Nice Photo of the Week – Flood | Nice Photography Magazine - The "Why To" Magazine about Creative Photography and Film Making

Nice Photo of the Week – Flood

Posted by Zeke Kamm on 8/11/08 • Categorized as Photo of the Week - ok, Month

The Idea:

“Flood” takes advantage of the technique that I mentioned in last week’s article about Creative Cropping only I cropped on the spot by how I framed the image in the first place. I noticed one day on a stroll that if you looked at this really cool looking tree/vine and cropped out the sidewalk and grass between it and the lake I could easily pretend the area had suffered a cataclysmic flood. All I needed to do was stand there for 26 days and wait for the storm clouds. This is LA. It could have been 326 days. There was one hiccup however. I didn’t just want the viewer to feel like they were standing in the middle of a flood. I wanted them to experience a peaceful solitude, the way it might feel to have the throngs of assholes and miles of traffic washed away and to have survived the flood. I wanted to create that brief moment of release after the terror of the storm passed, but before the tragedy and loneliness sank in. I totally pulled it off, too. If you don’t think so, you have poo poo in your pants. It also uses some creative exposure adjustments in camera. Ah, but that info goes in the tech section. Hi, tech section.

The Tech:

Hi idea section. “Flood” was made with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 L at f18 1/160 sec. 50 iso. Yikes! Why so extreme? Well, I needed to get that sky nice and dark so the definition in the clouds would come out and it would look like the remains of a hefty storm. Of course, with such a small window for the light to hit the digital sensor I had to pump the bare 580ex all the way to max. I zoomed the flash head to 105 and kept it close to the tree both to get that spot light look and because I needed the power to get the tree exposed properly. Here is a Nice diagram of the lighting setup:

Stop looking at my butt!

Would you like to submit an image for consideration as the Nice Photo Mag Photo of the Week? Find out more info on the page from the first Photo of the Week – Trunk.