Fountain adventures with +Debra & Jo

Alright, so the mornings are getting easier.  What can I say, I’m a night owl, however, I’m not really looking into shooting nighttime photography fulltime or anything (’cause I don’t know if I could even if I had to!)

Sunday was to be chocked full o’ goodness, nope not nuts.  +Debra had posted on facebook inviting two interns to come with her during 3 separate days of shooting, so I hopped on to try and score a spot on Sunday morning.  I would have LOVED to do monday in the river, but alas, it was not meant to be due to the 9-to-5er (next time though, next time for sure!).  Anyways, back to the point…

+Debra, Jo, and I, plus two models were set to meet up downtown on Peachtree street around this sorta-mini-l’arc-de-triumph around 9am.  I got there a bit early so I wound up driving around the area a few times to scout it out and see what was up for the day.  I was initially kinda worried since there were about 15-20 homeless guys camped out inside of this structure we were supposed to be shooting at.  (here’s where I start regretting that I wasn’t photo-documenting this to match with this post!)  - gotta work on that too -

I parked and noticed an SUV with the door wide open a few cars up from my spot and when I started walking up the sidewalk heard “Are you Debra?”  I figured then this must be one of our models for the day.  Chad was cool, he introduced himself to me and likewise and we chatted for a few minutes while we waited for +Debra and Jo.  I told him about how the internship works and how many of us there are and how we get to go on tons more photoshoots/assignments than if we did if we were alone.

Shortly after this, Jo arrived, armed with tea to wash away the fact that it was early morning, on a weekend, and +Debra followed shortly thereafter.  We were going to be having a second model show up a while later so the four of us went scouting where to shoot.  We checked out the little arc again and there was still one guy splayed out snoozing so +Debra opted that we look for another area.  We wound up passing a wall that had really awesome texture so we paused to help out Debra while she was shooting.

Now I’ve used flashes on camera and I’ve used them off, but I haven’t used a reflector, until today.  I must say, it.is.awesome.  I need to get one of these STAT!  I finally see HOW you can get light from another side coming back either subtle or harsher and in different colors depending on what side you use of the thing.  Also, I noticed for a while I was getting dark shadows under Chad’s eyes and using the reflector corrected that!

Before: 

After: 

SO YES!  I really like the reflector and was glad to be introduced to that (thanks Debra!)

Chad was great and after a few of him just “as is” we got to see Debra taking some of him in action, i.e. jumping.  The combo of the wall and the light and the jump just really made it look amazing in my opinion.  It was great to see how Debra works with her models and how organized she is.  She told us how she visualizes where she wants to shoot and how and then pieces it together.

We got to shoot a decent amount, but in the end I didn’t shoot so much since I was more absorbing what I saw Debra do as well as assisting with the reflector and flashes.  I know this is primarily about photographing more and learning through those successes and failures, but I also think observing how someone else works is beneficial too, since it can help you shape how you can work on your own.

We met up with Grace right before this spot that I shot in and Debra got down to shooting the two of them together.  Jo and I were helping with flashes and the reflector again, battling the sun that was just not cooperating.  It was really challenging at this point to be able to photograph consistently since the sun was in and out and in and out every couple of minutes.  It’s interesting now, a couple of days past this outing to have been looking through some other photos and found one done in a similar style that Debra was doing.  I really want to try this next time I am working with two people.  Focus one in the foreground, one model as just background.  I wasn’t sure how that would look, but in the end, I think I get it now.

A bit later we crossed paths with a fountain that looked like it was just asking for someone to climb in to it.  Chad was thinking that very same thing that we all were.  Everything was raring to go when over strolled a security officer that spooked us just a bit since he was idling and it looked like he might ask us to leave.  No such thing!  He actually came over and was asking Debra questions about cameras and photo equipment!  He actually let us horse around in the fountain (yay!)

That went quick.  It was kind of tough.  Just photographing Chad in the fountain wasn’t terribly difficult, but trying to control the light due to the bright water was a bit trying.  I wound up turning my settings down so I could play with the photograph in Photoshop later on and adjust light from there.  I’m still not 100% satisfied with how they turned out, but it was cool nonetheless to actually have gotten him in there!!

I tried getting some shots with Grace in the foreground and Chad in the background but dude…that was really hard to balance the light between them both.  It was really bright on the fountain but much darker from the shade in the trees, so I managed to snag one photo that turned out alright.

And lastly, a solo of Grace

Overall, another success in my mind in several ways.  Are there things I would have done differently?  Sure there are, but I can’t change that, I’ve got to grow from here work on future shoots.  I’m learning every time I go, and I’m really trying to expand on what I already know and learn and try new things I haven’t.  I’ve also come to realize just how many resources and people are at my fingertips right now, here only being a few short weeks into the internship.  I’m thankful that I got to go out here with Debra and Jo as much as my time with the large group of us.  I’m setting up a solo shoot here really soon and am hoping to transfer some of these new findings there.  Thanks for reading! ^_^