[GOYA Strobist]: Golf Magazine Shoot

What have I been doing lately?

It's been a while since I got my arse off the chair to shoot something really new. I've been planning to shoot this re-creation of advertising shots (by only using small speedlights) normally seen on magazine covers for a while. The only thing that was keeping me off from executing the shoot was sheer laziness. I think about it too much, and talk about doing it too much with my friends to a point that the next time I'm gonna talk about it , I'll end up like the boy who cried wolf. In short I can say that it is enough to kick my butt to work.

Last Friday I texted my close friends Wantai, Kyrol(TT Strobist #1) and Jidin(GOYA Skateboard outing #1) for a quick GOYA outing near where Wantai and I stay. In the end it was just Wantai, his assistant Aidil and I. It was unfortunate that Kyrol had a hospital emergency and Jidin was flat out from a wedding shoot.

We shot these photos from 10.00pm-2.00am(the packing took a while) at a nearby park. Wantai and I took turns to model as a golfer. My guess is that you can find my photos in his blog or facebook. Enough talking, here are the final shots that gets my most star rating.

I love this shot because everything is in place, in position, in context, all the lights fired. The tee flew, and the ball flew, you can see the Footjoy brand on the glove and on the cap. The only thing I didn't realise was that the Adidas band was slightly covered by Wantai's pants. But shooting with my skimpy small 2.3 inch LCD? What the heck. It's a go!

If you want to learn how to shoot like this, and take control of your flash, enroll into my Commando Lighting Workshop here.



This shot gets my star rating too because of the same reason as the first image. You can't see the tee in this resized image, but in the actual size, the tee is still stuck in the ground but bent a little bit. True sign of a great golf swing eh?


How did I get the idea? From Nike's Tiger Woods slow-mo golf ad on YouTube:


Here's how we did it. Hopefully this information helps anyone who'd wanna give this a go. Let me know how your photos turn out ya? Cheers!

G.O.Y.A. Strobist at the Shah Alam Skate Park

G.O.Y.A photography Stands for (Get Off Your Arse or Get Off Your Ass-in American English) Photography. The acronym coined by the amazing music, editorial, Atlanta based photographer, Zack Arias, So I went out and went off my ass and shoot! These images should be images that are different, creative, fun and artistic, according to Zack.

Jidin, Akmal Adanan and I headed out to Shah Alam Extreme Park last Saturday. We wanted to catch the golden hour before sundown to get some blue sky. But when we got there, It was already 7.00pm and going dark. Took me a while to set up the lights after a "while" of not shooting at all.

The darnest thing happend, which is I brought everything else except the radio transmitter/receivers for the lights! What the..? Nevertheless, I really thank Jidin for lending us his radio triggers. Hence the two-light settings (because there's only two receivers, duh...)

Note to self: Never pack in separate bags. Lugging my camera backpack which has everything is better than trying to travel light. Otherwise, pack the night before with a checklist.

What I found out from this GOYA outing is that skateboarders are cool friendly dudes who just wanna have fun. Most important thing is not the lighting, but the composition and waiting for the perfect moment when the skateboarders are up in the air doin' their tricks.

Jidin has an undeniable killer shot, fit for editorial use. Me, felt rusty, but here are my "best" shots in 2-hours session 7.00pm-9.00pm, 10-OCT-09. Today wasn't my day, but definitely, I'm going back there to get my killer shot. Till then, I hope this will inspire all of us.

Chiao!

My best shot (Still unsatisfactory to me. Oh well...I got worse sets). Considering the dark sky/background, and I managed to create a separation light, I think it's OK. It's better without the arm's shadow casting on the face though.



My second best shot. The one and only our in-house talent, Jidin, about to grind on the concrete.


Not exactly the best photo, but I just like the lighting. Perhaps a fish-eye lens would be great to capture the shop lights in the background.


Another grind shot, last call before heading home.



Yes I know you're wondering how we did it. So here it is, as simple as I can explain. Shots taken at exposure of 1/40s f4, ISO 400. Camera, lens? Doesn't matter.