Recreating the Sun with 4 AA Batteries - The MacGyver Shoot!!

Ok, so I promise we will have the remaining Speedlight Series videos up shortly, but we are just posting what we have finished...so here is the latest and greatest!!

The MacGyver shoot!!!

So here´s the story! We were trying to finish the Flash to Subject Distance Video since it was raining in Medellin and all of a sudden...SUN!!! So screw the Flash to Subject Distance Video (For Now) and let´s go shoot!!!

An amazing sunset is about to happen, so we head to the hills. The mirador which is basically a flat piece of land on the side of a mountain which overlooks Medellin would be the spot. It´s only 5 minutes from our apartments and the view is amazing. Besides, Michael loves his Chorizo, so that was it. We had NO model of course, but Michael being the problem solver said " If we don´t find a model up there, we´ll just shoot my chorizo". Thankfully we found a couple models as you saw or will see.

Pictures, Shooting Diagrams and Michael´s Chorizo after the break...

The first model was Alejandro. A guy that looked like he was contemplating just a little too much of his life. We really thought, or we shoot this guy or he´s gonna jump. So to save his life we had Cata approach him and say"Andale foto conmigo por favor si senor cerveza y donde esta el bano" or something like that. Just kidding, she knew where the bathroom was.

So setting up took us a little longer than necessary because we kept trying to order a chorizo from the chorizo stand, but the lady kept bringing it out to us. We were trying to tell her that after the pictures, but she kept interrupting us with the chorizo´s. She must have done this 4 times!!

The sun was leaving us quickly...in fact so quickly we didn´t even realize it until it was too late. So what do we do...recreate the sun with the flash.

This shoot had a very big photographic error, well not really an error but the settings could have been more favorable.

Mikey forgot to check his ISO, so it´s a little higher than we would like for THIS shot, but it worked!!

So here are Michael´s settings....

ISO 640 yes folks... SIX FOUR ZERO

Shutter speed of 1/250

Aperture of f/11 (Thanks ISO)

Worked well don´t you think????

The shooting diagram will be up shortly because I asked Michael to make one since I was typing and it looks...well I´ll post it so you can be the judge yourself.

The better made shooting diagram will be up as soon as I finish typing. But I will explain it as if it was up. We tried to make the flash with an Orange gel fire and cause an effect as if it was the sun. It was positioned by Michael guiding me as he was framing the picture. We didn´t want the flash to be in the frame but we did want the flare. So it did take a couple of shots, but we finally got it to where we liked it. The Sun flash was set at 1/2 power and the softbox we had over our models head was set at Full Power.

EDIT: The better and more professionally made shooting diagram!!!

This is what happened when you have the flash in the shot, looks like a sun that is about to crash land on Earth...so it could work for some shots...just not this one. Still cool looking though but you can tell what it is, which is what we did not want to happen.

The shooting diagram for this shot is exactly the same, the only difference is in the framing of the Sun Flash (so check above). We put it in this shot to see what happened...not too good. Still like the shot though, maybe not "Recreating the Sun" worthy, but we still like it...and hey, that´s good enough for us!!!!

After the shoot, we finally had the Chorizo girl come over and give us the Chorizo´s, but guess what..they were cold. Apparently there is a 4 time heat up limit or something. They where good, but cold. Actually I´m still tasting the Chorizo´s 2 days later, and Michael´s Chorizo is still being processed into Natural Gas...yes folks 2 days later!!!! Well worth it though, but Michael is not allowed to come over anymore...at least till he...well nevermind.

We went to thank the Chorizo girl and Michael wanted a picture taken with his Chorizo, so voila...

MICHAEL´S CHORIZO!!!!

*****This post will be updated with more photos as soon as I get to my computer where I have them....so check back!!!

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