Thank You

Just wanted to send a huge thank you to anyone who's been a part of this journey so far. This has taken me to many awesome places in this world, and I've met some really great people while doing so.

If we've ever worked together, or if I've met you through working with someone, just wanted to say a little thank you. It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm just getting started.

A little more about me...

My Ultimate Fail For the Day

So last weekend I had photoshoot with my friend and teammate, Nsima. 

We started the day out shooting pictures at a local gym (as I do with most athletes I shoot). After shooting for about an hour or so, we packed up everything and moved to a local track because we wanted to do more commercial-athletic looking pictures out on the field. He has a lot of experience with outdoor sports so it was only fitting.

 

Anyway, with Nsima, I was given a little more creative freedom...and I wanted to try something new that I've never experimented with before...colored smoke grenades. I've seen many awesome photos with these being utilized, or with a similar substance (holi powder). If you don't know what I'm talking about, imagine those cool color run marathons where everyone is throwing colored powder:

I personally wanted to use colored smoke grenades to avoid the mess of the powder, so the smoke would just dissolve in the air, so I ordered two grenades: one red and one yellow. I figured each lasting 30 seconds would be sufficient to get what I planned...or so I thought. 

The setup of this shot was a direct profile from the side with one Elinchrom 400w strobe placed above camera, pointed down at a 45 degree. I was going to countdown a 3-2-1 and have him lunge forward while I ran around him with the smoke to create the motion of the shot.

Here's the video of what happened:

 

 

So as you can see....super fail. I didn't anticipate the slight wind that was happening outdoors. It was about 96 degrees so nothing else was really on my mind besides trying to make this photo work. I didn't have any assistants with me on this shoot due to the fact I didn't need one prior and  I thought this particular shot would work with just me and I could use my remote shutter while I ran the smoke. For some reason, my remote wouldn't fire the camera unless I was within 3 feet (which is not usual for my remotes).

So what did I learn?

 1) Make sure there is no wind at all, or at least utilize the wind to my advantage.

2) Bring more smoke grenades for experiment.

3) Bring an assistant (DEFINITELY).

4) Also look into holi powder.

 

So all things combined....a complete fail.

I DO want to redeem myself with this one in the near future and pull off something AWESOME though....I am determined. 

 

Here are a few shots that day on the track that I hope make up for my fail of the day:

Thanks for reading :)


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!