For those unfamiliar with Joe's work he is the master of using small hot shoe flashes to create elaborate portraits. He does everything from simple one flash and a reflector photos to massive 12, 13, even 20 flash portraits. He goes all out.
Today I went out to my favorite place in the world(yes, more favorite than Disneyland even) to make a portrait of my cousin. A few years ago I took a snapshot of him smoking what would be one of his very last pipes and I got quite a few people offering to buy it. So I thought he'd be the perfect subject for a portrait in my favorite place.
I really just wanted to recreate one of Joe's shots that he took of a fisherman in a workshop. Instead of a workshop I have an old barn full of old, dirty things. And instead of a fisherman I have a retired carpenter. This wasn't a planned shoot. I just showed up. So my cousin is just wearing what he had on. He normally wears overalls, which is what I was hoping for, but no luck today. Oh well.
And instead of a long-winded description of the shoot, I just drew it out(another thing Mr. McNally does).
The sketch still leaves some room for explanation though. I took the shot at about 2 pm so the whole barn was in shadow. I had to light the whole thing. I forgot to put in the sketch that I stopped the camera down by a stop and a half from aperture priority. The auto exposure was adjusting for the dark background and over exposing the whole scene. The Sb-600 with the gold reflector was to light the junk in the back. I used the window to diffuse the the fill/Sb-900(gel'd with a CTO for the warm glow).
I think the shot turned out pretty well. Exactly what I was hoping for actually. I just wish the clothes were a little more fitting to the environment.
