Photo of the Day 3/364 Doyel a A Mix of Both Worlds

I met Doyel through Nikki on our last shoot. I took a couple of shots with her and noticed the light really falls nicely on her skin. Probably because of her skin tone. I asked her if we could schedule an hour of shoot for her portrait on Pakistan costume and she gladly agreed.


For the lighting i used 4 580 EX II 3 as slaves and one as master using Pocketwizards 3 Flex tt5 as receiver and Mini TT1 as commander (mounted in it the 4th 580 EX II) on mounted to Canon 5D Mark II's hotshoe. Please see diagram below.


On post processing I used a bit of Librodo's editing and on lighting the Strobist way hence the title A Mix of Both Worlds.




Here is Nikki and Doyel after the shoot.

Strobing a Triathlete

I have been so excited when I spoke to my client/friends from Philippines last month when they agreed to let me take their photo as a triathlete. These are my banker friends who are very active in the sports.

I finally did the shoot last weekend when I had my business call (to my full time job as a financial broker) in Manila.

Trina and Jojo met with me at Mandarin Hotel Makati for breakfast. I also called one of my friend, Mikey, to help me out with the lights. Sort of like an intelligent tripod. Mikey is a fellow hobbyist who was based in Hong Kong but moved back to Manila just recently.

This shot on the right is Trina. I used Elinchrom Ranger Quadra A to light Trina positioned at front top of the model acting as a spot light. I used the sun as a back light and under exposed the ambient light to create drama. This was shot at 1/200 @ f18 iso 100.


This shot is Jojo. I used two 580 EX II one positioned on the left of the camera and one on the right. I used the new Pocketwizard Flex and Mini to trigger both flashes at 1/1250 f2.8 iso 100.


Mikey posted some behind the scene on my flickr photo page here












After about 90 shots of Jojo and Trina we were interrupted by a roving security patrolling the are. I was told that we needed to get a permit to be allowed to do photoshoot in the area. Oh actually you needed to ask for a permit to do photoshoot in any area in Manila. If you are a photog and using an SLR I can assure you that 90% you will be asked if you have a permit specially you have a model with you. Kinda weird for me considering that in HK you can shoot a model anywhere without being hassled. Anyway I pretended not to know the rules and told the guard just a few more shots. After a few minutes I asked the guard to join in with Jojo and Trina for the last photo. He was reluctant at first saying this might appear in a magazine (yeah right!) but after convincing him that it was just a fun shoot he gladly joined. See the shot below.

Since we cannot continue the shoot on the open field we then decided to do some swimming shots and The Serendra courtesy of Trina's friend. Tina and Lionel joined us for this part and here are a few shots on the pool.

The lap shots were really tiring. I asked Mikey to follow the swimmers while pointing the flash to the swimmers trying to capture them when they were gasping for air. The flash were triggered by Pocketwizard Flex and Mini on ETTL mode. On the last photo I used two 580 EX II to the left and the right of the subject triggered by PW on ETTL.

Check my flickr set to check the rest of the photos.

Arnis with Ricky Aranza 4th Dan Black Belt Combat Arnis Hong Kong

I have been contemplating to do a photography in martial arts but didn't know anyone who's into the sports. I was talking to a friend about this and it was mentioned to me that I had a Filipino neighbor who is a 4th dan black belter in Combat Arnis a Filipino Style of Martial Arts. As soon as I was given the number I called him up to schedule for a shoot that afternoon and he gladly accepted it. His name is Ricky Aranza.

In this series of photos I have used 3 580 EX II, SpeedLight Pro Kit Diffuser, 3 Pocketwizard Flex TT5, 1 Mini TT1, Canon 5d Mark II and an intelligent tripod that determines where the main light should be brand name Mikey.

Here is the basic diagram:

Here are few of the photos I captured:

Margaret

Margaret was the first ever model that I shot back in August last year when I was in the early stage and exploring photography. She left Hong Kong and went to England to study and now she is back for a vacation. A fellow photog invited me to shoot her again and I was so excited.

Here are two of the shot I did in August 2008.

All Natural Light




And here is the shot I made August 16. Oh no I just realized its a little over a year! Its almost an anniversary :P

Natural Light


I used 580 EX II cam left bare and 580 EX II cam right on a portable beauty dish triggered with Pocketwizard Flex and Mini TT1


Hope you guys like it!

Executive Shot

A good friend who works at a Financial Wealth Magazine in Indonesia approached me to take an executive shot for her profile in their magazine.

I have decided to take her portrait at LEGCO Central Hong Kong because of the majestic pillars that surrounds the building.

I used my Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 24-70mm F2.8 Lens for this shotand one Canon 580 EX II on a reflector umbrella triggered by Pocketwizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1.

Thanks to Lighting Essentials

Thanks to Don of Lighting Essentials for featuring three of my photos in his website. I have been dreaming of having my photos featured in this site.

Lighting Essentials is a great site for those who are into photography may it be natural light, studio lights or strobist style of photography. Great site!

Here are the three photos.

Machi



Only Hard Men Wears CK



Catherine

Baby Aaron

This is the recent shoot I did for a friend Arlene. I had to make a lot of clicks to get a few perfect shots. I didn't know it was this hard to do baby shoot :)

This is the set up




And here are the results








I have used Pocketwizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1 to trigger my two Canon 580 EX II on ETTL

Here is the flickr link of theses photos.

Catherine

Cantherine is a Vietnamese student aspiring to become a model. We did one session in Kennedy Town Pier Hong kong for her portfolio. I hope you guys like it.

On these shots I have used two 580 EX II triggered with Pocketwizard's Flex TT5 and Mini TT1.




Here is the link to these set on flickr.