I've been keeping an eye on this week's featured photographer, Ed Pingol from San Francisco. I noticed Ed's photos in the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool and immediately went to look for more of his work. His lighting style is pretty impressive. He manages to shoot some of the sexiest formals (future FF post) I've ever seen, all with the power of of his ambient light deleter flash stick.

 

Ed Pingol writes about "deleting the ambient" Monica (my wife) and I were presented a huge problem with busy cluttered backgrounds of freeways, street post with wires and people walking to and fro. we needed to "delete" everything and try to manage a decent picture on the process. This technique can be applied anywhere and can easily be done as long as you have the capability of off camera flash. a definite "must-add" for your bags of tricks if you don't have it yet already. My off camera flash "light stick" consist of 2 sb-28 flashes mounted on a flat bracket triggered by a pocket wizard (also mounted on the same flat bracket). you can easily get one from ebay for $7! make sure you search for "multipurpose flash bracket". This little setup is then mounted on a "Bogen 3232 Swivel Tilt Monopod Head" which allows me to... well, tilt my flash heads to any direction i want, which gives me a lot more creative freedom when compared to simply attaching the flat bracket straight onto a monopod. ****UPDATE**** I found this forum post that showcases Ed's how to's on the strobe setup... Thanks for putting this together ED! Here is Ed's post on deleting the ambient: I placed Monica who is holding the "light stick" 5 feet behind the couple. the flashes were both set at 1/1 (full power) with a beam spread of 24mm (the widest setting). when your f-stop is adjusted to compensate for the light stick's bright flashes we automatically delete most of the ambient light and are left with what is pictured above. A question that is brought up often is "why 2 flashes"? well, a cool thing about shooting with 2 instead of one is you can double your light output. but the main reason why i shoot with 2 is because of those times when i don't need to shoot at full power. i double the speed of recycling time because shooting @ 1/2 power with 2 strobes is equal to shooting @ 1/1 with a single strobe.

 

Kewl! I must admit, I haven't once used 2 flashes on one rig but now that I think about it, I think there are definitely some situations where 2 heads are for sure the way to go! Especially outside in bright bright daylight! I look forward to seeing Ed's stuff on formals, you are really going to enjoy the time he puts into making his portraits! Anyone get inspired by this or have a photo examples? Please give Ed your thoughts! Cheers! Matt

Have you ever seen a Mayan Ritual performed at a wedding??? I for sure hadn't until my last wedding! I got this set of keepers at one of my last gigs in the Riviera Maya.... My 11/17/07 bride totally surprised her guests with an entertainment performance that I must admit, was absolutely unbelievable! I was getting ready to photograph one of the most insanely exotic sequences of images I have ever captured during a day of matrimony... I was aware there would be evening entertainment, but 12 ornately dressed Mayan warriors with head dresses that will give you nightmares......uuhhh, na. didn't quite visualize that! So howa bout on the spot thinking of "what the hell do I do to make these images dramatic" type thinking... well, I put on my cap of creative flash how too... and came up with these images... Actually, I didn't have time to think, i just started shooting. I shot almost 100 frames of this 30 minute dance... here are a few of my fav's... Camera and flash settings: 5d, 1250 ISO, 1/30th, 2.8! If you have ever read any other of my posts, this would be old news to you. Slave flash set to 1/64th.... again, old news. I did occasionally boost the flash to FULL power... can you guess which ones? Is this SICK or what??? at this point, I was becoming a Mayan Warrior myself.... These guys were flying around at MACH speed, going in circles, jumping in the air, screaming death chants! I was trying my best to move with the wolf pack until this guy got in my face (i think he was the leader of the pack)... but anyway, he literally looked at me and belted this whoooaaaaaaahhhhhh scream in my face, which I must admit, intimidated me.... Here he is again, keeping an eye on me... This is one of my FAV's from the sequence. I wanted to backlight this crew to showcase the layers of this madness. Fill with on camera 580... here is a sneak peek at our setup... (only 1 slave speedlight) and the grand finish...(this appeared to be a kill, one warriors strength over another) I just thought I'd post this to help you out for the next time you encounter Mayan warriors..... insane eh? Thoughts? Cheerios, mateo PS: ***Update*** I thought I'd give you a little heads up as to why it is that FF gets updated SO lamely... I'm just plain busy. 14 weddings in the month of November..no thanksgiving yum yum for this turkey! Both Sol & I and our Associate shooter are working our ARSSES off so its difficult to keep up with this blog. Just give me a break if you come back to see we haven't updated this thing. Almost 100 weddings in 2007... whewwww.... I need a break! 2008 isnt any different... we already have 50 weddings booked up to MAY! What the hell is wrong with me????

I just wanted to say thank you David Hobby at Strobist for your kind words and recognition. David has helped both Sol & I achieve publication in 3 magazines, around the world... all in the last 2 months! David Hobby is one of the super heros of internet marketing. If you sell anything marketed to photographers, you should be advertising on his site. He has zillions of readers and the come back again and again for a reason! He continues to keep the photo world informed and now he is offering a contest :) for folks who enter images into the strobist flickr pool!. I think that pool needs some HOT wedding photography representation! So if you are a wedding shooter, please submit your images there so we can represent!

 

Many Thank YOUS to all the people who called, wrote and commented on our blogs with congrats to us on our special day... The love is very appreciated.

 

 

Here are a few images that were shot by some of my photographer friends who were guests at my Dec 6 2007 wedding. Be sure to check links to their site to see a few more images from the sneak peek :) ***Disclaimer*** Sergio Photographer was the official commissioned photographer for this event, his mack daddy images coming soon! Sergio was digging on the FF at my wedding, so maybe we can see his techniques here :)

 

****UPDATE**** Checkalo Sergio's photos: Sergio Photographer Slideshow and his blog: Sergio BLOG Here are a few of his images... This one is ALL of my photographer buddies :) after a few BIG glasses of Don Julio...

 

Guest photographer friends: These few images from previous FF poster, Mark Adams, from LaCour. Ok, so I liked the Mayan Warrior thing! And these from my amigo, Chris Savas. Chris works as a commercial photographer shooting events all over the world. He showed up to my wedding with a Mark III and a Canon 300 2.8 with a 1.4 extender... sheesh, that combo is heaver than me! And here are a few from my amgio, Ben Chrisman. Ben Chrisman is a compositional FREAK! I am blown away by his stuff, just amazing work. He likely won't be featured on FF because he doesnt slave flashes, nada! I've been thinking of doing and "Anti-Flash Flavor" post though... Ben would make a perfect candidate! Hit his blog to see several more of my wedding, including me SLAMMING tequila! Viva Don Julio Reposado This one of Sergio in action And these from my friend, Matt McGraw. I took 15 dance lessons! Here are a few from my bud, Patrick Williams this is the group photographer shot.... THANK YOU to all my photog buddies who snapped a few frames, I'm sure I'll be seeing some more here soon :) Cheers, mateo y sol