Graveyard at Xcaret:  Here is a night view on the tripod... uh mazing.

Here is a cross section view.

Here are a few details...

Nothing above with any flashflavor value.
But this one has a little special sauce on the side, or in the background :)

Here is one of my flashflavor moments, among others I liked that day.  5d Mark2, 50L  2.5 at 1/60th.  I dont even know what this flash was set to,  I'm thinking 1/8th ballpark. Was not very high because my ISO was 1600, looking at the little ambient in the hallway, I didn't want that to disappear.

cheers!

1/4 power flash SB-28 on the floor, bare bulb, hot uplight.   There is a zing in her eyes that does it for me...

This one was for sure a littel happy accident.

5d, 24mm shot at 4.5 at 1/200th
Have a few more on the del Sol Blog from this wedding.  My slideshows are always packed full of flashflavor, so enjoy or grimmace, whichever works for you!

matt

I snapped one frame that pretty much rocked it out for me.  Without flash, the driver + bride and groom would never be seen....

Iso 400,  5.6 at 1/40th with a 5d Mark II using my 35L.

more from this wedding over on the del sol blog, including LOTS of flalshflavor.  http://delsolphotography.com/blog/post-840/101610-Morgan-Bubba-Wedding-in-Columbus-Georgia-Photos-by-Matt-and-Sol

5d II 1/10th of a second, ISO 1000 at 2.5 with my trusty 35L series prime.  The flash was just positioned on the floor about 20 feet away from this location.

I've changed the situation a little and went ahead on a wedding day with my tony hoffer look alike...well, its different guys, come on and don't rip on me too hard!   On Keelin and John's wedding day, it rained hard....all day, all night.  The wedding was obviously moved from the beach to a Chapel... with a leaking ceiling.  If it was going to be raining at night, I told myself that I was going to GET wet and my flash was going to do a dance for me that would give me a photo that I had never shot before..... stage was set, dusk approached, and I went swimming.

The first two frames were my "test frames".  My thoughts were to meter the sky, still with plenty of available light in the sky.  I put the sky about 2 stops under what the meter was telling me and shot a test frame. Shot at 6:34pm.   Notice in the first shot on the left I've instructed my flash to be included in my test frame  (kill 2 birds with 1 stone).  This test tells me a few things:  What my ambient is looking like and also if my 1/4 power setting on my flash is enough....

Now, the first frame is not winning me any awards, thats for sure.  Remember, its only a test shot.  The second frame is my first of the sequence to make sure my light and power settings, flash to subject distance and all the variables are in place... its kinda front focused too...

This is my 2nd shot with them in the rain, and my KEEPER from the sequence of about 30 seconds in the rain. 

5d II, ISO 320 at F2.0 shot at 1/80th. Off camera speedlight triggered by PW set to 1/4 power.  This photo is DIRECTLY out of camera, absolutely NO Photoshop or any post production manipulation.  We were standing in a lake too, so that helped us out very much.  I wanted to make sure that we could somewhat see the ambient tungsten lights in the background for some layering in the frame.  My assistant was guarding the flash +PW combo by covering the flash slightly with the man purse thingie he had.  His flash to subject distance was about 6 feet.

I think I got a winner....

Saludos,

matt

MORE photo inspiration on our blog:  www.delsolphotography.com/blog

ps.  thank u tony hoffer :)

For a safe photo, I was shooting at ISO 1000.   I had a flash set to 1/32, about 20 feet from subject.  I was using a 135 at F2.0 shooting at 1/125 of a second (a bit slow for that shutter speed and no image stabilization).

Ok, so safe shots...we all should shoot one in this circumstance.   This was my moment to shoot safe.  I was using my off camera flash on a lightstick, operated by Melissa, my assistant for this shoot.   I communicated to her to quickly move into another placement for a different angle, etc.   At this moment (keep in mind, she was more than 15 feet away from me, she had turned her head and was going to a different direction.  Simultaneously, be the hyper active ready for anything gringo, turned and to see a strong breeze take her veil into a super cool crazy place. 

5d II at ISO 1000 1/160 at F2.0.  It was all I could do to have a snap reaction, stop down a tad (since my off camera flash was no longer  acting as my flash freeze shutter) and I snapped this frame.   My happy accident is that I told my flash to go away, so it was moving to a secondary spot and thus, I was able to get a silhouette (a pretty ok frame here) without flash.  Keep in mind, the light on the veil and all backlight is from the DJ's setup.  I think with flash, this moment wouldnt be the same.   So, i consider this an accident (or fate) that I shut my flash down just a few seconds prior to this moment!

have fun with your happy accidents.

Old happy accident 1

Old happy accident 2

Older happy accident 3

An even older happy accident 4

Read about their wedding plan here.

Technically, these images were difficult for me to make and without the proper gear and technique, these photos are tough to duplicate.  One of the things I've been noticing is that its tough to stand out and be different in the photo market.  As a photographer, I'm constantly challenged to make technically better photographs.  I encourage you to ask yourself, are you doing the same?

Shot a few images in the ocean.... bloody flare... perhaps we should embrace the flare!

An abandoned fishing shack, miles away from any shoreline.  More on the photo shack here. 

I think I got lucky with these next two frames, shot only 3 seconds apart from one another.  We didnt have much time for this, it just happened quickly.  I was using my 45 Tilt / Shift lens (with no tilting or shifting though) keeping in mind thats a manual focus lens.  I stopped down to F16 and shot at 1/30th of a second to get the motion in the dress.  The first frame (timestamp 5:08:01) was shot at ISO 400.

notice in the corner, I had no tripod so the 1/30th slow shutter was made possible due to the 55 gallon trash can that I improvised to be my make shift tripod...it worked :)

This next frame, timestamp 5:08:04.  Just a quick pan and suddenly I've been lucky enough to freeze motion on the moving guy vs the b&g standing still(ish).  Anyway, this technically seemed difficult to pull off.... each frame almost targets different concepts.  45 T/S lens, shot at F16 at 1/30th ISO 400. 

Beautiful sunlight, everything here was shot using available light, such a gift to us this day. Shot this one with my 50 at 1.6, 1/3200 shutter.

This last one was one of my fav's.  I shot this laying down on the beach, using my 135MM lens 1/500 F2.2.

Sorry for the No flavor post... just thought I'd add some inspiration / something to look at on this blog that never gets updated :)  Thanks for your patience!  Let me know if you like em :)

cheers!
matt

More Josh + Lara Wedding photos here

More Josh + Lara TTD photos here

This shot is a result of some trial and error.  After a setting adjustment or two, I nailed this couple on the dance floor and popped some "flash freeze" on them with one of my Nikon Speedlights.   Have you ever had brain freeze from eating ice cream too fast.... howa bout "flash freeze?

Canon 5d II

Lens (mm): 35
ISO: 1000
Aperture: 2.2
Shutter: 1/25

Nikon Sb28 at 1/64  from a light stick camera left, about 8 feet away.  You can see how powerful that light is at its lowest setting... The guest on the floor camera right still has some residual exposure from this flash head.  Probably about 15 feet of distance from flash head to his body...thats some serious power.   The 1/25 drag with the ambient DJ lights produced this kewl movement look here.

I posted LOTS of images from this wedding on the del Sol Blog...Hope U like!

Read his review on the Mark IV here.

Tony is also a serious flashflavor dude too... I found this image and was drooling alll the way through the rest of his site.  I asked if he minded me posting it here and he obliged :)

Tony writes:

I was on an engagement session in May 09 with one of my favorite couples. They had bought an umbrella since it looked like rain that day. Well it didn't rain and we ended up shooting the whole session. About 5 minutes before the session ended, Maria mentioned that she had actually wished it had rained since she wanted to use her new umbrella....

Well, within a few minutes it started raining after all. We were already packed up in our cars and couldn't decide if we should get out for one more shot or not. The other side of the parking lot was empty, so we just went to the empty area and set it up. The whole shot and set up took only about 30 seconds. I fired two shots, one wide, one close, and we left. Pretty amateur set up actually.

So, if you're curious, there was still some daylight (it was just after sunset), so I went to ISO 100 to drown out the ambient. Then I simply backlit the couple to bring out some of the rain. The shot was taken almost a year ago, but if I had to guess, the settings were probably close to this: ISO 100, 1/125 shutter, f/2.0. Shot with a Canon 5D and an 85 1.2 L. The flash, a 580exII was set around 1/2 power ish...

You can visit hofferphotography.com for more inspiration!   Thanks a zillion for the submission amigo!  Friggen SWEET frame amigo... What I love about this shot is not only is it technically well done, it will remain a timeless classic and a major portfolio addition for a long long long time!

Mucho saludos!
matt

Recently, I found a gem from Quin's camera...

Quin Writes:

My motivation for this image was complete fear. LOL!  The room was extremely dark with horrible lighting, and just plain ugly.  I needed a way to simplify the space and easily tell the story of what was going on.  When you can't rely on the ambient light, it's so nice to be able to control your own light.  I always carry a flash on my belt, using QuiKlips, so within seconds of my initial ambient shot, I placed my flash on the floor aiming upwards on the bride to throw shadows on the ceiling.  The flash was triggering in manual mode via Quantum FW10w Transceivers at camera and flash positions.  It was divine timing that her bridesmaids came and stood in the perfect position to have their shadows and expressive hand gestures thrown on the wall too. 

I've also included a couple other shots in the ladies prep room to show you what it was like at ambient light, then my first attempt with the flash (totally blown before I tweaked my settings) where you can see my flash placement, and the final image in BW.

The Ambient exposure really sets the tone for "What the HECK" am I going to do now?

After seeing this frame and evaluating the one setup shot before this one, I'm thinking she has placed 2 flash units on the subject for the dynamic shadows.  I've always used this technique with one flash unit... If my assumption is correct, nice work Quin.  Regardless, I'm sure your clients appreciate your creative approach!

