The seed for this portrait was placed a few months back, someone said to my wife "you must have a lot of nice photographs of the kids" to which she replied "nope, I'm the cobblers wife" (referring to the story of the cobbler so busy making shoes for his customers, he had no time to make shoes for his own children).Her response wasn't meant to be a "dig", not at all, it simply was the truth.
The sad truth.
Many photographers are too busy "paying the rent" to capture the people and things closest to them, and I realized that I really needed (and wanted) to break that cycle and take more images of the people close to me.
For them and for me.
Bob was next in line for several reasons, his birthday is just days away and gifts that are made for you are way better than those that are bought for you. Yes, even that afghan your grandmother made with colors that are illegal to put together. Think about it, every inch of that yarn slipped between her fingers, there is love in that afghan (and hopefully a hint of her perfume too). That's waaaay better than a blanket from Wal-Mart.
Bobs gardens, a labor of love for him, are in their summer splendor as well so the timing was right for two reasons.
And you may not realize it, but you already know him (a little), you have heard me talk about "my friend Bob" before.
If I had to describe him to a stranger it would be simple, "Bob's a good man".
I was happy with the results, as what I had envisioned came to fruition in the camera (which is not always the case).
Five lights might seem a bit daunting, but it's not, as you work through how you want a shot to look it's pretty simple. "I want this lit, I want the light to fall across these plants from right to left, and this should be lit using a grid..."
See if you can deconstruct how these images were lit and if you come back tomorrow I will explain (with pretty diagrams and lots of arrows) how it was setup. See ya then.
3 comments:
look forward to seeing the deconstruction!!
I think I see how 4 lights were set up. I am looking forward to tomorrows post and hopefully by then I will figure out where light #5 goes!
Hmmm...I'll give it a shot. What you've done is created a makeshift landscape lighting (my passion) scene through the use of flash.
Here is my take on the composition that you have created. You possibly have two lights on the tree trunks, snooted perhaps since there is no spill into the background. You may have another light with a grid to accent the stone bird bath. Flash camera right bare or perhaps bounced into an umbrella. Flash camera left to flood the front of the vegetation and spill onto Bob.
Option two....one light on trunks, one on bath, one on ground directed toward gate/Bob, one camera right and one camera left. I think this one makes more sense after looking at the first picture.
I prefer the first picture over the second. My only nitpick with the first is his hand and the post seem a hair hot. On the second I wish the WB on camera right were a little warmer to look more realistic. (From the eyes of an aspiring amateur only)
At any rate, you've done a wonderful job! You've highlighted Bob's passion and paid homage to the man himself. He'll love them!
Wow...this is more of a post than a comment. Sorry! You've somehow managed to corral both of my passions into one post. Love the blog and keep up the great work.
ps-If Bob wants to light his property permanently to enjoy it well into the night every night, let me know. :)
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