FlashFlavor

06th May 2008

Sexy backlight

Have you ever been in a tiny room that made you feel like it was impossible to capture a frame that seemed romantic enough to reflect the mood of the delicate speech of the father of the Bride? Lets face it, every once in a while we are all put in a position to shoot a room or in a location that is just NOT built for making beautiful photos. If we use our lenses and lighting skills to compose and light our subjects with finesse, the results will be show stoppers!

My friend Ben Chrisman was visiting this weekend and introduced me to the Apertura photo blog. These So-Cal photographers have some hot frames in their portfolio. There very first blog post stopped me in my tracks. I immediately wrote to Ray & Erwin of Apertura photo and asked if they would give me a a write-up on this rockin photo.

Ray writes:

It was a wonderful intimate wedding held in a small room in an Italian restaurant in Westwood. However, the room was pretty crowded with not much space to roam about and it also had a low ceiling to boot.

The available light was candle light and it was very, very dim. To add a bit more drama, I decided to put an off-camera Canon 580EX II flash with a Pocket Wizard on the fireplace mantle behind the headtable for some backlighting.

During the best men toast, I positioned myself to get the shot and kept moving around until I found this angle. I turned off the on camera flash and relied completely on the backlight for extreme drama. As much as I’d like to say that the flare on the glasses were intentional, it mas more of a happy accident.

Canon 5D - f/4.5 1/80 sec ISO 640
Flash 580EX II -1/32 power

I think happy accidents are a blessing and sometimes, these accidents are the difference in the excellent photojournalist and the average wedding photographer. Timing is instinctive and the quality of light used here is excellent. I love your balance of ambient and the use of the flash as it gives a sparkle of light through the glasses is exceptionally dramatic. You got an award winner here!

Check out some more Happy Accidents here:
Happy Accidents 1
Happy Accidents 2
Happy Accidents 3

And be sure to spend some time on Apertura’s photo blog for a little wedding imagery motivation. These cats work pretty hard to frame up some magical compisitions and will inspire you for sure!

Any comment love for these guys?

Cheers & thanks Ray & Erwin,

Mateo

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Apertura 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Sexy backlight”

May 6th, 2008 at 1:39 pm Philip Casey Says:

Thanks for the new blog to check out. I love looking at new stuff!
May 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pm Petteri Löppönen Says:

Thanks for sharing this. I will shoot my friends wedding, so this extra drama tip was a nice one.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am Jan Says:

Ray and Erwin are freaking awesome! They deserve more and more attention. It’s great that you wrote about their amazing work.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:38 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

Ray & Erwin!!

I love dramatic images, this one is really cool, and for sure I will remember your technique and try to use it.

Muy bueno! Thanks for sharing!, Send more!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 3:33 pm Apertura Photography Blog » Some Love from FlashFlavor! Says:

[…] We’re excited to be featured by Matt Adcock in his awesome Flash Flavor blog. Thanks to our good buddy Ben Chrisman, for pointing Matt to our blog and one particular shot caught his eye. It was a frame from Jenn + Mike’s recent wedding in LA during the best men’s toast. Check out the full write-up HERE & leave some love! […]
May 8th, 2008 at 8:48 pm Jennifer Power Says:

This was a picture from my wedding, and is definitely one of my favorites, too! Ray and Erwin are incredibly talented photographers who make each photo a work of art. The Best Men toast was such a special moment at our wedding, and it was captured so perfectly and so beautifully. Thank you Ray and Erwin!!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm Wiki Says:

Ray and Erwin.

You are truly such an inspiration for wedding journalists to do better and better.

I fall in love with the framing and the lighting. With pretty much an ordinary moment in the wedding, but you guys turned into a magical moment.

Keep it up dudes.

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29th Apr 2008

sol’s hot toast

Have you ever shot people toasting at a wedding? Every shot it from below? Yeah, we probably all have. If you haven’t yet, give it a whirl. If you use on camera flash and just blast them with light, it will be less desirable and likely a whatever photo, not getting a lot of interest.

This technique will help you visualize how to take a normal / standard exposed moment that you have seen a million times and add a little flavor to it. First step is to make sure you have evaluated the surroundings and know exactly where your ambient light exposures are in relationship to your flash power on your manual off camera flash. In this example, Sol has decided to underexpose the ceiling to contrast the glasses and the shape of the hands reaching out. Its crucial here to make sure that your exposure has some depth to make an impression vs a whatever frame.
Sol Tamargo dropped the ambient out of the background and had an assistant with a slave set to 1/16 power, extended on a monopod in the ceiling. I don’t know the actual distance, but likely 6-9 feet away. The key to this photo’s success is the angle that the light is coming from. I’m guessing it is 35 or 40 degrees from camera left, in the air over their hands.

ISO 200 1/200 2.8 | Sol Tamargo

The glasses light up, the ceiling goes dark, contrast rocks! I really love the subtle touch of the ceiling lights scattered between the arms. Those lights tie in the background and give this photo a magical feel! I also love the timing of arm coming in from the upper left. Love the fact that you squeezed the shutter before her toast clinked the other glasses. This is an excellent PJ decision that subtly changes the composition to be WAY more likable.

Great idea and nice shot Sol!

Cheers!
Matt

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Sol Tamargo 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “sol’s hot toast”

April 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am another matt Says:

yeah, that’s a really great shot! technique enhancing the emotion of the shot, rather than technique for its own sake.

seeing you guys doing the OCF thing in wedding photography almost makes me want to do weddings. almost…
April 30th, 2008 at 6:46 pm Phil Says:

You continue to amaze me. So much so I recommend this site to everyone I meet that says they’ve just bought a nice camera and they’re into becoming a photographer. I tell them this site will teach them a great deal. I know it does. In fact, I did it just today! I wonder how many photographers you get off the ground and give them their wings…
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 pm Lowell Says:

I like how the ceiling lights frame the toast. Great stuff!
May 5th, 2008 at 12:58 pm Leo Says:

That’s an awesome shot. The arm leeds the eye into the picture. The ceiling lights almost between every arm. The off camera flash and all PJ. Amazing.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

Thanks guys!… I was in a hard situation as this room as UGLY!!! the only nice thing that I liked was the ceiling lights, so I decided to underexpose to bring attention only to the lights.

