Carey and I met outside Davies Hall for our shoot; I chose the location because it would link him to his orchestra in a simple way, by showing it in the background. In order to keep the background clear of clutter, I mainly shot from my knees or laying on the sidewalk.
In order to get more of the building, I mainly used the Hasselblad HC 50
, but this first shot is done with the 80mm. I did goof a little by forgetting to check my ISO and ended up shooting these at 200, which I used to shoot Mitch Tobias two days ago, but I think they're fine because there was tons of light.
I haven't applied my flavor layers in Lightroom because I am work from an old G4 Powerbook, and it's choking on these huge files. Also forgive me if the files are dusty, I switched lenses quite a few times, and it was very windy. All of these are lit with a 2'x2' Profoto softbox with a softgrid, we were in such a public place (right across from city hall) I didn't dare to use anything bigger lest I attract police attention.
I like how this one seems to imply that he's walking to a performance, ready to play. Also, the balance of flash to daylight is much more subtile.
In this last one, Carey is actually playing; to me it has a much more abstract feel to it, it seems to ask more questions than answer. The wind started to kick up and blow his hair around, but I kept shooting because after all, it is a wood-wind he's playing, so thematically I think it still works.
I will re-process these when I get home on Monday and see what else needs to be done to improve them. In the mean time, I still have three more portfolio reviews to do tomorrow, as well as a couple seminars. I am really enjoying the camaraderie here, if you haven't been to an event like this, I strongly suggest you seek one out in your area. The next one I know of is in Palm Springs in March.