WOW, I'm so impressed.   I love how you have isolated what really matters in this room.  I'd call this complete organization of chaos, which is what we are all faced with when we see a pretty boring room of clutter and are forced to calculate decisions that turn heads.   Great work on your toes here Quin.

PS... did anybody catch the cool clip on their belt, the Quick Clips to hang the flash on the belts???  I like their clever branding QUIKlIPS...  Thats pretty nifty!     Maybe I can get them to send us a set or 3 :) I think Dave may be sending me one of his magic images soon, so I can share that too!

Saludos,

matt

I've had a misfire or two in the past and sometimes, I'm hating that... Possibly i was shooting too fast for the system to recycle or the PW connection with its trusty sucky cables and sync ports were not 100% hitched up well...who knows.

I was shooting at high ISO's 800-1250 with a 2.0 or faster Aperture and using my Speedlights on 1/64 power with a ND filter to bring the power level down...dragging the shutter at 1/30 or 1/40th to bring in the ambient.

These first few frames were me working the scene, moving the flash around, shooting different shots for dramatic looks...

Not a happy accident...kinda got what I was wanting to get here...Flash 90 degrees from lens axis.

Same here...moved the flash from 90 degrees to about 45 to get this one...By the timing of this shot, I'm already feeling like a rockstar because the images are feeling very good to me, along with the quality of light.

Then, as his friends were all chiefing away on their stogies, one of them tells me that he wishes I was using a prettier background for photos...don't you love how guests always think they have a great idea for photos... Anyway, I kept shooting after telling him to "trust me" and my flash delivered again, giving me this shot of them together.

And finally, my happy accident appears... Among several frames where the flash actually fired, I got this one...  I had no intentions of snapping a frame without light.  Honestly, I kinda like it even more because the look of this shot and the smoke just does something for me :)

Hope you find a few happy accidents coming soon!

mateo

Fast forward to a new really cool setup....I just wanted to give some props an amigo of mine Sergio Photographer, also the photographer Sol & I hired to cover our wedding day.  Recently, he engineered a setup to work for him in environments that were challenging his productivity.

Introducing his 3 light rig:

Outdoor daytime configuration. 3 SB-800 units, 2 with Pocket Wizards attached and one without (one Pocket Wizard activates two units). The transmitter is attached to the bottom of the camera (to keep the hot shoe free for a flash later on) with a 1/4 -20 ¾ inch long set screw. The flash mount is a Lastolite Triflash unit,  attached to an inexpensive SLIK monopod (lightstick). The cables are custom made from Paramount Cords.

Sergio writes:

Like many of you, I like to keep things simple and tote around as little as possible. There are many times that I need extra power, especially outdoors in Arizona. Using the sun as your backlight requires a lot of power from a flash unit. A lot of photographers carry Quantum flash units and some even carry bigger moonlight heads. I try to use what I already have and it is easier for me to combine the power of 3 SB-800 units for this type of shot; and then later (when no longer needed) I just take off two of the flashes and use them for my on-camera flash at the reception. The third flash is used on a lightstand or in some other way depending on the situation.

Nikon D700 | ISO 200 | Aperture:20 | Shutter:250 | Lens: 24-70 at 24mm | Alien Skin Film 2.0
I asked the groom to jump and the flash was powerful enough to illuminate him completely and froze him in midair.

Nighttime reception configuration. One unit (with Pocket Wizard) stays on the mount and is used as the lightstick. The flash without a Pocket Wizard gets attached to the camera; I normally use this flash (covered) solely as a focusing aid; but I uncover it when I need some fill light. The third flash is optional and it is normally used on a lightstand across the dance floor or in other locations.


Notice Sergio's flash setup for the reception, after finishing with the 3 light setup.  Interesting how he is leaving us hanging here with the motivations behind whats happening with his camera mounted flash unit being all taped up!  Interesting, eh?  I hope he will share with us soon why his imagery is so friggen awesome at his receptions.  Seriously, if you havent already go take a peek at his blogito if you haven't already.   His work is very inspirational.  Remember, we hired him to photograph our wedding, the guy knows his shit!

Sergio even has a bobble head doll...this guy is out of control!

Saludos Amigo for the submission!  Hope to get more from you soon!
Che Guero Mateo

This location was a bit of a happy accident. We were shooting on location in The fabulous Summerland B.C. a holiday destination in the Okanogan on a beautiful lake with lots of awesome mountains all around. But when Kat and I were scouting the day before we found this really wicked old church that totally inspired us to bring some Urban into this landscape rich destination. Ashley (our beautiful bride) is totally natural in front of the camera and needed very little direction. Cory (our super macho fireman groom) needed to do nothing more than gaze at his lovely bride to make the pose work.

The shot was lit with our trusty Norman 400B @ 400 w/s with the standard 2D reflector to turn the sun into a star. Kat held the Norman feather toward Ashley as she was a little further away. We had a bridesmaid hold an SB-28 @ full boogie & zoomed to 85mm for Cory's dark Jacket. Lighting gave an Exposure ISO 200 F/22 @ 1/250. We wanted to be one stop under "Sunny 16", so 1/200 (or 250) at ISO 200 at f/16 would be balanced with sunlight...and f/22 would be a stop under. We put a bit of a tilt on this one and shot at 24mm, we didn't want to totally warp the perspective. But the slight tilt and converging lines nicely puts emphasis on Ashley and, hopefully, the eye goes to her white dress first also.

The whole time we were just laughing a joking around with them too. We try never to take ourselves too seriously or act like lighting is a great science, getting technical in front of your clients is no way to make them relax.

Here is a case when our artistic vision was blessed with fantastic subject matter. We had been tossing around the idea of doing something fashiony with one of our brides as a creative in a downtown Urban Setting and maybe rent an insane or out there dress... you know something different. We love white...don't get us wrong. But who could pass up this opportunity. We showed up and saw our very own "Lady in Red" and had a blast for the rest of the day ;). This Image was largely inspired by the dress. I was just dying to make her float/fly....or jump in this thing and try to freeze the action with flash. And flash we did use....but jumping wasn't really an option in heels.

We had the idea to prop Faye up on the bench and then we though we aught to throw Greg (the groom) in there too. I mean duhhh, she ended up resting her feet on the bench and greg's knee. Heals got tossed (by Dan) and then cleverly put back in the shot (by Kat). We used a few people to help with this one. We knew we wanted two points of dramatic side light and thought is would be cool if the kicker could throw long shadows on the rather plain looking concrete floor, so we threw our Quantum T5D-r (with assistant) @ 1/2 power behind the Groom on Camera Left. To light everyone/thing from the front we gave a groomsmen an  sb-28 zoomed wide to 24mm and set @ full power. To finish everything off Kat fluffed the dress and jumped out of frame in time for 1 shot. We shot 4 or 6 frames in total. Final Exposure was ISO 200 F/8 @ 1/250, shot at 35mm.

We just love manipulating our environment and create something remarkable. And we love to have fun! ;) :P  

Thanks Dan & Kat for the contribution.  Adding 2 lights is always a challenge to the ordinary setup.  Glad to see someone else who doesnt take the technical side too seriously in front of a client... Props amigos!  Lots of off camera flash motivation over on the Stone Photo Blog too!

Saludos,

matt

Shooting in the full sun can really flatten your subjects so we, as responsible technical photographers, must assume the duty to make a difference when placed in this situation by turning on a strobe :)   David Hobby has initiated a good bit of discussion on this subject and while this article talks about using TTL, we also want to point out that you can use your pocket wizards with manual flash power too.

Check out David's sketch of a potential cross lighting setup.

Discussion on this photo diagram here.

Here is one of our recent attempts.  Sol put a speedlight on 1/1 (full power) about 4-5 feet from subject.  Triggered by Pocket Wizard.  Flash is 45-60 degrees from camera's angle, pretty much an exact remake / setup of the above diagram. 

photo by Sol.

Saluods,

mateo

What we are doing these days is using Neutral Density Gel to actually take the power of the flash down by 1 or 2 or sometimes, 3 stops.   I'm shooting OLD Sb-28's that are already at a lower power level than today's Sb's (800 + 900).  Or the 580 EX II.   The 28 simply is an older unit that I can dial down to 1/64 power.  BUT, thats too bright for most of my stuff, considering I'm usually shooting to bring IN that ambient light, make some sort of atmosphere out of the reception vs give it atmosphere by dominating flash bursts.   Make sense?

Before I get into MY own images, Id like you to spend 30 minutes reading this entire blog post.   My friend Dave from DQ studios recently posted a blog post about off camera flash and hinted on this very subject.   The main problem with these flashes is they are just too stinking HOT.  In order to preserve the mood and save the ambiance in the room, we must turn our flashes WAY down.  Dave spent ALL day writing this blog post.  Dave and Quin are pretty stinking HOTness behind the camera coupled with off camera flash work.   Check out his thoughts:

Nikon D700 + 105mm f2 @ISO1250, f2.2 & 1/100. Off-camera flash: Nikon SB900 triggered via Quantum FW10w Transceivers

Dave writes:

Yesterday I was talking with a marketing director of a flash company about flash needs in the 21st Century.  We all know we love balancing and, at times, overpowering sun with flash.  But how about lighting with off-camera flash in low-light/high-ISO surroundings?

There’s lots of relatively high-powered flashes made for bright shooting and overpowering dark scenes.  What’s lacking is a professional strobe with *really* low-powered output for accenting low-light environments.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore …”

For sure, click here to read his full article.

On the same subject, but outside on the beach, I still must preserve what ambient I've been given.  In this case, I had a dance floor and some stage lights but also, mixed with dim dim tungsten lights in the trees, and many other low power light sources.

I've posted a few images here to give you and idea of what I'm talking about...

