Photographing a good friend…. Steve

Image (Steve..) Taken 07/05/2011 – 1/100sec, F8, ISO 100 – Canon 430EXII 1/2+0.3ev

As I looked outside the first thing I noticed was the Sky, cool dramatic looking clouds other wise know as typical British weekend weather.  I knew I wanted to shoot with it in the background and underexpose it for that really dramatic look, crap I need a model.. no chance! so a quick call to my good friend Steve who by the way is the Farther of my two God sons Zakk and Saul, and is a kick ass guitar player.

Subject arranged I went to check the exposure of the sky (this was at 4pm) F13 and 1/200sec, ISO100, ok I need to wait – not enough flash power for the kind of composition I want with a single Canon 430EX II.

After some waiting (about 1 1/2 hours) I headed over to meet Steve and walk down the road to a local rec/field, now I only had 15 minuets to figure out a location, background that included the sky and how I was going to light it. The trees you can see Silhouetted in the shot caught my interest and we set up about 20ft in front of them.  Its pretty windy so no chance of flying a light modifier with out it being destroyed or taking me with it, so I went with a bare Canon 430EX II speedlite high up on a 13ft stand. After working out my framing I placed Steve framed in the trees to hide Silhouetted houses/chimneys in the background, found my exposure that would underexpose the sky by about 1 stop and light Steve well, grabbed a few frames before packing up and heading home. The above shot is the one I selected, as a result another friend of mine Mike wants a dramatic photograph of him making, no problem Mike I'm looking forward to it.

The take away’s from this are, 1. Don’t have a model (call a friend) 2. Know your gear so you can work quickly. 3.You don’t have to travel far to find a cool location and shot.

Thank you Steve Dude (i always call him that) for your time and friendship.

Rick

Baby Freddie –3 Months

I was booked to shoot Baby Freddie again after the last shoot in Dec 2010 and its amazing to see how much he has grown in the last 3 months.

So white background sheet set up and key light in place, now all I need is a subject to find my exposure… In walks Puds, but what cracks me up is the look on her face and the fact that my clients have this framed which is great

Here are some of my favourite images of Freddie from the shoot, which was great fun.

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.) This ones is my personal favourite- Can also be found in my Portfolio.

5.) After a great shoot Freddie was a little tired out, as was I.

Freddie your an absolute star, and a big thank you must go to Freddie's parents Esther & Phil.

RJ Bradbury

Baby Freddie Shoot – Dec 2010

I had the pleasure of photographing the amazingly cute Baby Freddie recently.   The shoot took place in the Clients home and as you can see from the images little Freddie rocked the outfits

Hope you have a great new year Esther, Freddie & Phil. Here are a few of the images from the shoot.

RJ Bradbury

Location Shoot with Mark Boadey & Model: Krissi Shaw

Spent a great day out shooting at an old disused factory/industrial unit with a good friend of mine Mark Boadey, we came across the location whilst scouting for a place to run an in//on car photography meet (which has been delayed). 

The location was on an industrial estate not too far away from home,  but I started the day by picking Mark up from Liverpool then heading over to collect our model for the day Krissi .

Myself and Mark spent the travel time getting to know the model and build up a rapport before the shoot would begin.

I also just want to add that Krissi was a star, dealing with rather cold conditions, she took direction well and even put forward her own ideas for future shoots which is great to hear.  Thank You  Krissi.

You can find Krissi ‘s modelling profiles below.

Pure Storm

Model Mayhem 

The Location

What did the location look like?….Not much to look at right, well depends on how you look at it.

The location it’s self is relatively small but had plenty of potential as you can see from the following few images.

 

So after unloading the car signing model release forms we got to shooting.

Myself and Mark both shoot Canon (which is handy) and also use the same speedlites/triggers which allows for a larger lighting setup should it required.

The Results

You can see some of Marks results on his blog post and in his portfolio.

So what did I get from this run down location. These are 3 of my personal favourites I took on the shoot.

Lit By: 3 Speedlites in tri bracket, 60” umbrella (reflective)

Lit By: Softbox Camera Left, fethered to keep back ground dark.

Im looking forward to many location and studio shoots in 2011.

Rick