Oh We had so much fun.
Can’t believe 8 months have passed already. In a weekend of late February 2010, a group of friends decided to take some photos. Weather forecast of the day was not very favorite. But in the afternoon, the sky opened up. So we drove to Embarcadero, with the intension of moving around and using different things as background.
Embarcadero is rich with visual elements, the bay bridge, clock tower, business district, piers, … We saw this giant statue of bow and arrow in front of the bay bridge. Decided to try some shoots over there, and ended up spending the whole one hour just in one place, till somebody had to leave.
Donna brought a trampoline, and the girls all went crazy (Beata, Daiane, and Katrina). Very soon, they mastered the skill of suspending in the air and doing all sorts of fun stuff.
For lighting, I used three cannon speedlight remotely triggered by canon ST-E2. Cannon use infrared for remote flash triggering. This to me is the major weak link in cannon system. In a outdoor setting like this, it requires direct line of sight between ST-E2 front and speedlight infrared receiver. It forces the speedlight to be twisted in very odd shape, and severely limits the mobility. I don’t know why Canon got stuck with infrared link. It is totally inadequate for out door flash photography. There are some cheap remote flash control using RF. I think they will be my choice of equipment in the future, even though they only support manual flash.
Flash is one of those things that camera has a hard time control the right output, when you position your model in front of a large background. I found it much easier to get consistent result using just manual control. It does take some time to set up, and limit the area of activity. But once you set up, you know what kind of light you will get.
