Tag Archives: model

Tonya Kay, FetCon 2009

I did not get to shoot much at FetCon 2009. I was not able to get to the show till lat friday night. The best time is to work out shoots with the models is the thursday night meet & greet. By the time I arrived most people I wanted to shoot with had already booked the weekend. I had met Tonya Kay the previous year at the show. We did a bull whip shoot last year that was great fun. We talked about trying to fit a shoot in her busy schedule between shows and personal appearances this year. I had an idea of how I wanted to shoot to look. Constraints of time, location and gear limited my options. I love working in adverse conditions makes for creative solutions for problems. I had about 30 minutes of shooting time and about 30 minutes of notification.

I wanted to have a halo around her. If you ever get the chance to meet you will notice that she a truly wonderful person. I have always consider her an angel. I want to the shots to be more than just hot girl with long legs. I used my main light behind her and used a camera mounted for the for ground shot.

Spooky Underwater Photography

I am still experimenting with the way I want my images look. I want a unique look and style of my own. There many other extremely talented underwater photographers creating some amazing images. A friend sent me a great link to my FB account of a UK photographer Phoebe Rudomino that does very unique underwater images. The studio Pinewood Studios in the UK is one of the state of art studio’s anywhere in the world.

I on the other hand I rely on gracious home owners that allow me to use their pools. Which has been working out, but I need to take it to the next level. The Canon G10 and housing is nice, but I would like to use the Canon 5D mk II for greater control and faster shutter release. I do plan to try to rig optical triggers that can fire land based strobes, for more interesting visual effects.

Underwater Photography the second try

On a sunny Sunday afternoon I was able to shoot again with Janice. This attempt I tried to learn from all the previous mistakes I had made with the other shoots. I broke out my scuba gear which I felt might be cheating but really help me improve the images and allow me to focus more on the quality and compositions more than running out of breath. Shooting in noon day sun was a blessing that allowed high shutter speed at a relative low ISO setting. Good anti-fog is worth is weight in gold for keeping the mask clear. The Canon G10 and underwater case has been really good so far.  I have encountered only a few minor issues and have found work around for most. Considering the cost is far less than a underwater housing and lens port for a 5D mkII.  It has been a great way to work under water without deep six my wallet. Janice was a real trooper, she kept working with for a few hours, as my technique and skill improved her posing got better and she became more comfortable underwater. Over all I am happy with the results and look forwarded to further improve and extermination with underwater images

Underwater Photography Revisited

Well I took the lessons learned from past attempts to shoot underwater and attain visually pleasing images.

  • A mask with anti-for is your friend.
  • Weight belt is good, even when you over loaded it.
  • Clean & clear pool is wonderful

I pitched the idea to Janice and she was game for a quick experimental shoot. The first problem was the pools underwater light was dead. So I pulled out my mega dive light and tossed it to the bottom of the pool. Until you try to do underwater photography there is no way to compare it to land or studio photography.  The simple act of composing a shot can only take a few seconds, those wonderful models don’t have gills. Difficulty moving to get a shot is compounded by your subject floating and as the photographer. I am happier with these results of the images than the previous attempts. I found issues, the G10 considerable shutter lag and the small sensor and optics combination make getting great shots difficult. I think I can set the camera to shoot in a bust mode and multi shots. This will allow better timing to capture the moment I see in front of the lens. The small sensor effects the properties of optics. Look here for the math.

We plan to do another shoot in the middle of the day to use natural light, check back soon.

Beach Shoot

Did a beach shoot @ Melbourne Beach with Tash. I have never been a big fan of the beach shoots, too easy to get sand in expensive gear. I tend to bring too much gear to shoots and hate dealing with gawkers. I did agree to do the shoot. She has always been fun to work with and she had picked up some new outfits. The shoot went well, wish I had not forgotten my Hensel ring flash…