Little Beach Photoshoot with LakeGirl

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/2000@f4.0

For our first photoshoot of 2014 back in January, I had the opportunity to collaborate with LakeGirl, a model I met through Model Mayhem.  This was a short swimwear photo session we did in the morning at Little Beach in Makena with the assistance of her husband Luke. The swimwear was provided by Wicked Weasel.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/2500@f4.0

The parking lot was empty as we were the first ones to the beach that morning, and the sun was just starting to peek out from behind the clouds. We started our shoot at the top of the cliff that separates Big Beach and Little Beach, where we attempted to capture some of the early morning light in the background.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso200 1/500@f4.5

To light her up against the morning sky we used a Canon 580EX flash triggered with the Phottix Odin.  A silver California Sunbounce Pro was held just out of the right of the frame to bounce back some of the flash to fill in the shadows.

We next headed down to a lava rock area away from the beach.  This location gave us some nice clear views of the horizon as well as some spots where the waves would crash and give us some nice effects.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/1000@f4.0

Once the sun got high enough in the sky to shine down on the spot we were shooting in, our lighting for the rest of the day's shoot was mainly the morning sun filled in with the silver California Sunbounce Pro.

Tried a few other shots like below where she was lying down on the rocks, but we were getting hotspots from the sun on the upper part of her body.  If we had a 2nd assistant available for the shoot, we could have held a scrim over her to block that out. Instead, we moved her closer to a spot in the shade.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 85mm f1.8 iso320 1/1250@f2.8

Little Beach is actually a really nice location to shoot at.  Gonna have to think about shooting here more often.  Nice variations in scenery to use.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/2500@f4.0

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/1250@f5.6

There was a spot on the rocks that we would get some really nice and large wave splashes, so we positioned our model right at the edge and waited.

For some reason while we were shooting, the paddle boarders and boats in the background seemed to congregate right behind us. . .

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/2500@f4.0

So it took us a while to get the shots we wanted without the background distractions.  But it was worth the wait.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso320 1/1600@f4.0

We moved to the sand and did a few more shots with the black bikini, being careful to hide the growing number of nude beach-goers in the background.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso200 1/3200@f4.0

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso200 1/1250@f4.5

To finish up, I had Luke join her in the water for an impromptu couples shot.

Canon EOS 5DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso200 1/2000@f4.0

Loved working with these two! Thanks you guys for making the first shoot of 2014 so much fun!

Coloring backgrounds with gelled strobes

During a recent photoshoot at Kepaniwai Park in Iao Valley with local model Natily Taylor, I wanted to see if we could create some interesting headshots using flash.  Our setting was in a large banyan tree in the middle of the park.

Two Canon 580ex flashes were used for the shot.  The main 580ex was modified with a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe softbox.

The second 580ex was gelled with a CTO gel and Justin Clamped to part of the tree just behind the model.  To spread the light out as much as possible to light both the background and the model's hair, the flash was zoomed out to its widest setting and the diffuser panel pulled over the gel.

Both flashes were set to manual mode, and triggered with Cactus v5 radio triggers.

This is what the tree looked like before we set up the strobes:

And this is the result:

 Canon 5D mkII 70-200 f2.8L IS II lens iso 800 1/100 @ f2.8

In the future, I'll have to remember to experiment with other colors of gels (like blue or green) Or maybe even mixing different colors.

Posted with Blogsy

Charlotte Michelle Photoshoot Part II - sunset at Ulua Beach

During our pre-shoot meeting, Charlotte indicated that she wanted to have some scenic shots of Maui where she was incorporated into the scene (as opposed to images where she was the primary subject).  For the second half of our shoot together, we headed down to Ulua Beach to catch the sunset.

For shots looking down the coastline, we used a silver California Sunbounce Pro reflector to soften the shadows.

As we got closer to sunset, and started shooting into the sun, we switched to using a White Lightning X1600 with a beauty dish for the main light.

So glad I had the opportunity to shoot with this model again after all these years.  Working with a professional model of Michelle's caliber makes a photographer's job SO much easier. She just kept knocking the poses and looks out of the park so I basically all I had to do was point and shoot. ;-)

I like it when models make things simple like that.  'Cause I'm simple-minded. ;-)

After the sun dropped below the horizon, I had Jen hold an SB26 with a CTO gel just out of frame behind the model to add a bit of hair/rim light to the model.

While I really liked the look we were getting from the addition of the rim light toward the end of our shoot, it was very hard on the assistant because she had to stand practically in the surf and get soaked in order to get into the right position.  Jen, you are awesome! :-)

It was very challenging to shoot on this beach, mainly because of the crowd that was gathering off to the side to check out what we were doing. As a result, there were a few other ideas we wanted to try but decided not to. Always try to stay within the model's comfort zone. If your model's happy, you're happy.  If your model's not happy, NOBODY is happy. ;-)

Charlotte Michelle Photoshoot Pt I - Creating a Bedroom Scene with One Light

One of the first models I worked with when I began studying model photography was Charlotte Michelle, whom I met through photographer Rolando Gomez when he held a glamour workshop in Hana, Maui back in May of '06. After nearly 7 years, I finally had the opportunity to reconnect with this model and do another photoshoot with her.

We met for a pre-shoot meeting a few days before and I was actually surprised she remembered me from the workshop. But then again, I guess you do kind of remember when a photographer asks you to climb up on top of a Ford Escalade wearing practically nothing for a shot.

(Yep, shooting with me can be a traumatic experience for any model.) ;-)

Our makeup artist for this shoot was Kahulani, doing her amazing magic as usual - helping to even out sunburned skin, adjust hair, cut tags off of clothing, etc.  Kat is always so much fun to work with and her hard work saves me countless hours in post production.

I was also lucky enough to have my friend Jennifer Stephens of Unique Art Hawaii assist us this time since this particular shoot included some implied/partial nudity.

It's always a good idea to have a female assistant on shoots like this so that they can run in and adjust the model's hair, clothing (or lack thereof) etc.  An added bonus is that Jennifer is one of Maui's top graphic artists, so I also relied on her creative eye on the set for different ideas and poses we could do.

I've also been meaning to do more behind the scenes videos of our shoots, but since it's difficult to shoot both photo and video on the same shoot, I had our other assistant Ronald focus on shooting video and setup shots.

For our studio shoot, the main concept was to create a morning bedroom scene with sunlight streaming in through the windows.   Since the studio we were in had no windows of any kind, we had to create one from scratch.  We lit this entire set with just one light.

A single White Lightning 800 strobe with a 7" reflector was pointed at the back white wall.  This was triggered with a Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceiver.  The reflected light then passed through a 77"x77" translucent Photoflex Litepanel to backlight our set.

Our "bed" was a simple table with couch cushions, a comforter and some satin sheets draped over it.

To light the front of the model, 2 white v-flats were placed in front of the table to bounce the back light into the front of the model.

To hide the fact that we were using a litepanel and to make the set look more like a bedroom, we added two free-standing closet doors on either side of the litepanel to hide the frame.

I liked the soft looks we got using this simple lighting setup, but would like to tweak the set a bit more on the next shoot to get more depth.

Kojo Couture Photoshoot - Behind the Scenes Video

Been tied up with other projects for a while, but finally had time to sit down and work with some behind the scenes footage we shot on a fashion photoshoot with designer Koa Johnson.



The two posts about this shoot can be found here and here.