While in Spain I did check out modelmayhem.com to see if I could find a model to collaborate and test some of the techniques I had been learning and practiced only with my dummy in my lab. This can be a hit and miss, so far I have been mostly lucky. Nidia did respond very quickly and had some great ideas about locations where to shoot. The only draw back it is a very touristy area, which means potentially lots of distraction and people.
We did agree to meet on a Sunday morning early well before the shops or tours open. We did bet on good light and empty streets. This did mean that I would have to get up super early and drive 2 hours just for the session. Call it crazy or determination. The 5:00 wake up call was a lithe rough. and by 5:30 I was on the road which was mostly empty. I did drive into just as the sun was rising that alone was worth all the hassle. I had booked a parking close to the location and parked the car. The traffic had been so light that I was 45 minutes early. I started to set my camera with the correct settings and test my speed-lights. When I was done Nidia did show up we started to talk and walk toward the locations we had in mind we where lucky the street was empty. Not having an assistant or any stands I had to find other ways to set my lights and fire them remotely.
We had a great session with easy communication and creative energy. We did walk around to try a few different settings. Some worked, others I did take a few shots and others we walked right past. The only thing I did miss was to not shoot the closed store fronts covered in Graffiti. We ended the session on the big square just as the place and been cleaned and was still wet and people where only slowly emerging.
The session ended with a great coffee and big omelet to reward our efforts. We did go separate ways and I did take a short walk around. One the way home I did stop for some shopping for a new handbag. My camera and gear bag count still outnumber my handbags by a very large margin. Technically I always carry my Sony Rx100-m2 I guess that qualifies any bad as a camera bag
Gear used for the session : Sony A99ii, 70-400mm f4-5.6 (I know not the portrait lens, this was a landscape/ wildlife trip), 24-70mm f2.8 Zeiss, 2 godox speed-lights set to manual with the godox trigger.
Things will eventually go bad : So far it does sound like a perfect session and it mostly was. When I packed my bag I was afraid I may not have enough batteries and bought some supermarket brand batteries, not the cheap ones their “high end” stuff. I did place them in the lights to keep mine as backup. I am glad I did the batteries literally drained after only 10 shots at full power. Fortunately my eneloop PRO had enough power through the whole session.
Here the result from the session
