The Bastille Wall

A few weeks ago climber, Matt Lloyd, took me out to Eldorado Canyon. It’s a beautiful canyon about 20 minutes from Boulder, Colorado that you reach by a driving through the quaint town of Eldorado Springs. Most of the climbs here are trad (traditional – meaning you have to place your own protection), and the ratings are pretty stout. But it’s someplace I want to explore a lot more.

Enjoy a few selects from the shoot.

I’m just getting settled in here in Boulder. It’s pretty quiet here since all the students are gone for the holidays. My drive out here last week was pretty eventful. I left St. Louis on Monday morning expecting to reach Boulder by about 10pm. About an hour and half outside of Kansas City I hit the massive blizzard that cut through the Central US. It was quite sudden. It went from rain to dangerously snow covered roads in what seemed like a matter of seconds. Cars were off the road everywhere. I ended up spending the night in Hays, Kansas to wait out the blizzard. The mountains were shining beautifully by the time I was driving through Denver, welcoming me in. I’m glad to be here now, I can’t wait to find out what is in front of me. Whenever Fed Ex finds my skis that they lost, I will head up to Keystone or Breckenridge and get my season started.

A few days before I left I took photos of my friend, Jared, who’s a performance pianist in the beautiful Auer Hall at Indiana University. We got to the hall after midnight thinking it would be empty, but an organist was about to record for her class. She allowed us half an hour to get our shots done. Working without an assistant meant it went slower than it could have.

The last shot we hurriedly set up the lights as the organist was rushing us out. I switched to my 70-200mm for this shot and got low on the stage. We quickly got our stuff out of the concert hall so the organist could record.

I would rather work having more time and options, but I like knowing that I can work with so little.

I tend to move fast and light. Discussing our approaches to photography a while back, Casey Brooks and couldn’t be more different when it comes to equipment. I carry everything in a backpack, using what I can for light stands, light modifiers, and scrims. Casey said, “I like to work out of a truck.” She has a lot of equipment, and it’s awesome! I wish I had all everything she has. But we made very different choices after we graduated school. She has worked to establish herself in the fashion photography world, and she’s killing it! She continues to pump out amazing project after amazing project; continually getting better. I moved myself all the way across the world, working mostly on my own and on the fly.

In college we were not really taught anything about lighting with off-camera speedlite flashes; so I spent a lot of time playing and figuring out how it works. Messing around is the best way for me to learn new ways of doing things, but also reading blogs like David Hobby’s The Strobist helped to inspire me.

Sikkim, India (December 2009)

I started traveling with the Orbis Ring Flash, and it became an invaluable part of my photography set up. By using it as an off camera diffused light and holding it away from the camera it helped me create these travel portraits.

In the past year, maybe two, I have done the great majority of my photoshoots using only off-camera speedlites. They are easily modified and easily moved. It’s quick set up and take down. With proper modifiers you can make the quality of light almost anything you want. There are of course down sides, but you learn to work around them.

My former professor of photography, friend, and (for a brief time) former boss, Rob Curfman asked me to come do a presentation for his Photo Illustration class at Indiana Wesleyan University. I always love an opportunity to meet up with Curfman.

He asked me to give a presentation on off-camera lighting to his class that has been experimenting with these techniques. I am really glad he has added this to his course, it will prepare his students much better for working in real life situations. That being said, the world of “strobist” photography has changed drastically in the three years since I’ve been in school.

The class steps out into the cold yet beautiful late afternoon light to experiment with a few different lighting techniques. I start with the built-in Canon E-TTL wireless system (Nikon CLS equivalent) which uses a Canon Speedlite 580EXII as a master commander unit and 430EXII’s as slave units. From the 580EXII you can control different groups of slave flashes through the infrared signal. I point the 580’s flash head directly at the 430’s receiver to maximize the reliability (especially since we’re shooting outside in direct sunlight). If you have gaffer’s tape it’s a great idea to use it to block the sun from hitting the infrared sensor by taping a “flag” on the sun side.

With a student acting as my light stand I have him hold the flash high on camera left. When hand-holding off-camera flashes, people have a tendency to hold it at chest level. This casts very unnatural shadows on the subject, as most light comes from above. Start with the safe position of 45º to the side and 45º above the subject. From there you can experiment and change the light as much as you can imagine.

f/2.8, 1/800th, ISO 100. Bare Speedlite 430exII in E-TTL mode off camera left, fired as a slave to the Speedlite 580exII on my camera pointed directly at the 430exII and not striking the subject at all.