This one was shot at ISO 1000 using 2.8 shot at 1/13 of a second.  I pulled a little movement off by zooming in on the lens to get the floor moving. The flash with 1 ND filter, set to low power (1/64) is blasting away at the girls on the floor. The slave flash acts as my shutter, freezing action, letting everything els

Shot a 1/25 of a Sec.  I little camera movement from left to right so the ambient starts to jump off the page.  My flash becomes my new shutter

This just a scene setter shot of the dance floor with a very low power flash giving me some side light, keeping just enough on them not to take away the mood the light from the dance floor was giving off.   Perhaps a little too hot on the flash...

This one should help you in a big way :)

cheers,

matt

We went out to survey the location...setup one light with a red gel to back-light the copter for a scene setter type shot, then noticed that there was a HUGE Par / Elliptical style light positioned outside aimed at this copter... hey, its big and bright and constant!

SO, What we decided was to pick this light up as a giant flashlight and follow the copter on its ascent!   IT worked :)

We did use a low power off camera flash to accent light the couple for a shot or two... but using what we had in our surroundings also played a big part in making this shot successful for us!

This one was one of the first off camera flash bursts we used.   The pilot was checking something with the copter, giving us a good sense of scale.  Moon light directly behind him.  Shot at very low power on the off cam strobe.

Our simple low power burst behind the copter for a back-light to give us a scene setter.

This is where I got the idea to use this elliptical light as my giant flashlight!  

Low power (1/64 with a ND filter) burst of the couple.  Notice my sexy silhouette of my 5d II with PW attached to the hotshoe... nice detail eh? DOH!

The flashlight at work :)

Saludos!
mateo

Ride bike for first time = learn to use multiple underwater strobes (off camera) for the first time.... holy moly what a challenge.  I'm not 100% in love with my results from this 2 hr test... but am on my way to discover the other side of the rainbow:)

Anyway, here is 2 underwater strobes + above water strobe.  Everything shot on Manual...  Shot about 2.5 meters of depth.  Strobe camera right at 3 meters depth, triggered with optical slave.

Thanks to Sol for being my model :)

Cheers!
matt

Have you noticed less posts on FF?   I have, no doubt.   Why?    Well, honestly Ive been seeing LARGE numbers of copycats out there, which is to be expected I guess if you give away your shoot concepts, lighting setups and locations.  Where is the originality folks?

Lets face it, we shoot in some seriously exotic spots.   If you dig back in history, you will find very few (if any) other photographers prior to 2006 who were commercially shooting and publishing material found in the same spots (specifically cenotes) in the Riviera Maya other than del Sol Photographers.   I'll be honest.  NOBODY inspired me to take a bride into one of these locations, It came right out of my original box of tricks.  While I can't blame others for exploiting these awesome spots, I can blame myself when their work mimics mine...ouchy.

While we can obviously not claim ownership of the idea to shoot in a cenote, we can ask for photographers out there to try and PUSH the limits on their work.   I follow lots of forums and see LOTSA posts by brides and other photographers with "hey look at my centoe shots" and just about every one of them looks like a del Sol shoot (off camera flash, multiple flashes, red gel, bride in water, etc)... I guess I had it coming.    Anyway,  copycats are inevitable and I'm sure just about all of us can identify as somewhere or somehow, you have likely felt another photographer steal or swipe your idea...This is just the way the things go.

So how do we curb this copycat syndrome?

Write a check, of course!     (Just kidding, this is what happened to us after our recent brainstorm on changing it up)   For many of us, gear acquisition seems to be a disease.   We buy stuff for the sake of buying it.  Will that new double rotary table and custom engineered portable track and dolly system earn back the near $2500 spent?  Probably not.   But will anybody else have products like this in the region where we are working?  Nah.

You will start to see underwater off camera flash (lots of underwater flash and creative lighting) and HD video coming from the underwater arena.  We have purchased underwater breathing systems that are lightweight and allow for better dexterity than the traditional SCUBA system (yes we are SCUBA certified).  Aquatica 5d II housings, multiple flashes and underwater studio equip, cables and just about everything we could think of to STEP IT UP.   Holy cow, underwater strobes (controllable ones) ain't cheap ($900 each)... especially if you need 3 or 4 of them... Housings, OMG...costs more than my camera.  and I need arms, cables (they are pricey too!)do-dads, switches, brackets, weights, bla bla bla...  All in all, we are investing 5 figures into this system.

We just want our work to be unique... hopefully, we can change the face of the TTD work we have been doing with this new gear list!  Stop by our new blog: www.delsolphotography.com/blog to see recent work!

Here is a photo of the new underwater breathing system:

Photo courtesy of Aquatica's Website

Aquatica has been very helpful so far helping me design the perfect system.  Jean Bruneau, Aquatica's Technical Advisor has given me LOTS of advice and also asked me and any others interesetd to submit an email requesting the development team at Aquatica to BUILD A UNDERWATER HOUSING for the pocket wizard.   Crazy idea eh?  I'd love to play with this, although radio doesnt work super well underwater, I have had some success using this system in a makeshift housing triggering from above water.

In addition, Ikelite has also been very helpful with answering questions!

Expect some fresh new stuff from del Sol this upcoming year, count on it!

Saludos

Mateo

has recently given a workshop "Breaking out of the traditional mould" and I was really drooling over some of his creative stuff from these sessions... Just awesome work.    I'm sorry I don't have any technical info as I've just seen this stuff and had to post it.  If I know Jaco though, he will be quick to send us some of his background info on these technical shots to help break down the construction of the lighting plan.

Great work amigo. 

UPDATE**  here is a setup shot of the fire image.... too cool!

Thanks for being a source of inspiration amigo!

matt

In addition,  we would like to seriously thank the experts at Photoshop User, Kelby Online Training , Lightroom Killer Tips  and Layers Magazine.

Cheers Dave!

mateo

We feel pretty lucky to bring the Cenote scene to the professional photography market and even more lucky that our brides are willing to take the plunge in their wedding dresses.

As original as we would like to keep this concept, it was just bound to explode and I must say, we are seeing more and more photographers using these locations.   Recently,  I've spoken with John Michael Cooper, considered one of the primary pioneers of the Trash the Dress movement, who told me he was shooting in a cenote location.... can't wait to see that stuff!   Hopefully he can make an appearance here.

I found a shot recently from Patrick Pike, Yosemite Photographer.  Patrick actually went on vacation there and found a model for this session.  This frame really stands out to me.

Patrick writes:

1/15 sec
f 4.5
1600 iso
22mm
5dII

For this shot, she the model was heavily back lit by the sun.  There is a flash on a stand camera left with a 3/4 CTO gel probably about 20 feet away from the model.  I am using the new Pocket Wizards, so I have no idea how much power was used, but it wasn't much.  Most of the light in the cenote was pouring through the roof, I just wanted to fill her in a bit.  I was handholding the camera and taking advantage of the 5dII's low noise to bring out the form of the cave.  The image is also flipped in post but thats about it, the photo was there.

Visit Patrick Pike's blog to see more stuff!

We are looking for a personal assistant to help us with flash, bag holding, and possibly some shooting during the ceremony.   Is there anybody out there in the Boston area (Lyman Estate) who is willing to help?    The wedding is a 7 hour contract, we will likely be shooting from 1pm - 8pm.   Send your info to matt[at]mattadcock.com.

2nd Event we just picked up,  just north of Birmingham Alabama on August 8th. We are looking for 2 assistants for this date.   1 shooter and 1 personal assistant.   The event has 500+ people and a zillion people in the bridal party.   Due to the size and scope of this event, help is needed.   I'd prefer to get help from shooters who live in Alabama, if possible.    We would love to see your portfolio if you want to help us out as the 2nd shooter, please send your folio and inquiry to matt[at]mattadcock.com.

I was going through a folio the other day from our Associate photographer, Vincent.   This image stood out as one that really had me going back for a 2nd look.   I really don't know what he did to get this effect, other than use 1.2 with his super fast 85L.     I find that sometimes, we get bokah from odd places, such as a foreground element that simply causes blur around its edges.   So basically, framing something in the background through a small hole of other foreground elements, can blur the edges and make a dreamy look.... Have a look and let me know what you think...

Flash settings:  1/64 power, SB-28.    5d  ISO 1250 1/100th at 1.2    Flash is camera left.    I'm always looking for a dreamy technique...  Try this one, blending an element of the foreground in with your background... the blur and ethereal look is quite sexy...

Cool shot Vincent.... thanks for the awesome effort here to make a dynamic image.

Any takers for the assisting jobs, please let me know :)

I've been so spoiled with beach weddings that I actually went 6 WHOLE months without shooting a church ceremony!   Wow, how refreshing it is not to worry about the NAZI church coordinators and the organists who won't let you stand on the conductor platform (even though he ain't there) etc.    After starting my career in Atlanta and covering more than 100 weddings in churches, I empathize with all togs who are forced to do this week in after week out.   Not to mention, most churches are dungeons and back in the PRE D3 and 5d II days,  ISO 1250 and FAST GLASS was the only way.

Well, I wanted to send a shout out to all my Atlanta buddies who shoot the "normal" wedding environment on a more regular basis.  On May 9th, I was with a few members of the del Sol team and we delivered one seriously awesome folio.   I am so lucky that my first wedding back in the USA in 6 whole months was at the Swan House, at the Atlanta History Center.    This place is awesome... not to mention the serious budget behind this awesome wedding.

We used just about every technique in the book with our flash system to get very dynamic results.  Cathi & Vincent helped me make this wedding happen...thanks amigos.    Vincent was using off camera flash while also using an on camera flash for fill while I never use an on camera flash and try to go for the more edgy look with my frames.  Together, the folio I'm linking  here is totally worth watching.  Keep in mind I had 3 shooters (including myself) and each of them is capable of shooting their own wedding without me!  

