Sturgis 75th Rally Countdown – Day 55, 157 days Remaining
I’m switching it up a bit and putting the daily pic on our blog. At the beginning of the year, I decided to put up one picture a day from the thousands of images we’ve made from the Sturgis rally over the years as celebration for the 75 years of the rally. This one shows some body painting by Mark Reid.
Broncolor Move 1200 L
Lighting is a big part of what I do. Whether it’s inside or outside, I use lights 99% of the time. In the studio, the Chimera F2 light bank does a great job at making lighting relatively easy. But outside is always a challenge since you never know what you’ll be faced with. I’ve tried numerous kinds of portable lights and modifiers and found that, for me, the Elinchrom Ranger RX AS worked very well – until I started shooting medium format. With such a shallow depth of field, the required amount of light is pretty significant. So much so, that the Elinchroms (with 1100ws of power) sometimes weren’t enough. Even though I had 3 packs, I was only getting 66% of the total power out of each pack because of the way the power is distributed. Combine that with shots at around f/11 or more, there were times when the lights were cranked up to full power and I could barely make it through 1 entire bike shoot before the power was drained. My Hasselblad-Bron rep suggested he bring the new Move 1200 L by for me to take a look at. I started reading about the lights and actually found no negative comments, except for the price. I kept them for several days and became familiar with them and realized these lights were well thought out. The full 1200ws is available from either channel, which was a big plus for me. The overall design and size also made them attractive. I ended up ordering 2 one light kits and will soon be using them on upcoming shoots. I’ll be writing more about them after I’ve had a chance to do some shooting with them in the next few weeks.
Shooting Cars
We got our first feature this month with a 1973 Ford Bronco. Jeff Kari of Scandia, MN spent many years working on this. His dream was to have it published in Truckin’ magazine. Once they saw what he was doing, they wanted as soon as it was finished. That was 4-5 year ago. Needless to say, Jeff spent a lot of time finishing it off. I got the call to shoot it last fall. Great job, Jeff.
Back again.
Been a while since I’ve written anything on the blog, but I’m going to try again – at least weekly. Many things have happened over the last year and Shooters Images keep growing. We’ve been shooting more bikes and doing more commercial shoots; and we are now shooting cars. More on that later. One of things we are currently working on is preparing for a photography exhibit we’ve been asked to do during the Sturgis Rally 2014. The Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City, SD has asked us to do a month long exhibit that coincides with the 2014 rally. The dates are roughly mid-July through mid-August, with an artist reception a few days before the official start of the rally. I’ll be posting specific dates later. The winery is beautiful and so is the gallery space. We are looking forward to the exhibit and are hoping for a good turnout.
