OK right off the bat, I wasn’t jumping out of my chair when my buddy Clinton Thompson (great name) suggested doing a cowboy photoshoot. His enthusiasm for modeling an old west theme won me over. SO, first things first, LOCATION! This is where having the hobby of road biking comes in handy. You get to see all these places you’d never see whizzing by 50mph in a car. I’ve had this oil refinery in my back pocket for a couple of months, and I’ve been itching to have a good reason to shoot there. Bingo. This place had everything; old trucks, graffiti, steel buildings, oil rigs, dead vegetation… all of which looks like it’s been there for ages.
…problem is, we had to go under a fence, and jump another to get to the spot, BUT all was good once we were on location. We as in my assistant Lauren , and also my traveling talented buddy Patrick McInerney from college. I basically used an AlienBees Ringflash on full power for the main light to overpower the sun, and a single Canon 580ex speedlight for any fill/rim lighting. And MAN it was dusty. All of my gear is soaked in dust. But it was worth it! The pics came out better than I imagined, got at least 13 keepers. Started at 3:22pm and ended at 5:12pm. All in a coffee break’s work.
