Got a call from some good friends in need of an “emergency portrait” for their son, Andrew — kicker for Corona Del Mar HS varsity football. I had a couple local football fields in mind for the shoot, but none were available at a time that worked for Andrew. (Between school, church, and football, finding a stretch of free time longer than 30 consecutive minutes was a bit of a challenge).
Eventually, we found a local stadium that was open when Andrew and his folks could get there, so we went for it. With my daughter, Cat, along as VAL, and shooting with Nikon D2x / 24-70mm f/2.8 combo, and a Nikon SB800 Speedlight in a Bowens beauty dish reflector, we descended upon the stadium.
The field was pretty well lit, but in order to allow the background to burn in, I was shooting at fairly slow shutter speeds (~1/20 sec), and rear curtain flash mode. Makes for a cool mix of flash and ambient, but I had to remind Andrew to “hold still”, as even though I was using flash, the slow shutter speed and rear curtain sync made for ghosted images if he moved during the exposure.
Here are a couple of my favorites:
And on the advice of Joe McNally, who said never to put your gear away until you’re on your way home (or something like that) we managed to grab the following shot in the parking structure on the way back to the car. (After Andrew’s comment, “Wow – look at that Challenger!”)
Though it took a few shots to get things rolling, I learned later from his dad that Andrew rather enjoyed himself!
Thanks for dropping by!
J
