Alyssa and Alana - Military shoot Pt I

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f4

Took the first flight over to Oahu on Easter Sunday to meet up with Chaz from After6Media for another joint shoot at the Naval Air Museum at Barbers Point on Oahu.

This time our models were Alyssa and Alana and our makeup artists were Chastity and Sarah.

The Naval Air Museum staff was very helpful with this shoot, doing everything from moving and positioning vehicles to holding lightstands and reflectors.  They even helped to instruct our models on the proper holding and use of the many firearms we had access to.  They really made the photoshoot go smoothly.

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f2.8

Started out with Alana and a rocket launcher.  We used a California Sunbounce SunSwatter to diffuse the sunlight and a WL1600 with a beauty dish for the main light. We actually had two of the 1600s set up, but found that one was enough.

Our next set was on a tank named "The Duke".

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f5.6

For a lot of these shots also I used a circular polarizer and an ND filter on the lens to help darken the sky.

Canon 5D mk II 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/160@f2.8

The wind was doing amazing things with Alana's hair.  Kinda distracted me though - I should have also done a wide shot showing more of the turret, but didn't think about it at the time.

Both Chaz and I had a lot of our own concepts to shoot, so he primarily worked with Alana on this day while I worked with Alyssa.

Alyssa has been studying acrobatic silk work and the tank gave us a great opportunity to put her skills to work.

 Once she got the silk set up she started rocking the shoot.

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f4

The wind was blowing quite a bit (the location is on an active airfield after all), but amazingly Alyssa was able to position herself so that we could get the shots we wanted.

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f4

We used the WL1600/Beauty Dish again to fill in the harsh shadows.  One thing about the WL1600s - they are DURABLE.  The wind actually knocked the lightstand over while we were at the tank, denting the beauty dish and shattering the flashtube.  I figured the light was completely trashed.  When I got back to Maui however, I replaced the flashtube and tested it and amazingly the WL1600 is still working!

Alyssa is just fearless when it comes to posing - "Want me to hang from a tank turret holding a rifle? Suuuuure!  How about if I do it inverted?".

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/80@f2.8

We worked with one of the Navy jets next. Used the WL1600 with a 7" reflector for the main and an AB800 with the beauty dish for fill.  By this time the sun was a little lower in the sky so that we could use it as a hairlight.

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/160@f5.6

Played around a bit with the positioning and the various signage on the plane.

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We tried several variations of outfits.  I think the red worked out the best. Red, white & blue - a future Navy recruiting poster maybe?

Canon 5D mk II 70-200 f2.8L IS II iso200 1/125@f5.6

We also tried a few shots on top of one of the jets where Alyssa wrapped a silk around her body and let the wind blow through it.  Since she was pretty high up, I couldn't get exactly the right camera angle and placement of the light I was looking for.  Something to maybe save for the next shoot.

 Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/250@f5.6

Did some playful shots as well.  Alyssa is great with expressions like this.  Of course, we had a bit of a run in with security right after we took this shot.

Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/250@f5.6

Also did some shots with Alyssa and Alana together.

 Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/250@f5.6

 Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/250@f5.6

Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/200@f5.6

We ended up at the Huey for some final shots. The image stabilization on the 24-105 f4L IS lens is pretty darned good - this was handheld at 1/15th shutter speed.

Canon 7D 24-105 f4L IS iso200 1/15@f5.6

We then wrapped up and headed back to the airport to catch the last flight back to Maui.

Anyone that tells you that being a model is easy - that's a load of bullpucky.  Dehydrating in the hot sun, posing in the wind, hanging from silks, balancing on airplanes, these girls worked their butts off that day so that we could get some cool shots.  Mahalos to our models Alyssa and Alana, our makeup artists Sarah and Chastity and the staff at the Naval Air Museum for another awesome shoot!

2nd shoot with wolfpup - "Black Lagoon" anime concept

 I really enjoy working with model wolfpup from MM.  She is one of those models that can work her poses and expressions so well that when she is in front of my lens, I can just go into chimpanzee mode concentrate on the shot and not worry about having to direct her too much.  She just knows how to rock the shot.

This was our second shoot together and this time we were lucky enough to be able to shoot at the Naval Air Museum at Barbers Point on Oahu, thanks to my buddy Chaz at After6Media and his friends there.

