Monday, June 20, 2011

See the light

Memorial Day 2002 is a day I'll never forget.  We got to feed our Daughter a bottle for the first time.  An amazing thing for any parent, to the parents of a Micro-Preemie you wait and wait for this day.  Over two months in our case.  As this was a special occasion, and I was still shooting film, I couldn't chimp and had to get it right in camera.  I had not been in the room they took us to before, and I couldn't use flash nor could I bump up the ISO like you can with today's DSLR's.  So I had to do things the old fashioned way.  Window over there, put chair here, have my wife hold the baby like this...  My wife and the nurse were griping over the fuss, I really couldn't explain what I was trying to do at the time, but fortunately for me they did it.  When I showed them the image a few days later, and pointed at the lighting I was trying to achieve, they didn't complain when I went for other lighting scenario's in the days to come.  Today you can use the screen or tether in a studio to show the subject(s) what your going for, making life a little more easy.  Though sometime's I prefer the surprise of showing the final printed image.  

Whenever I get frustrated about a shoot, I go back to this image.  I remind myself of how I scoped out the room and got the light where I wanted it.  I took the time to get it right, because I had to get it right in camera.  Starting tomorrow I'll talk more about the different things I did to assure I had the shot, but it all starts with seeing the light...

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