Being Prepared - Green River Ordinance Portrait
Green River Ordinance - Outside The Ritz Ybor in Tampa, Florida - April 13, 2010
Remember when I said that knowing Steven Samuels, GRO’s tour manager, had an advantage? This is it. I showed up early and was able to do a quick portrait session before the show.
When I got to the parking garage (just behind the venue), I texted Steven to let him know I was there. He told me they were about to grab dinner, but had a few minutes if I wanted to do something with the band right then. I gathered my gear (typical camera setups, a light stand, Lastolite EZYBox, and SB-900 speedlite) and headed down.
I was immediately nervous because, even though I worked with a portrait master for two years, I haven’t done much of this stuff by myself. Add to my lack of experience the fact that I was kind of holding up the band from dinner, and you have a bumbling fumbling photographer.
I introduced myself to the guys and told them just to hang out for a few minutes while I set up my light. Got it set up as quickly as I could and did a couple of test shots… I could barely see any difference between a regular exposure and a flash exposure. Something wasn’t right.
I fumbled through my exposure settings a bit and took another shot… Still didn’t look good. So I did what any good photographer would do under pressure.
Screw the light. I’ll fix it the best I can in post.
“Hey guys, we’re not going to worry about the flash. The light looks fine without it! Go ahead and stand a little closer together and we’ll take a few shots so you can be on your way.”
I shot from a few different angles, had them ignore me for some, look at me for some, and, honestly, rushed through it so they could go eat.
So, what’s the lesson here?
You can clean your cameras and lenses, charge your batteries, and clear off your memory cards all you want. But if you don’t think through what you’re doing behind the camera before you even get there, it’s all for naught.
After I downloaded the pictures and looked at the metadata, I immediately realized what I had done wrong. I had been so nervous that didn’t think through my exposure settings properly and was letting too much ambient light in, which kept the flash from having any significant effect on the image.
As that McNally guy says, you have to be so well versed with the camera and your tools that they become second nature, just an extension of your body. You do without thinking. This is something that can only come with experience and practice.
Once you get there, your only worry is dealing with your subject. They don’t want to watch you wrestle with your equipment when they could be doing something better with their time. That’s why I nixed the flash and finessed this
into this