I like toasting photos, so when I saw this coming I had my assistant ready to fill some magic light while I shoot from the floor.

I’m happy with the result…

:)

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25th Apr 2008

My camera’s shutter gets the middle finger

For my operating settings, I’ve got a few secrets that will help you snap quicker / better exposed photos when your flash is too hot.

My wife tells me that I’m too fast for this world so this trick my not apply or matter to some of you. del Sol Photographers all use Manual photo control when shooting our weddings. We have grown close to cameras performance and when shooting, we find it helpful to be able to adjust your shutter and aperture settings while also working some photojournalism in there. I know that everybody will have their own way to adjust these controls… if you open your mind to a little change now and then, you may become inspired.

This technique also has a little flashflavor advise built in as well. With a manual power slave flash, your exposure latitude is pretty short, not allowing much room for error with the brightness to darkness of your frame. the closer that slave gets to the camera, the hotter its going to be and vice versa going the other direction getting further away.

For example, if you were shooting a group of people who were gripping and grinning, your flash could be 2 times brighter than you thought it *should* be however, drastic measures are needed and quickly inside the camera to make the photo you are shooting that second, perfect! I enjoy rolling my right index finger on the top right dial on my camera, allows me to adjust my shutter. Think of it as a finger-roll technique. If you want to shoot a test but don’t have time to test your flash to subject distance, keeping in mind that photo moments happen way faster than you can remember, you aim and shoot. Your light’s intensity may be considerably high or low in relationship to how it *needs* to be. Roll the finger on the dial (front or back dial) as fast as possible to stop down or open up. I have calculated that there is a scale of how hard to how soft you can roll the dial, thus resulting in a multi f-stop roll, a single f-stop roll, or a little bit of a f-stop roll…. or something like that. I call that rustic technique the finger roll.

Just thought I would share this idea. For me, shooting Manual flash slaves can be a challenge and this technique has helped me in situations where I was totally unprepared with the power settings of my manual slave flash.

Here is my secret: Notice the index finger’s position, on the shutter control.

I give my camera’s shutter the middle finger.

I honestly didn’t even realize this until one of my assistants pointed it out to me at a wedding the other week… I don’t even know what they heck i’m doing these days, but glad some body has figured it out for me. Thanks Diego for pointing that out!

DO you have any crazy camera quirks that help your game? Wanna share? Tell us about it.

Cheers!
mateo

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers 16 Comments »

16 Responses to “My camera’s shutter gets the middle finger”

April 25th, 2008 at 3:06 pm Marlon Says:

I didn’t realize anybody used their index finger for a shutter… I’ve been using my middle finger since I was 13… I never actually gave thought to that ’til now!
April 25th, 2008 at 3:34 pm matt Says:

I too never gave it a thought until now.

I’m pretty sure the norm is for the index finger to squeeze the trigger, and sometimes I will use that finger…

Crazy to have it pointed out by my assistant… But, when you think about it, this trick (for us) is an instinctive one that does the job… for others, it may be an eye opener…

I think its the little things that can make big changes in your game.
Cheers & thanks for taking time to comment!

mateo
April 25th, 2008 at 6:43 pm geordie Says:

some custom function to put the auto focus to that little star button on the back for the thumb. keeps the meter and focus separate.
April 26th, 2008 at 12:18 am Bill Millios Says:

My question is why is your assistant so intently watching your middle finger?

:^)
April 26th, 2008 at 6:34 am David W Says:

Hehe, us Nikon folks have been doing this for some time, although we have the middle finger on the aperture dial and the index finger on the trigger. I come from a Canon background and at first I thought the placement of the dial was a bit odd until I discovered that I could have one finger on the dial and one on the trigger, makes it possible to work so much faster.
The f-stop roll, never get really used to it. My problem is that I use 1/2 ev steps for shooting nightclubs and 1/3 ev steps otherwise. At clubs I need to be able to change the settings more and quicker and I want to be able to see +-three ev-steps on the lightmeter in the viewfinder (I have the D200). +-3-steps would be nice otherwise as well, I often need it while underexposing the ambient when I use flash (which is often).
April 27th, 2008 at 12:50 am Reza Ali Says:

Brilliant tip. Its so obvious and I’m wondering how come I didn’t think of this. I’m going to train myself to use this as I think it will add a few miliseconds to the process (which sometimes is the difference between a good image and a brilliant one…..
April 27th, 2008 at 12:14 pm Daniel Says:

Hi, great blog! I never realized that i can use my middle finger for shutter release.

ps: I’m from germany. sorry for my grammatical and spelling.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:11 pm Chris Collins Says:

Hey Mateo

Use that middle Dedo to send me your addy again Por favor!

Pretty good tip there amigo!

Chris Collins
April 28th, 2008 at 5:21 am Spica Says:

Using a Pentax, I have the middle finger on the dial and the index on the trigger. Also have focusing on a button on the back of the camera, to keep it separate from triggering (avoids getting stuck by a camera that does not want to shoot because it’s not sure of its focus).

But I didn’t really get the point of your f-stop rolls. What’s the difference with automatic bracketing ?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:08 am matt Says:

For me, I typically don’t have time for automatic bracketing for every frame. This technique is to nail down a single frame that was unexpectedly bad, for whatever reason.

I once had a friend who customized my back buttons for focus on my 5d, I thought my camera was absolutely broken… i was terrified. i resorted to a backup camera and finished my session.

Every since that traumatic time, I refuse to even think about the button the back of the camera being set to the focusing… although many of my friends use it, i never will

The f-stop roll takes some time getting use to.. but I find that it works for me rather often. Sometimes not though.