I feel like we really connected with the client's expectations and am very very happy with the final results.   Check the slideshow out here!

We used Video lights (2 powerful ones that the videographers were using) and also lots of flash mix.  We even used lots of just straight ambient.   Lots of flashflavor used with a snoot, Sb-28 set to 1/64th power, and sometimes even using 1 stop Neutral Density filter to tone the down the 1/64th power to 1/128th or maybe even 1/256th power, all because of the higher ISO power of the 5d II.   Here are a few favs...

First dance shots:  I always time to pull out the stops and get as many different uses out of my lighting setup as possible.  In this instance,  we had 2 very powerful video lights being used by 2 different videographers.  My flash is directly behind the couple, set to low power.  The video light coming from my left hand side is my best friend in this case.   The other video light is behind the bride, adding another element of depth to the frame.  With the use of the 3 lights plus making sure that the ambient had a very strong presence, we are able to communicate mood and ambiance.

Video light only.  In this case, there are 2.  One to the camera left and the flare or backlight is giving me the warm glow.   I find this something I've only known with my fast primes.  Vincent shot this one with the 85 at 1.4.

quick off camera flash moment, definitely a little hot, but as soon as I did this, the person became aware of my action and tried to clean the shoes off... cool detail though.

How do you get that one photo that has B&G but also has a zillion guests but you dont see them because of how the image was framed and lit?    I dont really know how... I wandered around from the opposite side for this keylight.  I used the 85 at 1.8 at 1/160th to get this look, ISO IOOO.

Video light again saved the day with the front light seen here in the photo.  This is also the answer to isolate the client against the others, if the light has a barn door or a snoot, for sure the way to get this look.   The flash is added behind the couple for offset them even further from the background.

Flash with Red Gel under the car, LOTS of ambient ISO 5000 F1.6 at 1/30th

Hope you had fun looking at these....  let me know what you think of the slideshow :)

cheers!
matt

This one is pretty simple because you have the total choice on how you want to shoot this setup.   I chose to add color in my example because the background and other ambient colors presented themselves.   I honestly believe either shot will make a great album photo, or a super folio shot for that vendor.  

In addition to adding some flashflavor, I'd like to talk about the super high performance of the 5d II at HIGH ISO.   I love shooting with my big monster heavy 85 1.2 at wedding receptions.  Back in the Old 5d days (we still use them and love them) I could only get away with 1250 ISO as a max and still loved that paired with the 85 1.2 glass.    Well smack me silly when you can shoot at 4000 ISO and at a safe 1/200th of a second.    The 85 can be very hard to get great focus and you always jeopardize sharpness with slower shutters, 1/60th - 1/125th.    

both images were shot at ISO 4000  F1.8 at 1/200.  The first one shot IN JPG mode, at 2800k.  NO FF Value.

The 2nd image was shot at exactly the same settings but with a purple gel on an SB-28 Strobe triggered by PW set to 1/32 power.  I shot this using the 5d's AUTO WB setting.  

I hope this can throw another idea in your toolbox with the cake table....  If we want to keep shooting weddings....we must keep shooting the cake, eh?

Cheers!
matt

This one gets a Flashflavor SB-28 at 1/64th power on a monopod.    Funny thing, the top of the cake was at eye level.   I pulled the reach out as high as I can technique holding the strap with the opposite hand and eyeballing the back of the camera to try to get it as level as possible.  I was shooting with a 35mm at F2.2, so the depth of field is kinda short.   These so called "cake topper" shots sometimes actually end up being a nice folio filler.   In this case, I'm not sure what to say.  If you weren't a perv and didnt see phallic things appearing out of nowhere, then this is a nice flower pattern with a few roses :)

I couldnt see what was on top because it was at my eye level..... oh well..

Cheers and hope you had some smiles today :)

matt

I scratch my head and focus in on the only other guy in the room at the moment using flashflavor other than my assistant...Wait a minute,   Here is My groom from 3 years ago! He leans in and goes on about classes that both of them are taking and how he loves going everywhere using the slave setup.   WOW, way to go guys!   I never got a chance to scan his photos, hopefully he will send me a link when he finishs editing.

Good to see Matt & Alysia again....  I never knew FF was that addictive! 

Here is the recent shoot with my client setting up some off camera action:

3 years before his addition

Cheers Amigos,  Glad you are addicted :)

Mateo

Regardless, we are keeping our heads above water here, just looking for a little help from some FF homies.   Sol is looking for possibly 2 helpers for her wedding on Friday June 12, 2009, in Calgary.  Not sure what church or where at this moment, but we do know that the plan has quickly evolved and this is our next step, looking for help.   Any 2nd shooters available there?  Anybody know of anyone?  We are looking for a 2nd shooter, preferably using their own equip, Canon preferred.  Prime shooter preferred but beggars can't be choosers :)  Also, Sol is looking for a personal assistant who will assist with aiming a flash, carrying a bag and some lenses.  

If anyone is interested, please send us an email to info at delsolphotography.com.

Recently, Sol shot a few awesome FF images.  She is such a genius at disguising the flash, next to the contrast of the hot sunlight.  I don't have her specs on these images at the moment as I am traveling and she sent me these over email, resized and without EXIF data.  I'll post specs later...

She is pretty awesome at this technique and hopefully, with a little more exposure to the art, you can benefit from her processes :)

Here are a few more of her contributions to FF on this same subject in past.

FF Post 1

FF Post 2

Cheers & thanks for listening :)

mateo

Sol & I are exceptionally stoked and honestly elated to be selected for this list.   I've drooled over and studied the work of these same photographers.  Its really an honor to be listed with them.  Lots of inspiration shopping by visiting these sites.   I promise, before your next wedding, go through an entire folio on one of these togs sites... Don't pull any stalker freakness... but do get the feel for the vision. 

Since this blog is somewhat a motivational blog to train my competition, Its important to know we should always keep an open mind and be humble behind the camera.    I'm constantly motivated and inspired by those around me....especially this list.   Special thank you to Jack, the online blog author for the article and the entire staff at Pop Photo and American Photo Mag.  Also, special thank you to the nominating staff for sending props to del Sol....

today or tomorrow or sometime soon, pay some attention to these awesome togs...

brettbutterstein.com

heatherwaraksa.com

annhamilton.com

jasmine-star.com

briandorseystudios.com

amydeputyphotography.com

f8studio.com  (3 awesome togs) Huy, Gary and Kym, previously seen on FF

aperturaphoto.com (2 superb shooters) Erwin & Ray, previously seen on FF

kuperbergweddings.com  (Anna, previously seen on FF)

HOLY Cow...  I'm sorta in a bind because I'm short a hand or two hands on May 16th 2009 in Atlanta.  We have been CRAZY busy in the middle of high season in mexico and all my shooters are either on other jobs or attending weddings as guests.

My studio actually has 2 different weddings  on May 16 in ATL.  Anybody interested out there who is near the area?  I really prefer no to have folks travel in because there I really can't pay travel expenses.    I'm needing a good 2nd shooter for 2 events, so jobs are plentiful.  250 guests at each event, 8 hours of coverage for my wedding and 7 hours of coverage for Melissa's wedding.

I will be the lead photographer for one wedding and Melissa, our Atlanta del Sol Associate is covering an event as well.   She has been the longest del Sol Associate.  Her wedding is 7 hours.

Any takers?  PLEASE?   If you want to contact me, send me an email to matt[at]mattadcock.com por favor.   Be sure to send me any links to your folios and contact info, por favor.  These are paying jobs.  I'm likely going to recieve some responses so please give me some time to get back with you.

Your not going to believe the wedding that I just shot a few weeks ago.... The wedding took place at a Hacienda outside Campeche, cerca 1700.   The property is by far, the most mind blowing stunning wedding site I've ever laid my eyeballs on....  OK, here is some FF.   Very traditional shot here, just mixed it up with colors.    The groom is a lighting designer and works on giant commercial projects... he took no time off planing one of the most KICK ASS design for this property.  Slideshow coming soon.... I'll post it here soon when I get finished editing.

This shot is traditional, not our typical style of shot, but every once in a while, its ok to just take a boring traditional shot, just make sure you challenge yourself technically.   All we did was gel our speelight with 1/4 CTO and set to 1/16 power.  These colors literally melt the pixels and can present a challenge to work with.  The flash can always be dialed in as a "safe" light, always there to save the day.

Shot at 1/30th with my new 24mm T&S (not tilting or shifting though) at f4.0, ISO 800 Canon 5d

Look how insane this location is.  This chapel has no roof and is more than 400 years old...kinda cool.  Shot by our Associate in Mexico, Vincent.   NO FF value, sorry.

Let me know if you have any ideas for shooters for me for may 16th.
Cheers,

matt

We will be investing in primes since we have all the desired zoom ranges currently made by canon that fit with our shooting....  15, 24 t/s, 35, 50, 85 are currently in the toolbox.    We have been thinking heavily on a few and thought it may be nice to hear feedback from any readers about their personal fav's and why.   

Because business is good :) we will be planning on pretty substantial gear purchases in the future.   The 24 1.4, 135 2.0 are primes we have been seriously considering, to round out the group.   Some fantasy lenses we have been considering lately are the new Tilt and Shift lenses coming out in May, 2009 from Canon.   The 17mm looks crazy?   I'm thinking how  nice it would be to shoot 17mm as a prime lens...and then the lens twists sideways for dramatic focal plane manipulation....wow, too crazy.

By the way... I'd like to recommend a pretty honest review site that I've been exploring recently and if you ever want to see go check out Canon's lenses and some photo examples, do check out the digital-picture.com

recent shots with the T&S, not flashflavor material but for the sake of discussion, who cares.

I shot this one witht the 24 tilt and shifty shifty....

this one is kinda shifty too....shot with the 24.  

and here is one just added, Sol's T&S flashflavor...

