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!

morning strobist......

22 October 2010
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

after an extremely hectic week, this was a must actually..... the week contained only four days because of Durga Puja holidays on Sunday.... yet, the week seemed so long.... last weekend's Rajshahi tour seems like weeks ago..... its a pity how the hectic city life is making us age so quickly.....we have to find our ways to survive.....

anyway, Rumi Bhai took the initiative.... we planned to go outside Dhaka on some small strobist effort.... but it didn't materialise as some of us dropped out because of personal engagements..... so, we had to live with something shorter.... much shorter.... we met early in the morning at Mohammadpur and decided to venture to one of our old hunting grounds, Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayerbazar..... the idea was to spend some time talking and also to shoot some pictures, as opportunities came by..... we also kept the option of practicing some strobist stuff..... actually that was the most important motivation and we were prepared..... we had quite a few flashes among three of us.....


the guy was completely insane.... he continued with his fiery speech whether anyone listened to him or not.... and he was breaking the rule just like other "sane" people, so can't blame him for standing and walking on the altar....



children playing cricket on the historical premises.....
little do they know that they are the ones expected to create history in the days to come.....


although we spent some time shooting some available light lifestyle and landscape shots, we soon figured out that our strobes were still in the bag.... the weather was gloomy to start with, as there was the tropical storm Giri looming over the Bay of Bengal..... but the sun did win its place and illuminated the massive Monument with morning lights.... we spent our time under the cool shades of the numerous trees there...

once we accumulated all our flashes, we came up with the idea of trying to overpower the sun.... or at least, test the potential of speedlites to overpower the sun.... we had five flashes, but to sync them together was something we haven't done before.... two Canon flashes and three Nikon flashes..... how do we do it?..... we had in short of radio triggers..... Rumi Bhai's radio triggers (Yongnou RF 602/C) could trigger only two flashes... I also had Elinchrom Skyport that could trigger only one flash.... I knew that the SB-900s can shoot in SU-4 mode, utilising the light from other flashes as the trigger..... so, thats it.... five flashes...... we tested the flashes and they all synced.... Rumi Bhai was surprised to see his radio triggers working with my D700, as he thought they were only supposed to work with Canon flashes.....

we used all available resources to mount the flashes in the right places..... to overpower the sun, I had to dial down the aperture to f16 and had to utilise the full power of all the flashes.... the radio trigger seemed quite unreliable, as it regularly decided not to shoot..... but after some random pressing, they somehow worked.....



Rumi Bhai volunteered to feature in front of the camera and Pervez kept the two SB-900s in his hand behind the single umbrella, which was constantly under thread from the slight breeze..... the edge lighting was provided by a Canon 430EX and an SB-900..... the SB was on the ground, while, to better utilise the 430EX, I had to put it on a higher platform..... a local boy (Ziaur Rahman) was among the substantial crowd of onlookers enjoying our madness..... he helped us keeping the flash away from the floor....

setup......


it was by no means a perfect shoot, but it was another step to learning more.... and that was a big enough motivation to do this..... can't wait for the next effort....