For my photowalk at the 2017 WPPI show in Las Vegas, I wanted to do something where every participant would definitely make an amazing photograph, and so I thought up a crazy idea a few months ago and pitched it to Sony.
Every time you do a demo with strobes while instructing on a workshop, you have to make everyone wait while one person uses the trigger for the strobes and it makes for a very boring experience. People get worn out just waiting their turn on the lights. I knew this was frustrating so I devised a different plan to use very powerful LED daylight balanced lights to illumine my subjects...
Next came the fun part--using a trampoline and two great looking athletes to literally jump into the Las Vegas sky overhead, and presto! We had a plan. The crazy thing is that it all worked:
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
This is Gavin Lewis who came out to help us all out. He was really great to work with and was nearly tireless of jumping and posing.
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
This is Brittany Kyker who I've shot with before. She is a real sweetheart and and is married to an up and coming shooter, Ross Kyker who assembled our trampoline in our big parking lot we had to rent from the Convention Center.
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
Here you can see the lighting setup. I used four 1.2K LED lights on larger C-stands with Dynalite Baja sport reflectors attached. We rented a large generator for power, and BAM! We were competing with the sun just like that.
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
Sony α6500, 16-70mm f/4 lens. 1/1600-sec, f/4, ISO 640
This was later in the evening as the sun was going down, but it made for a very moody sky.
My thanks for Sony and their allowing me to do such a crazy thing out there today. It's fun to work with a massive company like Sony and have them listen to a crazy idea and let me run with it.