Bill, my assistant watching the middle finger… go figure…
April 28th, 2008 at 7:27 pm Bogdan Says:

I have to admit I’m a bit puzzled. The front dial on Canon controls shutter speed when the camera is on manual mode. While the technique is useful when shooting manual without flash, I fail to see how it can help you to dial exposure on manual flash shots. Shutter speed only controls the amount of ambient light (if any) you will get into the shot. Aperture actually controls the exposure (back dial if enabled) in this particular situation.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:25 pm matt Says:

yeah, i guess you are right, when shooting under the sync speed, the shutter sees the ambient.

This technique still allows for adjustments on the fly,regardless if you are using a flash and if you have the top dial configured for the shutter control. Some of those who switched from nikon may have configured the top dial for aperture.

Many folks often wonder why this rule is true… My rational is that the flashes power burst happens in a micro second (i dont know if that is a true measurement) but my point is that its faster than your shutter speed. Thus, your flash burst becomes your true shutter. If you are dragging the shutter (read this post), as I do very often, you may suddenly find yourself in a position where you have TOO MUCH ambient light, thus your subjects start ghosting by the amount of available light hitting them while the are moving, and a shutter adjustment is necessary. Remember this technique, you will not have any problems.

Cheers!
matt
May 4th, 2008 at 1:07 am Nate Kinnison Says:

I shoot with the 5D with battery grip, I recently adjusted my left-hand cradle of the lens for less strain on my wrist. imagine holding out your hand to show someone a signal for STOP - with all fingers extended and spaced apart…now, turn the hand around and place the camera lens where it normally goes, but keep your fingers extended. I used to curl up my ring and little fingers. This has relieved significant stress on my left wrist….and that’s just huge in itself…but wait, there’s more… I have my AF and shutter release under my middle finger like matt suggests, with my index on the SS dial, and I use the joystick on the back for quick selection of AF points (custom function 13-1 multi controller direct) Using the joystick really helps me nail a sharp photo when shooting wide open (1.4-2.8). WAIT…..here’s the whacked out part. I have started (not intentionally) focusing when i’m shooting landscape orientation using my extended pinky of my left hand on the Battery grip AF/shutter button leaving my right hand to work the other controls and to snap the shutter. I have missed fewer (wide open) moments because my left hand is engaging the AF controls as the camera comes up to my eye, and not after.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:36 am Kway Says:

I never thought about it this way. I often use my middle finger when my index finger is tired.
May 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm Petteri Löppönen Says:

Thanks for sharing this nice tip. I haven’t ever even thought about it before =)
May 7th, 2008 at 3:20 pm Alex Says:

Great tip Matt, never even thought about it before. I’m going to have to give it a go, even though I can see the 1Ds getting mighty heavy with only 2 fingers holding it.

As much as you have a vendetta against it, give the back focus button another go, I really couldn’t live without it!

Alex

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18th Apr 2008

My first Radio Popper frame at a wedding

This is my very first image captured by utilizing the Radiopopper system. Thank you Kevin King for getting these to me, all the way in Mexico no doubt!

I am such a bad professional. I ripped the bag open to reveal my new set of RP’s just 45 minutes before I walked out the door to a wedding 2 days ago. I ran around my place like a crazy man testing for a few minutes, but really didnt do much pro testing on these units before I unveiled them at a pro gig… shame on me eh? My client will be so disappointed that I tested a new product out at her wedding…

Shame on me…

here is my first TTL RP frame

The down light is from a ceiling lamp in the bathroom…
the rp slave is located just in below the bride’s right arm, next to the sink in the bathroom…

I didnt use the RP’s too much at this gig, but I did play a little
More test results coming!

Cheers!
mateo

Edited to add…. If you are a pocket wizard junkie (like myself) TTL is a foreign language that takes some serious time to learn to speak. If you want to use baby steps to learn to speak the RP language of TTL, then try this technique…

This is a REQUIRED element for those testing the RP who are use to the PW system….

good luck

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Matt Adcock 18 Comments »

18 Responses to “My first Radio Popper frame at a wedding”

April 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm Morgan Lynn Says:

Love it!! I am so excited to check these out - PWs have been a blessing and a curse in one… a little risky when the shot matters most. Cool picture! I’m sure your bride will forgive you for pushing your creative bounds on her day (;
April 18th, 2008 at 6:57 pm Antonio Correia Says:

I hope to see really soon some work done with RP
Thank you for sharing your experiences and superb work.
:)
April 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm Tara Kerwin Says:

Did you have another Speedlite as your master, or something like the ST-E2 (because it doesn’t look like there’s any light coming from the front).

The shot looks fantastic by the way, but you probably already knew that… :^D
April 19th, 2008 at 2:01 pm matt Says:

Gracias!

I was using an St-E2 with my RP in this frame. The remote flash was a 580 ex II.

Later, I used the St-E2 for auto focus assist only… with pocket wizard velcrowed to the battery door on top and transmitting to one remote manual flash.. (nikon sb-28).
Cheers!
mateo
April 20th, 2008 at 9:33 am Percy Says:

Hi… I like the way you did your shots… I am to set an off camera flash on my gigs… Can you suggest how to set it up… what fashes or controllers shall I avail.. Tnx… you’ve been very helpful
April 20th, 2008 at 9:59 am matt Says:

percy,
setting up these type of shots are a bit of 2nd nature and hard for me to explain, short of what i’ve written in my articles. For the off camera flash setup, your protocol involves:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html
spending at least 1 hour on this website, 3 nights per week for 3 weeks.

You take that class and follow up with your discoveries!

Cheers amigo,

mateo
April 21st, 2008 at 8:47 am Jason Perry Says:

Well, damn. Here I am just getting my Speedlite rig together and new toys are coming down the pike… I am gonna be so broke! So Matt, do you think there is the potential for these little guys to replace our PW’s in the near future? I am diggin’ it! Keep up the good work.

