Storytelling with Photographs - Alice in Wonderland themed photoshoot with Brittney

My apologies for not having updated this blog in a while.  Work has been keeping me preoccupied and though I have continued doing model photoshoots, I've been falling behind on doing the BTS posts.

I have been keeping notes on each shoot to help me remember details when I finally get around to doing the BTS write-ups, so the posts will eventually get caught up (I hope).  It's just difficult to get back into writing when you haven't done it in a while.

To help me get back into the swing of things, I decided to start with something simple:

For a while now I had been wanting to experiment with photographic storytelling - creating a series of images that put together would tell an entire story. So when model Brittney Baker (one of my favorite models to work with in Maui) contacted me about doing an Alice in Wonderland styled photoshoot I quickly agreed.  After a few days of prep work, we headed up to Olinda to the Waihou Spring Trail one morning for the shoot.

To prep for this shoot, I put together a simple storyline to use as a shooting guide for the different photos that we would need to take to convey the story:

Alice wanders around a forest.  It seems normal at first, but she starts to see things that may or may not be illusions.  She eventually finds a large rabbit hole and peers into it but cannot see where it leads.  She ponders for a moment, then decides to take a leap of faith.

Since we were there early in the morning, the light coming through the trees looked amazing, so we mainly worked with the existing light.  Whenever we needed some fill light, we used a California Sunbounce Pro Silver/White reflector which we had mounted on a C-Stand.

In a couple of instances, we also used the Cheetahstand CL360 as a backlight.

Assembly of the slideshow was done in Final Cut Pro X, using various transitions and some subtle movements of the photos to imply the action of walking through the forest. Music was licensed through SongFreedom.com.

Wandering Alice from MauiPhoto on Vimeo.

Again my apologies for the lack of updates, and the relative brevity of this post.  Lighting-wise there wasn't much to write up about, as it was mostly done with natural light. In a lot of the shots, we didn't even need to use the reflector as the existing light was already awesome.  Plus when you have a fantastic model such as Brittney, you could probably light her with a $2 flashlight and she would look awesome.

Working on more BTS posts.  Stay Tuned....

Shooting Jungle Queens, Ninjas and Bikinis with the Cheetahstand Collapsible Beauty Dish

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

My apologies for the lack of recent posts in this blog.  We've still been shooting and taking BTS notes from each shoot, but haven't had the time to organize and do the writeups on them.

Early last year I had the chance of working once again with one of my favorite teams - Luke and Jen. We started with shooting a Jungle Queen theme, which then evolved into a Ninja shoot and we finished off at sunset with swimwear on the beach. Three very different kiinds of looks in one day.

We shot in Kepaniwai Park in Iao Valley, starting at a big banyan tree in the middle of the park. This tree has lots of interesting nooks and crannies to put a model in and around.

For our first set, Jen selected an Ujena swimsuit which fit perfectly with our jungle theme.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

We lit this first series of images with the Cheetahstand CL360 in a QWBD White collapsible Beauty Dish.  This was boomed up overhead with a painter's extension pole modified with a Kacey adapter.

To light up the inside of the tree behind our model, a Cheetahstand V850 with a Saberstrip modifier was attached to one of the inner branches with a Justin Clamp.

The USB radio slave that connects to the V850 flash make the unit slightly too large to fit completely into the Saberstrip, but we were able to get most of it into the tube to make it work.

We started off with some simple poses, but Jen wasted no time coming up with poses that really showed off her physique.

Like this one:

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

Working with Jen is a lot like photographing a comic book super heroine or an action figure come to life. It is simply amazing to watch her when she flexes her muscles.

You really need to see it in person - it's like she has built-in Iron Man armor under her skin.

Moving around to the other side of the tree, we shot some reclining poses. This spot did have a slight issue where we were getting dappled light on the model's body so we diffused that with a California SunSwatter.

Wanted a bit more edge light behind the model than the existing natural light was giving us so we moved the Saberstrip to a spot behind the banyan tree.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

One of the advantages of working with an athletic model like Jen is that you can experiment with ideas you normally wouldn't dare to try. Like climbing WAAAAAY up to the top of that tree.

