Back in October of 2009 I was supposed to shoot at a Downtown Clothing store, called Jezabelles Boutique; however, my asthma was really bad and I had to postpone the shoot. Well I started talking to the owner and decided I needed to make good on a promise. I managed to get Kao, Tonya, and Jesi to be the living mannequins, and I also contacted the ladies from from F.L.Y. Cosmetics to be my MUAHS (Make-Up and Hair Stylists). Everything was set for the shoot, what I didn't realize was that Kao lives in Atwater, CA, which is actually 2.5 hours away. That's a bit of a drive for anyone, so to make up for that long drive I made sure he got enough solo shots for his port.
On the right is my favorite "strobist" shot of him that I actually like. It was done at 4:00 PM in fairly bright sky with me shooting directly into the sun. At this point I couldn't use Matrix Metering, but instead I had to use Spot Metering since the sky was blowing everything out. Also, the flash had to be set to "AA" since Auto FP wasn't letting the sky show up. Anyway, this was shot with an SB-900 in a 15" x 15" softbox without the Diffuser because I needed to match the hard specular light from the sunset.
After an hour and a half of shooting downtown we headed back to Jezabelles. I decided I would use my PLM to simulate sunlight and the ring flash as an on-axis fill. I ended up needing at third light as an accent light to keep the models from blending in with the background. This was definitely a learning experience. I had to contend with reflective surfaces, clothing in the background, a variety of mixed lighting in the shop, etc...
All in all, I learned a lot and was able to work with a great group of people. Unfortunately I don't think the store owner cared for the pictures since she didn't use any of them, and it's been two weeks since the shoot and I can't remember anything that I learned worth mentioning except a piece of advice from a Kern Photography Association suggesting that I blowout the background with light to almost achieve a high key look. He commented that I did a really good job considering I was acting as the Photographer and the Art Director. Hmmm.... no wonder I'm always creatively spent after a shoot.......That's A Wrap!!!
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