Oh, just made my first contribution to the Flash Flavor flickr pool too! Lots of great stuff on there!
April 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am matt Says:

Jason

no way will the RP’s take over the PW’s…

I think they both are totally different creatures and take a 100% fresh mindset to operate. TTL is a whole different beast for us, I’m a dope with TTL and am coming into this as a kid with a new toy…

My first thoughts are I love my Pocket Wizard its not going away any time soon…
April 21st, 2008 at 9:34 am Cameron Clark Says:

yo! These look cool. Can someone summarize their function for me? I’m getting it that they up your shutter to 1/500 but if they do the TTL thing why do you need the PW?
April 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am Jason Perry Says:

Man, it’s too bad they couldn’t make some sort of a TTL adapter for the PW’s.

But that got me wondering… Can you switch the TTL on and off on the RP’s so you can use it like a PW?
April 21st, 2008 at 6:05 pm Gonzalo Abascal Says:

Yes you can switch the TTL on and off but not on the RP’s but on the flash itself, Canon and Nikon Flashes have manual modes, so basically what you do is stick your RP’s on ‘manual’ flashes and not use TTL if you want so. Right now I can only imagine wanting a set of PW’s to fire different flashes (larger lights or different brands that don’t understand TTL) or to fire remote cameras for complex settings. Why else would you want your PW’s?
April 21st, 2008 at 7:47 pm Rob Says:

Hello Matt! I’m a bit confused… if what Gonzalo is saying is right, I can’t understand why you are still so in love with PW (other than the larger distance coverage). Wouldn’t be better to stick with RP and choose to use Manual or TTL if needed ? I think it opens up a lot of creative possibilities, FP sync, multiple use of lights with ease, less worries about blown out subjects and you could even use a pair of monkeys as assistants to just take flashes where you want them (I always ask myself how much does count assistants ability in adjusting flash outputs when using PW during a wedding… )
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:11 am KB Says:

I am just hanging around for mine to come in. It is taking forever IMO. I have no idea why the delays as I should have been in the first batch. So I thought.
LTR bro. BTW never got a cal back
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:45 pm Bob Copp Says:

Matt:
The B&W bride shot is lovely (but you know that). It looks like two strobes, though, one from the low right side (that you mentioned) and one overhead. Did you use the RP on one and a PW on the other? Or did you…What?
Thank you VERY much for your time and effort here. You ARE appreciated!
Bob
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm matt Says:

I have no idea about switching them off… your thoughts sound plausible but if I were going to use the units in manual mode, i’m going to go with my Pocket Wizards, likely.

I know that they are designed to take the magnetic pulse from the TTL system and convey that via radio signal to the receiving unit.

This is how I will be using them.

Bob, thanks for the nice thoughts! we were pretty happy with our first frame using the RP.
—the down light is ambient light coming from a light fixture in the bathroom, its one of those spot can lights… balanced with the RP’s TTL flash burst pretty well!

Cameron,

TTL wireless flash lets you use high speed sync, up to 1/8000 of a second, with the 5d. The RP’s allow you to bridge your signal longer distances and supposedly defeat the “line of site” necessity of the old wireless ttl systems. Why you would need the PW…well, thats a personal choice. I’m sure there will be some inconsistencies with RP’s just as there are with Manual flash… If you are use to shooting manual flash (like me) then you will notice a difference when shooting TTL. It takes a whole new mindset to shoot TTL and use off camera flash rigs. Some practice is going to be necessary to get the hang of either system and I think you will find advantages to BOTH.

hope that helps

Cheers!
mateo
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm Rich Danby Says:

The advantage of manual via the RPs would be you can quickly adjust the power level of the remote flashes from the camera if you are using a 5xx flash on camera. See page 46 of http://www.eosdoc.com/manuals/?q=580EXII Ultimately it will come down to how reliable the RPs are in real world situations. From the reviews out so far it sounds like they are doing very well, though each has managed to get them to miss.

I’m sure by the time I can get them (in the UK) the picture will be clearer.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:35 am Michael Kubler Says:

Nice work. Also, as long as the photos come out well, they shouldn’t be annoyed.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:31 am Ken Says:

I got my RP in last week. Never used anything before.

I did a run and gun shoot for a religious fund raiser last weekhttp://www.kblawson.com/recent-shoots.html

I was not pleased, but it was me not the RP or my SB800.

I really like these dudes. small compact and work great

Ken from KY

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16th Apr 2008

Joco’s fury | Skyports

I’ve seen adverts for Elinchrom Skyports and until recently, hadn’t seen images from this system of transmitters until I ran into Jaco Fourie, South African photographer. Along with his wife Daleen, they are producing some amazing imagery that I felt needed to be seen here on Flashflavor. I have been keeping an eye on the Flashflavor flickr group and noticed his stuff along the way. His images are very romantic and his compositions are all very pleasing to look at! Not yet contributing to the Flashflavor Flickr Pool, please drop a few wedding shots off there!

Jaco writes:

Don’t you just love it when it all comes together? This image was a bit of luck on the one side. I had the lights set-up on the dance floor as I normally do. I like to use off camera flash on the dance floor and have them pointing at each other to get some cross lighting. This creates a more 3D look. I kept on moving around on the dance floor and decided to move the 2 lights to the same side pointing at me. As luck would have it the DJ blew some smoke on the dance floor when the father and the bride started to do their dance. The groom and his mother joined them and I saw that they were moving in a circle on the floor. I lifted the camera and waited for the moment when both the couples where in front of my lights. I did fire off a couple of shots just to make sure I had it. The smoke added some real drama to the image.

I think that off camera flash adds so much more drama to an image. I first started to experiment with it when I got my first D70. Using the Nikon creative light system I was able to create great images non wedding related but found it a bit limiting at weddings as you got unpredictable results with miss fires. So I left it there.

Then I discovered the e-bay triggers and started to play with them as the Pocket Wizards are very expensive here in South Africa. I still had some problems with miss firing using those triggers. Then I found the FlashFlavor site and was amazed with the work Matt, Ed Pingol, DQ Studio and Sol Tamargo were doing with off camera flash. I upgraded to the Skyport radio triggers and the rest is history. Now we are only limited by our imagination.

