I’ve recently not had a huge amount of time to play around with the camera, finding the time coupled with feeling I had got into a bit of a rut of not wanting to do the same things I’ve done before meant that I’ve not done much new for a while.  I have for some time though wanted to have a go at using remotely triggered off-camera lighting, not continuous lighting (where there are additional issues of power and large heavy gear to set up) but remote off-camera flashes, strobes.  So when it was suggested that one of the Shropshire Community group meetings should be a ‘Strobist’ meeting in an Urbex setting I was instantly sold on the idea.

This is a shot from the same location taken around 18 months ago.  A bit more of this sort of thing I thought, I can live with that.  The plan was to get a group of people together and experiment with remote lighting but nearer the meeting the plans changed.  It was announced that there would also be two models coming along.  I have to admit I wasn’t initially thrilled with this, I was looking forward to shooting an Urbex setting and wasn’t sure if a model shoot was what I wanted to do but on the other hand, it was something I had never tried and so thought I would give it a go.
I have to admit I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would and it left me thinking much more about what I could do and how I would want it to look etc.
I didn’t really come away from the day with much usable stuff but did come away inspired and wanting ‘go Strobist’ and also do some more planned work with models.
We went to the abandoned Airfield building at Press Heath and once there started with one of the little tumbledown sheds, the old favourite with the crumbling car.  I didn’t want to try anything glamour-ish but just wanted to play around with some idea’s for something a bit offbeat and possibly odd looking.  So, no smiles, no poses, just errrrrr stare off into the distance and let you arms hang etc…

I am quite happy with this one as the lighting worked out the way I wanted to (which is always good when you’re trying this stuff for the first time!).  After the initial messing around getting some of the different bits of gear between us to work together we were off.  With this one, the derelict car was lit by a softbox to the far left of the camera and the model lit by a strobe with grid (to produce a narrow spotlight) just to the lower left of the camera.
The other few images were all taken in a very, very dark and derelict building and I have to give our model Keighley credit as she was far from thrilled at all about the idea of being somewhere dark, creepy and full of mice and spiders but was also all for making sure that whatever shots anyone had in mind, that would be fine.  I’m not sure where I was going with some of this, trying for a bit of a cinematic look I guess.  None of these are really what I wanted them to be and are far from as good as they could be but they are my first attempt and as such I’m happy with them.

With that I have now put together a ‘basic’ Strobist kit (two strobes, two light stands, diffuser, grid etc.) and the plan is to use light more, in more interesting ways and to find out what works and what doesn’t.
🙂