Pre-Proposal: Time

For the time concept I was thinking of shooting at union station preferably at dusk, I would go early to scout an area and prepare. I would like to work with a slow shutter speed and the people scrambling around to leave a blurred trail. The idea being that time is of the essence there in order to not miss the train and derail the days plans.

I have only passed through the station once never with my camera. I looked online and noticed that not alot of photos had any elements of this so I researched the policy of cameras in there. I saw no tripods are allowed so I was advised to bring a tabletop tiny tripod to set somewhere and try to make it work.

Pre-Project Proposal: Direction

Being that I've been delving into Sports Photography and that I will be heading to the snow for a couple of days I thought I could try to seize the chance to shoot up while there. Weather permitting a blue day and not this. Since there is an expectation of fresh loose snow, It would be nice to capture a rider carving with their board when changing directions on the board. It usually entails a turn in going heelside to toeside or vice versa often times causing a spray with enough speed.

If the sun would grace me with its presence it would ideally be a sun in shot, since the sun tends to be on the south side of the mountain i would be facing south standing in place, while a rider approaches and I can shoot from a lower angle.

Being that the lift does not operate after 4pm sun in shot is my only real option the next few days. I plan to bring my zoom lens and possibly a speedlite as backup.

Hero Post: Music

Hero

I had planned to shoot this project in the studio using the grey wall. Since that did not provide enough coverage we added a grey seamless on the side so I would be able to shoot at an angle. I setup up two lights behind the model overhead on a boom. The light on the right had a double layered pink gel and the left had doubled up deep blue gel. The model/DJ setup about 2-3 feet from the background. Once the faulty lighting situations were fixed it was nice tweaking lights to match how I had pictured it. Initially I had two gelled soft boxes on him but that left out some contrast between him and his background. Then removed the softbox and red gel from the light on the camera right and put the reflector back on to cast light on the subject. He had plugged in his equipment so they too would cast some light.

Unedited Hero

Towards the last hour we turned on the lasers, one of the two would not create much design unless it was sound activated. Not just music from a phone but it needed loud booming bass. So my assistant had to crouch down to constantly tap it. We turned off the overhead red gelled light and I had to use my tri-pod and a slower speed to catch the movement of the light.

Initial the rejected Hero pick

In the final few minutes we tried no lights except the lasers to hope to create a silhouetted shape. So in the dark for 20 seconds while the shutter was open, about 6 people were clapping in the dark while the subject stayed still for 20 seconds that was admittedly fun and felt silly. Will reattempt the post edit. These shots did not come out too great, the light from the exit sign cast a red light and lit up the subject.

Lasers & blue gel

Setup shot- started dismantling thus drawn alien bee