a small gift.....

05 December 2010
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I had some opportunity to do some shoot with Toma before.... she has a great face for camera..... short sessions, but productive..... one of the best things with in-laws is that you can always ask them to feature in front of the lens.... and they just do as told.... anyway, this time it was a bit different, as Toma was no longer alone.... she was with her life-partner, Liton.... I missed their marriage ceremony, but was privileged to get the opportunity to have them together in a frame.... and this session would also remain in memory for long, as they plan to fly to Australia after some days..... it was a gift to them..... God bless the new-married couple!








this was basically the first time I had done a photoshoot with a couple since becoming a strobist.... the challenges were many..... the subjects were no models; so had to instruct a lot.... sometimes, banked on some spontaneous moments..... has decided to use basically one light to illuminate them...... the Simpex 50x120cm softbox played the real trick.... the idea was to use the softbox as a strip-light.... the control of light with this modifier was superb!...... I was using this modifier for the second time..... the first time was during the graffiti shoot (check the last post)...... but that time, it was without the diffusion material..... the Elinchrom Ranger was the power source..... somewhat below 200w/s power...... used an SB-900 at 1/4 power with a DIY grid as a hair-light (in SU-4 optical trigger mode) on an improvised boom stand.... the light didn't really feature that much when I was shooting both of them..... I did some practice shots with Toma where the hair-light was good enough though..... well, lets see, need to improve upon this a bit..... and on another point, perhaps a reflector on the opposite side would've added a little bit more highlights on the shadow side.... but hey, perhaps another day..... I'm still learning!!

I was using f10 on the venerable 28-80mm lens for good enough depth..... to keep two people sharp was a bit of a challenge.... at f10, the SB-900 was a bit underpowered at 1/4 power..... that was probably one of the reasons why the hair-light wasn't featuring much...... the grid reduced it further..... it was a bit of necessity as I didn't want the hair-light to create flares on my lens...... I didn't want to push the power more, as I also wanted to keep a bit of recycle time in my hand.... and ultimately that little recycle time produced the images I wanted....

up there once again!!

Second High-Rise Graffiti Shoot
03 December 2010
Dhaka, Bangladesh

we knew we had to go there again..... that was the impression we had the last time we toiled to climb those 10 floors.... the rarity of such items made us take the pain last time and we simply weren't satisfied enough..... now, just a few days back, Zaim came up with another proposition, stating the increase in the number of graffiti there... we simply couldn't resist.... we jumped into organising the second venture there.... though the number of participants weren't awfully high..... yet, the enthusiasm was there 100%.... big thanks to Zaim for making this happen and also thanks to all the participants for making a fantastic enjoyable event!

this time, we also had several models with us...... Ornob and Rafi were great subjects...... these two friends of Ashif were superb!!.... big hands for Ashif for bringing them .... they were not only great in front of the lens, they had great enthusiasm and energy...... we moved around so much with our setups; yet they were never tired a bit.... they enjoyed the event as much as we did..... and our fellow photographer Nasif was also superb in front of the lens.... he showed his multi-talented traits with pride....

it was a morning venture with intention to close off by mid-day, though we overshot our targeted timing pretty easily..... winter days are short, which is why we opted for morning rather than afternoon hours..... we started to gather right after 9:00AM, but we couldn't start our shoot before around 10:30AM.... it was a first timer for me with the Ranger unit.... the first test was portability.... it passed the test pretty much comfortably.... around 10kg weight up to 10th floor.... well, thats a good start..... I'm still alive.... didn't really end up testing the power of the unit, but we did test its ability to stop action.....

I had the privilege to help others and got some pics myself as well.... the first effort was to shoot some funky portraits..... I started off with the Elinchrom Ranger, shooting through a 60x60cm softbox... the light was overhead, while an SB-900 illuminated the background through a DIY grid spot.... Nasif was seriously moody here....





then added another light behind Nasif on a tripod (SB-900 on SU-4 optical trigger mode) to give some edge light.... also told Ashif to hold a foldable reflector (white side) to bounce a Canon 430EX flash off it.... that reduced the shadows created on Nasif's face as he turned away from the main light....



next, illuminated Ornob with a single gridded SB-900..... this created a really funky look....





and then brought in the Elinchrom Ranger with the 60x60cm softbox to do a similar shot, but in a different mood..... used the surface of the newly acquired 50x120cm softbox as a go-bo, preventing light from creating highlights on the wall.... thanks to Ashif, Nasif and Dhrubo for taking the pain holding the go-bo up there....



Nasif then featured under the same set-up....



then it was time for action..... the Ranger got the 50x120cm softbox without the diffusion material..... the idea was to stop action keeping the subject in focus and having minimum exposure on the graffiti wall.... Rafi, Nasif and Ornob produced a great series to ubran warriors..... it was a great shoot and utterly hilarious!!













that was the end of the session with the action shots..... we almost forgot how much time we had crossed..... we packed up almost in a hurry..... but not without getting a really creative group shot...... Dipa has the image in her portfolio..... that was the last fun for the day..... while we were packing up, we discussed the fact that the place it probably counting its days as a photography venue for us..... that made us think whether we could utilise this superb place once again!