Playing with a reflector

I usually just shoot natural light which is great, but it has its limitations. Sometimes, you just have to have some extra light thrown in to make a decent shot to a good one.

A coworker of mine asked me if I could do a photo shoot with his son who was visiting him from California. He didn't have any recent photos of him so he took this as an opportunity to get some done while he was in town.

We all met up one afternoon at the Ft. Worth Stockyards. On the way there, I realized that maybe this will be a cool shoot to start playing with a reflector. So I stopped by Arlington Camera and picked one up. I had my godson with me so I could spend some time with him afterward, and I figure why not put him to work so he's just not carrying my bag and watching my stuff for me.

My coworker is a graphic designer also, and he used to be a Creative Director for a big diving company so the pressure was on to get some good shots that he will like. He's mentioned to me before that he used to work with plenty of photographers while he was a Creative Director, and he would get kind of ticked off when the photogs turned in hundreds of photos and NONE or maybe one photograph would be usable. Yeah... pressure. He told me at the beginning of the shoot that I would have the creative freedom, and that all he was looking for was for me to capture his kid's personality.

His kid, Cody, was cool but a bit timid. He was 15 at the time so naturally he was only doing this to throw his dad a bone. He had this alternative look going for him. He had his ears pierced and a bit gauged. So I figure I'd go for something edgy, something you'd see in an album cover of a punk/emo CD.

His timidness had me a bit concerned about getting him comfortable in front of a camera, but that all went away after the first click. The kid was a natural. It would not have surprised me if he has done shoots before. Here's how they turned out...


In most of the photos, Cody had a serious look, but every once in a while we had to take a smiling one for his dad. =)



This was kind of nerve wracking since there was a full blown wasp's nest over his head, but the scene was too good to pass up.


I had my godson, Mark, to hold the reflector and throw the light right behind him at this green wall. With not having much experience with a reflector, I was just kind of hoping that a part of the light would hit him. And it did.




This photo pretty much sums up the modern, teenage kid.


The fun part about shooting at the stockyards is the variety of scenes, from saloons to back alleys, the solid colored walls and walls with writing and graffiti all over them.







Cody's dad just wanted solo photos of him, but I had other plans. This was a great opportunity to get him in the shot and be a bit creative with it. I wanted to have the shot look as if Cody was a vagabond and his dad a stranger who walks by him then shoots him a "WTF?" look. This old abandoned theater made a the perfect setting. I had to take this first shot out in the street to get both of them... yeah I almost got run over lol




Last shot of the day.


This was a fun shoot. Not bad for having it done just right after noon. For most of the shoot we kept it in shaded areas and just using the reflector to catch some of the sunlight and using it to our advantage. It was a great learning experience. Most important lesson learned... having an assistant at a shoot. Made things soooooo much easier. THANKS MARK!

GZ