I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while, and a photo I took last night gave me a good opportunity to get to it. I hope to make it a regular feature. If anybody reading this has a good suggestion for one of my photos you’d like to see deconstructed then let me know in the comments or send me an email.

This shot stems from needing a portrait for a local online arts magazine, SPOKE(a)N(e), that was doing a profile on my photography and I thought it would be a good opportunity to play around with some ideas I’d had (see the interview here). The full concept came together in a quick brainstorm while standing in the back yard where Gina was fixing the treehouse ladder and the girls were riding their bikes & scooters with their friends.

1. AlienBee 800 with a beauty dish & grid. 1/2 power. This is the main light that’s lighting the front of me and the front of the treehouse.

2. Vivitar 285 flash on 1/2 power. Gives me some separation from the dark background as an effective rim light.

3. Olympus Fl-36 fl on 1/4 power propped up on the tree & shot through a 20″ softbox. This light is meant to light the girls. Had to have Kelsey lean way forward & Reagan stand in back with baby G in the middle (& standing on a foot stool) so the light would hit them all.

4. Another Vivitar flash sitting under an umbrella behind the girls in the treehouse. Not sure of the power & it was meant to separate the girls from the sky. Didn’t exactly do what I needed. I probably should have propped it up on a tripod so it was higher.

5. Rebounder/trampoline that launched me in the air. If only I could carry one of these on the basketball court, I could probably dunk.:)

6. The most expensive prop ever. My Nikon D3. Didn’t even turn it on.

This was shot with my soon to be sold Olympus E-3 with the ZD 14-54mm lens on a tripod. The lights were triggered with Cybersyncs. Settings: 14mm (28mm at the 35mm equiv) f/10, 1/13 (trying to keep a little sky in the photo), ISO 200. Post processing done in Lightroom & resized/sharpened in Photoshop.

Thankfully I had awesome models for this shoot who were just happy to stay outside a little longer than they would have been able to if dad wasn’t working on something. The MVP for it goes to Gina who had to hit the shutter button at the exact time when I was at my apex, and did every time. She made it look so easy, I’m thinking about dropping her pay.

If I left anything out, ask in the comments & I’ll get you an answer.