As promised last week, another theory post for you. This one is about part of a new philosophy I have been kind of working on, which is also a large part because of the situation in which I am being placed. It seems with my day job there will be a lot of travelling for me to do over the coming months which could be a lot of fun for my portrait work, which it seems is going to become a principle part of our business. One thing I do need to do is expand my current portrait portfolio beyond where it is now as I am really not happy with it. Whilst there are some good photos in there, they are missing something and don’t fit in with the vision I have. I am planning to redo my portfolio pages to be more representative of my select work rather than a series of books covering the different shoots I have done. That will also allow me to include some of the odd photos which currently don’t have a whole page to themselves as there are only a couple of photos from a particular shoot (such as the Boudoir stuff or other test shoots my wife and I have done with each other.
This got me thinking a lot about where we need to invest our money as previously I had a fairly fixed view of our capital outlay on equipment and such based upon Wedding Photography being our primary business. As we don’t work Saturdays for religious reasons, it seems we are not going to be able to concentrate in that direction yet. So with out portrait photography, what should we be looking to do? I have been looking at ways to simplify my gear requirements and in doing so have come to some interesting conclusions.
Nowadays, most of the time I leave the house for anything other than work, I carry with me my little Lowepro Topload Camera Bag . I had bought the bag for my Nikon D40x with its 18-55mm and was pleasantly surprised that it also worked with the 55-200mm lens. Much better than either of those however is the setup it currently carries. I carry my D80 with the 50mm f/1.8 lens attached. I was very happy to discover that my SB-600 flash will fit perfectly on top of that and still close. In the front pocket I will carry my gels, the foot that comes with the SB-600 so I can stand it anywhere and a 12” Zebra/White reflector that came free with my flash. With that little kit, I am able to take some fairly advanced photos without much effort. Take for example the below photo taken a few days ago:

This shot of spring has a lot of interest. The Snowdrops pushing their way up through the mulch of the forest floor. The morning light wafting in front camera right, the richness of the green. It all looks very idyllic. Except of course that it was taken in a tiny strip of trees not far from my house with a busy road not 20 yards from my right shoulder and that splash of sunlight came on a Saturday afternoon on a cloudy day. So how did I do it? Simple, I sat my SB-600 on its little foot way off camera right and triggered it at 1/64th power (in fact, I had to move the flash back to retain the low depth of field and still have some ambient light mixed in) which gives the kick of light you see so clearly.
So, how has this affected me and what am I going to be changing?
Firstly, I am looking to cram as much as I possibly can into as small a space as possible. I will have the car to hold thing like a light stand, but I don't want to carry much about with me. I want to have just one bag that will cover my needs for my day job and for my photography so I can always have anything of value about my person at all times without looking like a pack mule. This means some kind of field bag (originally used by Botanists) and I really like the look of the Duluth Trading Company Fire Hose Field Bag which I will try to get shipped over here to Swindon as soon as I can.
Now, work related stuff that will need to go with me everywhere will consist of a legal pad, pens and with any luck an iPad. I will need a small organiser to fit my receipts and the like in, but other than that, there should be nothing else to carry in the bag.
So that leaves me with quite a bit of space for photographic kit - but not enough for a full blown photojournalists tool kit. So what am I planning on then?
Firstly, the camera. After coming across the blog of Laurence Kim and then a few weeks later David Hobby posting a review on the same subject, I am almost 100% sure I will go for a Canon G11. Full manual control and a hot shoe for the size of a chunky pocket camera? Do I need to ask for anything else? Oh yeah... sweet sync speed allowing me to overpower the sun with a normal flash. Great for doing funky portraits even in the middle of the day. So that brings the question of triggering... as I currently use Nikon's CLS system, I am going to need something else. At a guess, I am going to go with the Cactus Triggers from Gadget Infinity. These are cheap and fairly reliable which is good enough for me. At a later date when I go for some big flash I imagine I will either go with either Elinchrom's Skyport or Pocket Wizards but am not sure on that yet.
I already own one SB600, and I am going to need a second light fairly soon if I am going to move to the Canon. Especially as the depth of field will be greater meaning I am going to have to use light and contrast to separate the model from the background in a portrait rather than being able to blur the background. I am going to have to see whether I can afford to go for a second SB600 which would be my preferred option or whether I will go for a Vivitar style thing (Gadget Infinity actually make a clone of the now out of production Vivitar).
How to hold the light in place without a lightstand then? Well, I am trying to decide between two Manfrotto parts, the 175F Justin Clamp or the Super Clamp. Both will do the job of clamping my flash to absolutely anything very well indeed.
Modifiers? Well, the Speedlight Pro Kit looks very nice indeed and isn't all that expensive, so I feel I will lean towards those in the beginning. They even have a beauty dish now which I do really want to play with.
As far as Light Stands to keep in the car, I think I am going to want something pretty heavy duty and will almost certainly buy a boom for it. That way I can easily put something above the model, even if they are jumping or moving. A couple of brollies will easily fit in the car alongside those.
So that's the gear... now about the philosophy.
As I will be travelling anyway, I will be in hotels fairly regularly. With the help of Facebook, Twitter (not yet setup on that, but I would do before trying this) and sites like Model Mayhem, I could find models/subjects in the area where I will be staying. That means, I can finish my day job and then spend time with a model taking photos in various parts of the country (and possibly the world of course...). I already have many friends in different places so can play around with different types of shoot as well. This will give me the chance to spend more time shooting, learning, experimenting and building a really strong portfolio to allow me to take bigger and better paid jobs as time goes on. Best of all - I can do this for fun and that is really what my photography is supposed to be about - me doing what I love! I have many photos in my current portfolio I am not happy with, nor in fact did I enjoy taking and that is the biggest thing I want to change. As I mentioned in my last post I am supposed to be having a Maternity shoot this weekend, which is one I am looking forward to, and as I am borrowing a second SB600 I want to try for some nice hard light + fill shots which will give my ring light a change to actually be used and then some work with my strip boxes.