I've been a bit absent here lately. The last few weeks have been pretty busy! With finishing the school year at my old school, interviewing and getting a new teaching position, helping build the latest magazine of "The Copa" (Post coming soon) and shooting some assignments for a local newspaper, as well as enjoying my summer break, I haven't posted as much as I should have. I just accomplished one of my photography bucket list which was getting a photo on the cover of a newspaper and wanted to share how I went about shooting it.

While working for the newspaper I had a few shoots that day, one being the Mayor. Maricopa has had a bit of a traffic issue with the train for quite a few years, and there has been a big push to build an overpass to the intersection. So the concept of the shot was getting Mayor Price and other people that have been involved in the process in front of the intersection. Of course the only time I can get them there is during horrible 1-3pm sunlight. Game on...

After doing a quick scout of the location I find the best location to set up. I get their early to start doing some simple tests. I knew I needed to blast them with some light in order to offset the nasty midday sun. I put 3 speedlights with some CTO (Color Temperature Orange ) gels on the flash to warm up the light. I put them on each on 1/2 power just to get a decent recycle time.

So next came the toughest part, I knew I wanted to get them in front of the intersection with the train going by. Well option one was to wait till the train comes by, put the Mayor in the spot and take the picture, boom. But there were a few big problems with this. One, and most importantly, was safety. I wasn't about to put the Mayor and his associate in any sort of danger. Second was that I really had no idea when the next train would be. During my tests two trains came within about 20 min of each other, but I couldn't have the Mayor waiting hours in his suit in the hot Arizona sun on a train. So I went with option 3; Photoshop. Once the Mayor and his associate showed up, I told them my concept and how I didn't want them hurt or sweating in suits, I had them pose for the shots and away they went.

With the train I really wanted to take the shot up a few notches. I felt by getting a good blur on the train would add a great effect to it. So threw on my trusty variable ND filter which cuts the light to the camera to slow down the shutter speed but still keep the same exposure. When the next train came by, which was like 45 minutes after the Mayor left, I started shooting, trying different amounts of the ND filter to slow down or speed up the shutter. When keeping it open for 1/2 second or longer the train just all blurred together. I found that around 1/6 was the sweet spot. So I just kept shooting and would find the best shot in post.

One thing to keep in mind. I used a tripod to keep everything the same. Once I found the composition I liked I left everything still until I was completely done with both shots. This would greatly help me later when composting them together. Once I got the shots into lightroom I did my basic edits, then brought them both into Photoshop. Because I had used a tripod It was really easy to mask them into the other photo.

As for editing (besides putting the photos together), I really didn't to much after some general lightroom global adjustments. A little bit of blemish removal and removing the specular highlights (white shiny marks) on them and that was it.

Looking back I always try to critique my work to better myself for next time, I wish I had moved the mayor just a bit to the left so that the sign isn't coming out of his head, it's a little thing but it is something I should have noticed and changed. Oh well, live and learn...

Again I was super psyched to see that my photo made the cover. I started this hobby/journey not too long ago and am grateful of the opportunities that I get to explore my creativity and challenge myself. On to the next adventure/bucket-list assignment!