This is the Part I of my Los Angeles Engagement Photography session with Casey and Brian. Vivian, Patrick (my trusted assistants) and I met up with Casey and Brian at an office building in Los Angeles on a Sunday. Although all the offices at this building were locked, the public area of the building was open. This is where I planned to do our contemporary, edgy and fashionable engagement session.
Almost immediately upon arrival of the building, I was approached by the security guard asking what I was doing. I told him that I am a photographer, we are just going to do a quick shoot using the staircase area. I let him know that I have spoken to someone in charge on Thursday and was told it is OK to do our quick photo session. In fact, this is the third time I have photographed at this location.
Well, the security guard was a bit over-zealous about his job and insists that he will have to check with his supervisor. In the meanwhile, we proceed to setting up my lighting equipment. About 15 minutes into the shoot the security guard came by said he checked with his supervision and everything is OK so all of us felt a sign of relief.
45 minutes into the shoot, a police department community service person showed up and told us we need a permit. Specifically we need to pay for a permit at the police department even though we are the only people at the entire building; not as we were blocking public exits and traffic or anything. He said he is going to call for a police car to come and talk to us. What a bummer! We decided to just leave before the real police show up and issue me a ticket.
Although we only had about one hour to shoot, we were still able to capture some great fashionable, edgy images. Casey and Brian were great to work with and followed my instructions extremely well. Again, much thanks to my tireless assistants, Vivian and Patrick, for their help with lighting.
For the Photographers interested my Guerrilla Lighting techniques:
The lighting equipments used in this shoot is two Westcott 28″ Apollo umbrella softbox as the main and fill lights. The ratio is 3:1. I also added a hair light for the sitting on stairs images using a Nikon SB26 on a mini-tripod stand. As for portable and sturdy light stands, I used the new Cheetah Stand that retracts the legs as soon as you pick it up. It is an awesome stand when you are shooting on location and constantly on the move.
Photographers, please click here if you are interested to attend one of Ben’s Guerrila Lighting workshop.
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You kept your cool and still managed a great session in a short time. It’s always interesting to see other peoples’ lighting set-ups. Thanks for showing!