Shooting the Shooter

I saw a great photo at the National Portrait Gallery in London a few weeks ago; it showed a woman posing, but she wasn't posing for the camera. Instead she seemed to be posing for someone else, off the side of the picture. It got me thinking..

I came up with a simple idea. I wanted to show the shooter taking a picture of a model. But I wanted it to look like it was properly happening, and not too staged.

Now, Lauren and I work together lots. But we don't have the luxury of having a 3rd shooter who can take pictures of us. It was self-portrait time. And throw into the mix the fact that I wanted to show the shooter's flash going off (illuminating the model) as well as throw some light onto the shooter.. gulp.

I started off by creating a lighting diagram courtesy of Fred Miranda. I'm really enjoying working this way. I sketch out my idea first - so I can picture it properly and give Lauren an idea of what I'm thinking. Then I formalise it in a lighting diagram.





I use Canon's wireless trigger system based around their STE2 transmitter. This was mounted on the main camera (the one that took the shot). I think put a 550EX above camera right shooting into a snoot to put some isolation into the shooter's face. The shooter (me) obviously has to be seen to be holding a camera. So I borrowed Lauren's 350D (time for an upgrade me thinks) and put a 430EX in slave mode on it.

I hooked up my Canon 30D to Lightroom via the Canon EOS Utility software's remote control feature and set it up to take 5 shots every 10 seconds.

Lauren threw some poses, I threw in some corny "c'mon on love, that's right, gorgeous" comments as I pretended to snap away, while the 430EX on my dummy camera popped in time with the 550EX illuminating me.





Sorted!

Waiting For Rain

Gideon and Caren came to our exhibition in May and proposed that we shoot their wedding in August. So, we did!
It was a Jewish wedding, full of ceremony and tradition, and the bride and groom added their own touch by building a beautiful multi-coloured labyrinth in the grounds of a walled garden. It looked amazing.

It was a weekend of torrential rain and thunderstorms. Even on the Sunday (Jewish weddings take place on Sundays) morning, the heavens had opened and it looked like a washout. But, an hour before the guests arrived, the rain stopped, lighting improved and it warmed up nicely.

It was Lauren's idea to get out a fun brolly. However, with the weather not doing what we'd expected it to do, we had to simulate the rain on the umbrella. Gideon and Caren were happy to join in our fun and obliged us with this shot. Thank-you both!

Andy

Multibride vs Multigroom

We shot a wedding in October for our friends Ben and Grainne. We were lucky enough to have full access to the Royal Pavilion's grand Music Room. It's a stunning setting, with a ceiling of gold (real) and red and ornate decoration.

The shoot was made more interesting by the fact that Joe Public were also in there, but Ben and Grainne are willing models and put aside any thoughts of being watched and performed floorlessly!

Available light, however, was poor, and I had to use a high ISO with no flash for this setup. Anyway, I think the results were pretty good.. and fun to boot!

Andy