All posts tagged: OCF

Gamelan Dancers

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Early Sunday morning I had the opportunity to photograph the musicians and dancers of a Gamelan Indonesian dance group. I shot portraits using natural light and a wide aperture against green vegetation. I also used the felt black background and a single strobe setup from the karate masters series to create a second set of images. Here’s a quick behind the scenes shot showing the black Lastolite background leaning against our car, and a Profoto B1 strobe with OCF beauty dish on the stand. Portraits were shot using the Pentax 645Z with the 90mm and 55m lenses. A huge thank you to the Gamelan dancers and musicians, and to Michael Lyon for setting up the shoot. Looking forward to seeing your performances in the future.

Angelo & Sheron Bridal Session

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A lovely multi-location early morning session with Angelo & Sheron from Hong Kong. Okinawa is such a great location to shoot. Gorgeous scenery and nice weather. And a beach all to ourselves. A few more shots at Cape Zanpa. And then headed to Zakimi Castle.   Thanks for having us document your special day Angelo & Sheron! Hope you had a wonderful time in Okinawa, and hope to see you again soon 🙂 Images shot with the Pentax 645Z with Pentax SMC DA 645 25mm, Pentax K-1 with 24-70mm, Profoto B1 with OCF beauty dish and Priolite HotSync flash system. A big thanks to Yuki and Keith for assisting on the shoot.

Rock Stars Studio Workshop

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A fantastic rock star themed studio workshop last Sunday. After a few hours in the morning covering the basics of studio shooting we moved on to the theme of the day.  For most of these shots we used the Profoto 7a generator with 2 proheads as the rear hair lights. Grids on the zoom reflectors controlled the spill of light, while gels gave the lights color. A small smoke machine gave the shots more atmosphere. We had a Profoto D2 with a gridded softlight reflector as the key light and a Profoto B1 with red / orange gels on the left side. The lights were triggered with Profoto Air Remotes. Natalie and Kelley were our awesome models. Both where more than willing to sing, play guitar, and hammer away on the keytar.  Although it was probably for the best that none of the instruments were plugged in 🙂 Makeup and hair was by Audra Presika who also created the temporary tattoos for Natalie. It’s great to have an MUA to work with who can help …

Mr. Benn

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Mr. Benn was one of my favorite TV shows when I was young. The very normal Mr. Benn enters a shop, puts on a costume, and goes on a magical adventure. In the previous blog post you met Dan the Alaskan fisherman. However, Dan has on more than just one adventure. Please let me introduce Dan the lumberjack, Dan the highlander,  Dan the biker, Dan the convict, and Dan the mountaineer. Images were shot with the Pentax 645Z with either the 90mm macro or the 55mm lens. Lighting was a Profoto B2 with an OCF beauty dish white. Images were shot over a couple of hours around sunset. The lighting setup remained the same, I just slowly dialed down the power on the strobe as the sky darkened. Huge amount of fun. As a kid I always imagined what it would be like to be Mr Benn. It turns out that I’m actually the shopkeeper of the special costume shop. Thanks again to Dan, and once again a warning to visitors. If you pop in …

Dan – Alaskan Fisherman

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I invite my friends over for coffee and then force them to dress up for photos. As my little garden faces west I can get down low and place my subject against the colorful evening skies. In these shots I hid the setting sun directly behind Dan which avoids blowing out the highlights and gives both the Dan and the clouds some cool rim lighting. Pentax 645Z with 90mm and 55mm lenses. Profoto B1 with OCF beauty dish white triggered with the Profoto Air Remote.

Test shoot with Profoto OCF softbox and umbrella

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Last weekend I was doing some test shots with new gear while mentoring my friend Keith about off camera flash techniques. We headed back to the cosmos field but this time rather than using the Profoto B1 strobe with an aluminum softlight reflector  I was using the new collapsible OCF beauty dish with a front diffuser. ( OCFビューティーディッシュ・ホワイト) A crop of the top image shows the octagonal shape of the OCF softbox catchlight, and also the amazing resolution of the Pentax 645Z camera. Back at the house  M.U.A. Audra Pesicka switched the makeup and hair for a bohemian look with white henna on the hands. We shot in the garden but this time switched the softbox for a Profoto 41′ Umbrella Deep White ( Profoto 写真撮影用アンブレラ アンブレラ ディープ ホワイト M) Another great day of shooting! A huge thanks to Natalie for being a fantastic model, and to Audra Pesicka for hair and makeup. Thanks also to Yuki and Keith for assisting on the shoot.

Virtual Reality and the Medieval Knight

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Epic photo shoot last weekend with CJ (the knight) and Yuki (the virtual reality gamer). My friend Steve is a member of the  Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), and introduced me to CJ the knight.  Before the shoot I created a flaming torch from a green branch and kevlar tape. Although the location looks like one of Okinawa’s ruined castles (UNESCO World Heritage Sites) it is a local park whose only visitors are feral cats. I used the Pentax 645Z, 55mm and 90mm lenses, and three Profoto B1 lights with gridded reflectors.  The second stage of the shoot was to add Yuki wearing Sony’s new virtual reality headset. In Lightroom I darkened and toned the scene and then in Photoshop I  illuminated the lights on the Sony VR headset and move controllers. All in all, a fun successful shoot! A huge thanks to CJ the knight, and I look forward to working with you again in the future. Thanks to Pete and Ashley for assisting and sharing your gear. Thanks to Steve for assisting and …

Workshop Wonders

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The Off Camera Flash workshop went really well yesterday. My buddy Pete Leong and I taught the class, and we had 3 great students Adam, Anna and Liesa. We discussed the various different types of strobes and modifiers before getting out there and practicing taking some pics around Yomitan. We finished the class down at the beach. I took a pic of Yuki to demonstrate using shutter speeds below the max sync speed. A great day. The next workshops are: June 4 & 5, 2016 – Photography Fundamentals Workshop with Chris Willson June 18 & 19. 2016 – Time-lapse Workshop with Mark Thorpe

Pentax K-1 & Priolite – Capoeira

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It’s rainy season in Okinawa, but yesterday morning we had a dry spell long enough to capture Ben and Antonio practicing capoeira at Araha Beach. Gear: Pentax K-1, 28-105mm lens,  Priolite M-Pack 1000 HotSync strobe Using the Priolite HotSync system meant I was freezing the action with the shutter speed rather than the flash duration. This removes the issues you get with ambient light blur when shooting motion with strobes outdoors. ISO 400, f4.5 1/3200 sec   This was my first time shooting Capoeira so it was  tough to anticipate the action. With two subjects performing different moves at the same time it is also tricky to get  images where they are both mid air, correctly illuminated, and in focus. Back flips and kicks are so fast to the naked eye it all happens in such a blur. It’s fascinating to check out the images and see them frozen in time. In some shots they looked like skydivers free falling. I’d also like to try this on a bright sunny day where the strobe would act …

Narihiro Shinjo with the Profoto B1 on location

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After taking the studio images against the black background for the Karate Masters Portrait Project, I asked Shinjo sensei if we could walk down to the beach and get a few location portraits. I unplugged, then packed up the Profoto 7a generator and pro head I’d used in the dojo, and grabbed the new Profoto B1 battery powered head and the beauty dish. Set ambient exposure for the desired background then light up the subject with the flash. On location lighting with a bit of punch 🙂