Ok, now imagine the 17 mm tilt & shift ($2500)..... how crazy is that?

Anybody got eyes for a 135 2.0? 

or how about the middle range tilt and shift lenses?   The 45 or the 90?  Anybody have any good stuff with those?  Anybody know any links to some good shooters who use them and post them alot?

Ok, sorry to get off topic.... thanks for listening....

Thanks to a FF reader, today I was directed to a writeup in the USA Today about the emerging FLASH photography industry.  Flashflavor gets props in the article as one of the contributors to the growth with the flash craze.... I'm honored to be listed among these awesome artists and innovators within the industry.

Definitely read the full article

I believe now is one of the most exciting times to be a photographer as the development of digital photography seems to be getting better and better with HUGE sensors, outstanding optics,  and flashes blazing.   At any given moment a photographer of any skill set (including myself) can launch a site or forum where the answer to their questions WILL be.   Its only a matter of time before we are inundated with ideas and solutions where 10 minutes before, I was scratching my head.

If that lame guy from flashflavor would only WRITE more eh?   Sorry FF readers...i'll keep in touch, promise :)

These places are recommended visits from the article:

Strobist
Joe McNally
Pixsylated
Digital Pro Talk

CHEERS!
mateo

Those that know us hang in there, we are still here and also working on a new project blog for del Sol Photography.   This site has been a major drain on free time with all the development and data gathering, writing, idea brainstorms...etc... lots been happening and we aren't getting any slower with production.

We are planning on bringing an actual wedding in one of these crazy environments.   We are shooting our first one on April 27th.   We may run a few video cameras and hope to come up with some exotic footage....coming soon!  Ok, here are a few recent FF del Sol happy images:

Photo Credit Sol Tamargo.   Shot with a 1/4 power blast from the Slave Speedlight.   Camera set to 1/200 at 2.2.   Down light is all natural.  Shot this one with the 5d II.    Anybody shooting this camera and liking it?   Anybody out there shooting 5d II JPEG's?     I'd love to have a convo with you if so!

I'll be in touch soon hopefully with a new blog for del SOL!!!!!

cheers,

mateo

This is my FAV... You will notice the shot the magazine used was slightly different, without the flare.   I figured I would put the shot in with the flare because it seems more sexy to me.  We actually used the groom in the background as the flash operator.   In order to keep our flashes dry in the hostile environment, we put them in underwater housings made for our video camera.   The housings are big enough to hold our PW transmitters, Battery Packs, and the Sb-28.   This flash was set to 1/4 power.

Cheers!
matt

I was visiting Digital Pro Talk a bit back and did a ff post on David Ziser "tricking the sync speed".

Here is Sol's version of this technique...I'm loving the light here..

Shot at ISO 100 F6.3  at 1/400.  Canon 5d max sync is 1/200.  Full power SB-28 PW Triggered slave, 1/2 CTO Gel on slave.

This one is was shot at 1/200, no tricking here.   BUT, its still a nice FF shot.   Shot at 1/2 power with a modified snoot, 1/2 CTO gel.

This one was shot without flash at all....  ISO 50.  1/8000 at 1.2.   WOAH, sexy DOF.

She hopes this was inspiration for you all this week!

Great stuff as always Sol!  
Cheers!
matt

A few years ago, I was inspired to get my camera UP IN THE AIR to get a different look.  Recently, I ran into Jeff from Trident Photography while speaking in Playa del Carmen at the PPOC-A.

Jeff had replicated my idea with his own twist.   Color flavor always makes a change from the ordinary... Anybody else trying to add color to the floor to enhance the depth of the shot, adding some drama?  I'd love to see it? 

Jeff Writes:
I told my assistant about the shot that I wanted to get, with the bride and groom silohuetted against the reflection on the floor, so I sent him to the second level balcony to shoot it.  All I told him was to keep the shutter up around 200 to knock down the ambient, and make sure that he got them head to toe without me in the photo.  He chimped 2 frames, and shot it at ISO 640 and F2.8 to get the result.  I had the 550EX flash on a PW with a red gel, set to 1/16 power since I knew the reflection off the light hardwoods would be pretty bright.  In addition to keeping the power low, I also zoomed in the head to control the spill from the flash.  Then I made sure to aim the flash at a place on the floor a couple feet in from of the couple in order to center the reflection off the floor with the camera.
 

Cool result amigo!

Cheers!
matt

I just used this as a quick way to execute a shot when on the run, walking around the building to get just about every photo along the way.  I shot these guys from many different angles, using the available theatrical lighting in the venue...we got some pretty beautiful stuff, for sure.

This spot is a massive cenote, dug out by Xcaret theme park, in Playa del Carmen Mexico.   We have some pretty lavish receptions here and its always exciting to see the spectacle each return!

this one from with a little soft bounce from the rock wall of this huge CAVE... Earthen rock wall bounced, the colors take the tone of the warmth around them.

This one has no real Flashflavor value... just another shot of these amigos...

Cheers!

matt

Thanks PPOCA for your hospitality.   The Cava Brothers also spoke for this crew.  Do take a spin around their website...commercial section is way tight...their pretty much spot on in all genres and give workshops of their awesome craft!

We had a short talk and a demo session and a hotel party session afterwards with a few tequilas and some good times!   I met many very talented and successful photographers from Canada and we all were able to share and learn / ask questions together.  Everybody was very positive and the learning environment . Thanks for the hang time amigos!

*Special thanks to Kim & Lynn at Studio 9 Photographers for helping organize this and their assistant for volunteering to model for us, GRACIAS!

**Disclaimer**  I have been posting wedding related content / engagement content on FF up to this point.  I still plan on doing so.... If I have material that I'm teaching, its just easier to post it here :)  My apologies about the drift in content...

My demo emphasized a very LIGHT equipment load, enough to fit in a tiny Canon 200 EG backpack and work some model lighting on the FLY, at the dusk hours...

Using low power strobe and shooting JPG on the 5d Mark II, we gelled the flash tungsten 1/2 CTO, and switched our white balance to tungsten.  The two cancel out each other on the skin tone but the sky goes BLUE crazy.   Results may very in different atmospheric conditions or with different gel brands and different amounts of CTO...there is  no real right answer.   We also shot a LOT with a flash not gelled and camera set to AWB.  Remote flash units triggered using Pocket Wizards.

Photo on left: 2 flash units. Model 1/4 power,light not gelled, Camera AWB, back flash gelled 1/1 CTO, 1/2 power.

Photo on right side shot with1 flash unit,1/32 power with subject walking.  Camera set to AWB.  No gel on flash.

Auto white balance handles the color of the background very well, going with the warm look.  On the right, 1/2CTO gel on flash, camera WB set to Tungsten.  Blue Sky Effect.

Video light from the front (1/2 CTB gel) , Background flash (no gel) set to 1/4 power. Camera set to AWB.  Flash gives a sculpting keylight on hair and the edge of her body... ISO 320 1/200th 2.5

Video light (1/2CTB Gel) coming from Camera Right to light model.  Flash (no gel) set on 1/32 power, triggered from 9-11 feet from the model.  ISO 320  1/100th 1.4.

SALUDOS!

Cheers & thanks again for hanging out..
matt

Ok,  so we are in the midst of developing a new blogsite / website / new FACE for del Sol Photography.    One of the elements we are working on is a new slideshow format.   This slideshow is going to be integrated / embedded into our blog posts and have the ability to go FULL screen.

One of the issues we are dealing with is the fact that there are many platforms out there (Windows & Mac) and several browsers that are being used to surf on through to the other side.

We REALLY need your help to let us know if this slideshow loads on your computer(especially PC).     I don't just mean the first ten photos.... Please, load this thing and let it play, the whole thing... even if you have to put it in the background and surf other things...  Sol has introduced some sound in her slideshow... you can MUTE it by clicking on the speaker icon in the upper left hand side of the screen.

We honestly need your help here, please, give us feedback.   ESPECIALLY if you are on PC and are experiencing problems.   We want to hear about it.   How many photos were you able to download on your slideshow if you actually tried to watch this show???/  What browser are you using?  What platform?

Please provide a comment and let us know...especially you PC folks.   

This is Sol's best of 2008 slideshow.... Her work is amazing...just WOW WOW WOW!    But, we would like to know if you were actually able to see it all?   So instead of just clicking the link and enjoying, please actually let us know with a comment that the slideshow WORKED or DIDNT work on your machine....It means more to us than you can actually know!

Sol's Best of 2008 Slideshow

you can also say HOLA Sol and give her props on the photos, if you wish :) her work is THE BOMB....this girl is on fire!!!

Here are a few of her fav's for 2008.

Your help is greatly appreciated!!!     Seriously, more than you know!

Cheers,

matt & sol

Well, for us we get a lot of help from ShootQ!  We shoot a ton of weddings every year and honestly, couldnt survive without these guys. Studio management software at its best...

I just wanted to send a shout out to my buds over at Q because they have worked SO hard on the newer version 2.0.  Originally from the team at LaCour, Q is a software management system that helps the business roll with the punches...

They are ON TOP of the game too..I was experiencing a problem the other day as I was trying to change some settings.  As i'm trying to make a change and getting errors, I get an email from one of their programmers.   "Hey guys, we are watching the code and are getting an error message and wanted to see how we can help".... These cats were LIVE watching me screw up their code and had a fix for my problem before I really figured out what was happening!   They have an awesome support system too, easy to set up support ticket system so called the "Genius" section.

Anyway, today they are finally opening up slots for new members and we highly recommend you take them up on the offer to climb aboard.
Contact them and tell them that del Sol recommended em :)

By the way... LaCour has contributed a few beauties to flashflavor in the past...

