Monday, March 30, 2009

Saturday Photoshoot - Testing out the California Sunbounce


This past Saturday I worked with Alyssa, a model I met through local makeup artist Kahulani. Alyssa is an awesome model with a background in dance, and she came up with a lot of great poses. It was so much fun working with her and Kahulani.

On this shoot I also got to try out my new California Sunbounce reflectors. I first learned about California Sunbounce several years ago through photographer Rolando Gomez. What's nice about this brand of reflector is that it is much more effective than regular foldout circular reflectors. The Sunbounce reflectors are constructed with aluminum crossbars which make them very rigid, even in windy environments.



Alyssa, originally uploaded by Mizomi Photography.

In this shot of Alyssa, the sunlight is lighting the back of her hair, and a Sunbounce Mini Reflector with silver fabric is being held off to camera left to bounce light back into her face.

One thing I learned from this shoot is the whenever you lay these reflectors down unattended, be sure to put something heavy on them. Because they are so solidly constructed, they are like windsails. A sudden gust of wind and they went flying into the pasture next to us. The barbed wire fence gouged a hole in one of the panels too. :-(

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey todd, I was thinking about buying a california sunbounce awhile ago but since I usually work solo I decided not to...

what other items would you suggest I should get to modify my flashes? I have a lumiquest softbox but that's it...

MauiPhoto said...

If you're shooting with off-camera flash, the Lastolite EzyBox hotshoe softbox http://www.lastolite.com/ezybox.php is really nice. Easy to setup and packs up really small.

For on-camera flash, I've been using the Gary Fong Lightsphere or the Stofen Omnibounce with a flash bracket. I prefer off-camera flash though.