All posts tagged: off camera flash

Yoshihiro Kuniyoshi – 6th dan Uechi-ryu karate

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Yoichiro Kuniyoshi is 6th dan in Uechi-ryu karate, a student of the Uechi-ryu master Kiyohide Shinjo. Recently Yoichiro Kuniyoshi set up his own dojo in Yomitan so James and I stopped by to take some portraits of him and his younger brother Wataru Kuniyoshi (3rd dan). After shooting portraits in the dojo, we popped down to the beach where Kuniyoshi performed the kata Sanchin, as his younger brother punched, kicked, and smacked him with a piece of timber. Images shot with the Sony A7RIV with the 24-105mm lens. Strobe used was a Profoto B1 with a white softlight reflector.

Sensei Kenyu Chinen at the Yomitan Dojo

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Last Monday I had the opportunity to take some pics of Chinen Sensei in his organization’s Yomitan Dojo which is located inside Murasaki Mura. A beautiful location to get a few new portraits of an Okinawan master. Images shot with the Pentax 645Z and the 55mm lens. A Profoto B1 strobe with a OCF softbox was used for off camera flash to balance the interior of the dojo with the outdoors. Video shot with the Sony FS5, Atomos Shogun and Rokinon cine lenses.

Transformation

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Came across this fascinating digital painting that was based on one of the outtakes from the 2016 “fisherman” shoot with Michael Lynch for the Pentax K-1 exhibition. UP! from hashem alshaer on Vimeo. Michael was mugging for the camera and staring wildly at the sky. The digital painting version transforms the picture to a whole new level. Here’s my finished photo of the wild seafaring Michael.

Off Camera Flash with the Profoto B2

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During the 2017 Kyoto Workshop it was great that I could introduce new pieces of equipment and techniques to others in the group.  One of these was the Profoto B2 Off Camera Flash System. This strobe allows me to add light to my images to make the subject pop a little more and add catchlights to the eyes. I also use it to fill in shadows. In the featured image taken at Fushimi Inari Shrine I used the Profoto B2 with no modifier, while the image taken at the Philosopher’s walk below (right) was with a shoot-through umbrella. The system works really well. Dividing the head and the battery pack makes life for the assistant easier as holding a B1 light on the end of a pole can be top heavy. The option to use the pack with two lights is useful, and also gives you redundancy if a flash bulb stops working.  I used the Profoto Air Remote triggers with my Pentax cameras, as there is still no Pentax TTL/HSS trigger (unlike Canon, Nikon …

100 Kobudo Kata Challenge at the Karate Kaikan, Okinawa

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A few pics from today’s 100 Kobudo Kata Challenge at the new Karate Kaikan in Tomigusku, Okinawa. The event was organized by James Pankiewicz of the Dojo Bar in Naha. The welcoming message was given by Toshimitsu Arakaki, 10th dan Matsubayashi-ryu karate. Participants spent 2 to 3 hours performing a hundred kata with various weapons including bo staff and sai. Congratulations to all that took part, it was great to see people actively helping keep Okinawan traditions alive. I also got to take a few new “Beyond the Dojo” pics of Arakaki sensei outside of the new Karate Kaikan building. Arakaki-sensei demonstrates a technique with two sai, while also reminding me that “Iron Fist” isn’t just something from comic books.   Gear: Pentax 645Z with 25mm lens. Profoto B1 with softlight reflector white.

Medieval Studio Workshop

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A fun day at the medieval studio workshop. Charles brought his armor with surcoats of the Knights Hospitaller, a crusader and his family crest. Charles competes in the “Armored Combat League” where you wear historically accurate armor, and then fight with blunted weapons. Images were shot using variations of natural light, a single Profoto B1  strobe outdoors, and multiple studio strobes indoors. I used the Pentax 645Z with either the 90mm or 55mm lens. Charles also brought another one of his military uniforms, this one from a galaxy far far away. Huge thanks to Charles for bringing all his gear, I learned a huge amount about medieval and scout trooper armor!   Good luck in your next armored combat league battle.

From Princess to Queen

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Last Saturday I had a great location / studio shoot with Kelley. Kelley’s husband gave her a portrait session as a Christmas present and she had some magical ideas about what she’d like to do.  Her initial idea was to be a queen for a day, but with a change of outfit and makeup we realized we could first shoot softer images of “the princess” before turning to the dark side as “the queen”. Cosmos fields are blooming at the moment so they made a beautiful background. I shot with the Pentax 645Z along with the 90mm and 300mm lenses. For light I used the Profoto B1 with a softlight reflector white. After the softer images, makeup artist Audra Pesicka switched the hair and makeup to the second look. We first shot in the studio with a simple 3 light studio setup. ( Profoto D2 with beauty dish, and a Profoto 7a generator to 2 proheads in 1×4′ softboxes.) Then we headed out to the village of Bise and its roads lined with Fukugi trees. …

Pentax K1 -Fisherman

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A visit by friend Mike Lynch is always a great photo opportunity because he looks fantastic and tolerates my crazy ideas. Ideas such as making him stand outside on a bright sunny day wearing a sou’wester and bring sprayed with water. Gear used: Pentax K1 with 28-105mm lens at 105mm      1/4000 sec f6.3 ISO 100 Priolite M-Pack 1000 HotSync strobe with white beauty dish full power In most cases when shooting with strobes your shutter speed is restricted to the maximum sync speed of the camera. This is usually around 1/200 sec or 1/125 sec. In turn this then forces you to shoot at small apertures or with dark neutral density filters to control the amount of light.  The Priolite system however has a long enough flash duration that you can sync with fast shutter speeds such as 1/4000 second. With a standard strobe the water droplets would be frozen by the very short duration of the flash, with the Priolite system they are frozen by the short duration of the shutter. Thanks to …

Channeling Michael Bay

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It’s only when I start looking through images in Lightroom that I notice that I’m picking up certain habits while shooting. When using the Profoto B1 strobe, I tend to position it off to my right and a little higher than the subject. For natural light portraits I usually have eye contact, but with off camera flash I seem to prefer them looking out of the frame towards the light. The unexpected result is that several of the images look like stills from a Michael Bay movie. All you need in the next frame is an asteroid, an autobot, or an alien spaceship.

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 🙂