Category Archives: natural light

2021 Shoots, natural light, Sports

Fun at the Jump Park

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1/1600s f11 ISO400

In July 2021 I travelled to Nelson to attend the NZ IPP annual conference I had booked in for a workshop on the afternoon before the conference started but that ended up being cancelled when Covid closed our borders and the Australian speaker could not attend.

That left me free to attend a jump park shoot south of Nelson organised by Andrew Reid from Panasonic.

Unfortunately heavy rain in the days leading to the shoot meant that we could not shoot we had originally been planned because it was too dangerous for the riders and also would result in damage to the course fortunately Nelson City Council had developed a hard track as well so we use that.

We positioned ourselves around the track trying to avoid getting each other in shots and proceeded to snap away. It was a little difficult achieving good separation of the riders background elements such as trees. most of the images were shot at 1/640 second F4 at ISO 400. the cameras subject tracking most reasonable although it held if you positioned yourself with a ride coming straight towards you

Once everyone was bored with the action shots we tried something different shooting the riders jumping directly into the sun. This meant increasing the shutter speed 1/1600 to expose for the sky and f11to create the star effect of the sun.

It was a fun afternoon with a subject completely different to my usual models.

2021 Shoots, Location Shoots, Models, natural light

Raj in Queens Park

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1/100s f5.6 ISO200 – bare speedlight

In July 2021 I travelled down to Invercargill to be the host on a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) dance workshop. At the time I was president of PSNZ, and was also not working, so when I discovered that the Southland Photographics Society had their meeting on the Thursday before I travelled down early to visit them. That meant that I had the free day on the Friday.

On a previous visit to Invercargill I had discovered an area of Queens Gardens called the Stumpery. They have arranged large tree stumps into an area that you can walk around and through. Essentially it is a botanical piece of art.

From that visit I knew that I wanted to shoot there so in addition to packing my usual clothes, and gear for the workshop, I packed several lens of fabric and a lightstand.

Via a Facebook modelling group I reached out to see if there were any models interested in shooting with me on the Friday and Raj replied. We arranged to meet at the entrance to the gardens and made our way to the Stumpery.

After sum initial shoots in the centre of the Stumpery we moved to the edge and started to bring in the longer pieces of fabric. She was keen enough to climb up on the structures. By this stage we were losing the natural light so I wedged the speed light after the side to add more light.

1/160s f5.6 ISO 200. – bare speedlight

Moved around the gardens to an area with a Japanese Asian influence and I used the archway to pose her. I covered the speed light with an orange gell to fake golden light.

1/400s f3.2 ISO200 – Gelled speedlight
1/160s f5 ISO200 – bare speedlight

For the final set of images moved to water feature and I use the second piece of lace that I had brought down. Again I used a bare speedlight to add a little bit of light to the image.

One of the things that’s important when shooting at any location is to look at how changing your angle can change the image. In the images above and below Raj is essentially in the same location but I have moved to a different shooting point and in the process change the feel of the images.

1/60s f6.3 ISO 200 – bare speedlight

It was a good shoot and I was pleased with the result.

2021 Shoots, cosplay, natural light

Wellington Cosplay Photofest – Natasha

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My second shoot at the 2020 Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Natasha .

What was unusual about this shoot in terms of cosplay is that most cosplayers recreate characters from either movies, games or cartoons particularly Japanese anime. Natasha had created her own character that she called Rainella the clown.

This means that there was no reference in which to place the character giving us total freedom. We decided that the Lady Norwood Rose Garden and Begonia House in the botanical Gardens would be an ideal location. All of the images were shot under natural light at f7.1.

As the Begonia House is a large greenhouse there was no need to add in additional lighting.

As you can imagine Natasha’s outfit attracted a lot of attention particularly from children.

2021 Shoots, Location Shoots, Models, natural light, water

Melissa – River

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While I mainly enjoy shooting in the studio (due to the control it gives me) I also enjoy shoots the involve holder water. So when Melissa and I finish the studio series we made plans for another shoot when the weather warmed up.

The Hutt River is only a kilometre from my home but during the summer months it does run into the issue of an algal bloom, which means swimming in it is not recommended. As I don’t want my models ending up sick this meant it was out of the question. Fortunately on a walk over the summer I discovered a path out of the housing development up on Riverstone Terraces that lead to a reasonable size stream that was feeding the river.

I figured that the water would be safer here so Melissa and I planned to shoot and I pulled one of the ballgowns that is in my position.

While we were shooting in the middle of summer the reality was that the water temperature did not change very much therefore we knew that the whole shoot would need to be done within a short period of time. This is also the case with pool shoots anyway.

Most of the shots which taken using natural light however for a few I did bring a speed light which was positioned in the river on a tripod. The light was gelled orange so that we could attempt to recreate gold light.

Given that part of the river was deep enough for Melissa to be almost fully emerged we attempted a hair flip. This was not as difficult as it could have been and we managed a reasonable shot after only a couple of the teams.

It was a fun afternoon and I’m pleased with the results.