Rae of Sunshine

Well this was a shoot that was almost cancelled because of the weather, the forecast was pretty poor and it looked like we were not going to get any good light.  On the morning of the shoot I got up  early to chek out the webcam that overlooks the location and it didn’t look too bad so we decided to give it a go.  I made the short trip up the A1 /A19 and through the Tyne Tunnel to Tynemouth to meet Charlene who you will probably recognise from previous shoots on the blog.  Tynemouth is a popular area well known to the people of the north east because of the beach but also draws its fair share of surfers and scuba divers.  The plan was to shoot a couple of outfit changes in and around the beach area, including an old outdoor swimming pool which had been thoughtfully re painted before the shoot :),  before the weather closed in.  As it turned out the weather was lovely, sunny and perfectly still which made for great shooting condition,  this gave me the option of using my new silver lined 59″ parabolic umbrella ella ella  from Hobo Lighting. The quality of the umbrella is good and it is built a little more strongly than a standard brolly making think it would be a better option for location work.   Using a 500w Bowens Gemini strobe running off a Travelpak it gave out a good amount of light which was quite focused and contrasty.  I have read that they are considering making a front diffuser panel for this  which will be interesting to see the effect it has on softness.  It needed careful setting up but when you get in the right place I really liked the effect it gave,  certainly something I will be looking to use a lot more in the future.   As usual Charlene looked stunning and we worked through the different sets quickly before she had to rush off home and feed her new Dalmatian pup Spot!!  A thoroughly enjoyable shoot with a great model, hope you enjoy the images.

 

Take Me To the Beach

Well wasn’t the weather in April fantastic!!  So much so that I felt the urge to get back out and do some work on the beach, weather was glorious though the water temperature was bloody freezing so we kept well clear of that!!  One of the techniques I was looking to perfect last year was the use of the Alien Bee’s Ringflash to provide fill at the times of the day when the sun was high and there were some pretty deep shadows.  The flash has an output of 400W so has plenty of juice and powered by the Vagabond II battery pack it is portable enough to have the pack slung over your shoulder and still keep relatively mobile and enough power to keep the flash charged up throughout the day.  My usual approach is to have the model with the sun behind her and use the flash to fill from the front.  Most of the images were shot at around f8 – f11 with the flash set anywhere between 1/4 and 3/4 power depending on the shooting distance

For the latest shoot I was lucky to have Charlene as the model who was looking to add some different elements to her modelling book.  The weather was lovely, if a little hazy at times, so we headed off to nearby Redcar on the north east coast of England.  Charlene has such a great look and an absolute pleasure to work with.  We spent about three hours just wandering up and down the beach looking for different places to shoot and things to shoot with.  The piece of driftwood we found presented a few challenges and was the cause of much laughter when it kept rolling over!!  We got there in the end though and despite the difficulties I thought Charlene really nailed that shot.  Fingers crossed for more days like that this summer.