Junkyard Jane

It was only two days earlier that I shot with Nikki, and here we were shooting again.  Nikki is part Filipino, so of course I'll work with her and especially since I have such high standards for my models. Hahaha.  We actually started communicating back on November 6, attempting to set-up a shoot, but for some reason we never got our schedules synced up.  I think she didn't want to work with me, or maybe she thought I was just a GWC (Guy With Camera) who hit on young and pretty women.

A little more background, my friend Robert, and fellow photographer, key grip and all-around nice guy, did a band shoot at his friend's junkyard.  When he described the locale I decided to change my shoot with Nikki.  I can't remember what kind of shoot we were going to do, but probably something with Nikki scantily-clad doing awkward poses.

I also decided to invite young KPA'er and Strobist, Joe Vasquez (a.k.a. JOE-3PO on FLICKR) to join us on this shoot to show him how I light and work with models.  Three nerds and a Hottie!!!  Joe does some really good Strobist work, especially for his age.

We arrived at the location at 4:00 PM and met the owners, they are a wonderful and hospitable couple.  The sun was pretty high, so we looked around for some shade and stumbled on this garage.  Simple lighting, some with a zebra (gold/silver) reflector and some with my SB-900 and a 1/4 CTO gel, gridded, octaboxed, or bare.  I did have to go to Manual Exposure on the camera and Manual on the SB-900 since the splashes of light kept throwing off the AE and TTL readings.

We shot for about two hours and decided to take a break and let Nikki get some food since she hadn't eaten all day.  It was a relatively quick drive to the nearest fast food place, and by the time we returned it was 7:00 PM and the sun was setting fast.  I wasted time and set-up my Alien Bee 1600 with my 22"  White Beauty Dish.  I also boomed it so I could get a better angle, but that thing really kicks out some light, even at 1/64 power, it was like shooting in daylight, however; it was turning the ambient black.  So I moved the light at least 15 feet away from Nikki and dragged the shutter to get the sky to drop to a nice blue.

It sure didn't take long for the sun to really drop and make it difficult to see Nikki, especially for the Auto-Focus features of our cameras.  We resorted to one guy pointing a flashlight at Nikki while the others focused and fired away.  We ended up using a shot-thru as a key and my 64" PLM as a background light to reveal some of the junkyard.  Here's a link to some of the images Robert took using that set-up.

So what did I learn?

• Hmmmm... well that I really like my speedlights for On Location shoots as opposed to my Alien Bees.  Mainly due to weight and speed of set-up.
• Buy a helmet that can hold a flashlight for nighttime, hands-free shooting.  I know that sounds pretty funny.

I think we got some really decent shots of Nikki, and she claims to have had a fun time.  In fact, she and I will be shooting again this upcoming weekend if she can get a sitter. Oh, and here's an outtake from our shoot.  Yeah, she was getting tired and decided I needed a laugh.

By the way, someone asked me if I ever go back and re-read my blog.  The answer is "Yes", specifically if I am doing a similar shoot.  Prior to the night shoot with Nikki and Sean, I re-read my shoot with Ashley, back in November to see if I had any problems, which I did with CLS and gridding my strobe.  This time I used a octabox and got nicer lighting.  Wash, Lather, Rinse, Repeat and That's A Wrap!!!