I have always been a big fan of video light photography. People like Jerry Ghionis had a big influence in my style of photography. But now off camera flash has added another dimension to our work. Thanks Matt for creating this blog and inspiring us to be better at what we do. Viva FlashFlavor.

Nikon D3 | F8 | 1/125 | ISO | Sigma 12-24mm

Here is another:

Shot was done with 2 SB-800 and 1 video light in total darkness.
Camera WB was set to tungsten, that is why the flash is blue.
We used the video light to light the couple from the front.
1 SB-800 was pointing at the steel work and the other pointing at the couple. Both Speedlights where behind the couple.

Nikon D3
ISO 2000
F-stop F4.8
Shutter 1/13

Thank you for making inspiring images for us to see! Check a look at Jaco’s website if you need some inspiration this week:

Jaco has also taken his time to give us a tutorial and a review on the skyport. Check his handy work out:

Here is a link to his blog post where he has a few more video tutorials on the Skyports. Thanks Jaco!

Any questions for Jaco on this system? I’m curious to see if anybody else has been using / experiencing good results with skyports?

Cheers!
matt

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Jaco Fourie 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Joco’s fury | Skyports”

April 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am Dave Wagner Says:

I have the Skyports as well. As an amateur photog on a budget, I’ve been very very pleased with these.

I had the ebay triggers before and they were nothing but trouble. The skyports have been extremely reliable and easy to use.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:12 pm David W Says:

Nice to see some info on the skyports. I’m thinking about buying some myself since my ebay-triggers are next to useless for me. I might wait for the Radiopopper jr, it’s really hard to decide.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am matt Says:

I love the south African accent!

Thank you Jaco for taking the time for the demonstrations with your setup…

I am really loving your shot on the bridge too, you dropped a ton of thinking power on making that baby perfect, well done amigo!

Cheers!
mateo
April 24th, 2008 at 6:40 am tom Says:

i’ve been using skyports for a few months now and am very impressed, 100% fire rate and they’re so compact! imo pocket wizards are unwieldy in comparison.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:46 am Robin Cook Says:

I have had the Skyports for about a month now and absolutely LOVE them! Mine seem to take about 3-5 minute to get sync’d up (or maybe just warmed up), but once they are going- LOOK OUT! They are so simple and all of my off-camera work is done with these.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am matt Says:

5 minutes to warm up? Really? Why is that?

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07th Apr 2008

1000 true fans

After reading flashflavor and seeing our work day in and day out, do you ever wonder what it is that we do to get the business that we get walking in the door week after week? Well, In this FF post, I am going to give you my true secrets. I’m telling you this because letting this secret out isnt going to diminish my “true fan” base. Hopefully, this post can be about some inspiration for you. For the last 5 years, we have been very client driven and have done all or everything to build a fan base. We have been doing everything we can to go ALL out do deliver the most amazing imagery, delivering tip top customer service, and separating ourselves from the rest!

The secret to success for the creative artist is finding 1000 true fans. The content of this article is 100% copyright Kevin Kelly Genius, Blog Author, Book Author, Wired Magazine Co Founder amongst other affiliations… Kevin writes about obtaining 1000 true fans:

…the gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

To read the rest of this amazing eye opening and career starting article, please go read Kevin’s Kelly’s article about 1000 true fans…

Kevin nailed it here folks. This has been the key for my survival and the motivation behind all of our development since day 1. This article is only 1 month old however, it is the answer to any artists search in life to find clients.

Flash flavor’s motivation has been nothing short of a straight line down the path of finding 1000 true fans… My motivation with Flashflavor has the Karma approach in mind. If I give and give and give, if I’m lucky , on of these days what goes around comes around… I’m not selling anything (yet) on FF… However, I guess one of these days I’ll be offering a workshop or selling some sort of software and hopefully, my “true” fans will shine for me I must be getting somewhere because as I write this post, we are receiving 1000 unique visits every day Hey!! thats a start!

Now take some time, and bookmark Kevin’s blog on your RSS feed or write about him on your blog. While you are at it, bookmarking Flashflavor would help me out in many many ways, por favor!

Cheers & start finding your true 1000 fans!

mateo

Posted by matt under Filed under Matt Adcock, Kevin Kelly 19 Comments »

19 Responses to “1000 true fans”

April 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am leo Says:

I am one of your fans! Checking out the site all the time!
April 7th, 2008 at 11:12 am Philip Says:

Awesome Matt, Thanks! And by the way, I will be the first inline for that workshop you mentioned.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:24 am Amish Says:

Fan #3 here. Keep up the great work Matt.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:50 pm Morgan Lynn Says:

HUGE fan here!! So big that I may even count for TWO … (:
April 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm Kim Says:

Matt - i am already a fan.

good thinking. you will have your $100,000 quickly.

BTW - i know Ross met with you the other day … wanted to pick your brain on perhaps sharing the cost of a voting system i worked up? don’t know if he mentioned it. shoot me an email if you have a sec.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm Jaco Fourie Says:

Well you know I am a fan.

and here is a image of my only fan

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y174/ajf1/fan.jpg
April 7th, 2008 at 7:06 pm matt Says:

Thank you my dear true fans

Jaco, I love your fan!
Amish, leo, Philip, Morgan, thanks for stopping by and giving your support on FF

Kim, i’ll give you a shout!
Cheers,
mateo
April 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am Paul Benjamin Says:

Good luck…

Unfortunately my only fan is my Mother…
April 8th, 2008 at 2:35 am Clayton Says:

Well I’m not too certain I qualify as fan, seeing how I only found your site a month ago. If visiting your site three two four times a day to re-read something I read earlier qualifies me as a fan…

Than sure I’m a “newb” fan.

I must say you and Sol are hands down a good source of inspiration and info.