This one from Mark Adams:

Be sure to follow his motivation behind this awesome shot here: Beach ceremony at NIGHT

This one from Andrew Niesen:

Check out how LaCour connects with their clients through their branding and read Andrew's thoughts on the shot here: Strictly Ballroom

Cheers!
matt

Cameron writes:

This photo was made with flash flavor in mind.  As I recall the groom's brother jumped up during dinner unexpectedly... so we dropped our forks, busted out the fasted solution, the Canon ST-E2 transmitter and one 580EX flash on E-TTL slave... I do use Pocket Wizards but this was an "in a pinch" moment and the PW weren't plugged and tested, so I went for what I knew I could pull off FAST. My business partner and expert lighting tech, Jamelle Kelly, was working the Canon 580EX on a mono pod for me. She set the flash to slave and I put my 70-200mm f2.8 on my Canon Mark II 1D.  I love to shoot toasting and dancing with the long lens so I am a bit more stealth. 

I was cursing the fact that the bride and groom were so close to the wall during their toasting because I was getting nasty shadows at almost every angle, then suddenly I thought, "USE IT: Flash Flavor, baby!"   Jamelle was standing on the opposite side of the groom's brother in a direct line to the B&G. She drilled the brother's shadow on the wall and also threw a little light onto the couple.  What I love is that the canon system read all this E-TTL (though the lens). I do believe Jamelle had to adjust the flash up to +1 stops to give it more punch. What really made this work was getting the light at the correct angle on the bride and groom so THEIR shadow was NOT on the wall. Also by using a long lens to "compress" the final image and of course snapping a bunch of frames to get the mic and paper in the shadow. I have a lot of frames without the mic and paper and it just doesn't read as well.  This shot was made at 1/15 sec at f3.2,  ISO 400 at 155mm.

little tip:  make sure you and your flash assistant have some signals that you can throw across the room (think baseball style) and still get the shot in less than a minute.  You need a CYA (cover your A$*) plan and the Flash Flavor plan.  I think the reason people fail to try new things is they are too concerned they might not get the safe shot..so get your safe shot, AND try something new. To pull this stuff off, you need precision, teamwork, GREAT communication and a little luck. Kudos to Jamelle and thanks to Joni and James, my lovely bride and groom. 

I'm down with this, great to see your awesome contribution to FF AMIGA!!!!

Cheers!
matt

I have used less of my flash at higher powers and have had a great time using Neutral Density gels to even lower the power of my slave flashes, thus shooting at 1/256 power on an Sb-28.   I've picked up video lights and been grateful when I'm at weddings where videographers are actually using them where as in the past, I loathed them for using these lights.

I hope these images can be some motivation for you. Flashflavor has been a might part of the efforts and I felt like this slideshow belonged here.

Enjoy :)

OH, to my brides... i had many many more fav's from each event but needed to organize this down to under 200 to keep the interest from folks....  I picked from over 40 weddings and a dozen or so of TTD sessions to get this mix... hope u like :)

Slideshow of Matt's FAVS for 2008

*This slideshow is really in a beta testing format.  Full screen isnt 100% recommended at this point on monitors bigger than 20 inches.   BUT, if you feel the need to give me some feedback if you experience any problems, please do.  Give me your user platform (mac or pc) and the infro from your browser type....firefox, IE, netscape, etc... be sure to provide the version Number :)

a few FF fav's from 2008.

*the first image was inspired by my friend Kym Skiles

CHEERS!
matt

Al Cielo Hotel from matt adcock on Vimeo.

I wanted to show a few more frames that I really loved.... maybe coming soon.  We are headed South on 12/17 to Chiapas Mexico and Palenque for our anniversary trip.

Technically, this kind of session really can push the equipment to the total risk.   We ended up tossing a Pocket Wizard Multi Max in the drink on this session.   I never really liked that Max, too many buttons to push on the front.   I'd find myself shooting and having brushed against it.  Just a few clicks can get you back to real life, but sometimes those clicks on the Max aren't too fun when time is flying by. 

Here is my strobe underwater, shot with an overexposure of 2 stops.  The flash was set to 1/4 power in this frame.  Housing max depth 12-15 inches.  Magenta Gel on flash.

*wanna learn how to light like this?   Read www.strobist.com

Gracias to Rodrigo for his sacrifices here.

Some of my favorites:

I took the flash out of the water.  Rodrigo aimed the flash at the ceiling.  From this perspective, the reflection of the blue is WICKED.

Sol Tamargo had mixed in another strobe in the background, gelled RED.  This room was so big that we actually had the flash set up around 30 feet away, in another open area in a back room. 

With our hot lights on her and the humidity underground, Standing in this location elevates the core temperature, big time.

This one really lets you understand hot "steamy" the groom was for the bride... they went to 65 degree water.  Look at this steam coming off him as they were waist deep in water.

Lastly, Sol finishes this off with more red / blue sexy mix.... I love the reflections.

THANKS for stopping by.  Inspired by this, please tell us your comments. 

Cheers,

matt

I wanted to post this photo for my readers who stop by from time to time and see if you can figure out what I did here. I have a very clever idea for executing this technique and want to see if anybody can come up with something similar.

Anyway, here is a subject lit with a few hot light sources. The water is lit with strobe. Any ideas as to how I got these results? I was shooting a TTD in a dark dark cave with lots of water :)

She has done very well capturing motion or the sense of motion which directly puts the viewer in the seat of the action.   How much motion have you been shooting lately?   I found myself getting a little crazy with motion and using flash so I wanted to add a little shot to my motion post as well.

ISO 1000  1/50th at 2.8  

Sol shot this one with a little lens barrel effect.

ISO 100 1/40th 2.8

I shot this one on Saturday, 11/8/08.  I liked SO many from this wedding that I decided to send them to the hotel yesterday...  Besides the hotel manager, you will be the first to see this photo.  We will finish the editing on this wedding over the next 3-4 weeks... more to come!

ISO 500 2.2 at 1/25th.   The flash and subtle camera movement combine together well.  They look like they are floating almost.

Hope these inspire you to move your camera, zoom your lens, run around, do something fun with the camera and flash when shooting to emphasize movement!

cheers,

matt

David makes use of this by filling that black stripe with ambient and highlighting just a certain part of the subject that still remains in the lit part of the frame's upper to mid half.... COOL TRICK MAN!


Also, Strobist featured this and has a few tid-bits to add, so check out David Hobby's article too!


Thanks for the great advice amigos!
Enjoy!

Mateo

NO FF value, but smile value is 100%. I didnt manipulte this at all :)

OK, howsa bout a little FF motivation :)

Do you ever feel stale or tired of doing the same ol' thing at your weddings? Welcome to the club! Often, I am constantly challenging myself to figure out how I can make my imagery more dynamic. How can I tweak my lighting? What special twist can I add to the frame to enhance the overall message I am trying to communicate? These are questions that I constantly ask myself. If you are seeking growth or are just looking for a few ideas, I think this FF post will help you out!

I'd like to talk a little bit about balancing ambient light in a reception environment. First thing you must consider is that it is your GOAL to tell the story and communicate not only the actions and sequences of the wedding day or reception, but a clear idea on the mood and ambiance.

With off camera flash lighting, its too easy to let it get out of hand and light up the entire world, especially if you are using bounce flash carelessly. Recently, I made a HUGE effort to try and make sure that I captured an event with the most subtle mix of strobe and ambient that it would give my client an exact remembrance of the ambiance. This is a challenge as all reception rooms are different and every event can present you with new challenges... big bands bring big lights.... ambient can sometimes be turned WAY down, or WAY up or WAY orange or RED....etc.

At this event, I found that shooting with a few primes and adding a subtle bounce gave me just the desired look. As you are evaluating these frames, really give it some time and visualize this room.

ISO 400 1/200 @ 1.4 NO FLASH, ambient only. This shot is provided to show the setup of the room. There were 90 guests. Ambient light fixtures on ceiling pumping out a little tungsten color. Band lights with par can's providing red, orange, yellow gelled lights. BIG band, 10 members.

ISO 400 1/125 @ 1.4 I used a Nikon Speedlight on a stand with a very low power bounce flash, 1/32 power. I made sure to position the bounce setup so that it would highlight an area of the dance floor and I could increase my ISO if I needed the flash to travel more distance. I also left myself with the ability to drag the shutter to give the bounce light a boost if I needed more distance. My advice is to figure out these equations with a little trial and error. You will be surprised how easy it can be. Overall, I made sure NOT to blow out the room and let the ambient in the distance fall 1 or 2 stops under the foreground exposure.

Here is a photo using the same lighting setup, just from the opposite side of the room. You can see the small dispersion of bounce flash in the reflection of the glass. The light is located on a stand just behind the musicians lights to camera left.

ISO 500 1/200 @ 1.8 Here the strobe isnt adding much but it is making a small statement. The band's lights were very HOT and they provided me with most of the exposure seen here. There is a nice highlight on the toasting hand of the maid of honor and a highlight on the edge of B&G. This frame mostly shows the setup position of the camera position in the above photo example.

Here is one more from a different angle slightly closer to the strobe as you can start to see shadows.

ISO 400 1/100 @ 2.2 I was able to freeze action here but think that I could have made a slight adjustment in the flash's position as the flash head is so close that there was a little direct spill, causing the few shadows seen on the girls. Not alarming, but a slight technical flaw.

I hope that this helps you with a little motivation to make sure you are capturing the Mood and Ambiance at your events as your clients remembered them. Are you blasting flash all over the place? probably shouldn't do that...

Next post is going to be from the SAME wedding... VIDEO LIGHT Flavor... coming soon!

Cheers!
matt

If you have any snazzy lit detail shots and are proud to share the inspiration with us, please send it to me.  Link to my "contact" page on the Nav bar to get me. 850ish wide with your branding.  I'd like to build a series of posts with lots of killer idears.... so please contribute.

