Jesi Gone Wild!!!

Time flies, and it's hard to believe that the last time Jesi and I collaborated was June 2010.  My original shoot fell through last weekend, but I received a message from Jesi asking if I wanted to shoot.  She was supposed to attend a "Rave" wearing a Native American Indian costume, but her plans fell through, too. 

Jesi arrived ready to shoot, in her wardrobe and makeup done. We left Bako at 10 AM and made the drive up to Mt. Pinos, which took about 2 hours.  I've wanted to shoot up in the Los Padres National Forest for quite some time and wanted to use the forest for my Red Riding Hood shoot. Jesi's costume was perfect for the locale and she was available. 

We arrived at the Nordic Base, which is about 8,300 feet above sea level and headed down a trail to the nearest campsite.  Thinking that it would be a simple hike, I brought along my lighting bag and camera backapck (30lbs of gear).  Huge mistake!!!  I figured all the cardio work I've been doing at the gym would help, it didn't.  Actually at first it wasn't a big deal, but then with all the squatting, to get low and standing up, by 3 hours into it, I was getting tired, but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Planning on arriving at Noon, I figured we could scout around and look for some decent areas to shoot, and with the tall trees, we would have enough shade to provide for some dramatic lighting.  As usual I brought my SABER STRIPS, speedlights, Nano Stands, all my HONL modifiers and gels, and sandbags, and just in case it wasn't windy my Sunbounce.

Along for the shoot was fellow photogs, Brian Redden and Joe Vasquez.  We all liked the idea of getting out and shooting somewhere else besides the flatlands of the Central Valley.  Brian brought his new PEN Camera and his TLR, Joe brought his Canon and some lighting gear, too.

We decide to set-up near the campground since there was enough fauna befitting of a wooded area and the first thing I noticed was the clarity of the air and the blueness of the sky.  Albeit, the contrasty nature of shooting at mid-afternoon is difficult when trying to maintain shadows and highlights, so I opted for my SB-900 and bare flash at full power to lift up some of the shadows.  After a few images, we moved into the shade, where I bogart'ed Joe's Umbrella.  I brought my Westcott umbrella, but since he had his set-up, I just put my flash next to his.  I also decided to use Nikon CLS instead of my Pocket Wizards because 1) I paid for that feature, and 2) because I'm lazy and didn't want to exert any extra effort, getting up and down adjusting the flash's power settings.

We shot for about three hours, and after taking a break to give Jesi a chance to eat and warm-up, we called it a wrap.  Mainly because I was getting tired, Jesi was getting cold, and Joe mentioned he was getting light-headed a couple times.  Overall, we agreed that we got the images we wanted and the shoot was a success.  Then came the difficult part, hiking back to the car.  It really wasn't that bad, but  it reinforced my "travel light" mantra.

I shot with a bare speedlight, umbrella-modified speedlight, handheld reflector and available light. See if you can identify the light and/or modifier used in each image.

So What Did I Learn?

• Travel Light - I blogged about it after my Santa Monica Beach shoot with Darnah.  With this shoot I could've used my 85mm Prime, one speedlight, a Nano Stand, Ankle Weight, and Umbrella to achieve what I wanted with a total weight of 10 lbs.  My excuse? I haven't shot up there and didn't know what to expect.  I probably should have left all my gear in my vehicle except that I drove the Jeep and having a soft-top, it doesn't make sense to lock it up, or keep valuable items in it.

As a side note, I seem to be plagued with cancellations when posting on Facebook the name of a model, or when I'm shooting, so from now on it'll be a surprise.