I had been wanting to take part in the Strobist.com Boot Camp II, but the themes to the first three assignments weren't easy for me to do. So when the last assignment (ie. my last chance) came and the theme was declared to be transportation, boy was I excited! I mean, I can possibly come up with something...
So while stoning during one of my recent remedial training (RT) sessions, I decided to actually think about what to shoot (instead of what to buy) for once, and came up with a couple of rough ideas. A phone conversation with Joan that night yielded the final idea.
Location: concrete tubes found near her home.
Photographer: Joan.
Lighting man: Me.
Model: Me???
And the transportation? A skate-scooter! I'd always wanted to try riding on one when they were all the rage many years ago, but never did. Here's my chance! (Ok, the truth is, we don't have a car, truck, bike, or any other mode of transport between us. Heck, even the skate-scooter was borrowed from a primary school student learning the piano from Joan)
Pondering over how to pose for the shoot... © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
Anyway the day of the shoot-- Sep 20 -- finally came. It was fortunate that RT was cancelled on this day, due to the Hari Raya holidays. And when night fell, we moved out from our HQ (Joan's place) to the location.
The tubes, which were lying on a grass patch next to a canal for reasons unknown, made for a superb location, esp. with the right lighting. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
We have two lights between us: an SB900 and an SB800. Since the SB800 is more powerful, I used it as the light in the distant set at full power (manual). This serves to create a sense of depth in the photo. The SB900, mounted on my Gorillapod on a metal beam that ran across the opening of the tube, behind the camera, bounced off the ceiling of the tube with the built-in bounce card up to illuminate the model (me). I used TTL for convenience.
Setting up the light. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
We used Joan's D90, and originally planned to use the Tokina 12-24 f4. However, turned out that it wasn't wide enough, and thank goodness I'd brought the 10.5mm fisheye along! The shot was taken from a very low angle. And we used a very high ISO (3200 to 6400) so as to make the distant light brighter.
The first variation, with the SB800 closer to me. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
The final shot from the second variation, with the SB800 further away. I submitted this to the Strobist pool. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
As you can see I had a lot of fun with the shoot. Haha! And I am quite happy with the final product too.
Don't think I stand a good chance of winning, but I guess I can always hope for an honourary mention on the strobist blog...
Edit: Just an extra note, this was another instance when the fisheye saved the day... It's seldom used (maybe once in a month at best) but there are situations when nothing else can do the job, simply because it's so darn wide.
I think I will never think of selling it again to fund my impending camera body upgrade!
So while stoning during one of my recent remedial training (RT) sessions, I decided to actually think about what to shoot (instead of what to buy) for once, and came up with a couple of rough ideas. A phone conversation with Joan that night yielded the final idea.
Location: concrete tubes found near her home.
Photographer: Joan.
Lighting man: Me.
Model: Me???
And the transportation? A skate-scooter! I'd always wanted to try riding on one when they were all the rage many years ago, but never did. Here's my chance! (Ok, the truth is, we don't have a car, truck, bike, or any other mode of transport between us. Heck, even the skate-scooter was borrowed from a primary school student learning the piano from Joan)
Pondering over how to pose for the shoot... © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
Anyway the day of the shoot-- Sep 20 -- finally came. It was fortunate that RT was cancelled on this day, due to the Hari Raya holidays. And when night fell, we moved out from our HQ (Joan's place) to the location.
The tubes, which were lying on a grass patch next to a canal for reasons unknown, made for a superb location, esp. with the right lighting. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
We have two lights between us: an SB900 and an SB800. Since the SB800 is more powerful, I used it as the light in the distant set at full power (manual). This serves to create a sense of depth in the photo. The SB900, mounted on my Gorillapod on a metal beam that ran across the opening of the tube, behind the camera, bounced off the ceiling of the tube with the built-in bounce card up to illuminate the model (me). I used TTL for convenience.
Setting up the light. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
We used Joan's D90, and originally planned to use the Tokina 12-24 f4. However, turned out that it wasn't wide enough, and thank goodness I'd brought the 10.5mm fisheye along! The shot was taken from a very low angle. And we used a very high ISO (3200 to 6400) so as to make the distant light brighter.
The first variation, with the SB800 closer to me. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
The final shot from the second variation, with the SB800 further away. I submitted this to the Strobist pool. © Lin Zhaowei, 2009.
As you can see I had a lot of fun with the shoot. Haha! And I am quite happy with the final product too.
Don't think I stand a good chance of winning, but I guess I can always hope for an honourary mention on the strobist blog...
Edit: Just an extra note, this was another instance when the fisheye saved the day... It's seldom used (maybe once in a month at best) but there are situations when nothing else can do the job, simply because it's so darn wide.
I think I will never think of selling it again to fund my impending camera body upgrade!
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