The Land of Popular Photography...

I was recently approached by Popular Photography Magazine and asked to contribute to a "How To" lighting column. They specifically asked to use a shot I produced for a personal project in which I photographed a group of small town police officers... Pop Photo wanted to use this particular shot to highlight solutions to obstacles presented when shooting into the sun. I said "yes" immediately, and for one simple reason: years ago when I was the photographer for my high school yearbook and had just begun to realize my passion for this light sensitive craft, Popular Photography was the very first magazine I subscribed to... nostalgia. Pop Photo's editor, Peter Kolonia, was gracious and awesome as we put together the column... visit your newsstand or subscribe today!

The overall project is entitled "Has Anyone Seen America Lately?" My idea is to travel this great land of ours and use this lighted pano technique to capture all the everyday unique and fantastic folks I can get my hands on... folks like the Martindale, Texas Police Department (see above), World Champion Gun Twirler Pistol Packin' Paula, and Xaden the red-headed firestarter. I'll write more about this project in the coming weeks... I need to muster up some funding first... wanna help?

In the mean time, check out the article in Popular Photography, and watch this Behind-The-Camera-Timelapse below.

I underexposed the ambient light in the scene by two stops. I used four Canon Speedlites to mimic the sun by wrapping light around the subject. Each strobe was equidistance from the subject and each reduced by 1/2 power in relation to the one before it. The strobe furthest from the camera (and closest to the sun) was at full power, and the one closest to the camera was at 1/8 power. This allowed the light intensity on the subject to fall off gradually as it wrapped towards the front of the face. They were triggered using the ST-E2. Each subject was captured separately on my 5D and later compiled in Photoshop. I don't want to give away all the details... need to save a few for the Pop Photo article. Fun stuff!!!