Clarion Alley with Joanie

On this occasion, I had the opportunity to teach a friend of mine how to use a strobe off-camera. He had a really nice flash but had not realized it full potentials yet. Not to say I am an expert at flash (afterall, I shoot buildings) I do know enough to do weddings and engagement sessions. But I would have to work with people to get the right shots. I am after all the democratic type that like to help clients design a shot that’s meaningful to them. Joanie’s (Nathan’s Sister) wedding will be in a few months and Nathan would like to be able to shoot some nice photos of them. They have a wedding photographer so I’m not too worried. They’ve requested trying out some graffiti. And here is my attempt.

Clarion Alley is an interesting are. I dont recommend hanging out there alone at night. I been there a few times and once it gets dark, it feels strange there.

I find that scale was a big issue here. The Graffiti were giant and they were good on their own. I could not find any graffiti that would high lights the subject rather than drown her with too much detail. So in the end, it was a lot of trying to use the vibrant colors to compliment the subject. It was difficult.

Gear= D700 17–35 f2.8 and 85mm f1.4 with sb 600 and sb 910 and 1 shoot through umbrella.

I do want to thank Victor ( http://leungfx.com/ ) and Nathan for assisting. You will find that we arrived too late to get any direct natural lighting and everything was strobed….. Mobility was key and it was windy so Victor held the umbrella during the entire shoot.