UCSB Shoot with Scott Sneddon, Victoria Hansen and Michael McCann

I've worked at UCSB for over 30 years in IT. It was only a few months ago that I realized what a great location it is for photography, particularly fashion/glamor. So, I've been sneaking up on it since then and finally got the chance to try out some of the great backgrounds and areas. Victoria Hansen (http://www.modelmayhem.com/830819) contacted me and wanted to shoot and my friend Scott Sneddon (http://www.modelmayhem.com/364472) wanted to shoot with me while he is on leave from Korea where he is currently stationed. And my son, Michael, needed some experience shooting glamor. So, we packed up and went down to UCSB for an afternoon of exploring and shooting.

This is the first post i have done where I have tried to use URL's on other websites rather than uploading to Blogspot ... it didn't work as I expected so you will only see part of an image, but you can click on the images to see the whole image. Uploaded images resize. There is no mention that this won't be the case with links. I'll be more careful in the future.

UCSB has a lot of rules. They even have a few about using UCSB as a setting. They don't want people attributing things to UCSB that are not in keeping with the University's mission or using the University's image for commercial purposes. But they do allow Brooks students to shoot assignments. Since we were not commercial and aren't using UCSB for inappropriate purposes I figured we'd be OK ... plus I know a few people!

Scott has a fair amount of experience shooting models with "Strobist" Style equipment which is all he's had in Korea. Since I had no experience but plenty of equipment we decided it would be a good opportunity.

Scott had worked with Victoria before and had a good idea of what she could do. We took my truck and were soon walking around checking for locations. The courtyard of my building is a very concrete/industrial area so that's where we started. We set up two 580EX II's on stands with umbrellas and set them to slave units on channel one, one of each bank, A & B. I put my ST-E2 on a 1DMIII with a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. We backed Victoria into a small architectural detail and played with the lights. Not the best but we were warming up.

I love to see behind the scenes shots so I know what was going on with lighting and surroundings so I'm borrowing one that Scott took of me shooting Victoria.

Next we wanted to try to shoot high f-stop to darken the sky but we just didn't have enough power to overwhelm the sky so we moved around and went with the building as background, still using the two lights held by Scott and Michael.

We had Victoria climbing around on everything. And since she climbs well, we next sent her up a tree, which was our most successful spot I think. We did have a bit of trouble getting the lights up high enough ... Michael, who is about 6' had his light on a fully extended lightstand and was on tippy toes.

From there we went to Kerr Hall which has some very unusual concrete texture on its exterior. Scott showed me how he set the lights for his "signature" shot and then put a gel on a 580EX that he held in his hand to give the concrete some color as well as texture. Very nice images.

Here's one with the gel on the wall.

I realize it would be nice to have more behind the scenes shots and I'm waiting for the price of Canon's G10 to come down to a reasonable price point, about $350, but I know everyone is trying their best to hold prices up even though there's no money around to buy stuff at the inflated prices they have gotten used to getting.

Travel Safe!

Dwight

Equipment Review: 1h - Battery Power for 580EX II

I learned the hard way that those four AA batteries in a 580EX don't last very long, particularly if you use rechargeable batteries which I do and you are shooting not only maximum power every shot, but using high speed sync as well, on a football field at night in the rain! High speed sync is another discussion, but it involves multiple flashes for each exposure. And running out of battery power for your flash makes you look rather lame, sigh. Fortunately there are a few alternatives. One option is to simply carry extra AA batteries in your pocket (which I was doing the night I discovered how fast they run out.) It can also be a bit of a problem reloading them in the 580EX due to a poor battery door design. I have since bought a 580EX II which makes better use of batteries and has a much improved battery door.


Perhaps a better, though pricey alternative, is a Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack, at about $155. It comes with a nice black canvas case that slips into your pocket or onto your belt or you can use the screw adapter and put it on the bottom of your camera. It is fairly lightweight and professional looking. I used its predecessor, the CP-E3, and now use the CP-E4 which has better weather seals and is designed for use with the 580EX II although it is backward compatible.

I next discovered that even an additional eight AA's, which is what the CP-E4 holds, doesn't always do the trick, especially if you have two events back-to-back or just haven't charged them up since the last gig. Again, this may have a lot to do with using rechargeables, although I really like the 2000 mAh Radio Shack NiMH batteries that I use exclusively these days. Luckily I discovered the Canon CPM-E4, a pricey (again) plastic battery holder for the CP-E4. It is what holds the batteries inside the battery pack and can be purchased separately for around $42 each ... not cheap, but invaluable.

So, until very recently, I carried a CP-E4 with eight batteries and had two CPM-E4's in my case with charged batteries. I marked each CPM-E4 with a number, 1-3 (you can see the "3" in the image above, written with a Sharpy), and traded them into the CP-E4 always in order and charged the last used holder. Never had a problem. But two notes: (1) the 580EX II will use power from all 12 batteries, so the four in the flash itself will be drained as quickly as the others unless you set the option to use only the external battery pack for flash power and the four internal batteries to drive the flash logic [This is C.Fn-12 set to 1], and (2) you need to carry extra batteries for the internal power because if the internal batteries run out, even switching the option to use power from all batteries will not work as the 580EX [II] won't run with its internal batteries discharged ... this was one of the ways I found out how useful the battery tester mentioned below can be ... I thought my 580EX had died because I knew the CP-E3 I was using had good batteries but the unit wasn't working. I just happened to decide to test ALL the batteries and the internal set was totally discharged. I had a spare set in my Pelican case (you cannot have too many spare batteries!), popped them in and all was right with the world.


One more significant lesson: you never know when a battery may go bad ... and one bad battery in the barrel can be a disaster! So, you also need a way to check your batteries ... which will also save you from discarding or recharging batteries that are really OK! I picked up, and love, my Radio Shack battery tester. There have been a number of times that I was sure I had bad batteries when it was something else! And I have been able to locate a bad battery in a set and replace it ... saving a lot of blood pressure. So this is an essential, small, lightweight and soul satisfying item that should be in your bag (or Pelican Case.) It is Radio Shack Model: 22-93 Catalog #: 22-093 and is under $7 ... sweet!

Next time, what I am using now!

Be Safe,

Dwight