Gaspari, Guys, & A Go-Pro...

This weeks blog post was made from a recent test shoot I did with my friend Jason Newman. Jason is a fitness manager at California Family Fitness, a personal trainer, and a competitive bodybuilder...and also a very kind person for letting me use him as a subject for this shoot. I wanted to make something a little more "commercial" to add some variety to my portfolio, so we planned a sunrise photo shoot at a local high school. Here's a behind-the-scenes video filmed by my good friend/assistant for this shoot, Brendan:



The gear I used for this shoot:

  1. Nikon D600
  2. Nikon 50mm 1.8G (primary)
  3. Sigma 24mm 1.8
  4. Elinchrom 400w strobe
  5. PocketWizard Mini tt1 & Flex tt5
  6. Fotodiox octabox
1/800 sec, f/3.2, ISO 125

1/800 sec, f/3.2, ISO 125

This was also my first time experimenting with glycerin as a spray on the athlete (clip in the video). I usually just use water, but I've been meaning to try this for a while as when you mix the glycerin with water (about 50-50), you get a better spray that sticks longer and creates better water texture on the subject.

1/800 sec, f/2.0, ISO 64

1/800 sec, f/2.0, ISO 64

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 64

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 64

Jason is also a Gaspari Nutrition rep, so we wanted to get a few shots with the Gaspari logo/products in case he may need them for anything else...

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 320

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 320

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 320

1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 320

Correction*

In the video I explained that the hypersync worked great for the following picture. However, I forgot that I actually changed the shutter to 1/250 sec so that the speed light that was at the bottom of the staircase would by synced also. At that slow of a shutter speed, hypersync doesn't really matter, but it really helps with anything usually faster than 1/250. What I do like about this one though is that you can see the front half of Jason is sharp and frozen, while the back of him is blurred with the motion of his stride. Bada bing.

1/250 sec, f/4.0, ISO 320

1/250 sec, f/4.0, ISO 320

All in all, I'm very happy with the images we created. 

1/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 500

1/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 500

What did I learn?

  1. Check the forecast (even if the weather is great all week).
  2. My strobe synced just fine at 1/800 sec outdoors.
  3. Having good people on set with you really helps the environment, the process, and the experience.
  4. Dress a little warmer for earlier shoots.

 

Hope you enjoy!