Since she was so high up in the tree, we put the Cheetahstand CL360 and beauty dish back onto the painters pole and had Luke hold it as high up as he could to get the light on an even height with the model.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/125@f4

We then headed over to the Japanese garden area of the park to do our Ninja look.

Here we experimented with shooting "day for night" - using a tungsten white balance in camera and underexposing the image to give a feeling of a moonlit night.  The flashes were gelled with MagMod CTO gels.

For these images we went with a different style of treatment in Adobe Lightroom for more of a "300" or "Ultimate Fighter" kind of look.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

This ninja weapon is called a kyoketsu shoge, and has a long rope with a metal ring on the end which is used to ensnare an opponent.  To simulate her actually using it in combat, the metal ring was held next to the camera as the shot was taken.  This had the added effect of creating a leading line to the subject.

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

I've had these martial arts weapons for years and have always wanted to incorporate them into photoshoots.  Jen is one of the few models that had the physique that matched the look I wanted for these.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/200@f4

One of the things I noticed after the shoot was that the kanji on her headband was upside down so I had to fix it in post.

Details, I gotta remember to think about the details DURING the shoot.

For sunset we headed out to Makena Cove beach.  Lucky for us there were no weddings that day, so we were able to move around the beach a lot to get different settings. We cycled through several different sets of Wicked Weasel bikinis for these beach shots.

Since the sun was still a bit high in the sky when we got there, we started out by using the California Sunbounce reflector as fill.

We also turned it around and used it to block the harsh sunlight for a softer look for some of the shots.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 250 1/200@f4

Around sunset we switched to using the Cheetahstand CL360 in a QWBD White collapsible Beauty Dish.  I really like the portability and power of the CL360s.  I also found a way to doing hypersync with the Sony cameras so that we can exceed the flash sync speed limitation.  I'll have to remember to do a post about that.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 400 1/160@f4

The light hitting the sand in front of the strobe made the foreground a little hot, so in the future I'll also need to remember to bring some Cinefoil next time to flag off the bottom of the beauty dish.

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/200@f4

Sony a6000 Sony 70-200mm f4 G OSS iso 100 1/160@f4

Sony a6000 Sony 18-105mm f4 G OSS iso 800 .5 sec@f5.6

It was so much fun to work with this team again. Looking forward to our next shoot!

Glamour, Beauty & The Nude 2013 Maui Workshop Pt III - Morning shoot on the beach

Day 3 - Beach shooting with Candice

Another Starbucks run at 5am, then meeting with everyone in the room.  For our morning session we shot around the hotel property and beach, taking advantage of the early morning light.

While waiting for our 5th model Candice to finish makeup, Art and I got the chance to briefly work with Amy again to shoot a few additional images.

As we were getting ready to go down towards the ocean where everyone else was shooting, we noticed a spot just in front of the resort where the sun was just starting to peek between the buildings.  It was some really beautiful light which looked amazing on Amy.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/400 @ f2.8

Down by the water taking advantage of the early morning light shooting out towards the ocean.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/6400 @ f2.8

Amy threw on a blue kimono-style robe for a few final shots.  I've used this robe for a few studio shots in the past.  Never thought about getting it wet before, but that helped to keep the robe strategically positioned over Amy's chest to keep from accidentally exposing her to onlookers. :-)

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/1250 @ f2.8

After our final shots with Amy, Art and I started shooting with Candice. Andrew was there again to help us with a California Sunbounce mini for fill.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/2000 @ f3.2

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/2000 @ f3.2

We finished up shooting by the water and moved up to the barbecue area in front of the hotel to do some headshots against some hibiscus flowers.  

In the shot above, you can see that Art made the smart choice and stood on the stone wall to get the shot he wanted.  Being shorter than Art, I got the bright idea to climb up onto the grilling area in the middle in order to get a higher shooting angle on Candice.

Big. Mistake.

In the middle of leaping from the rock wall to the top of the grilling area I heard a loud ripping sound and suddenly felt a draft. I reached behind me to check and yup, it happened...

Wardrobe Malfunction.

There I was, standing up on top of this grill, mid-morning on one of the most populated beaches on Maui and I had torn the back of my shorts wide open.

