The DLWS workshop in Hawaii with Moose and RC included a number of formal and informal sessions on portraiture and external flash photography.

You will see a photo taken by Sheng Huang showing me using off camera flash to capture a portrait of fellow workshop attendee Isamu Maruhashi, with George Paganini (the token American in our group) performing the role of VAL (voice activated light-stand).

The purpose of the morning assignment was to take a series of natural light portraits of group members using the ambient light, followed by a second series using off camera flash. The second series enabled us to under-expose the ambient light and pump some strobe light as the main source of light into the frame. As the 4 guys in our group were all Nikon shooters we were able to pool our strobes and jump seamlessly between CLS and manual settings.

The natural light shots were helped by the beautiful 7am sunlight as it hit the island of Kauai. It was during this assignment we were informed we were required to provide at least one ambient and one flash photograph for inclusion in the slide presentation that evening. Having a quick look around, we saw most were taking it rather safe and obtaining some headshots and 3/4 length photos. We decided as a group we wanted to do something a little different for our submitted flash photo, so as you can see from the behind-the-scenes shot (photo by George), I got down low on the sand and nominated Isamu to be the glamour model.

With the assistance of Sheng holding the lights, I asked Isamu to start jumping and put on his angry Japanese expression, which he pulled off admirably. The end result was a great action shot which was able to be captured through the use of 2 external flashes (CLS) and under-exposing the ambient light by 2 stops. The photo was very well received at the presentation and I wouldn’t be surprised if Isamu has this framed on his desk by now.

As much as I try to exclude photos of myself on this site, there is one I have to share. As I was standing in front of the other photographers performing the role of supermodel; instructor and world renowned wildlife photographer Moose Peterson wandered over to our group, grabbed a Nikon D3, dialled in his own settings and rolled off 2 shots of me. Here’s the photo, taken by Moose, straight from camera. And yes, I do see the humour in the fact it takes a wildlife photographer to take a decent photo of me….

The three photos of the girls (the instructor’s daughters) were taken at the Koloa Sugar Mill the previous day, and were natural light towards the end of the day.