Ride First, Shoot Later

David, Jesse, Ro and I have been planning a Beach Trip to Pismo Beach since we purchased our motorcycles.  David was the only one who had two confirmed models (Brittney and Chase) and I had two confirmed flakes, but didn't know until I arrived in Pismo and couldn't get ahold of either model.

The plan was to drive from Bakersfield to Pismo Beach early Saturday, shoot from 3 until Sunset, spend the night and head back in the morning. David asked Make-up Artist Ande to tag along and we would pay for fuel and food, in addition to images.

We arrived in Pismo around 2:00 PM and checked-in to our rooms.  I messaged both "confirmed" models and No response.  Really!?!  Ande proceeded to do the make-up on David's model while we got our gear together.  The sky was overcast and temp was in the mid-60s.  We rode to Dinosaur Caves, shooting location, at 5:00 and meet-up with David's other model, Chase.  Thank god his models came through.  Chase pulled up in her jeep and stepped out,  "Whoa!!!" was the first thing that came to mind, she looks tall.  In fact, Chase is 6'4" and thin.

Almost all shots are Natural Light, aside from the top image which was assisted by Roy.  An SB-900 with 1/4 CTO gel shot thru an umbrella camera right. We shot for just under two hours switching between the two models and several outfits for chase.

Once it got darker and colder, we thanked Chase and headed to Splash Cafe for a dinner break.  If you haven't eaten at Splash Cafe and ordered their Clam Chowder bread bowl, then you're missing out.

We wrapped up the evening photographing Brittney with Available Light.  We White Balanced using "PRE" and that seemed to have done the trick.  I really wanted more emotive images and Brittney completely understood.  All images were shot with my 50mm, around 1250 ISO and f/2.0.

We headed back to Bakersfield around 9:30 AM on one of the windiest rides I'd ever want to do again, but that's a different story for my other blog.

Big Thanks to David for arranging models and being a great guy, Roy for being my VAL (Voice-Activated Lightstand) and Jesse for transporting Brittney to and from the Beach.  To Ande, for being an awesome person and Make-up Artist, and Brittney for "getting it".