Posted by Mr. Robot | March 17th, 2020 | No responses
Going off of memory here, I think this photo shoot was maybe over 5 years ago. I can’t be sure, but I know I published this story way back when. The photos weren’t as neatly edited as they are in this story post. I figured it was time to expand my skill set here online so that others can learn from my mistakes and apply those lessons to their photography knowledge.
I met Rahja through my friend Alex who happens to be a photographer too. I think during this time he was just starting out, and he asked Rahja if she would be willing to model for us. She agreed, but it left us with one problem. Location! See Rahja was one of those athletic models and she needed room to kick with all of that crazy karate shit. It is funny how a parking lot can make for some interesting shots. Of course Rahja is easy on the eyes so I doubt the garage as a backdrop detracts from the visuals.
Being a photographer is a great way to socialize with people, but I dont recall making much conversation during this shoot. Mainly because we had never shot in a parking garage before, and at any moment we were expecting garage security to run us out. So we had to shoot fast and keep moving until we made it to the roof. Cars that drove by came to a slow crawl as they admired the painted desert style yoga pants. We were definitely attracting too much attention. Rahja of course remained in good spirits about the whole thing.
Now the shittiest of shits happened up on that roof. I would imagine some of the things that could go wrong, ended up going wrong. For instance, the umbrella we used for light modifying during one of the shots ended up sailing away and taking the Profoto D2 strobe and light stand with it. Luckily I was right there so I caught it with my left hand, but the umbrella handle pierced right through my Nikon d800 view finder. Broke it.
So what does this say? Well, you have to remember that the umbrellas and nearly every soft box during windy days act like sails. They will blow away taking the light and stand with it. So what do you do? Weight bags? Sure. What else? You probably have to make sure you have an assistant holding on to the stand and modifier at all times to avoid such things. Yeah, lesson learned, and I imagine many other photographers learn this too the hard way. The good people at Nikon ended up fixing the broken view finder for free though. So I do have some luck. What is different from these photos from the last ones I published? Well if you look at Rahja’s skin, it looks very softened and that is what I was trying to achieve in camera. The colors are much cleaner and more natural (with the help of Niks). I definitely love the new edits. This story is a revisit, and as I look through archived photography, you’ll be able to see (hopefully) the improvements I have made as a photographer using strobes out in the field.
Hello friend.