Sigh.......  Third day of the workshop and I think I'm 0 for 3 at this point. ;-)

Of course when you have a limited amount of time with an amazing model like Candice in front of your camera, you don't want to waste time worrying about things like ripping your own clothes to shreds.  So we kept on shooting until we nailed the shot.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/400 @ f2.8

Once we got it, I climbed back down and we looked around for other places to shoot, with me trying to hide the gaping hole in the back of my shorts from public view as best I could.  It's a bit difficult to scout locations when you are constantly trying to keep your backside away from people.

Since the sun was pretty high up in the sky by this time and it was getting rather hot, we moved to the indoors to continue shooting.

Thankfully, our makeup artist Stephanie had an emergency sewing kit, which she brought up to the suite right away so I could quickly make repairs to my shorts.

Thank you Stephanie for saving my ass - literally!

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/200 @ f2.8

Started our next set shooting through the curtains, intentionally blowing out the background for a high key look. We bounced a 580EX off the wall for fill.

Being that we were shooting on the top floor of the hotel, the wind was pretty strong and it kept whipping around the kimono and Candice's hair.  Seeing how the wind whipped Candice's hair around her face gave me an idea.  I found a couple of knives in the kitchen and very carefully handed them to Candice.

It's always a good idea to check and make sure your model is in a good mood before handing her edged weapons.

We changed up the position of the fill light by spreading out the Sunbounce fabric on the floor in front of Candice and bouncing the 580EX into that.  This lit Candice from underneath for a slightly edgy look.

Took a bunch of shots, trying different angles and positions.  The most effective shot came when the wind whipped Candice's hair around so that you could just see her eyes. To me it came across as a sexier take on Japanese horror films like Ju-On and Ringu, so in post production that's the direction I went in.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 400 1/160 @ f4

Stay tuned for Part IV - Private shoots.

Glamour, Beauty & The Nude 2013 Maui Workshop Part II - to Hana and back

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

Day 2 - Got up at 4:00 am.  Being the only workshop attendee that was from Maui, I chose to go home each night instead of getting a hotel room in Kaanapali.  It saved money, but because I live in Central Maui, that meant an hour drive to get to West Maui in the morning, and another hour drive at night to get home everyday after the workshop.

Shoot, who needs sleep? ;-)

Made the Starbucks coffee run for the models and makeup artist and met up with everyone in the main suite at 6am.

We started off on our trip to Hana, making a brief stop in Kahului for breakfast and bio-breaks at McDonalds and Jamba Juice.

Even though I live on Maui, I can count on one hand the number of times I've been to Hana. The last time I was there was at Rolando's workshop many years ago. So I was still relatively unfamiliar as to exactly where everything was. ;-)

We stopped briefly at the Halfway to Hana point for a bio-break and to pick up snacks.

Finally arrived at Waianapanapa State Park to shoot at the Black Sand Beach.  As we got our gear set up, Stephanie went right to work putting the finishing touches on the model's makeup.

We started down a trail to the left of the parking lot intending to get down to the beach, but ended up by the caves instead (oops, sorry Art). So we had to follow the trail as it looped around back uphill to the parking lot.  As we got back to the parking lot, our model noticed a small sign next to the trail we had just gone down on - "Loop Trail"

Doh!

Like I said, I haven't been to Hana in a while...

Returning to the parking lot, we then headed down the correct trail to get to the beach.

Finally down on the Black Sand Beach, we started shooting with our model. At this point, it was about 10:30 am, and the sun was pretty high up in the sky.  Plus the sun kept going in and out of the clouds which made getting a deep blue sky behind the model quite challenging.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 200 1/2000 @ f2.0

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 200 1/4000 @ f1.8

Andrew helped us out by holding a mini California Sunbounce reflector.

I really like the quality of light you get from the California Sunbounce reflectors.  Rolando mentioned that you can think of the different sizes of Sunbounces as equivalent softbox sizes -  a Micro Sunbounce would be a medium softbox, a Mini would be a large, and the Pro would be your extra large, full length softbox.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

On the right hand side of this behind the scenes shot, there is a small cave that you can go into.  

We mainly used this as a changing room for the models, but it would make a nice shooting location as well. Need to think of something interesting to shoot in there for next time.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso 200 1/1600 @ f2.8

During our shoot, the model pointed out a spot with some waves crashing on some rocks further down the coast that she thought would make for a nice shot with a custom made dress that she had brought.