My friends Ed & Monica recently were talking about adding a flash flavor to their detail shots. This is a technique that i highly recommend you plug in and try every once in a while. We really enjoy adding colors or streaks of light to our detail shots. Just to change up your normal routine every wedding, do something crazy or set up a science project on the subject...watching that volcano spew can be really exciting.

Ed & Monica have previously contributed to FF. Thank you for your suport!

Also read "flash flavor formals"& one of my fav's, "deleting the ambient"

Also read this article about FF details that I published a bit back...."shoot the cake"

Ed writes:

When shooting FF-style weddings, don't just limit yourself to the couple or the bridal party. Flash flavor applies to anything... seriously, ANYTHING. What we like to do is cover the details with our "safe shots." shoot it how you normally shoot details. as soon as you're done, start playing.

We''ll place the strobes anywhere and angle it in ways we've never done before... basically, we experiment...and if we get a shot, cool! and if not, that's cool too because we'll know what not to do next time. It only increases your chances of getting cool and unexpected images. we even surprise ourselves sometimes. =)


//ed pingol
edpingol.blogspot.com

============================================

Take this shoe shot. we placed it on this cool chandelier hanging in the kitchen. It was peculiar-looking plus the mom was like, "what are you guys doing?" LOL! the background was a mess, people were running back and forth, and if you shot it straight, it would definitely be a "throw away." So we shot from a low angle where everything was clear of any mess and we back lit it. same situation with the dress below.

Cakes are particularly shot "normally." sure, it looks nice with a lot of shallow depth of field (of course, everything looks good with a shallow depth of field). But when you look at most of the photographers out there, they normally settle on shooting it straight or maybe shooting down on it with a tilt, to be more creative. Why not add some "flava" to the cake? light it up and shoot low. Include the flare..why not? Anything and everything goes. If you like it, then SWEET! if most people like it and some hate it, then you're on the right track. Why? Because that means you're creating a niche with how you shoot details. This will make you stand out from other photographers. Believe me, it's a good thing.

Cheers & thanks for these images ED & Monica! They sent me so many detail shots that i figured that I woluld bring you a VOL 2 detial set from them both.... Thank you for your contribtion again amigos!

mateo

Basically, these guys regurgitated ALL they knew and my pen was non-stop writing. JVS had some interesting ideas and concepts that especially stood out to me. Up to that point, I was using flash off camera but just not really having a clue how to control light whatsoever. He showed a few slideshows and let us in on some of his flash lighting tricks. I remember thinking that I couldn't wait to RUN to my next wedding armed and firing away with some new inspiration.

HAD that workshop been about flash ONLY, holy sheesh... I would have wet myself! Since that time, I have been constantly checking the updates and imagery from JVS and was so suprised to see his recent announcement. This guy will teach you how to find the HOLY GRAIL of flash lighting essentials, especially for those wedding photographers who work with small strobes. Details on his off camera flash workshop at the bottom of this post!

He likes to work as lightweight as possible and has a killer eye. Jump on his website real quick to see what I'm talking about, if you haven't already seen his stuff. BOOKMARK it!

JVS gave me these few images for this FF post...

The bridal was lit with a 580EX II, focused with a homemade foam snoot and tripped with a MultiMAX.

I have always LOVED this shot of his....Have you ever wondered how to make a nice groom portrait?

Old-school and classic, the groom portrait was lit with a 550EX, focused...yep with a homemade snoot, and tripped with the original 16 channel Pocket Wizard (black case model).
I’ve been using and refining my small strobe technique's for close to 15 years and will be sharing this knowledge at our 2 Day Workshop.

Check out his flash blog at: www.offcameraflash.com

His workshop link: 2 day workshop

Date: Oct. 7-8
Location: Dallas, Texas
Who: JVS and Anne
Name: 2 Day Lighting and Portrait Workshop
What: Electronic flash in a portrait environment

This 2 Day Lighting and Portrait Workshop with JVS and Anne will take you
from being timid with strobes to understanding the ins and outs of lighting
techniques with small strobes and monolights.

Explore the world of light with JVS through multiple demonstrations and
hands-on learning. You will become familiar with using your own strobes,
multiple strobes and have the chance to use Alien Bees in studio and on
location.

Anne will help you breathe fresh air into your portraits by offering ideas
on how to control your portrait session with unique results.

JVS and Anne are excited to have several awesome Workshop sponsors!

For more information please visit http://www.jvspictures.com/2day

***In addition, we plan to take our Workshops on the road in 2009 and we’re currently looking for hosts. If you’d like to host a Workshop, please email 2day@offcameraflash.com

I first gazed at the creative vision of fellow light master, John Michael Cooper.  I met up with John at the Vegas get together in the desert mountains where we was doing one of concept sessions. Jason Dominguez and I stood there watching him and really scratched our heads and let the creative juices start to flow.....

Thanks John for your time during this workshop! I really enjoyed watching you work!

My bud Jason Domingues was recently playing around with this technique... He told me that for some of these, he was shooting 100 frames.... he may only use 40-50 or so frames in post production.....picking and choosing the best as each frame gives another layer possibility... you can light whatever you want!

Thanks for the cool shots guys! I'm eager to go out there and try this one myself....i'm sure I'll botch it real good on my first try :)

Cheers!

matt

Jaco writes:

I had a real blast shooting these images. I like to combine video light with off camera flash. It gives me the ability to be so creative when it comes to lighting up my subjects. The video light is too weak to use in direct sun light. That is where the off camera flash comes in handy.
So why is off camera flash such a big buzz word these days? It has been around like forever. I personally think it is because now we are so portable that we can create stunning images using it very quickly and in places never seen before.
The main aim of off camera flash is to model the light so that the subject in the image becomes more 3D. Well that is the reason I use it. It adds a lot of drama and makes my wedding images a lot more dramatic. If you do it correctly you have so little postproduction on the images. The images are 95% done in camera

I shot this image using only video light from the side. The pier we were under had these blue lights shining down the side and I wanted to use that in the image. Using off camera flash was too powerful and overpowered some of the blue. That is why I decided to use only video light here. The image was shot with the Nikon D3. These cameras are truly amazing. I shot this hand held in the dark. I under exposed this shot by 2 stops so the blue would be prominent. It reminds me of a Star Wars Movie
Exif Info
Iso 5000
1/100
F 5.6

We also shot at this cave like opening. I noticed the wind blowing through it. I am always looking out for spots to use a veil and decided that this would be a cool place to use it. I also wanted to add some drama to the shot, so I added some flash flavor. I had 2 SB-800 speedlights that I fired via Skyports. One pointing at the front of the model and one pointing at the roof of the cave. I under exposed the shot by 2 stops to let the ambient go dark. Remember that your shutter needs to be slower than your camera sync speed to get a proper flash exposure. I played with this image in Photoshop to make it more moody.

Exif Info.
Iso 200
1/160
F 5.6

Thanks for taking the time to submit your killer imagery. I'm very inspired here amigo!

Jaco's blog featuring more TTD's

Are these images too big for your screen? My max size is 930 pixels wide... I figure since this blog is all about the image, then posting BIG juicy shots will have more impact.

Here is an example 930 image... Every year, Whale sharks migrate to the waters of the Riviera Maya for feeding on plankton. You can charter a tour and go swim with them. I took my underwater housing with me, fisheye equipped. Swimming my A$$ off, I snagged this shot.... this fish was 55 feet... his head was the size of a truck!

Feel free to post a comment, had some trouble before with spam....

Man, IM sorry for the lame-O break that I took on FF. On the redesign, the comment system was not working as I had wished and I was getting flooded with spam. In addition, I went to Costa Rica on my honeymoon for 18 days....wow, what an adventure that was. I'll be posting the video that I shot on the trip. For once, I did not shoot any still photos! I bought a hybrid HD vid camera and shot documentary footage the entire trip..... just wait :)

Here is a shot setup that I was in the middle of a few months back. Working at 12noon is tough and usually not advised. We pull out the strobes and blast away at close proximity and at full power. Not going to win any awards for this, but thought that I'd like to show a few images from the setup... also, shooting at high noon in the Riviera Maya is a great way to pull out some hot color of the ocean...

here is my results...

The shot is kinda cliche... but when you stick an airplane in there, u usually get better results :)

cheers!
mateo

Sol Tamargo was featured in this Ukrainian Magazine last month,opening image all about some Flavor! There are so many amazing photos throughout the whole magazine... I just wish I could read IT! The article features a few other photographers who have some amazing portfolios... Becker, Joe Buissink & Ken Sklute Congrats Sol!

Flash Flavor is open to submissions. Remember to keep the subject wedding or engagement couple friendly. I'm looking for something that I haven't done before or a twist on an ordinary technique. Does your photos Will your image WOW the masses? Send it to me! matt at mattadcock dot com. Gracias! mateo

adj. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size. When photographing a setting, it is the photographer / photojournalist’s duty to tell the complete story. Sometimes that requires the photo author to step back and see the big picture, incorporating the grand scale of the event in the frame. This sounds easy however one needs to make careful compositional decisions when shooting wide lenses.

How does the off camera flash come into this equation?

I also used this photograph in an acrylic collage on canvas, and you can see it in it's current state above.

