Last night, I just needed to create an image. I guess it was a really rough week…
Tag Archives: flash
This weekend I met and photographed New Jersey-based recording artist Ant Grant and his producer, Tomas Ramos. Thanks to Akintayo Adewole, one of my closest friends and Creative Director of Akande Music, for making the introduction. Ant is a phenomenal subject and an even better guy. After the first couple shots, it was obvious he had done it before. In addition to being a recording artist, Ant is an actor, and was immediately comfortable in front of the camera. I could write a lot…a whole lot…about what I learned on this shoot. I experimented with shooting into the sun with high speed sync, was saved a couple of times by my new Lastolite diffusers/reflectors, pushed my flashes to the limit on a rooftop in 90-degree weather, stood on the ledge of a 5-story building to gey an intersection into the background, wished I had brought water (several times), pined for a Hoodman Loupe so that I could see my LCD in the blazing sun, fell even more in love with my 24-foot ETTL cable, and was VERY thankful that I bought the third set of 4 rechargeable AA’s. Actually, there’s a lot more that I learned on the photography side, but the best part of the day was meeting Ant, Thomas, and their manager, Darren. Yesterday was a timely reminder of how good it feels to be surrounded by like-minded Black males who are as passionate about their art as I feel I am about photography. A fantastic day. I’m looking forward to doing it again. And Ant does smile…I have pictures to prove it.
-
HOTNESS!
-
Wow, the photos turned out great man.
-
Great work bro you are truly awesome man it was a lot of fun working with you. The time will come when we will be doing this on a major level and we’ll get back together like it’s nothing man all fun and jokes while creating a master piece…
-
That sun flare, third image down?
OOF.
BEAUTIFUL work.
K.
This weekend I attended a lighting workshop with Canon speedliter Syl Arena. Actually it was much more a seminar than a workshop in that I took exactly zero pictures. But it was great for reinforcing some of the stuff that I’d picked up about lighting over the past couple of years. My kit doesnt come close to scratching the surface of what Syl carries in his gearbag. Probably never will. But that didn’t stop me from coming home and trying to rig up some relatively elaborate (with my normal lighting scheme as the baseline) setup to get a shot that I had been thinking about since seeing reading Joe McNally’s book The Hot Shoe Diaries. Both Syl and McNally are lighting savants, and if I ever thought either would come within 100 mouseclicks of my blog, I wouldn’t dare attach his name to this attempt in any way. The image didn’t live up to the lofty goals I had for it when it was just in my head. But this is what you get when you have two speedlites with no wireless trigger and have to bounce a pre-flash signal around a corner and down a hallway with the help of reflectors, mirrors, and foamcore. I definitely had it coming.
-
You captured me at “reflectors, mirrors and foamcore.” The dramatic lighting works for me. I’m still debating with myself who is after who. Sleeping with the lights on tonight for sure.
BTW, thanks for coming to the Speedliter’s Intensive.
I’ve always wanted to be called a “savant”… without the obligatory “idiot” in front of it. Thx for that too.
-
Very nice! Now you have to post the setup shot for your signal bounce … reflectors, mirrors and foamcore? That’s commitment. 😉
-
Should NOT have read this before going to bed. Please don’t have nightmares, please don’t have nightmares, please don’t … !!!
Another photographic adventure this weekend. In true obsessive fashion, I brought my new light stand/umbrella combo to Boise. Yesterday, we went out into the same fields we visited last summer to take some dusk shots with the new gear. Then today, we took a drive out to an abandoned, rusted-out car to get some more sunset shots. Well worth it. The gear worked great. Especially the gorillapod. I have to give Natalie and Greg a special shout-out for that one. Thanks, guys. One downside to trying out new gear…it makes me crave even more new gear. A cruel cycle that never fails.
-
Toight!
-
I love this shoot! Really nice work (and Serene looks great as always). HP
I spent this weekend in frigid New York City to celebrate our anniversary, spend some time with friends, and take a really, REALLY needed break from work. While Serene was grocery shopping, I negotiated a trashcan from the security guard to capture an HDR image of Lincoln Center. Lisa was kind and patient enough to put up with me blasting a flash in her face (at Panang, an upper west side restaurant), and Serene captured a great high contrast image of me that I couldn’t resist sharing.
loading
Skills. Nice work.