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I always enjoying with working with models that I have had previous experience with. There is no ice breaking or tension that needs to be dealt with. Also, a model is used to some of my crazier ideas and there is a bit of trust that has been earned by both the models and myself.
More than a year ago was my first experience working with Anna. That day was a very interesting shoot, because I worked with over 6 different models at the Pipers Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. All of the models came had period costumes and we shot group and individuals pictures. Anna was the first model that I worked with that day and she immediately demonstrated that she was going to be great to work with. I had only about an hour to work with Anna, but we ran with her intensity in her individual shots and then used that same energy to make her look like she was in charge of this cast of characters.
Anna at Piper's Opera House
Our latest shoot was just a simple fashion shoot in a field outside of my hometown of Reno. The only problem was that my sense of time put us at the location about two hours earlier than necessary. The sun was high and bright in the sky and I really didn’t feel like running for the shade. I also was packing light, with just Anna and myself, so I had the speedlites in my bag. I setup my Canon flashes and started back on my addiction to the sweet, savage H button. For those who are not in a flash 12 step program, that would be High Speed Sync.
Shooting in High Speed Sync will allow for a very low f-stop.
I put my 580EX, series 2, in a Lastolite Ezybox and two 430EXs on another stand. Because I am shooting at such a high shutter speed, I pulled the diffusion on the Ezybox. It took some time but I was able to get the light right, while fighting the sun the entire time. One very nice thing about shooting in High Speed Sync is that I could use a very low f-stop to create a very shallow depth of field for this set of images.
Knocking down the sun at 1/8000 of a second.
Even when we did find some shade behind some trees, I still stayed in high-speed sync to add a more dramatic look to the image.
Even in the shade, I needed to shoot at 1/800 to knock down the sun.
Once the sun started to drop behind the mountains, I went back to a normal shutter speed and left my addiction to high-speed sync behind for the day. We had found this stump and decided to try and work with it in the shoot. I would be worried to ask a model in heels to stand on an unstable prop like this log, but Anna has years of training as a ballet dancer and her form and balance made it look so easy. While I was no longer using high-speed sync, I stayeds with the same light setup and modifiers.
Back to normal flash sync mode, 1/200th of a second.
As the sun continued to disappear, we were really getting some great light and if you look close, you can see the big rig trucks going over the freeway in the background, I love Nevada.
Good light and balance.
[...] My first few times working with Anna, we never worked in any ballet skills into our shoots. It wasn’t until my second shoot with her that I even learned she was a ballet dancer. But the icing on the cake was that Anna’s husband was a dancer as well, but not any type of dancer, a break-dancer. [...]