So we hiked along a trail to the left of the bay until we reached the location which was far away from the Black Sand Beach.  Didn't realize how far we had walked until I turned around.

At this point, the little voice in my head was going "You do realize - when we are done, we have to hike all the way BACK there....."

Oh boy.

Once we had our model balanced safely on the rocks, Andrew climbed out to the edge of the water to hold our fill light - 2 Canon 580ex flashes on a lightstand triggered with Phottix Odins.

In retrospect, using a more powerful studio strobe like the Hensels would have made it easier to overpower the sun, but because Andrew was balancing himself on some rocks to hold the light high enough for the angle we needed, it was better (and safer) to go with the 580s instead.  Not a good idea to risk dropping thousands of dollars of lighting gear into the ocean - especially when it's not your own.

An additional benefit of using the relatively lightweight light stand with two 580 flash units on it was that it also made it easier to position Andrew out of the frame to the right and hold the lightstand horizontally over his head to push the light in closer to the model. This made it much easier in post production as I just had to Photoshop out a light stand agains the sky as opposed to a whole person against the sky, water and rocks.

Used the High Speed Sync function of the 580s to allow shooting at 1/500 to help lower the exposure of the sky. While it wasn't enough to overpower the sun completely, it did give us enough color in the sky that could be enhanced later in post.

Canon 5D mkII 24-70mm f2.8L iso 200 1/500 @ f8

Just as we had completed this one shot, it was already time to rejoin the group at the parking lot.

By the time we hiked back to the parking lot, we were totally exhausted (the uphill climb to get to the parking lot was the worst, especially carrying a backpack full of photo gear) - another reason for using the small Canon 580s instead of the heavier power pack and studio flash.

We had lunch at Hana Ranch Restaurant, then drove to Oheo Gulch (what the tourists call "Seven Sacred Pools).

Our assigned model for the afternoon session was Devon. At first we tried hiking up the trail to get up to Waimoku Falls, but due to the time constraints (it is a 4 mile round trip hike after all) we decided to go down to the lower pools and coastline instead.

Stopped for a bit along the trail as the light was pretty nice for shooting.  Natural light with the sun backlighting her hair - used a flash on-camera at the lowest eTTL setting to add just a bit of sparkle to her eyes.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso 400 1/200 @ f1.8

The lower pools were pretty crowded with tourists, so we picked out a spot overlooking the ocean and worked on some shots with the sarong flying in the wind.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/1000 @ f4.0

Because it was very windy at this spot, didn't want to chance using a Sunbounce reflector and have it flying off into the ocean (and possibly taking one of us along with it).  Instead for our fill light we again used 2 Canon 580ex flashes triggered with Phottix Odins.

Always great to have a VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) on location shoots.  Still trying to think of a good caption for this one, Art. ;-)

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/6400 @ f2.8

Really liked the color of the sarong against the blue sky and greenery.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II  iso 400 1/1000 @ f8

Once everyone gathered in the parking lot again, it was time to head back. Rolando and Heather were a little delayed since they were brave enough to make it all the way up to Waimoku Falls to get their shot.   Maybe next time I'll attempt it. ;-)

Now whenever I've gone to Hana, I've always returned home via the same road I came in on.  You can return to Central Maui that way, or you can continue along on the road through Hana, which continues around the southeastern part of Maui until you end up in Kula, on the slopes of Haleakala. From there you can follow the highway back down to Central Maui, then back to Lahaina.

Going in this direction meant not having to deal with all the twists and turns that you face driving in on the road to Hana.  However, it also meant driving over miles and miles of unpaved road.  I drive a Toyota Prius, which is NOT the best car to be driving on those roads (everyone else had 4 wheel drive) especially when having 3 other passengers in the car.  Got pretty dicey at some points, but thankfully we made it.  We even had time to stop for a group shot.

Back on paved road again - whew!

We got back to Kahului, stopped at Burger King to pick up a quick bite, and made the trip back to Kaanapali.  Everyone was pretty fried at this point and by the time I got back home, I realized I'd probably only be able to have about 2-3 hours of sleep until the start of Day 3.

Might have to rethink getting a hotel room in Kaanapali next year....


Stay tuned for Day 3 - The Wardrobe Malfunction.