The next day my phone rang and they said they were desperately needing images as an advert had been pulled. I decided to dump the day and gallop off to fill space for the national. This is not a post about wasting an entire day and evening supplying images that bore no resemblance to the published written article, but it is a post about trying to make things work in less than ideal circumstances.
A long held mantra of mine, if you can call it that, is that a good photographer should be able to conceptualize and execute a decent usable image no matter the circumstances and limitations of the situation. Not having "the right lens" and "the light was bad" are two default excuses for bad images that my students seem to never grow tired of offering.
So it was that I had half a day to source and schedule a string of photo shoots as per the scantest of briefs that photojournalists always seem to receive. One of the shoots was at a Monastery with the alarmingly rural name of Mariya uMama weThemba Monastry and Guesthouse. Due to scheduling and deadlines I managed to arrange to meet the brothers, at about 14.30 when they would be happy to don their habits too. Knowing full well the light was going to be bad I at least consoled my self with the knowledge that they would be wearing nice rustic brown robes the same as in the days of old and that this would surely be graphically pleasing.
Under a burning, bright, cloudless, African sky I arrived for the shoot ... only to see the brothers wearing their white robes. It must have been brown robe wash day!
Anyway, as most photographers know white in bright light does not lend itself to simple exposures. The obvious thing was to take them indoors but the brief demanded "location and vista". I took them indoors anyway as there was a great window looking down into the valley. I bit of off camera fill flash took care of balancing and matching the outdoor light. Despite this, I was only successful in keeping detail in the valley, but lost it in the sky.
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| Canon EOS 7D. Sigma 18-50mm at 23mm. ISO 100. f/8@1/60th. External remote fired bounce flash at half power. |
Working along the same principle I asked the two brothers to chat under the deep shade of a tree and hid the off camera flash behind the tree's trunk. Under powering the flash by about 1/2 meant I was able to maintain detail in the back as well as foreground.
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| Canon EOS 7D. Sigma 18-50mm at 18mm. ISO 100. f/9@1/45th. External remote fired flash at half power. |
In the next photo I wanted them walking through the gardens and couldn't avoid the fact that they would be in bright mid-day sun. I under exposed by 2 stops so as to maintain detail in their robes, knowing that I'd maintain and deepen the blue sky but would maybe lose detail in the shadows. A little post production meant that I had a little to work with and could fractionally burn in some detail in each Brother's habit.
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| Canon EOS 7D. Sigma 18-50mm at 18mm. ISO 100. f/16@1/60th. |
The final image just had to be taken. White robes and white peach blossom in a gorgeous garden. I took an aerial (ad)vantage by scrambling past the resident beehives and into the koppie/rock hillock. This time unfortunately I just didn't manage to under expose enough, only 1 stop, and you will see that some detail is lost and the sky is not quite as rich.
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| Canon EOS 7D. Tamron SP70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC. ISO 100. f/8@1/60th. |
So although not perfect, some usable shots at least came out of the 50mins spent with the brothers. And it goes without saying (as I so often seem to end up saying) a little pre planning, even if it is a list of four or five spots to begin working from goes a long way, especially when it comes to pandering to silly deadlines.
(Thanks to Brothers Timothy and Julian for allowing me their time and their hospitality whilst roaming the monastery gardens)
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