Here we are experimenting with light position. Mixing flash with a good ambient exposure works in this example. The ambient light on the model’s face still shows enough details, and the sun’s highlight along with the flash fired from behind the model’s position highlight the structure of his face. Also, keep in mind to keep the flash high or you’ll get a very distracting shadow cast from the model’s shoulder.

f/2.8, 1/800th, ISO 100. Bare Speedlite 430exII in E-TTL mode off camera right.

Multiple flashes can be expensive with 580’s running $425 and 430’s running $270. There are cheaper options for quick and easy lighting solutions. One of the best multi-use tools is a 5-1 collapsible reflector. For under $50 you have a lightweight tool that you can carry with you easily that is extremely powerful in the variety of what it can accomplish.

f/2.8, 1/320th, ISO 100

This example shows the difference between using a reflector and not. I used the silver side and brought it in close to the model. The reflector reflecting sunlight back onto the model acts like any other light source. The closer to the subject the softer the light and the brighter the light (the inverse square law is still in effect). You can use the reflector in any number of positions to create different light effects. Here I use it as the key light. I keep it high, to emulate natural light. Again, with reflectors people have a tendency to keep them at chest level which gives an unnatural light, lighting under the nose and casting strange shadows. If you’re using the reflector as a fill light, though, it is perfectly fine to come in from below to fill in the dark shadows. 

Another way to use the 5-in-1 reflector is stripping off the outer cover to reveal the white, translucent center. Again using Canon E-TTL wireless system I trigger the 430EXII, but this time I have the reflector between the flash and the subject. The reflector spreads out the harsh light coming from the tiny flash head and enlarges it to the size of the reflector, in this case 42 inches. This softens the light and gives it a really nice quality (a very cheap softbox). Remember to keep the flash head far enough away from the reflector that the light is hitting the entire surface of the reflector. If the flash is too close, you are only enlarging the source of light by a few inches. 

f/2.8, 1/320th, ISO 100

The last demonstration I did was to show how to use radio slaves. I use the Paul C Buff CyberSync system, which I have talked about before. I shot these with bare speedlites just in the name of time. The light is a bit harsher than I wanted for these shots, but we were losing the sunlight. In the shot below, a negative of the speedlite can be seen in the photo below…the nose casting a harsh shadow across the model’s cheek. This shot says to me, it was shot with a speedlite. I did not use any fill to minimize that effect either. To camera left and behind the subject is a second flash showing some details on the shadow side. 

In the last photo I changed the position of the keylight, added a fill on camera left to minimize the harsh shadows, and sent my accent light as far away as he could go. The purpose of this shot is to show one of the key advantages of radio slaves over the E-TTL wireless system: distance. the E-TTL system is limited to about 30 feet. It is difficult to get a reliable result any further than that. With the CyberSyncs I was able to get the flash to fire from 150 yards (the student holding the light was standing next to the building in the background, shown in the red circle below.

I had a blast showing the students the different techniques, and stayed and talked for a couple of hours. It’s always encouraging when students are engaged and asking questions. This relatively new form of photography is only going to continue to grow. I’m glad to see the students latching onto it. 

Chuck jumping a barrel. f/5, 1/400th of a second (not fast enough to prevent motion blur). Speedlite 580EXII on camera acting as a master unit controlling the Speedlite 430EXII camera right set at 1/2 power.

On a Saturday about a month back I had spent the day scouting locations for the running shoot I published of two runners. After finding the suitable locations for the running shoot I had wanted to go back to Major Taylors Skate Park,  near Marian College in Indianapolis. I had photographed this skate park about a year and half before in the post titled, “Drive By Shooting“, and I wanted to catch some more skaters in action.

I like to be an active person and I want my photographs to reflect that. I love shooting rock climbing and skiing because I’m an active member of those communities, but I just want to cover everything active. I am not a skate boarder, or a runner for that matter, but I definitely respect those communities.

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

Making Art. f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

f/5, 1/500th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right.

Add caption Miles Jones ripping it up. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera right. Lesson in motion: Catch the subject at the apex of the flight; here is when they are traveling the slowest. If they were purely going straight up then down then at the Apex velocity = 0. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. f/5, 1/320th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera left.  Jordan Mouning inaugurating the new graffiti. f/5, 1/200th @ ISO 320. Speedlite @ 1/2 power camera left. Yongnou Speedlite YN-560 set on the ramp. Because this flash operates as an optical slave and will not high-speed sync, I had to lower my shutter speed to 1/200th.

If you want to find climbers in the Red you head to Miguel’s Pizza. You’ll find them camping out, eating delicious pizza or cooking on a camp stove, and slacklining to pass the time between climbs. In the morning at Miguel’s I had met a group of climbers from Spain that appeared to be super strong. Turns out that two of them, Pablo Barbero and Pablo Beltran, are firefighters that climb 5.14’s regularly. They tell me to meet them at Drive-By Crag in the afternoon. Despite it being October the temperatures are in the 80’s, and they do not want to climb in the sun. With the heat and humidity, the friction of the rock is not ideal for climbing hard routes. Ideally you’d want it about 20º cooler.

