Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Detroit Transportation Corporation

Several months ago, I was in Detroit shooting for an engineering client of mine. I was there to shoot a few things for my client, a coal fired power plant as well as the Detroit People Mover.

The Detroit Transportation Corporation saw the images that I produced for my engineering client and asked me to shoot some additional images for them. The DTC wanted me to produce images that shows their People Mover within the urban landscape. This images is one of several images I did this past week.

Detroit is a beautiful city and the Detroit People Mover is celebrating it's 20th year in operation.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

VOA Portrait

I was contacted last week by the National Headquarters of the VOA "Volunteers of America" to photograph the chairman of the board David Kikumoto.

The lighting for this portrait was pretty much straight forward. I bounced one head into a white panel I had placed against the wall (camera left), the flash head had a 1/2 CTO gel over it. I placed a small Nikon SB-800 strobe behind the subject, I directed the strobe outside and up to light the wall on the right and above the subjects head.

I was asked to photograph David in a manner that would match another photo that would be appearing on the same page of the annual report. Client loved the photo and so did the subject.

I've been shooting professionally for 24 years, specializing in location work for annual reports and advertising clients. To view additional work, please go to tejadaphoto.com.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

PocketWizard Wonders!

I've have been asked to blog more frequently than I have been. Honesty, I don't know how David Hobby at Strobist.com finds the time to post. It seems that I am always working, either for a client or for the business. Actually, I should stop this post and get back to work... you know what I mean.

This photograph was done for Arch Coal, Inc., a St. Louis based coal company. I was shooting on the western slope of Colorado at their West Elk mine, near the town of Paonia. I had spent most the day underground shooting and at the end of the day I was able to set up a quick shot at sundown. If you look closely at the bottom left corner of the photo, you will see to workers dressed in yellow slickers. One of those workers is my assistant Erik Lawrence who has worked with me for about 8 years. I had Erik place a small strobe on a pipe fitting in order to light both he and the other worker.

The use of a PocketWizard was ideal for this situation. The PocketWizard is a small radio slave which allows me the ability to fire my strobes at great distances. This was the first time I had used this product, I have sense purchased 5 more. I'm not certain how far I was from the strobe but based on the fact that I was shooting with a Nikon 80-200mm zoom, I'd guess I was about 300-500 feet. Needless to say, I was impressed. You just can't make pictures like this with a tools sure as the PocketWizard.

Friday, February 09, 2007

In the office

I shot recently in Houston, Texas for an engineering client of mine. I spent the day shooting their employees working on projects and generally doing what they do daily.

I found a lighted drafting table tucked into an employees cubical. I arranged the table to allow me to see back into another cubical, this helps to show depth in the image. I used the lighted drafting table as the light source for the main subject. I also used 2 SB-800 strobes to add color in the foreground-blue- And to light the worker in the background. The strobe in the foreground has a full CTB gel over the strobe head and the rear strobe has a CTO on it.

My client also wanted general "Happy Employee" shots for their files. I set up a location that had a long hallway behind my subject. I set up a large softbox 24"X36" on a stand to the left of the subject(camera right). The softbox was powered with an SB-800 and a PocketWizard to fire it. Down the hall was another SB-800 on a stand with a purple gel and a LightBreak gobo to project a pattern on the rear wall. With the image below, the purple gel was replaced with a sepia color gel. I this photograph you can see the LightBreak pattern projected on the rear wall. These are very common portraits I have to do while on location.





I was also asked to photography a certain employee "Noe" with the Houston skyline in the background. The weather was very overcast and lightly misting off and on. Here is one of the photos of Noe using a wide angle lens. The subject was lit using a large softbox camera left. The softbox had a SB-800 strobe in it and it was fired by my PocketWizard and another SB-800 held by my assistant Erik camera right in order to put light on the railing further down past Noe. I than used a longer lens to compress the background. I hope you like them.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Chemical Weapons

The public address system screamed Dawn your MASK, Dawn your MASK. These are the words that greeted me as I was headed out to my car after a full day shooting at the Pine Bluff Chemical Weapons Dismantling Facility in Arkansas.

I was shooting for an engineering client of mine based in Boise, Idaho. One of the images my client wanted me to get was a cool looking control room shot. I was able to get two images in a short 25 minutes.

This first one was lit using 4 portable flash units, 3 SB-800's fired with pocket wizards and one Vivitar 283 with a grid over the flash head. One strobe pointed at the ceiling with a blue gel on it. Another mounted to the ceiling using a ceiling clamp, the strobe was set to a zoom setting of 105. The strobe is lighting the two individuals at the back control panels. There is another strobe behind the back console.


With this image I moved back a bit and put on my 80-400mm lens. I used a small Morris Mini Slave to lite the subject.

Hope you enjoy the post. My web site is http://www.tejadaphoto.com