Rolling

A little while ago, my good buddy Jonathan ("The Rhino"), got sponsored due to his mad (if really annoying when you go against him) skills. and then,  somehow, I became his official photographer. 

We did a little test shoot to showcase the brand (Respect The Grind), and one of their products (now discontinued), and we also did a second shoot for his training before the ADCC trials (one of the biggest competitions and platforms in the sport).

For the test shoot, it was a three light setup most of the time, I didn't bring lightstands, so most of the time the lights are directly on the floor or propped in imaginative ways in the gym's columns. 

For the rolling it was all natural light, there was a bank of mirrors on the opposite wall to the main window, so the fill in was pretty good (on most angles), I would have loved to use speedlites on this shoot, but I did not have an assistant (I was going there to train, the photoshoot was very impromptu).

This pictures gave way to an idea of a bigger pictorial project I want to accomplish, and hopefully it'll get done for publication, soon. In the meantime, here are some of Jonathan's shots from the project and some from an event.

Thank you for reading.

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Family Time

Another shot from before our winter break.

Lisa and Jan are family friends, they wanted some pictures for their Christmas cards, so we met them in Wynwood with 3 TTL flashes, a 30cm Octa, and knocked some pictures out in a little less than an hour.

Normally working with kids is hard, but Gaby and Alex were a trip, and we truly enjoyed ourselves on this shoot.

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So... MMA Fighters, Lights, and this fat guy

Before I get into the details, I would like to mention how happy I am with Patty’s development as a photographer. Normally, she helps me carry (heavy) stuff, passes me lenses or triggers, and then helps me carry (HEAVY) stuff back, this time, she was responsible for setting pretty much every light, trigger, cable, you name it; and she did so perfectly (next time she’s also coming up with the lighting diagrams).

Anyway…

For the past month, we’ve been working on our printed portfolio; it’s been interesting (to say the least). After culling all our images, we settle on 50 or so images, and I realized that we could use some extra images (not all images will make it to the portfolio, but we realized that there weren’t that many “looks” in our images). So we got together with Zack Matthews (Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Blue belt, and fight coach), and Hector Trinidad Jr. (Pro fighter, and golden gloves boxer), for a little shoot.

Hector was fighting that night, so Zack didn't want him to go too hard. Still, they had fun throwing each other around, light sparring, and grappling, and we got some nice frames of them doing so.

Now, I like to always have a plan, but we didn’t even got a confirmation on the location until a couple of days before the shoot (so there was no scouting), but I did have some ideas as to what I wanted to get in terms of frames, Zach knew that I wanted the images for the portfolio, so he went above and beyond (suggesting poses, ideas, etc.), so I am very thankful to have friends like him on a shoot like that on those shoot.

All in all, it was a fun day, and I came back with several pictures, a million thanks to Zack and Hector.

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And back to CrossFit

I want to start by mentioning the importance of having a plan when you’re doing a shoot (so as to not waste anybody’s time, or in some cases, so you don’t waste what little time you have with the subjects), and always remember to check equipment before a shoot, I did have a handy checklist to pack everything, but (because stupid checklists are stupid), I forgot my power strips, and extension cords. We got lucky, as right across the street from our location, there was a Home Depot, but this was more of an annoyance, and it could have been a big problem for us had Home Depot not been that accessible.



Now back to the scheduled blog post, a couple of Sundays back, we went to Patty’s old CrossFit box, we got together again with Christian and Jorge, and a couple of additional athletes (Rene and Luis), to make some more pictures.

These shots are always challenging as this guys are not coming to pose and take pictures, but to exercise. We try to take this into consideration when approaching them, and particularly when we are setting up (as I mentioned before, you, or your equipment, do not want to be close to the weight drop zone, among other things). I usually try to keep things simple, and use as little equipment as possible, our first shoot with this guys was me, Patty, one lens, 5 speedlites, and a 30” octa (plus light stands)… not this time. I brought EVERY single piece of equipment and lights we own (granted, we didn’t use it all, but better to have it a not need it...), After seeing where we would be setting, we dialed back to two studio heads inside gridded 13x55 strip banks for edge lighting, and another one, high on a C-Stand, inside a 22” beauty dish as our main light (and this was the setup for most of the day, then we changed the beauty dish for a 60” Octa for the last portraits), and after we solve the little “power” issue, we got some frames.

I am always impressed, not only by these guys dedication, but by how accommodating they're... can't wait to work with them again.

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