In the last couple of weeks I've learned something I didn't expect to learn: I love shooting with studio lights. Okay, they're big and heavy and awkward to hump around when compared to, say, some SB-900s (which, incidentally, I still want, if Santa's listening).

In the last couple of weeks I've had chance to shoot twice with studio lights (slideshow below the fold). Both were under controlled conditions, at shooting sessions run by established pros, but just getting to grips with the ideas behind the lighting was fantastic. I'm seriously considering investing in my own set of studio heads (though I'm still balancing that with the idea of a camera upgrade or the aforementioned SB-900s).

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I dented a while back about wanting to try this out some time over the summer. For the link averse, 'this' is a video of photographer Clay Enos shooting portraits of random people on the street in front of a piece of white seamless paper.

So, in the spirit of JFDI, I've decided to give it a shot. My seamless is on order with Creativity Backgrounds (black rather than white, however) and, once I get back from some well-earned chilling time, I'll go and try this out in the centre of Lancaster, on a Saturday. I've even got a location picked out (I think, anyway). I'm going to take some lighting gear (just one light and a softbox, I think) along as well because the location is not the best lit area of town.

Watch this blog for updates.

One photographer, one camera, one lens, one light, one background. And my aim is to get one hundred portraits, if I can.

Here's to mad ideas.

I mentioned a few posts back that I did a shoot with my friend Michelle whilst we were both at the Canonical Allhands conference at the La Mola. We didn't have much time - maybe forty minutes for something that I'd usually expect to take a couple of hours over - and the rushing about (not to mention the heat, the humidity and my overwhelming nervousness) meant that I made some rookie mistakes that I shouldn't have. Then again, that was the whole point of the shoot.

Anyway, three weeks after returning from Spain, and I've managed to pare the shoot down to the best sixteen frames that I shot. There were others, but not as good as these, nor as representative of what we did. Michelle was an awesome subject, especially when you consider that she's never posed for anyone before and was being ordered about by a big, hairy, sweaty Englishman with camera around his neck.

Flickr slideshow below the fold. Hope you enjoy it; I enjoyed making it.

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