  Talk about stimulating the creative juices for my first "On Location" shoot for 2010.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual.

Winter is a frustrating time in Bakersfield, especially after growing up in the San Fernando Valley where just yesterday it was in the 70's and clear.  The forecast for the shoot was dense low-lying fog, which means you pray that on the drive up to Porterville you don't get into an accident because some idiot thinks they have x-ray vision in the fog.  On the 90 minute drive I was talking to my son, C.J., and said, what if we do a "Black Widow" theme? We planned some shots as far as lighting, etc...  When I arrived at Jenna's, she had me go through her closet and pick out some things.  Naturally I went for some Black stuff and explained the theme to her.  She liked it, too.

We headed to the Porterville drive-in and shot a majority of the pictures in the foggy and gray skies.  I had C.J. use my SB-900 with a 1/4 CTO gel, and in a mini-softbox without diffusion to create some hard light.  Those of you who enjoy photography know that shooting on overcast days is similar to using only diffused light in a studio, no modeling, no contrast, or specularity, basically flat light.  Once I got the shot, we headed to an abandoned gas station and then the abandoned farm.

As an aside, it was probably 40 degrees, misty, and a slight breeze.  Jenna was a trooper throughout the entire shoot.  She was shivering and her hands and feet must of been frozen.  As we walked around the farm, the guys and I noticed that are shoes and pant legs were soaked.from all the moisture.  Poor Jenna didn't complain and trekked through the weeds, unstable ground and filthy grounds to get the shot done.

We wrapped up around 2:00 PM, shot at three locations and headed home just in time as the sun started breaking through.  Definitely a challenging shoot in that kind of weather, but all the guidance I received from friends helped make it a decent shoot.

What did I learn?
1) Scope out the location before hand to see what kind of lightning you'll need.  Some of the areas we didn't use many light modifiers except the SB-900 and mini-softbox, I should have grabbed a reflector, at least.
2) Bring my Sekonic Light meter.  I really could've used it and not relied on the in-camera meter.  Some shots got a little blown-out or were a bit dark.

A few good things came out of the shoot, I learned how to light better in overcast days, found some really cool locations, and I made some good friends in Porterville.  Stay tuned, Jenna and I will be shooting a White Sheets series on January 24, and That's A Wrap!!!