I don’t consider myself old school but I do think photography has a way of making an impact that video doesn’t. It has a way of capturing a moment in time. It also has a way of not capturing what is actually going on. It goes both ways.
The way that I capture things is by changing angles or the direction I’m shooting in so that there’s little or no people in the background. You can also do the same with the elements since you might not have a choice but to work with them. Working against the elements will set you up for a bad time and a bad shoot. Okay, you might still have a bad time if you work with the elements but hopefully you don’t end up with a bad shoot.
The Location
Mussel Rock Park. Highly recommended if you want to have a really tough time with a shoot.
The Model
Jasmin, who is always down to try my ideas and who I am really thankful for. Very nice, kind, and wonderful: @jazzyvett
The Shoot
I don’t even know where to start with this. I can pretty much start it off with it being horribly windy and end it with it being horribly windy.
I should mention that it was horribly windy.
I actually planned to shoot at a different location nearby but I didn’t end up liking it so we went to Mussel Rock Park. I was shooting here the day before and it was extremely windy. But I was there late in the day and this was around mid-day so I was hoping it would be nice. But nope, it wasn’t as bad but it was still really bad.
Working with wind is always a challenge for a few reasons. One big challenge is what the wind does to hair. Not a lot of hair styles can hold up well in extreme wind. One thing you can do is that you can have the model face the wind. This in itself creates some challenges because if you are shooting with someone that has sensitive eyes. their eyes can get irritated from the wind. Another thing you can do is to tie the hair back, if possible. You would have to be okay with that look also, otherwise, it won’t work out for you. Another thing you can do is to move around and to look for pockets that are not windy. This will often either be behind trees, behind some kind of structure, or anywhere where the wind is being blocked.
The other challenge with wind is that if you have light stands and a soft box, it’s going to be blowing all over the place. If your gear it’s not sturdy, your light will move around and maybe even topple over. You can just shoot with a bare reflector. That’s going to take away some of the softness from your light, but the wind will be less likely to blow your light. You can also use a heavier stand, like a C Stand with sand bags but you’re adding about 30-40 pounds of weight that you have to carry and setup. If you’re shooting in bad light and you have to use slower shutter speeds, it’s also going to move your camera and lens so you’re going to manage that with higher ISO. You can overcome most of these challenges, but it largely depends on your style and how much you’re willing to do to overcome these things.
What we did with this shoot was that Jasmin was facing the wind so that it would blow her hair away from her face. Even then, it wasn’t easy and we decided it’d be best to tie her hair. We also found a small pocket that had some tree coverage, which helped block the wind. And my light stand did fall a couple of times but nothing broke, except my spirit, so it worked out okay.
The biggest thing is that I would say by looking at the shots, you probably can’t really tell how challenging this was. That’s a good thing.
Check out the gallery and the behind the scenes video below.
