Sunday, September 28, 2008

Firehouse Portrait



So my long time friend has been a Firefighter with Denver for several years and I have been asking him to let me come to the firehouse and do some portraits of the guys for quite some time.  He finally agreed and I was surprised that most of them were resistant to the idea of having a nice portrait of themselves. I only had a limited time with him as their day was busy with calls but I think this shot came out fairly nice.  I prefer the version without the background light as the incidence off the stainless steel is just too bright. Two SB800s was all I used, both fired with Pocket Wizards. The main light was bounced into a large wall for a nice big soft source. The 2nd strobe was pointed directly at the equipment in the background with a full CTO and a small foam flag to keep it from contaminating the rest of the shot. All I brought was 3 SBs, 2 stands, a Flexfill, and a Justin Clamp.... a small case of equipment to keep the creativity the main focus.

2 comments:

David Tejada said...

When are you going to post again?

Brad Shearer said...

You said that you were surprised by the guys not wanting a portrait. I have run into this more than not. At first approach it seems no one wants their portraits done.

I'm curious how you convinced the guys into getting their portraits done and how you got them to relax in front of your camera to get a natural looking portrait (like the one you posted).

Thanks.
Brad