Matt y Sol, being the pioneers that you are you should consider publishing a book on wedding photography. I trully believe this is your next move. I would buy it for sure. One thing I would like to see by each picture is technical details though. So newer folks to off-camera strobing can better wrap our minds around what your’re doing.

While revealing the technical only show how to make the photos, the most crucial part of carrying out the emotions of the photographs can not be duplicated.

Do some research on lulu.com to see what is involved in publishing. I already have an account there and I’m already working a book over the next year.

This may seem a little off topic for this posting, but I beleive this is a way for you y Sol to cultivate you pearls of photography. Maybe you don’t actualy need to make a book for the photographers, rather publish one with your finest works. When you publish your books get an ISBN number a sell through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You never know, you may find some couples who will pay to have you shoot in their area. I am stationed in Germany with U.S. Air Force, if I wasn’t marreid already I would definately pay!

Wow, so now that I went off on a typing tangent maybe this will make some kind of sense for you guys.

v/r Clayton
April 8th, 2008 at 7:56 am James Says:

Honestly, I am surprised you are only getting 1000 views a day!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:45 am Howard Says:

Matt-
I have been a FAN of your site for months and truly admire your work and creativity. I must point out that although I have not read Kevin Kelly’s article “1000 Fans” I have read the book “Raving Fans” by Sheldon Bowles, 1993. The premise of the book is that in order to be successful in any business you must concentrate on the needs of your clients. Bowles’ book should be required reading for anyone in business or sales.
Howard
April 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm Fredericksburg VA Photographer Says:

Hey, indeed, great site and info. I use your site as a resource and inspiration at times. Best to you…
Phil
April 8th, 2008 at 10:56 pm kendra Says:

I’m a new fan! I found you through my friend Candice Stringham. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the information you share.

LOL at Paul Benjamin!

Kendra
April 10th, 2008 at 12:33 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

Clayton,

Thanks for the great idea!, whew… we need help, this is sometimes to handle alone, we need a PR person.. If someone knows anybody with good connections interested in “Del Sol” project, please let us know!!!!…

Clayton, thanks again, I’m going to take a look at that link you mention…

:)
April 10th, 2008 at 7:31 pm Morgan Lynn Says:

Hey Sol - you can pick my brain if I can pick yours!! Haha! Not that I’ve mastered PR for my own biz but my “other” job is with a PR agency and I’ve learned a TON that I plan to put to use very soon! One thing I will say is you can take your own love story far - media loves a good growth/trend story with a human twist! Plus you guys are on the front end of an exciting movement in photography…. Hopefully we’ll get to meet sometime soon and chat more! Stay sane - I know you guys are super busy!
April 11th, 2008 at 2:40 am E. Says:

Ah, this is no different than the 80/20 rule…..that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. This principle has been in place for many, many years, but I guess someone had to put a number on it to give it a more modest perspective.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pm Jeff S. Says:

You guys rule!!! Your work is great, and your blog really helps someone like me who is just starting up. Thank you!!!
April 14th, 2008 at 4:37 pm Tracy Says:

I have always been a fan of yours, Adcock! When’s your first workshop? I’m there!
April 17th, 2008 at 10:22 am uncle chris Says:

kevin kelley is brilliant.

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02nd Apr 2008

label your gear

I was unloading batteries today after a recent shoot. We stage all of our gear on a table as we pull old batteries out and put new ones in. I looked down at our equipment pile and got to thinking about a Flashflavor post. Since ALL our gear is mixed up, how the heck do we know whose is what? Once you start to build a nice equipment inventory, its about darn time that it get cataloged or labeled so you know what ya got!

We are a studio with 4 maybe 5 shooters at a given time. It is crucial to us that we have our ducks lined up in a row! Yeah, a Sb-28 is just the same as the next one but I have found that ALL my equipment seems to come to life and we experience problems with our gear at almost every wedding. How do you identify the problem what it is happening to? For at least 4 years, I worked with a pile of gear in and out of bags. When I found my wife, Sol Tamargo, I knew that something had to change. After the 2nd time of “hey, you got my batteries” or “do you have my pocket wizard, I’ve only got 2 and I should have 3″ or whatever.. I was SICK of that.

If you label your gear, you will actually know what is yours… novel thought eh? Ok, lets say that you are a 1 man / woman show and you know exactly what gear you have and therefore there is no need to label anything… Sounds like my thought train for my first 4 years. Guess what? Your WRONG!

Why? Everything we use BREAKS at one point or another. Especially in the world of pocket wizards.. I have pulled my hair out a time or two switching cables, changing receiver units, checking batteries…when something fails, its important to identify it and move on. We have experienced MAJOR problems with the Pocketwizard system specifically. The short PC cords are poorly made for our work environment. With tugs, pulls, and catches, these things fail.. oops, there goes another $20 to buy a new one. So we started labeling our PC cords… Yep, i have them all labeled. If we have problems with one on assignment, I pull it out of operation, make a mental note of the cord’s labeled number, tuck it away in a special place, and switch to a backup.

This kind of mindset works with ALL your gear. We have tons of slave flash units. Flash tubes go out (afterall, the SB-28 has been discontinued for years). PC posts break, zoom heads go out, flashes get thrown in the ocean…heck, a plethora of problems greet you at every wedding. Its about dang time that you can identify your problem unit, put it aside, and address it later in the shop if necessary.

Ok, I hope your getting the point. Check out these photo examples of my gear pile and their labels. I purchased my label maker for $29 at a local office store… you can too

LABEL IT.

WE even label our rechargeable batteries. These things have a life expectancy so at some point, they will fail. We recommend that you put a few different color rings around them when you buy them new, make a note somewhere citing the date when those colored batteries were purchased. It helps if you can identify which photographer gets which batteries… Also, I’ve included our trusty labeler in the lower left, next to a few of our batteries

You can see that we actually label our gear with the first initial of the photographer who owns that particular unit. Everything has a label, lenses, camera bodies and tripods! Give this a try Hope this helps?

