RobertBenson.com

Have three newspaper assignments today. I’ve done up to five in one day. Way to much. Four is pushing it. Three is kind of high. Two is just right.

The first one was a portrait of a high school volleyball player at 10 a.m. at a local high school here in San Diego. Story was about how the skill of one girl (pictured above is going to help make the team great in their new league. Still though, she’s just one part of the team… A face in the crowd (get it?).

The assignment was scheduled during their games, so I had to bang it out in about two minutes minutes, during their water break. I asked to coach to send the girl along with five others (anyone) up to my window-pre-selected-area, where I had a strobe with grid and on a radio slave.

“What other five do you want me to send?” asked the coach. It would have been to hard to explain that the others would be sillouhetted, so I just asked for five of the top players. Easy!

I gridded the light, had them gather near this sunlit window, and quickly shot a variation of about 20 images in two minutes. Used a 17-40mm lens on Canon 1dsmk2.

Before the actual portrait, I set up a light, and took my picture, standing where the volleyball girl would stand, to ensure the gridded light was hitting her.

Then I moved a few inches to the right, where the teammates will be, to make sure they are shadowed.