Had a shoot last night with Liz Ashley, who was in the midwest on a brief tour before heading back to Texas. She's in very high demand and has traveled all over the world shooting in some incredible locations -- kind of hard to believe she'd find herself in Dayton, OH, but there she was. Very friendly and relaxed, but with a lot of ideas and great instincts for posing. And in a way, I now feel I have a pretty good idea what Jessica Simps0n would look like nude.
Although I was there in plenty of time before the shoot, it wasn't until we were ready to get started that I discovered that my wireless flash trigger wasn't working. When using studio strobes, something needs to fire the strobes when the camera shutter is clicked. I've been using an inexpensive but (usually) reliable wireless system -- the trigger mounts to the camera "hot shoe" and the receiver connects to one of the flash units. This lets me position the flash pretty much anyplace, and I can be right next to it, or across the room, thanks to the wireless trigger.
So, last night it decides to crap out on me, and I had to go back to a cord connection for the night, which renewed my appreciation for the wireless trigger. For starters, the end of the cord that connects to the camera is just a shallow plug without any sort of "grip" to it, so it tends to just fall out, and to plug it back in, it's necessary to turn the flash off, then try to connect the thing in the dark, then switch the flash back on. And, once the cord is connected, I can still only get about 6 or 8 feet away from the light source, which is pretty limiting. Plus, having the cord connected makes it really easy to trip over and either bring the camera or the flash unit crashing to the ground -- I've had it happen a couple of times with the camera when I couldn't go wireless. Not good. The ironic thing is earlier in the week, I'd told a friend about the benefits of going wireless, and it prompted me to order a backup set, but it didn't arrive in time for last night's shoot. Story of my life...
But I made due with the cord the way the pioneers did. It was sort of a short-notice shoot, so we kept it pretty simple, and I feel we got some nice results for the evening. Here are just a couple quick previews -- more to come. Thanks Liz!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Still tied...
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8 comments:
Excellent work Gary. I especially like the top one in colour, not least because it's contrary to your usual style, but also the mood it creates.
I have had the same problem, except that in my case I don't have the hard-wired backup capability. Ironically, one of the best nudes I've made came in a session where the wireless transmitter failed and I had to go with window-sourced natural light: Crescent, with Samantha.
So a couple weeks ago my unit failed again, so this time I went and purchased a replacement, the first unit will go in for repairs and will henceforth serve as backup.
Peacefully beautiful. The candles and light are perfect with her figure.
Stephen... I would have loved to work with Liz using natural light for part of the session, unfortunately, it was evening on December 19, one of the shortest days of the year! Maybe next time I'll get her during some daylight hours.
Nice work with Samantha... I need to look for more dancer types...
Nice photo with the candles, Gary. I photographed Liz last year but I would hardly call her relaxed. I think she's one of the most intense models I've ever worked with.
Beautiful work with Liz. I've worked with her 3 times over the past few years - 4 if you include a Bill Lemon workshop. She certainly one of the better ones I've worked with.
For studio work I've used Pocket-Wizards, but I also bought a cheaper set of wireless gear from FotoDiox.com that I use for location stuff and monolights. They've worked perfect for over 3 years - minus dead batteries.
http://www.fotodiox.com
(slow site)
I found that a rubber band can help hold a rogue synch cord in place.
My problem is that I only have one camera that works with my studio lighting. The hotshoe doesn't work on the other one and it doesn't have a plug for the cord.
I love the top one.. yay, color :).
Beautiful lighting with the candles.
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