I have always been interested in flash photography. The challenging but also daunting task of trying to manipulate synthetic light sources in a natural (outdoor) setting has been on my list of things to try and master, at least on a very limited scale, for quite some time now. As it so happened, my very close friends Steve and Misha asked me to be the photographer at their Maui, HI wedding this past December. The pressure of making sure their photos were a success originally caused me to decline their offer, but after some sweet talking on the part of Steve, I agreed to give it a go.
The wedding was slated to take place on a beach right before sunset, with photos of the family and happy couple to take place immediately after the wedding, during the actual sunset. I had about a month and a half to work out the multiple off camera flash system that I would need to pull off these shots, complete with commander and slave units. Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriend Liz agreed to serve as my model for a majority of the practice shots I took. My good friend Mike, also agreed to tutor me in a few lighting tricks that he learned while taking some university-level photojournalism classes at the University of Kansas.
While there was quite a learning curve needed to master the complexities of off-camera flash photography manipulation, I eventually got the hang of it and was able to pull off a few decent shots from several practice sessions. The biggest struggle was racing out to the field and getting everything set up before the sun went down completely! We must have looked like crazy-people running across the highway with camera bag and multiple tripods in tow trying to squeeze in a session in the 20 minutes between when Liz got home from work, and when the sun was completely set. All of the following were taken across the street from my apartment in Fort Collins, CO or just down the road at a lake in Loveland, CO.
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