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White Beauty in Black
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Tunnel Vision...
Tunnel Vision...
Yeah I’ll probably get flack for shooting with Brittany again so soon and for using the location twice in the same week, but I just don’t care 
The team of Brittany and I just kind of rock and we rock so hard it’s hard to keep up with some of the amazing stuff we tend to create. I’ve heard of certain people who were literally drooling about their missed chance to be part of our shoot the other day, love you Dan Miller, and I do wish they were there, but needless to say no matter who is there as long as Brittany is in front of the camera she rocks!
This time we packed light and walked in without much of a concept besides some outfits we picked out at the house and a location I’ve never been to, but had driven by since I was just a wee boy. We arrived early with lots of excitement from our last shoot so we had great chemistry working on our side, plus some really good light from the sky. People who know me understand my love of flash and it’s ability to make an image better from the ground up. What a lot of people don’t know is I use natural light more than I’ve ever used flash
“Chris, you use natural light?” “Why, Yes I do!”
When fellow photographers join me on shoots many of them get a strange look on their face when I walk into a scene and I’m flowing my hand in the air, starring strangely all over and of the course the signature head scratch that I’ve truly perfected. I’ve become a machine at analyzing a scene for its viable lighting options and it’s my first instinct and a troublesome tick that pops out in the most embarrassing times. Heck, I’ll be out with Eric Steiner at the bar and all of a sudden you’ll hear me say something about how the lighting just changed in the room. Irrelevant for most, but important to me. Light changes constantly and if we as photographers don’t adapt that next shot, the perfect shot, will be blown!!!! Next time you’re out just walking around pay attention to when a cloud rolls in and all of a sudden you physically see the light drop 2 stops or more. It’s neat… to dorky photographers who want to know these things.
Back to the shoot and Miss Brittany!
White Beauty in Black
So instead of rocking some lights I pulled my guns and stretched my mind into shooting with the intent of utilizing the great natural light of the cavernous expanse that was this drainage tunnel. What many people forget is the awesome reflective property that concrete tends to be. It’s actually quite a neutral surface which makes for a great reflector. Now it’s not going to replace an effective white reflector or the super efficient silver reflector from your gear bag, but in a pinch and properly used it’ll light a scene better than anything you could fit in your carry bag. In this instance size does matter so the giant grey cement makes for one huge, soft reflector that illuminates brilliantly, with just a hint of quick lighting fall off. The only downfall is that a giant soft reflector gives you soft even lighting with a lack of definition. This is true unless you tilt your model at an angle and take a picture from the opposite side of the light source, but then again not many people think of using the light source from the opposite angle. It works so I want you to try it!!!
Of course as you get deeper in the tunnel you lose quite a bit of light, but it’s still enough to get shots around ISO 800 or so with plenty of DOF to grab sharp photos. With the versatile posing ability Brittany has it’s easy to make some great shots from any location, but it seem sot me that her true model shines when we are in an awesome location like said tunnel. Photographers out there looking to shoot with Brittany better heed my warning and break out the epic locales and make this girl work for you so your port can just rock! Or not.. Sometime I get caught just thinking out loud on here.
Hope all of you enjoyed my words of wisdom and some killer images of the gorgeous temptress that is Miss Brittany “BRay” Ray. Leave a comment if you love it 