I always remember the advice of world renowned photographer Joe McNally “If you get boring pictures, put something more interesting in front of your camera”. It is a main reason I started doing projects with circus artists, such as Zoja.
She wanted to do a shoot involving fire and rappelling while wearing a fancy costume. How could I possibly say no to that? There are a couple of big rocks on Blackford Hill used by climbing enthusiasts, and this was the obvious location for the shoot. We met about an hour before sunset, when the light is good and I can control it easily with speedlights.
The importance of the subject trusting the photographer is often stressed. For this first set up, the feeling had to be mutual. I had no problem since I know Zoja is very good at what she does.
After we got the shots we were after, a tree caught my eye and I set up a couple of lights, one for Zoja and the other for the tree. I fired a few frames but it wasn’t Zoja’s favourite type of location and the light levels were falling fast, so we moved to another rock for the final set up.
I used a simple two light set up with one speedlight camera right to reveal the texture in the rock and the other speedlight camera left on Zoja. I was on my belly shooting up to maximise how much rock and minimise how much grass would show in the frame.
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