The last day of the event came upon us yet again too fast. Of course it took even less time to finish that day to yet again force us to start traveling to the next gig. Before we left the Hawaiian islands we had two great last shoots. The first one was right outside our hotel room on the beach in the early morning light. As you can see we were up before the light had hit the beach front.
It was a beautiful day, couldn’t have asked for a nicer last day in Hawaii. Great blue skies, puffy clouds, and a slight breeze. Just talking about it makes me want to go back there right now and lay out on the beach chairs. It’s just that nice. I don’t why but it had occured to me while shooting this past week that i rarely use a wide f stop. I don’t normally up open. Not sure why that is but it seems like everything is 5.6 and deeper. Well with the waves i thought i would play with it a little bit. I could see the difference but it was that dramatic.
Anyways the reason we went down to the beach was for one to take portraits and two Pualani aid she would be happy to model for us again this time in a bikini and surf board. The tide was going out so naturally we put her on this reef so that everyone could get a shot from the beach. Of course not everyone stayed dry on this shoot, Dad volunteered to go out first with the paint pole and flash. Pualani was back lit so we had to use flash to bring in some light on her right side as you can see dad doing here. RC was shooting at the time getting things tested and setup so that everyone else could get the shot that wanted to go out in the water. Doesn’t Dad make a good assistant.
Well the shots were a hit and everyone wanted to go out. With only one flash rig setup they had to take turns, which they were good about. They lined up and waited for their turn with Pualani. I stayed behind on the shore getting shots of the group and the setup process. The whole thing was kinda interesting so it didn’t bother me none.
i did manage to get a couple shots of Pualani from the shore line. Since we couldn’t use HDR to bring out all the light from her to the background, and without getting into the water to use the flash setup, the only other options was to do it in post. It wasn’t too hard, just had to be careful of the lines of her body against the sky and the keeping the tone of her believable with the background. All in all it turned out half way decent. Not saying i want to switch fields just yet but it was fun.
Images captured with Nikon D3, AF-S 24-70, AF-S 70-200, on Lexar UDMA Digital Film