By the time I get off my perch at Purgatory and hike to Drive-By, there is not a lot of light left. Pablo Barbero is just jumping on Kaleidoscope 5.13c, so I don’t have time to get a position off of the ground. I was really hoping to shoot more, especially in some different areas other than Purgatory.

Saturday at Rocktoberfest is the main event. Hundreds of climbers compete in an outdoor climbing competition at the Motherlode and other areas off of the Sore-Heel parking lot. It would have made sense for me to be there to photograph as much as possible, but of course, I got sidetracked. Neal was attempting God’s Own Stone at the Gold Coast on the other side of PMRP (Pendergrass-Murray Recreational Preserve) and I went to capture his efforts.

The sun goes down over the red rocks and the autumn leafed trees. Everyone filters into the Rocktoberfest campgrounds for the festivities. You can use a sling shot to shoot water balloons at corporate sponsors’ signs for prizes, or try and hit “Idiot Boy” to win $100. You can try to stack milk crates while sitting on top of them for bragging rights.

Then comes the dyno competition, the highlight of the evening. On a wall made from plywood climbers launch themselves from start holds near the ground and try to reach a range of finishing holds at the top. Not all make it, and others make it look easy.

A bouldering comp competitor fails to grab the finishing hold

Overall Rocktoberfest was a good time, but I didn’t really shoot as much as I would have liked. And honestly, I don’t know when I will be able to spend more time in Red River Gorge. But soon I will have all of Colorado before me. 

For a while I have wanted to do a shoot with Broderick, and finally our schedules aligned. I had scouted out this location a while back and knew exactly what I wanted. Because the short notice of the shoot I wasn’t able to get an assistant, but I was wanting to do a much more natural light looking shoot this time anyway. It always helps to have another set of hands though, but I’m used to working on my own. I guess sometimes when I have help I’m not the greatest at delegating tasks to others.

Click here to see more photos from the shoot! 

We started shooting sometime between 4:30 and 5, just about perfect like for this time of year. The dried grass, the fall leaves, and the warm light really gave the feel of what I was wanting.

I love shooting into the sun. Gives a great quality to the photograph, almost dream like. 

Broderick was a great model, running back and forth repeatedly so I get could all of the shots that I imagined. 

I added a single speedlite on a tripod opposite the sun to fill in the shadow side. Since I wanted to be shooting at shutter speeds fast enough to stop the action my only choice was to use High-Speed Sync.


At 1/200th of a second, the flash sync speed of the Canon 5DMkII, you will have a significant amount of blur if your subject is moving at any speed at all. I was finding blur even up through 1/500th of a second. At 1/800th Broderick was sharp enough. 


 I cannot do High-Speed Sync through my CyberSync radio slaves, so I had to use my 580 EX II as a master and my 430 EX II as the slave (limiting me to one usable off-camera flash). I set my 580 to not fire, only to set off the 430. You have to make sure the Infrared Receiver on the slave unit is not pointed at the sun or it will not detect the signal from the master. There are ways to help it avoid the sun, like using gaffer’s tape to make a shield, but I, of course, had none. 

Just as I was packing up because the sun was too low, I saw this opportunity. I set the flash almost directly in front of Broderick to fill in his front. With the shutter speed of 1/100th, I panned with him as he ran past to give the background some good motion blur. Besides some running technique that a few people have mentioned, this was exactly the shot I was looking for. That’s all you can ask for in a shoot.

Broderick stretching after his “strenuous” run.


It’s been great shooting this fall. I’ve got a lot more to edit and show, and I need to update my website pretty bad. But these frequent photo shoots are keeping my heart happy.  

Running with D. Scott Clark from Christopher Whonsetler on Vimeo.

I feel that saying that it has been too long since I posted is getting cliché. Working a full time, 40 hrs a week job and trying to keep up with all the other activities that I do makes it difficult to update this thing. I am definitely thankful for my temporary job with a government contractor, but I will be thrilled when it is over at the end of this month. I’m prepping to move out to Colorado, and getting nervous about it. I know it’s the right move for my career though.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to throw together a shoot with two long distance runners (Both of them just ran the Chicago Marathon yesterday). This shoot came about through the extremities of my network. I’d been trying to put together a running shoot for a while.

Click the HERE to continue reading and to see the rest of the images. 

