Ron Shoots

Here’s a quick behind-the-scenes on a kayak shoot with a mature couple from earlier this week. I shot a few with a long lens but wanted to get a really low angle as an alternative view.

Shooting from a boat would have worked, but also would have required a lot more logistics. So we just took the simple approach. I laid down on the dock and hung over the side, elbows in the water, while our stylist Krista held the kayak from straying too far with a rope tied to the bow.

On command, the models would paddle and Krista would give the boat a tug to give the effect of gliding through the water. I’m shooting with a wide angle to leave lots of copyspace above and below the kayak. The flash helped fill some of the shadows in the mid-morning sun. This was our third set-up of the day so we had already shot sunrise and early morning scenes.

Today was just an air travel day- getting from Point A to B. Charlotte, NC to Orange County, CA. (Yesterday was actually the frantic travel day just getting to Charlotte from the coastal resort location after missing the ferry and having to take a much later one…) Heading towards home after 24 days on the road… The first flight to Dallas was uneventful and we arrived early. The weather report had possible storms in the afternoon forecast.

This is the sequence of events that would then transpire- actually pretty funny now!

- Boarding delayed 20 minutes due to late arrival of aircraft

- Takes a good 30 minutes to get to runway.

- Pilot announces up to 2 hour delay. The storm is approaching and the FAA tower is giving each take-off 50 miles of space between each aircraft!

- After 2 hours, we’re now 7th in line. About another hour. We inch forward.

- Yes, we’re #1 for take-off! Almost outa here after 3 hours! Pilot announces departure in 7 minutes.

- I look at the windsock, steady winds out of the south.

- I look at the windsock 2 minutes later. The wind is now out of the north… uh-oh! The skies are not only dark gray, they are that pre-storm ominous green.

- A split-second later I see an approaching plane do a “go-around” which is when they are about to land then pull up. I guess the wind shear is too strong.

- Pilot announces airport is now shut down, and we have to taxi to the other end to get ready for a northerly departure. We pass a line at least 2 miles long of other planes waiting.

- We wait, ready to go. Winds and rain are rocking our 737.

- Pilot announces we have been called back to the gate. We’ve now been sitting on the plane for 4 hours, and we’re headed back to the gate!

- We stop short of the gate. Because of all the lightning strikes, ramp personnel are not allowed to bring us to the gate. We wait 1 more hour.

- Finally, at the gate. Pilot announces that if we get off the plane that there are no flights available for at least 2 days, and not a single hotel room available. (OK, now this is getting exciting…. my driver’s license expires in 2 days so I won’t even have an ID to get on a plane if I’m stuck at DFW for 2 days! And I can’t exactly rent a car and drive to Maui!)

- Pilot announces that he and co-pilot are almost at the end of their “duty day” and there is no crew to fly the plane.

- Flight attendants announce limited food if we decide to stay aboard.

- Then we hear another announcement that the pilots are re-considering taking the flight to our intended destination. (This is the time when you begin to think about all those articles you’ve read on pilot fatigue…)

- The new plan is to take on more fuel, and get out of DFW as quickly as possible. The storm has mostly passed by now. We’ve been granted “Priority Taxi” rights… didn’t even know that existed. My guess is that these guys are going to crank up the airspeed and beat the speed record to the West Coast to stay under their hours.

- Next I see flight attendants carrying huge bags of McDonald’s pre-made salads aboard. Guess the food problem has been solved! (This is a first…)

- We’re on our way, to the cheers and clapping of all the passengers. Only we’ve been on the plane now for five and a half hours.

- A record time! I enjoyed my McDonald’s pre-made salad. I think they shaved at least 30 minutes off the estimated time and I know we were flying into strong headwinds. Gotta wonder how many extra pounds of fuel they burned.

- And yes, you guessed it! We’re at our destination, and there’s no one to meet the plane. Everyone’s busy on other flights. We wait another 10 minutes before we can pull up to the gate.

- I’m now approaching the exit to baggage claim when all the sirens go off and TSA shuts down the exit! Just a drill we’re told. Do not pass go, do not collect $200… just wait 2 minutes.

But my bags did arrive, last off the carrousel, but that’s fine. Safety is always first, and I got a lot of emails answered! With all the travel, I can only count serious delays a few times a year. The record was waiting out a storm for 8 hours in Montreal. So the next time someone mentions how traveling is so glamorous, could you please point them to this post!

(For the record… in the last 6 months, I’ve been stuck in a snow bank, had tire blow-out, and a near miss mid-air collision with a military jet. I gotta get a life…)

Working at a resort community offers a ton of activity options! We’ve been able to shoot beach, biking, dining, fishing, kayaking and a ton of leisurely lifestyle over the past few days.

(Krista, our stylist, keeps an eye on details while Luke handles the fill-flash.)

Yesterday, we were on the golf course for a couple of hours. The best time to shoot on a golf course is usually late afternoon after most of the golfers have already played the holes. We’ve tried shooting in the morning before, but its hard to work around all the footprints and tracks left in the morning dew.

The excitement of the day was seeing a couple of alligators along the path enroute to the golf hole. Just little 6 - 7 footers, but still pretty cool!

Fresh takes needed

I’m not much of a golfer. I know enough vocabulary to get me in trouble… but golf is a huge category in any stock collection. The challenge is to always find fresh angles. There’s tons of golf images, so its always worth the extra effort to come up with something a little new & different.

The man in our husband/wife model couple team knew how to play so he became the feature actor in this set. He had his own golf shoes- these are an expensive prop so we nixed getting a pair for her knowing we would only have a couple hours to shoot. Feet don’t always need to show so getting the golf “lifestyle” was easy, and I discovered the shadow didn’t need to have golf shoes.

Details are cool

I love shooting details!

The big scene is important and the detail shots help fill out the image set. Often, the detail shots become the concept images. I usually wear old clothes on most shoot days. Partly my style… but mostly so I can lay down in the dirt or grass, and find new angles without the fear of messing up anything! My crew jokes that I probably spend more time laying on the ground than I do on my feet.

We’re on location at an island resort off the coast of North Carolina. The really cool thing about this place is that no cars are permitted on island- you take everything on a passenger ferry across the Cape Fear River, then golf cart is the only mode of transportation once on-island. So yeah… no car for 5 days! (The only challenge is packing all the lighting gear, props and cameras… and 6 models plus 4 crew into 5 golf carts.)

We’re shooting casual lifestyle with an upscale twist. The challenge is keeping the shots looking natural, and essentially “un-stock-like” as much as possible. You would think that “candid” approach would be easy, but its the toughest type of shooting that I’ve done. Besides the composition part (with tons of copyspace) and the lighting, the models need to be set-up and then the scene set in motion so that the final shot looks like it was a spontaneous moment.

Above is a behind-the-scenes snapshot of one of the set-ups. Maybe not quite as candid as some of the others. Working with natural light and reflectors when possible to keep that “natural” feel, or if we use the strobe, we’re toning it down to the bare minimum of fill-light. (Note the blanket around the models as the temperature was an unseasonably 60 degrees chilly this morning…)

Here’s a couple of the selects from the above set. If you look at the composition, check out how we’ve set up the shot to be used as either a 2 page horizontal spread, or to be cropped into a single page vertical. In both cases, there’s plenty of copyspace and crop room for the art director to work with the image.

All of the images were shot on the Hasselblad H3D-39 with a 28mm lens so the files are large enough to crop tight and still have enough pixels for a very sharp file. While you won’t be friends with this camera on your first date, a real love of large files doesn’t take long to develop. (If you shoot with an H series digital, please feel free to email me- I’ll be glad to share any tips we’ve learned on using this camera… or post your experiences on the gear page.)

Achieving maximum results, even on a cloudy day.

Not every day is a sunny day. Regardless of whether you’re a full-time shooter, or you shoot just on the occasional weekend, weather is always a factor for the location photographer. I thought I would share some of the techniques I use to maximize any opportunity. The great part about shooting stock is that you have the flexibility to go in different directions to deliver a marketable image.

Gear up with simplicity

Before we talk about the weather, let’s jump into the gear. First of all, I always keep my camera bag really simple for most outside location shoots. Click here to read the rest of the article, and for a look inside my camera bag.

Every day is really an adventure. Today started out sunny and beautiful on the I-10 in West Texas. I’m driving back to California after a few days of shooting in San Antonio. Days like this are great… no real deadlines, time to think, time to catch-up on phone calls… time to make a few images of highways and clouds… Out here, the occasional overpasses make for great vantage points.

After a few hours of blissful driving, I’m in El Paso with 4 lanes of traffic. Ka-blamm! (Howz that for the sound effect?) My right rear tire blows out- totally shredded! I work my way through traffic to the side of the road realizing how lucky I am that it wasn’t a front tire. I deliberate briefly on calling AAA and figure that by the time they find me, I can have the tire changed and be on my way.

Next up is a major storm that exfoliates my truck with quarter-sized rain drops. Needed a wash anyway. The storm clouds constantly re-form and re-shape themselves. Another photo opportunity!

Shooting stock is great in that almost everything can be subject matter. On the other hand, the serious stock shooters that I know never stop thinking about pictures. If you haven’t taken a road trip lately, plan one. But leave out the part where you need to change the tire!

We’re in San Antonio, Texas for a shoot with a major tourist attraction starting tomorrow. To maximize our trip, we added a day in front and a day afterwards for other shoots. I learned a long time ago, that when you come across a great location to set up a shoot regardless of where you might find yourself. Such was the case today. Krista, our production coordinator, found a state-of-the-art athletic training facility through one of the models. We immediately put together a production and hired fitness trainers to be our models. Having models that know what they are doing is always key… can’t tell you the last time I went to a gym other than for a shoot!

Here’s some of the photos. The models are a husband-wife team who really are fitness gurus in real life.

Lighting a big open space like a gym where the only light is from overhead flourescents is always a pain. You pretty much have to select a narrow angle and light for that angle. The choice is to simply replicate the existing light with strobes, or to stylize the light with more drama.

Today, my choice was to take a more fashion approach. The models and location were all great… so why not? I used a ring flash on the camera, a long “strip” softbox on each side, and a bare bulb bounce in the background. The bare bulb just opens up the overall background, while the side lights help define the model’s well-toned physiques.