Something new, for me at least

Today I did a couple things that I don't ever do — I re-shot an assignment, and I lit it with something other than natural light. Now for most folks these are probably fairly normal occurrences, but not so much for me. Now, I'm not saying that I haven't needed to do both at times — oh boy, I definitely have — but today it kinda worked out that way.
A couple weeks ago I shot a feature on a clay artist that was to run this coming week with an advance about the upcoming clay artists association show. It was an everyday sorta feature — go to his house/studio, shoot some pix as he worked, to be used as a section front. Rod Maxwell-Muir has been making various things from clay for more than 50 years and he works rather quickly. I shot it fast while the light was really working against me. When he was done I had the feeling that he didn't want to do anymore, so I left with what I had, which was okay, but it wasn't really that good IMO. On my way out I noticed this great vantage point on his back porch looking into his studio, but knew it wouldn't work without some lighting inside. It hit me a few days later (I'm kinda slow sometimes), Dude, you totally have the gear to light that thing and make it work (plus I just got a new softbox for my 300 watt strobe for shooting weddings... ). So I called him up and he was very gracious and he let me come by tonight while he was throwing a pot. Here are the results — I have to say I truly never use strobe to light assignments (save for indoor sports), but I really liked how this worked out. I think it will definitely give me confidence to do both again some time in the future if I need to.



-DKM