PhotoBlog

I've started a Wordpress photo only blog at http://geraldgonz.wordpress.com. I intend to update it daily on weekdays.

Cheers!

Photographing a Photographer

A few months ago, I assisted for Eugene Biscardi. It was a great learning experience. Most of the knowledge gained from that day was how a fairly large production works. The crew consisted of the photographer, his personal assistant, an assistant, two photo interns (assistants to the assistant?), stand-in model, stylist, and three people for hair and make-up. I've never worked in a crew this big before. That's 10 people to photograph one person!

The shoot encountered some technical problems, and we ended up using my gear. Eugene was very grateful for this and kept saying I saved that shoot. I never saw the end product of this shoot, and I couldn't remember the name of the actress either.

Eugene contacted me last week since he needs a recent photo to be used in a ... I forgot. Somebody else's website. Anyhow, I readily agreed although it was quite intimidating. Photographing a photographer can not be easy. He knows what I'm doing coupled with the fact that I have worked for him before, I did not want him to control the shoot. Upon showing up my fears were confirmed. He already had the shot and location in mind. What I didn't want to do was show up and just press a button. There was a bit of role reversal - I, the photographer, was the stiff one while he, the subject, was relaxed. However, when I started prepping the gear - camera, lens, lights, etc., he eased up on the coaching and let me do my thing. I'm glad he gave me freedom with the lighting, which boosted my confidence.

Since the location required a half a block walk, I decided to use one light. I used the Alien Bees ABR800 Ringflash with the 30" Moon Unit, powered by a Vagabond II. This has been my go-to light as of late. It is compact and light (as opposed to my Calumet Travelites - which ironically, does not travel light) and it gives me two options - use it as a ringflash or as an off-camera flash. Plus, I can use it on a boom. I'm quite fearful about using the Travelite 750 on a boom. The Moon Unit's light has been compared to a beauty dish. I don't use a beauty dish much, so I can't really tell.

Here is the lighting set up:



It was 4pm and we were chasing light, so I decided to go with a natural light look. I learned a lot throughout this shoot in terms of posing and interacting with the subject. Its a great help as I always thought that was my weak point. This was our end product:



He was really happy with the photo ... from a crew of one.

The Fly Pelicans

This newly formed group needed a photo for a promo quickly. I agreed to an impromptu shoot at one of the member's home. It was pretty much a quick set-up using a black velour backdrop created for me by My Friend Glen. I love this "backdrop" - its actually two pieces of 4' wide velour fabric seamed together. It will photograph as black as long as the light/s do not reach it.

Lighting set-up:


The key light was the Calumet Travelite 750 with the medium softbox. The Alien Bees ABR800 Ringflash was the fill light and was set up at a very low power level. The other Travelite 750 with a gridded stripbox provided a little bit of separation from the backdrop.

I shot the members individually as well using almost the same set-up, except that the strip light was moved to camera-left behind the subject/s.

Mr. Hal Bergman

Between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, I had an opportunity to shoot with Hal Bergman. Hal, a fantastic photographer, does a lot of industrial stock photography.

Hal at work:

Hal was using my Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L, so I had to use another version of a shift camera - camera on a tripod on top of a picnic table.

Hal suggested bracketing, so I did. With three exposures, I dabbled with HDR:


Few other shots from the rest of the night: