I met Chris at the very first Wellington Cosplay Photofest where he came in an stormtrooper outfit from Star Wars. You can read about that shoot here.

In May 2021 I organised a location shoot for my camera club at the World War 2 gun emplacements at Fort Balance on the Miramar Peninsula. I reached out to Chris and he came along in his own creation Stigpool. This is a combination of the Stig character from the Top Gear television series and Deadpool.

Chris had a fully kitted car to go along with his character so we started at the roadside with some shots there. These were all shot under natural light 1/200s at f8.

Then we moved up into the bunkers in shoot at several locations initially outside.

We then moved inside the complex and I positioned Chris and let him with a speed light in a small soft box on a light stand to the side. Positioning of this light was very important to avoid reflection within his visor. For the inside shots the settings were 1/125s f7.1 ISO 200.

The words on the floor were a complete coincidence but they worked in so well with the character.

For the final shot I had Chris climbing through a hole in the wall. The main light was again positioned to the side with a small speedlight in the room behind him to provide separation.

Shooting a character in a full face helmet is quite tricky as you cannot rely on the eye detect that modern mirrorless cameras. Fortunately my Lumix G9 switches to head and body detection when it cannot lock onto the eye.

It was a fun day and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.