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This photographer shot his subjects on a real lava field for these incredible images

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There’s a whole lot one can do with Photoshop these days to put your subjects into any environment we wish. But, for me, nothing beats the authenticity of shooting on location. It seems Ben Von Wong feels the same way. For his latest project he took his model, Tau, and crew out into the middle of Hawaiian lava fields.

The project is part of Ben’s work to raise awareness for climate change, and to give back to those who have been victims of natural disaster. In this case, Hurricane Matthew. Assisted by lava expert and landscape photographer CJ Kale, ben and his crew set off for the Big Island of Hawaii to capture the shots. Fortunately for us, as well as fantastic images, Ben also created a behind the scenes video documenting everything that went into their production.

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If you’re shooting flash outdoors, your colours are probably wrong. Here’s how to fix it with gels

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Shooting on location with flash is one of the fun parts of portrait photography for me. But, depending on the lighting conditions where you’re shooting, your flash may not be putting out the same colour as the ambient light. This means that while your subject may appear perfect, the environment can appear very cool or warm.

In this video, photographer Robert Hall explains the problem how it happens. It’s an easy problem to fix, all you need is a few gels, and Robert shows us how.

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This deep 24″ collapsible beauty dish folds down to just 6″

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Designed by portrait photographer Joel Grimes, the new 24″ Rapid Box Beauty Dish from Westcott seems to tick all of the boxes when it comes to location photography.  It’s small, lightweight, and can also double up as a regular 24″ round softbox by adding the diffuser panel on the front.

Having lightweight and portable kit is important when you’re working on location, especially if you don’t have assistants or other crew with you to help you lug it around.  In this video from Joel & Westcott, we’re going to see how this one works and how it can be used on location.

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Strip it back: The art of simplicity

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Simplify. Back to basics. Classic. Timeless.

You see, the biggest criticism I find myself offering to students and friends of mine is to simplify an image. Most importantly, the background. People seem to enter this state of mind where they lock a camera lens down to 1.2 or 1.4 etc and shoot the model or subject anywhere and everywhere as long as the light looks great on them.

“Once the background is blurry it’s all gravy!”, well, I disagree, and I disagree strongly.
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Joe McNally offers an insightful behind the scenes look at a garage photo shoot

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Joe McNally is one of the photographers I first started stalking following when I decided to start shooting portraits, and his books, The Hot Shoe Diaries & The Moment it Clicks, are two that will ever remain on my shelf.

Year after year, for several decades now, Joe has continued to inspire and educate photographers all over the world through his books, his blog, in-person workshops, and his YouTube channel.

In this five minute video, shooting a Nikon D810 with a mix of SB-900 and SB-910 speedlights, Joe introduces us to Dominick European Car Repair in New York, and explains how he turned a garage into a studio.

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This On-Location Workstation will make you drool

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Photographer Tom Barnes shoot on location quite a bit. While he started like most of us using his eye glued to the viewfinder followed by a quick look at the LCD, he has now moved to tethered shooting almost exclusively. And while shooting tethered in the studio is a somewhat familiar and safe territory, shooting tethered on location can prove quite problematic:

When shooting tethered in and outside of the studio it was always a bit of a nightmare, you’d have loose cables, chargers and no stand or case to keep your laptop separate from the ground/surface so if somebody spilt a drink for example it would drown your computer/drives/cables etc.

To solve all the problems and to avoid the accidental spill, Tom build an on-location tethered station that is a hybrid between a Peli case and Optimus Prime.

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How To Find Inspiration And Take Interesting Photos In Boring Locations

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Regardless of where you live, chances are there’s some really incredible places to take photos nearby. The problem is, after looking at and photographing the same thing over and over again, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to see the beauty in it anymore. As a photographer, having the ability to find inspiration in the most boring, redundant, or even cliched locations is invaluable.

It’s frustrating, but, fortunately not all is lost. In the video below, Mike Brown invites us into his own backyard, a place he’s photographed a 1000 different ways already, to show us a few methods he uses to get the creative juices flowing when our eyes can’t see beyond routine.[Read More…]

Photography: Respecting the Location

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One of these days I’m going to get back into shape. Then I’m going to fly to Nepal. Then I’m going to hire a Sherpa to guide me on an arduous journey up into the highest reaches of the Himalayas. Along the way he’ll teach me his language, as well as the customs of his people. By the time we arrive at the summit, we will have saved each others’ lives several times, binding our fates together for all eternity. Sitting atop the apex of the world (beneath a sign that says, “No Flash Photography Allowed”) will be a shriveled old man with a long beard who will explain to me the sorcery and wonder behind the algorithm that determines what’s going to show up as a “suggested post” on my Facebook news feed.

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