As soon as I started sending this shot out, a lot of guys started asking me how I did it. So I figured this would be a perfect time to start putting my drawings on the blog.
First I have to say that many people get really scared when it comes to the weather. They fear rain destroying gear, getting people upset because they are wet, etc. Of course the same people will also complain of a harsh 12 noon bright sun day.
I say, "Bad weather is awesome weather." Any weather is just a part of the assignment. It only happens once and is there for you to capture. If it is bright sun or heavy overcast. We work around, under, through these times. And if you take it on without fear and understand it is uncontrollable then you will start to notice the beauty in it.
I say it was perfect. The overcast increased the saturation (especially in the trees). It created a nice wrapping affect of light on the otherwise very reflective glass and metal in the shot. It also had a great affect of wetting the pavement which is almost always common when doing a shot like this.
I used my Elinchrom Ranger RX battery kit with Freelight S head and 6 foot Octabank. It was attached to a hefty Avenger Century light stand and remotely triggered using a Pocketwizard. I used my Nikon D2X with the other PocketWizard and finally an 80-200 mm zoom lens so I could compress the elements together. If I had more options I would have been able to back up another 100 feet to shoot the shot at 200mm. This would have pretty much filled the frame with the trees in the distance and been cool. Knowing this, I am very happy with he shot and will make a mental note for the next time I shoot something like this.
I balanced my light to match my aperture. Remember the flash will always pop at the same speed. This particular head will sync with the Nikon at 1/250, but will put the same exact amount of light is you shot at 1/4 second. So note that I was controlling much of my ambient light with my shutter speed. Next my f/stop ended up being at about f/9. This was so I could get everything within the depth of field and tone down the ambient light even more. So all I had to do next was match my flash to the f/stop and pop away.
Easy day!
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