At the point in time of this photoshoot I had not figured out the whole Auto ISO thing on the D2H so the camera was bouncing around the iso levels giving me unwanted noise in some of the images but at least its sorted now (present day). For this I used a one light setup as the second poverty wizard I had on me started flacking out on me. it was my pretty standard on location one light setup about 45 degree angle for the light get the composition right nail the aperature and the shutterspeed for the exposure (the iso sadly was out of my hands so it was like iso roulette). and here is the end result. For the image I put up the speedlight (sb28 was camera right at about 1/4 power) and about 4 feet away. You can see the noise issue in the dark areas I was talking about due to the high Iso values. Marsha Was awesome to work with, easy to work with which always makes me happy as it makes me able to focus on making my photos look right. To learn more about Marsha Mcknight read the article in the flair

The pro’s in the situation was its a small wedding, And i can soooo do this

The cons were, Its in montego bay and i live in kingston and do not own a car, Its on a a saturday and I had the photojournalist day job thingy to do, I dont own a car.

With the help of a good friend @stewpert who travels between kingston and montego bay regularly I was able to call in a fav for a mobay run for the day, I’ld handle food and gas for him. dude agreed and everything was ready. My backup for the wedding was already booked @9970000 of IMGwire. We left kingston at approximately 7am and were in montego bay by about 11 or 12pm.

Got to the location which was beautiful may I add, and scouted for locations to shoot the formals and so on. The wedding was set to begin at 3pm but you know how these things are, left the shoe, left the ring omg my hair etc.. we were about 2 hrs delayed. during that time we nailed some decent preparation images and detail shots. Once the actual ceremony was underway the rest was history, Formals were done in under 30 minutes as it was a small group and I ensured i moved quick before people started getting restless. Here is my favourite image from the bride and groom formals.

We went off camera for the formals, kept it smiple though 1 light above and directional, very soft lightsource and the rest was history, think i went as high as 1/2 power at one point the recycle times were bearable though so it all worked out. didn’t even need a lightstand, had @9970000 hand holding the light and that worked out perfectly.

I think i left montego bay about 9pm that night.. after grabbing a wendy’s double to stuff my face as I was unable to eat anything substantial all day Wendy’s… yuuuumm . Oh for the rest of the images please follow through to the gallery

With that out the way, lets get into the meat of the matter. The assignment was an all day event started at about 10:00 am and ended at approximately 6:00 pm. I will state the obvious I was shooting models, show casing swimwear by various designers at the moment the only one I can remember is Minka (love her work).

Equipment
I have not yet recieved my Softligher and Cybersync Triggers so I’m still on shoot through smith victor umbrella’s and poverty wizards.

Nikon D2h
sb-28-dx

and Keisha who had to deal with the heavy lightstand (to give me the positiong I required for my Lights, Without her non of those photos would be possible)

The Shoot

There were 4 Beautiful models and A whole lotta swimwear. keeping focused on this shoot was not an issue ( I jest it never is). The ladies knew what to do and needed little Artistic Direction So the shoot flowed very well so to speak.

I’ve posted my favored photo as a preview of what the output is like. Here I had the light overhead from left pushing light down on the subject. was at about 1/2 power distance doesn’t really count it was as close as it could be without being in the frame I love this shot the most because it reminds me of scorpion / subzero or reptile (i’m sure you recognize that pose if your gamer / geek of any kind)

Model: Debbie-Ann Willams
Makeup: Latoya Grindley
Photography: Gladstone Taylor

Here’s a link to all the photos published on the Jamaica-Gleaner.com

Difficulties faced on this assignment

• photoshoot took place when the sun was its meanest 12pm – 2pm so i was in constant search of shade and trying as best as possible to keep the sky out of my compositions. I pretty much had to max the shutter for all images, and work the aperature and light accordingly to expose at the luminance levels I wanted / needed

That was pretty much it in terms of problems faced. everything else i could have worked around.

Equipment Used:

• nikon d2h
• sb 28dx
• cactus poverty wizards
• smith victor lightstand and shoot through umbrella

as you can see i got a bitter sweet equipment list for the assignment. however could you tell that i was using a 10 year old dslr?? could you also tell that i did no retouching to the subject at all?? I’m just curious . Is there anything you think i could have applied in camera to get a better result lemme know what you thinking hit me up in the comments with your answers

p.s Yes my name is spelt wrong Gladestone.. dunno where that came from but hopefully it wont happen again.

Here I had the light camera left, about 2 feet away, at 1/4 power iso was about f6.3 and shutter at 80 or 100. An industrial sized fan was use to get the wind effect with the subjects hair. She loved it, They loved it, They’re happy and I’m happy that they’re happy. Me personally I’m never satisfied with my work I always see something that could be done better will do it on my next assignment of this nature though.

In terms of equipment I had a gripped 30D with a 85mm f1.8 on a giottos monopod. the 1.8 aperture came in handy the 85mm was enough reach the main problem was horrid lighting from Intec (a local lighting company here in Jamaica).

There were shadows cast on the run way, so at points you could see the model’s walking from harsh light directly into shadows, So it became a matter of shooting at the right points.

From reviewing the images, Friday’s image sucked in terms of my standards. They’re usable but the photographers eye syndrome kicks in and  I know i’m capable of better output. The light flare’s were unacceptable though. Luckily saturday and sunday’s light were addressed and though not perfect I was able to milk it for what its worthy and got some great images for saturday and sunday’s presentations. To the left there’s an image from Milkaya Laijah presentation, Worn by Pulse Investment Supermodel Nell Robinson and Here’s a link to some images from the cfw 2010 collection Enjoy .

Lighting

• Sb 28dx as Key-light shot through translucent umbrella Camera Left above subject about 3 – 4 feet away at about 1/4 flash power
• sb 400 as fill, shot into a reflective umbrella Camera right on subject height about 3.5 maybe 4 feet away at about 1/8th flash power

The session took about 30 minutes give or take  5 minutes. Client was happy with her images and all’s well that ends well .

My next entry should have something to do with Caribbean Fashion Week 2010.

Need backup for a wedding tomorrow.

I was free so I figured though I like to be aware of an event way before it happens I accepted.

Before moving on ild like to just say: Ensure you get all your details together before wedding day. The timing for this wedding was kinda behind but it went great. If there wasn’t a delay in the first place everything wouldbe perfect in terms of the duration of event sequences. The formals for this wedding tought me something. I will definitely need a backup and not necesarily for shooting but for lighting. To really get creative with the off axis lighting whaats required is a V.A.B (voice activated boom that is someone to work my lights in terms of distance and position. And putting it in close n tight where the light stand alone will not get the light. Today I played the role of the V.A.B (images looked great btw). My last wedding was the first I employed off camera lighting, this time it was taken a step farther by @9970000 and I will definitely be employing this at my next wedding along with some other ideas I’ve got stewing. Just a small shot to show but not reveal anything as it isn’t my client nor images to display