Portable Photography

Nigel

If you were to look at this photo where would you think it was taken?
a) in a nice warm studio
b) in a backyard with a neighbour's cat wondering around
c) in a supermarket with people knocking on melons in the background
d) in a basement with 6 foot ceilings
e) in an apartment

If you picked B then you are right.

Last night while packing for Ohio I received a phone call. A friend of mine needed photos, head shots, done quickly. For anyone that's knows me I am what they call a "saver", I believe the not so PC friendly term is "pack rat".

I have an apartment that's filled with stuff. With all my gear lying around on the floor as I was customizing my gear for the trip, there wasn't any room to photograph. I forgot about this when I was asked if I could take photos. After hanging up the phone this small detail dawned on me. Ack! Where to shoot.

I have two lighting systems. One portable and one not so portable. The portable one consists of a few sb-800s, some stands and some umbrellas (by photoplex). It's battery powered so I don't have to worry about cables for power. For heads shots it's perfect.

I set up a background by hanging it on the clothes line outside. Since the sun went down I didn't have to worry about light leaking into the set and luckily there was no wind. That would have caused a bit of fun with the umbrellas.

By the time Nigel showed up the make shift studio was ready.