A few weeks ago Bekka Björke, a photographer friend of mine, invited me to do a shoot with her in San Jose. “I’ll find the model and set it all up, you don’t worry about a thing” she said.

Prior to inviting me to this shoot, Bekka had noticed that I was getting into using flash and recommended I read Light – Science & Magic. It was very enlightening (pun intended). You should read it yourself sometime!

When it came time to shoot, Bekka handed me her two Alien Bees and said “Okay dude, set up the lights how you want’em and shoot away… this is your deal.” Thanks for throwing me to the wolves, Bekka. Sheesh. I applied everything I’ve learned from experience and what I could remember from the book, and did my best. My first decision was obvious, make her put on a Life Blasters shirt! After I got a couple of decent shots, Bekka started shooting.

In the end Bekka absolutely kicked my ass in terms of photos, but I definitely learned something. Light-triggered flashes suck, and good model photography is around 25% good light placement and composition, and 75% direction. I need to work on my directing.

Cheers!


-G

Thanks to Bekka Björke for setting this up this shoot and scouting out an awesome model. Go like her photography page on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/bjorkephoto