Cheers!
mateo

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Matt Adcock, Sol Tamargo 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “label your gear”

April 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am Bryan Says:

What a great simple idea! Don’t know why I haven’t thought of it before.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm Cyler Parent Says:

I just shot a wedding for the first time with another photographer, and man would this have been helpful. It’s a lot easier to keep track of where stuff is if you are the only person touching that stuff. Add another person into the mix and equipment ended up all over the place.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm Verent Says:

Great advice. I never really figured out the need for it until I started shooting with other photographers. Very valuable when you do though. Despite knowing I should, I have yet to actually label everything though. Maybe tonight will be the night….
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

A “wife” and business partner as I am, might say to the husband” :”What’s yours is mine, and what is mine, you can borrow”..

So now we are sure that ALL MY stuff , has my initials or the “borrower” initials… haha!!!, so he can take care of having it fix when necessary… isn’t wonderful??!!

I have to credit for this idea to Mark Adams…

:D
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:22 am Clayton Says:

Wow dude!

If you ever need to loose some pocket wizards let me know Just joking with you. Fortunately I am the only photography in Germany within a five mile radius.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 am Clayton Says:

And you are so right Sol, Thats how it is for real. As soon as I got marrreid, somehow my wife took my sports car and now I’m stuck driving a 94 Integra P.O.S. that barely makes it to work. God bless her little heart though right? At least she looks better driving it than I do!
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:40 am Clayton Says:

I updated the website link is you guys wanna see what you taught me as well. I hope you enjoy!
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:08 pm Morgan Lynn Says:

This is one of those posts that makes you snack yourself - hello?!? Why have we all not thought to log our gear? I even found myself trying to decifer old from new based on scratches and faded wording… Crazy. Awesome system that I will have to snag! BTW, Matt - I would be so stoked to shoot with you! (I’ll make sure my gear is labeled! haha). I’m getting in touch THIS WEEK!
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 pm matt Says:

my good buddy Mark Adams does get some props. A bit back he was pointing me the way to his Canon 5d, on the back he labeled his name. I thought he had a winning concept. I went a little anal with some labels

cheers & hope it helps you stay a bit more organized.

mateo
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:08 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

Clayton,

Isn’t marriage the best thing in the world, now you have someone to take care of you and all your stuff… of course except when it breaks, then it’s yours again to fix it… I just love the system!!!
April 5th, 2008 at 9:47 am ChristopherDavid Says:

In another life, I was a rock climbing bum hangin’ and living with a bunch of other climbing bums all over the country. This lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to having much money very often and means that any thing spent on gear was much coveted.

For a climbing trip, we would always combine gear. Labeling was always necessary as many of us had the exact piece of gear. Everyone had their own unique color combination (except black which meant it was dead). Additionally, we would use a small strip of reflective 3M tape on everything as we were often getting back to base camp in the dark and would risk leaving something behind - a simple wave of a headlamp would light everything up in the dark.

I’ve done this with my wedding gear too - Makes finding everything very easy!

Great post!

ChristopherDavid
April 7th, 2008 at 6:53 am Clayton Says:

Can’t wait til the next post… This site is addictive, I’ll check it daily hoping for the next post!
April 7th, 2008 at 8:41 am Paul Says:

Been labeling for years.. works great when you work with your spouse and you “baby” your gear.
I found a really small label maker for putting the date and a number for the set on my batteries. That way I know how long they have lasted an what timefranme to expect the others like it to go.

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31st Mar 2008

photoshop user magazine

I was pleasantly surprised this week to find out that photohsop user magazine published a story I wrote about the trash the dress phenomenon. I was very excited to be featured (along with my wife) next some seriously talented folks. I had a chance to meet one of the photographers published in the article at WPPI, Cliff Mautner. I also parked myself next to the Nikon booth to hear him speak about making magical images… That guy is unbelievable! Check him out!

David Ziser was also featured (a talented photographer and photoshop artisan). I have featured David’s work here before on FF. I was hoping that I would get a chance to meet him at WPPI as well but with 1 zillion other photographers buzzing around everywhere, it was rather impossible to accomplish all my must see photographer goals…next time David!

SO, if you are in the neighborhood of a bookstore, pick up or sign up to receive a copy of photoshopuser magazine. Those guys working with Scott Kelby really have it going on… OH, I had a chance to meet up with Dave Cross at the Leaving Las Vegas shoot a few weeks ago. I’ve watched numerous episodes of him on Photoshop TV… Also, a special thanks for RC over at layersmagazine.com for asking / motivating me to write this article!

Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the Magazine. Sol Tamargo & I have this very dramatic vision for the future of our Trash the Dress sessions. I’m not sure how long our clients are going to keep asking for them, but with the insane amount of worldwide buzz going on, I dont see it stopping anytime soon, especially with the destination wedding environment. We have 25 TTD sessions booked this year! Look out for some more crazy video’s coming soon!

Cheers!
mateo

PS, the photoshop guys & gals did a super job on the graphics… thanks again

Posted by matt under Filed under Photographers, Matt Adcock, David Ziser, Cliff Mautner 12 Comments »

12 Responses to “photoshop user magazine”

April 1st, 2008 at 2:04 am Philip Casey Says:

You guys rock! That has got to be an amazing feeling!
April 1st, 2008 at 6:17 am Clayton Says:

THIS IS SOO AWESOME YOU GUYS!!! I HAVE BEEN READING YOUR SITE FOR THE LAST MONTH AND HAVE JUST ORDERED MY FIRST STEP TOWARD FLASH FLAVOR TO INCLUDE:
SYNC CABLE 16′ LONG
HOT SHOE ADAPTER FOR MY XTI
LIGHT STAND CLAMP
42″ CONVERTABLE UMBRELLA

I REALLY LOOK FORWARD TO SHOOTING WITH THIS NEW STUFF. YOU GUYS ARE AN UNTAPPED SOURCE OF INFO, I WILL BE SURE TO SPREAD THIS KNOWLEDGE.
V/R CLAYTON ALLEN
April 1st, 2008 at 9:39 am nina sutherland Says:

Fantastic guys….congratulations!!!! Keep rockin’ on the amazing images!!! You two are an KILLER team!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am matt Says:

thanks for the comments

Clayton, what kind of flash did you buy for your setup?
glad we have offered some inspiration to someone
Cheers!
matt
April 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm eric Says:

this is the coolest blog for creative wedding photography lighting. you deserve every article and feature you get! one question: do you think you’ll be switching to the radio popper from pw’s? The idea of super-fast sync speeds really makes me think of switching….
April 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm matt Says:

Thanks Nina, We love your photography!!!!!