This was a great location to shoot at - tanks, APCs, Navy jets, Army helicopters etc.. Chaz said it best - like being a kid in a candy store.

Kecia Littman was our makeup artist on this shoot.  I had previously worked with Kecia a few years ago on a studio shoot on Oahu, and it was great to work with her again.

For this shoot, we went with an anime character theme - Revy from the Japanese anime "Black Lagoon"

This was a concept I've been wanting to do for a long time, but it wasn't until now that everything came together just right.

We started in the afternoon a bit delayed by the heavy traffic on H1, so although there were a ton of different things we could have shot, I chose to limit it to two specific ideas.  I also kept the lighting to just one light - the White Lightning 1600 which was enough to overpower the sun.

First set was with the tank. I setup the WL1600 with a standard 7" reflector about 20ft away from the tank and tested until I was satisfied with the angle and look.  I had wolfpup stand in front of the tank and just let her get into character.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

For props she is holding a Tokyo Marui airsoft G36K rifle.  The shoulder holsters hold two custom KSC airsoft 9mm Beretta 92F pistols "Sword Cutlass Special" from the Black Lagoon anime.

Black tactical gloves, combat boots and the military belt completed the look.  For the outfit, the model just needed to bring the denim shorts and black tank top (actually there was writing on the tank top, so she wore it inside out for the shoot).

By the time we started shooting the sun was now behind the tank and model, and the one WL1600 had to provide lighting for both.

When I took the first shot, the model was exposed correctly, but the tank behind her was a little on the dark side.  Because of the inverse square law, the tank was getting less light than the model.  This was ok for the closeup shot above, but for the wide shot I needed to change it up slightly.

I repositioned the model more to the front edge of the tank and moved the light more to the right so that her shadow would not fall onto the tank.  Since the model and tank were now both about equally distant from the light, the tank looked much better.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

Climbed on top of the tank for some additional shots.  Still using the WL1600 with 7" reflector.
Ordinarily I try not to use such a small light source on a model because of the harsh shadows, but thankfully wolfpup is one of those models that look amazing no matter what kind of light you throw at her.

Canon 5D 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

To get some motion in her hair for this shot, I had her turn away from the camera, then whip around and bring the gun up to acquire a target.  Shots like these I'll usually crop to 16x9 aspect ratio in Lightroom to give it a cinematic feel.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/250@f16

Got the idea for this from a Jack Bauer poster for "24".  When the model saw this shot she said it would make a great recruiting poster. ;-)

On some of these shots you might notice the tribal tattoo on the model's shoulder.  We didn't have time for our makeup artist to create the tattoo to match the anime character we were portraying, so I experimented with adding it in post.

We were starting to get into sunset, so we headed over to the helicopter gunship.

We mounted a 5' Octodome on the WL 1600 and used that as our main light.

Wide shot of Chaz shooting with his model Rose using the Octodome.  We took turns shooting with the Octodome and the models manning the gun.

 When it came time for wolfpup and I to shoot, I instructed her to really exaggerate her actions, as we were emulating an anime character.  This led to one of my favorite shots from this session.

When I worked on this shot in post, I noticed that there was no pilot in the shot.  Don't really notice it in the shot below because of the 16x9 crop, but in the uncropped original the entire cockpit was in view and it was clear there was no pilot.  To fix that (and do a slight director's cameo), I had my brother use his iPhone 3Gs camera to take a picture of the back of my head.  I comped that into the shot where the pilot would be.  You can barely see it here, but it's little touches like that that help to sell the shot.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f8

We were wrapping up after the sun went below the horizon, but we were getting such great colors in the sky that I wanted to get in a few last shots.  While wolfpup got ready, we raised the Octodome up and tilted it down about 45 degrees.  Chaz then got below the light and held up a silver California Sunbounce mini reflector.  We brought wolfpup in as close as possible to this beauty lighting setup and got some great glamour shots to end the day.  An added plus was that the makeup colors Kecia used on wolfpup's eyes was a good match for the colors of the sunset.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/250@f8

There were so many other things we could have shot at this location, but there just wasn't enough time.  Hopefully we'll have the chance to shoot there again in the near future.