I spent all day Saturday scouting locations, and finally came across the right place. Sunday morning before dawn I met the runners, Amy and Jennifer, in the parking lot; my first time meeting both of them. My friend and fellow photographer Chris Whonsetler met me to help out and to do some behind the scenes video (which hopefully will come out eventually). I gratefully had two more people helping me with lighting as well. (I’m so used to doing everything myself. It’s great having assistants, but I need to learn to delegate better).

As the sun started to nip the tops of the trees we started shooting. I knew I was going to need to do multiple exposures to light the background because the sun still was not yet filtering through the trees, and I was using multiple strobes to light the scene. I shot my White Lightning X3200 monolight through my 36″ brolly box (a cheap alternative to a soft box) and used two speedlites for additional light. The brolly box gives a nice large soft light, as opposed to the speedlites’ harsh light. I also brought along my new Yongnou YN560 flash, which for around $70 is an awesome piece of photo equipment. I will do a review soon.

Using strobes for action photography gives some unique challenges. My camera, the Canon 5D Mark II, only syncs flash up to 1/200th of a second. Any faster than that and the shutter closes before the flash has lit the entire scene, causing part or the entire image to remain dark. Action shot at 1/200th of a second will result in blurry subjects. For a runner you would need to shoot at 1/500th or faster to completely freeze them. There are a few different solutions to this problem.

One is using the Canon High Speed Sync built into the Speedlites and wirelessly tripping the strobes via the Infrared signal. Advantages are that ability to use High Speed Sync as well as E-TTL metering (meaning the camera determines the correct output for the flash). Disadvantages: you lose a flash as one has to be on the camera, acting as the master and sending the signal to the other flash (or flashes). Also, Speedlites have a very hard time overpowering the sunlight, and shooting in High Speed Sync you lose power from the flashes.

A better solution is using the PocketWizards FlexTT5 system that allows for high speed sync but is not limited by line-of-sight problems of infrared. But you still do not have enough power to really overcome the sun. Big negative is the price. To get the setup I need I’ll spend roughly $660 for a two flash set up.

The method I used was to shoot dark, underexposing the background. The flash duration is so short it will stop almost any type of action; the problem lies with the ambient light catching the blur. So if you cut out the ambient light and only use the flash to light the scene the subject will be sharp. I then take other exposures with the ambient light correctly exposed and blend the shots together in post.

One thing to think about for the future is whether or not the property you are shooting on is private or public. Some private properties require you to purchase photography permits. After the first couple of locations a police officer on a golf cart rolled up and asked us if we had a permit to shoot on this property. Since I was shooting with professional equipment I needed to have a permit. But the officer gracefully let me continue when I promised that this was only for my portfolio and I would not be making any money off of these photos. He told me to get a permit next time. I am very thankful he allowed me to continue; the shoot would have been much much shorter and less productive.

I was finished, done with everything I wanted to do. I had everything packed up and we were heading back to the vehicles. But we reached this spot and the light was too perfect. I’m so glad that I stopped. I love the simplicity of shooting all natural in amazing ambient light.

Thank you so much to Jennifer and Amy for their patience and willingness to try whatever I suggested, as well as my assistants, Chris, Poe, and Ian. I am looking forward to doing much more of these types of shoots. 

A couple of weeks ago my friend Gillian Grassie came to visit. She’s a singer/songwriter/harpist that I met in Mumbai in 2009. She was travelling around the world studying the impact of technology in different music culture on the Watson Fellowship. She travelled with a full size celtic harp. I thought it was tough for me to travel with all my photo gear! After a broken harp case, getting robbed in Russia, and leaving her harp with friend’s in Germany, she made it back to the States a year later. You should check out her music at www.gilliangrassie.com. She’s recording a new album this winter, so be sure to check her out.

Gillian came to play a show in Bloomington as part of a short tour including Illinois, Minnesota, and Canada. I suggested that we throw together a shoot before her show, and she happily agreed.  We went to a factory I’d always been interested in exploring. It turned out to be a great location and exactly what I was looking for.

Since the shoot came about last minute I didn’t have time to find an assistant. I ended up shooting the whole thing with two flashes, and I was the second light stand. I would set up the shot, fix the focus, press the shutter with the camera set to 10 second timer, then run around like a madman after each shot to light something different. It was a fun experiment in seeing what I could achieve in a short amount of time by myself, but I would highly recommend using an assistant. Would make the job mucho más fácil. But it allowed me to put together this fun behind the scenes shot. 

I’ve got a lot of shoots I need to do this fall. I’m looking for athletes to photograph: runners, yoga, kayakers, sailers, wake boarders, mountain bikers and parkour. Well, basically any outdoor sports. If you have any suggestions for athletes, please let me know. Thanks!