Eric, I can promise you that I will be using Radiopoppers. I dont believe I’ll be “switching” though, more like using both systems. I’ve honestly got too much invested in the Manual flash system to just give it all away. I rarely ever sell my equipment too…so, I’ll be hangin on.

I do think that the RP system will be way more forgiving. Manual flash operation is very hard and it takes some serious pros to have the brass to use it. But the bottom line will be all about the photo that sells…

I say “use whatever works best for you”

I’m glad you are getting so much out of FF….
Cheers,
matt
April 1st, 2008 at 2:16 pm Morgan Lynn Says:

Congratulations Matt & Sol!! You deserve the publicity - you are constantly challenging “us” to raise our game! I am so excited about how FLASH FLAVOR has made a difference in my portfolio!! Awesome article! Awesome work!
April 1st, 2008 at 10:05 pm Marc Schermerhorn Says:

Matt and Sol! Congrats!!!!

Mel and I are very excited to not only see your article but our photo in it too! LOL! You two have really nailed the whole TTD thing down. I don’t really see TTD as a fad at all….amazing photographer like yourselves keep the interest alive! You have inspired me to shoot higher and everyone else who follows your work too.

I just wrote a little somethin’ somethin’ about it in my blog…

All the best!
Marc
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 am Clayton Says:

I have a couple of 580EX2’s
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 pm Sol Tamargo Says:

This “Trash the Dress” is the coolest thing ever, and it is amazing to have the article on the magazine and it will help ALL the photographers that are down for some cool adventures, to get more brides open for this idea. , so Good luck for everybody, hope you get more TTD sessions booked!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 am Clayton Says:

Matt y Sol,

Where did you find this comment system? I would also to use it on my site.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm matt Says:

I’m not sure where we found the comment system, I think it was available online in a wordpress list.
Clayton, Good to see that you have some Canon EX flash unites.. what are you going to do with them Thanks for giving a shout out on the blog!

Morgan, I can’t wait to meet you. I’d love to shoot with you!

Marc, congrats on your new baby… and we are happy to see these pages being graced by your lovely and gorgeous wife!

Hope to see you in Playa!
Cheers,
mateo

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22nd Mar 2008

Radiopopper testing

I am very excited to see the birth of the Radiopopper this year. This write-up will serve as a initial preview of my experience with this revolutionary unit. In order to give a full review, I will need this baby on a few of my wedding gigs. I hope to be shooting with them at my first few weddings in April. We haven’t used TTL at a wedding with off camera slaves in a long long time. Heck, I can’t tell you when. I love to change up my game, so the popper is an exciting new tool in my tool box!

We spent an hour or so the other day with these units. Ordinarily, Flashflavor photo subjects will be wedding related. I ask for your forgiveness with this post as we didnt have time to organize any test bridal models during the short term planning we did to organize this shoot.

I spent some time with a few other photographers to get some play time with Radiopopper (RP). We each got a chance to set up a makeshift subject and shoot each one of these subjects to test the strengths of RP. We tested firing 3 different flash groups TTL using the 580 EX II as the master unit and 3 remote slaves all in different groups, set to different ratios. Group A, Group B, and Group C. I didn’t actually do any test shots with these flash settings but hopefully, I can get a copy of the images from Stillmotion to showcase here.

When it became my turn to play with the flash, we found our way inside Battista’s Hole in the wall, a rustic Italian food joint with some serious history in Vegas. I wanted to add a little life to my test subject and on the spot, I found a cute little old guy who made a SLAM of a subject. Sorry to bother you with the details but I believe if you add a story line to a test subject, the impact of the lighting efforts actually make a lasting impression. Call me a dedicated photojournalist if you will

In these photo examples, I used 3 flash unites in 2 different flash groups, Group A + Group B. (Remember, this is TTL folks). Group A 1:1 and Group B 1:4. We had 1 Radiopopper transmitter attached to the ST-E2 and 3 Radiopopper receivers attached to 580 EX II’s.

In this setup shot, I was shooting a Canon 5d with a ST-E2 wireless transmitter on the hotshoe . I had a RP attached to the top of the ST-E2. Group A was set to 1:1 and Group B was set to 1:4. Basically, I’ve told Group B to fire with 4 times more light than Group A. Group B’s units are placed behind subject on bench and camera right. I dialed my exposure in so that the ambient would hang out. What impressed me most about this is that we were limited here with time, with little or no actual test time to get ti done right. I shot 5 or 6 frames in this spot in the restaurant and I liked his expression best in these few frames. The RP allows you to set it and forget it. If this had been a Pocket Wizard setup (i still love my PW’s), I would have needed more time to set each unit up and get the job done. I took 5 minutes with this guy. With this kind of pressure, I’m starting to love the RP!

Here are my frames (all shot at ISO 400, 1/100th at 1.4)

Gordie has been playing the accordion at Battista’s for an outstanding 27 years. His listeners range from hookers and prostitutes to drunkards and party goers to the occasional superstars. His favorite musicians were the Oakridge boys! Batista’s ceilings are adorned with props and the walls are covered with their menus and wine bottles and different photos from the past. Battista is filled with low lighting and a moody atmosphere. I wanted to take a chance to add some light that would accentuate the mood that was plastered all over the walls.

I love how the backlight has added some dimension here. Remember, set it and forget it mentality.

Initially, when we choose a location in the restaurant to shoot Gordy, we found a s