Day 179 - Project365

If I ever tell someone, "Oh it will be quick" I will be lying!

My project thus far features people and since tonights features feet, I'd say it squeeks by as being "people". I wasn't sure if it would "count" at first but everyone assured me that it would. I set out to get feet in the rain right at dark. The real rain had stopped shortly before and I was now going to have to make my own (grin from cheek to cheek)! I love to make rain and every opportunity I have, I take!

Today I figured I'd take it one step further and rig a human free system for the rain. Since I've been on a speedlight kick lately I figured why not utilize the C-Stands and create a rain rig.

With stand and boom with aluminum knuckle attached, I clamped the rain spicket to the end of the boom, twisted it up towards the sky and raised it as high as it would go. Once I turned it on I quickly realized that this was the best rain I've made to date. It fell natural and looked believable. A bonus was that no one had to hold it. I turned it on and let it go.

Joyce volunteered to "get wet" for art and rolled her pant legs up. We started out with simple standing still shots, then moved on to stamping the feet and finally jumping up and down. She was holding her umbrella in a futile effort to not get wet. She quickly found at that her umbrella had several major leaks and soon became useless. Although, for the entire first session, despite the holes, she held on to it that umbrella. I do not know why?

We had a short intermission and checked out the shots. I was not happy with what I had gotten and decided to go back out for one last try. You could tell that Joyce wasn't thrilled by the look on her face. However, for art… She would suffer.

This time we changed things up and upon a suggestion from Joyce we put her umbrella in the background to add more dimension to the shot. I went into my car and grabbed my umbrella. Shortly after turning the water on again, we find out that my umbrella also has holes. Joyce once again was getting soaked! Poor woman!

With the water hitting the umbrella she couldn't hear a word I was saying. We developed a complex set of hand signals to instruct and guide her to what I wanted. My two fingers acted as her legs. I would jump them up and down for jump, stomp for stomp and so on. This proved to work infinitely better than me screaming at her. I'm sure the neighbors could here me better than she could.

I as many other photographers have a horrible habit of never meaning it when we say, "Just one more" this is code for "I know your getting tired and I acknowledge that but I've yet to get what I want." Just one more tuns into just 20 more! However, in a professional situation I tend to stick to the "just one more" phrase.

My last idea turned out to work the best. I asked her to step back about 8 feet and run forward. This would prove to get the most realistic running/walking look. I ended up with several shots each at a different position in the run. I ended up using this one because it could be a care free playing in the rain shot or a running from something. I liked the less serious theme and went with that tonight.

Ok, for those who what to know how I shot this read on. If you're not technical then you can just skim the next section.

I started out the night by detaching my cyber sync strobe trigger, setting the camera on the ground with the 2 second timer on and exposing for 1 second at a time. I'd hit the trigger and expose a shot using the flash instead of the shutter on the camera. This worked in giving me more control over timing but wasn't powerful enough to illuminate the shot. After numerous failed attempts at this I opted for a shutter speed of 1/250 and reattached the trigger to the camera. With the strobe set at 1/32, I would have the ability to use my high speed continuous capture that the 40d has. I think its 6.5 frames a sec. having the flash set low gives me the ability to flash 32 times straight, capturing almost the whole run.

How did my speedlight and trigger stay dry? I put it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag! I'm sure I could take it under water if I was bold enough. I'm not really ready to ruin it or get shocked again. Long story short, I once took apart a non functional 430exII. I had batteries in it and the capacitor was charged unbeknownst to me of course. I accidentally touched the leads on the exposed capacitor and was knocked on my ass. That's between 1000 and 4000 volts discharged in a fraction of a second. I felt it through my arm all the way into my shoulder - NOT COOL!

So after she ran back and forth about 5 times getting anywhere between 5 and 8 shots per run, I called it quits. I could have kept going and gotten that money shot with water frozen in time, splashing up from under her feet. However, working with a living breathing human has its limitations, even know I really don't have any. I'll seriously keep shooting for hours! It's an addiction that rivals drug use. I've had a few girl friends say that they feel like the mistress when compared to my camera. I just laugh, knowing that its probably true!

Well, its off to watch a movie then sleep so that I can go location scouting tomorrow.

Lighting:

Nikon SB-25 24 mm 1/32 fired bar from inside 1 gallon zip lock bag. 4:00
4x4 reflector 9:00