In the photo: Jessica Morales
What an excellent shoot this past Saturday.... I put out a call for a model to help with a conducting a practice session for my friend Erick Shriver, an up and coming photographer in the San Angelo area. Jessica responded that she'd like to step in front of the lens for a fitness-themed shoot; a departure from her experience as a makeup artist. We chose a location downtown that is frequented by photographers -- there were at least two other shoots going on in the area that evening -- but ended up moving down the block a little to an abandoned parking lot with metal support beams and no roof. In addition to providing a little relief from very strong winds, it has some amazing texture on the walls.
The second lighting setup of the evening.
Erick and I did a little scouting around the area upon arriving around 6:00pm and, after deciding to move up the block, began to unload the car and talk lighting setups. Most of the session focused on a 3-light setup with a 22in Mola Demi beauty dish fitting a 20 degree grid mounted on an Einstein as the key light. Dual rim lighting was provided by two 12x36in strip boxes with grids. Once all of the gear was unloaded and set up, I began dialing in the ambient light -- it worked pretty well at 1/250 on the shutter speed and f/8 throughout the shoot. Once the sky was underexposed, I began adding in the strobes. It all came together and we asked Jessica to step in front of the camera for some shots. It was apparent from the first set of images that things were going in the right direction... The light was where it needed to be, Jessica's husband Dan was helping out with some great advice on proper form and Jessica was doing an amazing job of conveying both strength and beauty. The entire event lasted until around 9:00pm with a total of about five different setups. It was a blast to spend a while collaborating on making photos with some great people. Looking forward to the next shoot!