Trash The Dress [flash http://www.delsolphotography.com/ttd/ttd1/ttd.flv w=700 h=600] ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:55:17 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/20 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/20 www.mattadcock.com | www.mattadcock.com/blog One day a few years ago, I was introduced to one of the most amazing destination wedding shooters ON THIS PLANET... see for yourself. www.soltamargo.com | www.soltamargo.com/blog. We have been hanging out a little and shooting in some craaazzy places... OH, I asked her to Marry ME :) We are having our legal ceremony on June 2. She lives in Playa del Carmen Mexico and we are operating a studio from there as well.... We decided that we could offer more dynamic wedding photography coverage as a team and came up with a cool little company, www.delsolphotography.com.... We both heavily are into using our speedlights... and totally love our jobs! so that is who we are :) Just a few wedding photographer strobe enthusiasts :) Please provide comments and give us a shout! Saludos! matt ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:55:00 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/22 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/22 ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:54:49 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/23 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/23 Folks, I would like you to understand that this technique can get old if you use it at EVERY single wedding... if it shows up in your portfolio every other second, you may get a labeled "cliche"... trust me, it has happened and you don't want to be cliche. Stick with original ideas....so try and use this technique cleverly... Here is another example where we decided to make a photograph to tell the story with a shadow instead of shooting the SAME OL same ol shot of the bride and groom eating the cake. We have all shot this sequence and every time I do it, I am always trying to do something different.... Our client chose this image for the album vs the (safe one) that we also shot :) be creative.... chase shadows.... make fun pictures :) Cheers! matt ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:54:36 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/27 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/27 My imagination takes me a few places when I look at this shot...are they thinking about having their own children as they watch her spinning by? Here is another one fun image from a first dance sequence. My assistant is operating the speedlight on a boom pole at 1/4 power. I waited for the little girl to skip her way underneath my light and fired off a few frames... The speedlight introduced into the frame adds a layered dimension as well. Here, we just finished shooting the father daughter dance and the same little girl gave us another killer moment in time. My assistant & soon to be wife, www.soltamargo.com timed this shot perfectly! This frame stands out to me because of the multiple layered subjects enhanced by the dynamic side light.. The added light was introduced from Sol's off camera speedlight operator at 1/8th power from floor level. My mind dreams up some cool fairytale thoughts here... Daddy's little girl flashes in front of his eyes.... GREAT SHOT SOL! Have fun with kids on the dance floor...throw in some light, make dynamic images :) Cheers, matt ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:54:03 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/32 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/32 If you are visiting a trade show in the US, Art Leather has a HUGE PANO print of this in one of their 11x14 montage art books as a sample. The print ended up rocking the house out. Here is another one from Cozumel. Sol Tamargo stepped back and gave us a super idea of the ambiance of the evening. I shot this one in the South of the Riviera Maya at the Palladium Resort. I had to walk a pretty good distance to find a bridge that gave me a higher prospective. Use the golden hour of beautiful light to showcase your setting. Add a little flash here or there to give your photo some EDGE. Experiment here. Shoot one with the flash and one without. This way, you give yourself options! Thoughts? Cheerios, Matt ]]> Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:53:43 EST Matt http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/36 http://flashflavor.com/blog/post/36 Today's post comes from an amazing team of photographers located in Atlanta Ga, LaCour Photography. I asked my friends to submit an image or two along with a dramatic story to go along with the theme of this blog, creative off camera lighting. Mark Adams has one killer image along with a unique story and tops it off by shooting in one of the most challenging of all shooting conditions: Beach Ceremony at night with NO available light.

Mark Adams writes:

When we were asked to photograph a small, intimate wedding ceremony at sunset in Laguna Beach, we expected beautiful California light. But a few hours before sunset, we learned that the minister's flight was delayed. The bride and groom made the decision to still have the ceremony on the beach at whatever time the minister arrived, which was definitely going to be after sunset. So we were presented with the challenge of photographing a beach ceremony at night with no available light.

Before becoming a wedding photographer, I worked for newspapers and magazines, shooting assignments all over the world. One of the things I had to get good at quickly was learning to adjust to any situation no matter what the challenges and no matter what the lighting conditions. As a news photographer, I simply had to make sure I came back with good pictures that documented the action without interfering or altering the mood. The problem with flash is that it can be a distraction, especially when you're photographing in complete darkness as we were. But in situations like this, there's not much you can do about that pop of bright white light. The ambient exposure was between 20-30 seconds. That doesn't work for capturing expressions on people's faces. But what we did do was simply minimize the amount of flash we used. Rather than shooting a ton of photos and creating a strobe-like disco, we simply waited, anticipated the key moments and shot those moments, which were just a handful of photos.

My assistant stood back near the rocks behind the minister and shot photos with direct flash to get the "safe" shots of the bride and groom's reactions and emotion. That freed me up to try to make a photo that showed the uniqueness of the ceremony. I wanted to make a photo that captured the mood of the moonlit scene. So I steadied my Canon 5D with a 16-35mm f/2.8L USM at 27mm on my Gitzo Mountaineer tripod. I set a base exposure in manual mode for 10 seconds at f/2.8 at ISO 400, which was about one stop underexposed from a reading off the sky. I then set my on-camera Canon 580EX to Master and also set it to not participate in the exposure, and then I signaled my assistnat to switch their on-camera Canon 580EX to Slave. Then I released the shutter.

I shot about three frames this way. The Canon E-TTL technology worked flawlessly and allowed us to quickly set up this shot and execute it swiftly without having to fiddle with manually setting the power on the remote flash. Most of the other photos from the short ceremony (less than 10 minutes) were shot with direct flash, no diffusion, but this photo does a couple of things for us. 1) It captures the mood of the ceremony 2) Shows the ceremony environment and 3) Adds diversity to the wedding album. If all the photos from this ceremony had unique lighting, this photo wouldn't look as dramatic when shown next to all the other images. Just as we try to diversify the type of images we shoot, we need to diversify the type of lighting that we look for or create. But most importantly, this image reflects what I felt being a part of the ceremony and this image is an accurate representation of that moment.

And here how we did it: I knew I wanted to shoot the couple kissing above me with the plane and sun overhead, so I put a 10-22mm on my 20D and moved ourselves to a spot directly under the landing path as close to the landing strip as allowed. Knowing the path of the incoming planes and location of the sun, we put the couple where we wanted then and setup a Quantum QFlash hard-left of them. To deepen the blue of the sky, a CTO gel was added and the QFlash was fired at full power. I also knew I wanted to shoot my 10-22mm lens at f18 or higher to add its characteristic star-like lens-flare only seen when stopped down. My final exposure was 1/200 and f18 which gave the balance of deep sky and balanced flash I was looking for. After the planning, all we had to do was wait for a plane and pray. :) When we saw a plane approaching from afar, we all took our positions and I had Quin countdown the second to when the plane would be directly above us while I framed the shot through my viewfinder. Just before it arrived, I asked the couple to kiss and fired off several shots. With careful planning and help from the Big Guy in the Sky, I captured the image shown above. Elements including the composition, light and just before the kiss moment captured in this frame makes it my favorite from the take.

Be blessed. d Dave Cheung DQ Studios . Fine Art Photography www.dqstudios.com WOW, Dave...i love the concept of shooting images "of" them...very inspiring! Your passion definitely shows in your work. I am a firm believer of following photographers whose passion has put them at the top of the game. DQ studios is for SURE, at the tip top! Dave & Quin are teaching a killer workshop where they have teamed up with one of the best wedding photojournalists on the planet, Huy Nguyen, 2005 WPJA POY winner. Huy, Dave, and Quin's workshop is dedicated to developing your artistic flavor¦ I personally attended one of Huy workshops in 2004 and it changed my world. Their Yin Yang workshop is looking pretty tasty! Cheers! matt

Strictly Ballroom First Dance at the Historic Biltmore By Andrew Niesen, LaCour The iconic Georgian Ballroom at Atlanta Biltmore was the centerpiece of Robin Best and Brian Gage's wedding. They scheduled their wedding based on the ballroom's availability, and they described its beauty during every conversation we had with them. The Biltmore was the hub of Atlanta's social scene in the 1920s. With lavish marble floors, sparkling crystal chandeliers and handcrafted plaster ceilings, the Georgian ballroom exudes the dramatic elegance of the “Roaring 20s As Robin and Brian's wedding approached, I thought about how to create a striking photograph that would serve as the climax of their wedding story. To be meaningful, the photograph had to communicate on multiple levels. It had to reveal the personalities of the main characters, the context of the story and the mood of the event. This communicative aspect of photography is especially important because I believe that our work becomes the foundation for family legacy.

The story we tell through our photographs will be shared with several generations. Robin and Brian's children will learn about their parents personalities and values through the wedding photographs. By selecting the Biltmores Georgian Ballroom, Robin and Brian were making a statement about their style, personalities and values. The grandeur, classicism and history of the ballroom were consistent with other details they had carefully planned for their wedding. Since the intricately textured ceiling is the hallmark of the ballroom, I chose to accentuate it by skimming light across the ceiling by backlighting it with a single White Lighting monolight. The monolight was triggered by a Pocket Wizard radio remote. My assistant set up the strobe on a stand in the rear corner of the ballroom about 10 minutes before the first dance began, and I shot several test images, adjusting my ISO and aperture until the histogram showed data across the entire spectrum, from solid black to small areas of pure white. I used a 17mm lens on a Canon EOS 1D Mark II to emphasize the magnificence of the space. Then, I waited until the couple moved to the center of the dance floor and were positioned in a way that a silhouette was visually legible.  The resulting photograph appears as a 12x18 photograph in the center spread of Robin and Brian's wedding album. Its their favorite photograph from the wedding. 

I've shot in this ballroom numerous times...Haven't tried this.... I like to see other photographers interpretations of a wedding venue and how it all comes down to ONE defining photography. Andrew tells a wonderful story here and just imagine yourself in his shoes... "This communicative aspect of photography is especially important because I believe that our work becomes the foundation for family legacy"..... Don't you think your photography would take on a new meaning if you used this motivation to photograph your next epic image?

The LaCour team have produced some studio management software that I have recently purchased. Although I don't have it customized and working with my system, I have seen a live demo by Mark Adams. ShootQ is innovative studio management platform that almost mimics a studio manager.   I would also recommend that you take a look at their blog, as they take a different angle to blogging than the typical wedding photographer.

Comments? Are you inspired by this photo? If you have any photos that you would like to reflect the "epic ballroom" type shot, please send them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group

Thanks again Andrew and LaCour.