Anything Goes Wednesday: Strobist Off Camera Flash Practice at the Life University Mill

Welcome to your weekly installment of “Anything Goes Wednesday” here at the FengLong Photography Blog. I was waiting to blog today’s post because tonight (Wednesday) I got together with Matthew Druin and Steve Stratton for a quick photo shoot before the severe storm that is currently rolling through Atlanta. Luckily for us things are pretty calm in Downtown Atlanta as of 11:00 PM on Wednesday. While watching this week’s Netflix Movie, Despicable Me, I’ve been glued to Twitter and following the developments. The latest tweets from @TWCBreaking show some serious tornado damage in Mississippi and Northern Georgia. One tweet says as of 9:00 PM there were 412,229 power outages in the state of Georgia – more than the Blizzard of ’93! Apologies in advance to brides unless you have a keen interest in photography yourself, today was self-assignment day, so we practiced our technical skills and posing skills on my unwitting models – a lot of this post is behind the scenes and photographer-speak.

Strobist Behind the Scenes Time Lapse at Life University in Marietta, Georgia from Zac & Betty FengLong Photography on Vimeo.

We have assembled our team of Wedding Photography Super Heroes (are we the Justice League or the X-Men?) and finally pulled together our next photoshoot after the one I did with Nina alone a few weeks ago in Memorial Park. I guess it’s only fitting that this week Nina was in California so I met up with Matthew, who didn’t make the first get together. However, this past Saturday, Betty and I hosted the two of them at our place for a little “mini mixer” of wine, Sweetwater, cheese, pizza rolls, and good ol’ chatting about photography! Of course we all brought our cameras (we’re photographers, duh) but it was just so much fun hanging out and chatting that we didn’t shoot any photos! Today, in the face of tornado warnings, Matthew, Steve and I met up at a place I had scouted online through the magic of Google Maps – Life University!

This is definitely a hidden gem, at least for us “city folk” who don’t venture outside of the Perimeter very often :). Located near Dobbins Airforce Base is Life University and tucked away on the campus is an amazing 19th Century Village just asking to be photographed! I’m sure the students see it every day but for me, an outsider, I imagined the myriad of photographic opportunities in such a neat location. From huge shady trees, to an old mill, to a waterfall (!!) along a creek, I can’t wait to suggest this location to my next bride and groom looking for engagement photos or just another fun photo shoot location in Marietta!

For our first set up, Matthew was shooting Steve and put him against the waterfall backdrop on the rocks. Using an off camera flash to the right of our model, Steve.

On the back side of the Mill that is in the above photo is where I had the opportunity to do my shoot. When we first got to the location their were just soooo many photogenic spots, but the little passageway with it’s brick walls was calling out to me. I wanted this shoot to mimic conditions at a wedding to fully give me active shooting experience when I wouldn’t have tons of time to mess with lights and settings. Resigned to this “One Light” method (ala Zack Arias) I positioned my Nikon SB-900 speedlight at the very entrance to the tunnel on the other side and had Matthew and Steve stand just barely in the shade at the front entrance. The flash was connected via Pocketwizard (since I was shooting my trusty Canon EOS 5D Mark II) and set to Manual 1/32 power. Since I was half shooting test shots with Matthew’s set up I had a general idea of where I needed to be for exposure to make the photo. I fired a quick test shot with the light in this set up and was blown away because the light was just perfect – exactly how I envisioned it! I had my two models take half a step forward and grabbed these photos of them:

I switched lenses and changed angles slightly to bring in view the side of the building and add a bit more drama.

For the next two photos I really have to give credit to Steve and Matthew for the creative idea. They said, “hey, why don’t you jump up there for a higher angle?” Sure thing! I had the light stand moved about a foot closer and then Steve and Matthew moved even further away from the arch to fully come into view. I also quickly switched lenses from the 35mm to the 24mm to give things just a little more wide angle and exaggerate the angle.

I think I was telling them to act like hip-hop stars and throw your hands up in the air! I’m not really good at directing people with words that make much sense 🙂

Finally, here are a couple more quick behind the scenes photos for my super simple lighting set up:

They are in the same position as the final image, I just backed up along the wall that you see on the right hand side. Last one, this time turning the Pocket Wizard back on.

As we wrapped up these final images the storm was inching ever closer so we packed things up and headed home after just a quick hour or less of shooting. Safety first! As I am wrapping up this post the rain and lightning are finally hitting Downtown Atlanta. Reflecting back on this shoot I still of course made a few mistakes. I was happy with the photos I did get but have already identified what I did wrong that will improve them the next time I am doing a similar shoot either at a wedding or an engagement session. That’s part of the fun of photography for me though, problem solving! EVery situation is different and you never know what sort of unique challenges you will have to work through to grab the perfect image that my brides expect.

I am still ALMOST done with Jennifer & Mark’s Midtown Atlanta wedding from last weekend and I hope you enjoyed Monday’s post about my favorite shot from that wedding – the Ventanas rooftop sunset/twilight shot of Jennifer and Mark looking over the city of Atlanta.

Digging through some old weddings, this wedding photo also ranks up there as one of my favorites. The photo was taken at the Club at River Forest at Amanda and Michael’s wedding in Forsyth, Georgia.

I’m not sure where the groomsman got the Darth Vader helmet from or how he snuck it out here to where we were shooting bridal party formals – but I’m glad he did! While not a “technically” amazing shot as far as composition, lighting, and all those other things go – but it’s just one of those priceless moments captured on film…

Here is one last photo from Jennifer & Mark’s wedding as I dive back into the editing process to finish things up before a busy weekend! This shot was taken at the Swan House Mansion, well technically on the bridge leading from the Atlanta History Center back to the Swan House. After all of the amazing photos I posted on Monday about the wedding reception at Ventanas Atlanta I figured I needed to show people that yes we actually did take pictures in other locations! 🙂

Engagement shoot on Friday evening and then back to back weddings on Saturday and Sunday! Sunday is a chance to shoot video so I am looking forward to stretching my creativity on that one in a different direction than photos. If you read my twitter (and I don’t recommend it – it’s boring) I am seriously getting into video as a storytelling device for wedding coverage. While I am still madly in love with the power of the still image, some scenes are best conveyed on video.