Thunder

Thunder, a photo by Ragoem on Flickr.

This afternoon Sverre and I were goofing around in our garden, when I decided that it was a while ago that I had taken some picture of him. So out came the camera, but (you would not say it looking at this picture) it was very sunny with some clouds drifting by. Because I wanted to fil the shadows with some light and use the sun as a rim I grabbed my westcott Apollo mini with my F58AM flash and a TTL-cable. The cable came out because the light conditions were changing constant and Sverre was playing, so to do it manualy would be a hell. So I set my A900 to Program (yes, normaly I would never use P but I knew it would do the job I wanted) connected the Flash in the apollo to the camera and shot several pictures of Sverre. When I saw these clouds come by, I sat down on the ground to get this angle and asked Sverre to look in the flash what he reluctantly did. (as you can see ;-) ) Changed the color a bit to blue with a bit desaturation and added some contrast in photoshop.

Shooting Lindsey at the Sint Jansberg

Lindsey at a creek, a photo by Ragoem on Flickr.

Last sunday we did a shoot with Lindsey, it was her first time posing for a photographer.
We had some idea on what we wanted and one thing was to use a location with lots of green/nature, so we dicided to scout the forest on the Sint Jansberg last thursday. Walking around we found some great locations for our shoot within walking distence from the parkinglot.
So Sunday we asked Lindsey to put on her gown, Monique did her hair and makeup and of we went to the Sint Jansberg.
I told my self to try to keep the light I would use to a minimum but if necessary use what I need. (the end result counts for me NOT the technic used to make the result, so if the photo dictates more lights I use more.) But looking back my "mission" was successful. The only time I used 2 strobes was when I needed more power/recycle time on my flash. I knew upfront that al the pictures would need at least one flash, we would be shooting in a forest in the shade and with any luck (which we had) the sun would shine. So sunshine in the background and model in the shade, I need flash to light my model.
We had lots of fun and great result.

For the photo above we went to a little creek and positioned Lindsey on the bank so I could get her in the frame with the creek and the forest on the backgound. For the lighting I used 2 LP160 on a bracket from DIY-photography at 1/4 power trough a white umbrella. Monique was holding the lights above the creek to light Lindsey.

For the photo below we used a tree branch for Lindsey to sit on, leaning her against the tree.
For the lighting of this photo I used the same 2 LP160 but now at 1/8 power and a siver umbrella to get a slighty harder light than the white umbrella. In post I desaturated it slighty and added some grain, why you ask? I think the photo needs it.

Lindsey sitting against a tree, a photo by Ragoem on Flickr.