Finding The Light

Great photography is about finding the light. We sometimes just happen to be in the right place at the right time. At others, we can simply move the camera or subject position to improve the light. However, there are times when you are stuck in a less than ideal lighting situation… One where you can’t change the time of day or subject position, and you still need to produce professional results.

I knew that I was walking into that type of situation for a photo assignment this morning. I needed to photograph the Kaiser Permanente executive leadership team in front of the new hospital complex on Sunset at 7:30 am. An overcast day would be great. A bright sunny morning would be a problem, because my subjects would be looking almost directly into the sun.


There are times where you just need to have the right tool. It was hot as heck in LA yesterday, so I knew that overcast skies would be unlikely. I packed the gear pictured above for the shoot. It’s almost like taking a studio on location.

White Lightning X800 monolight/Vagabond II battery pack - both made by Paul C. Bluff… Heavy duty Manfrotto light stand… Pocket Wizard Plus remotes to fire the flash… a white umbrella.

The sun was beaming this morning as expected. I set up the light so that the umbrella would block the sun from hitting the faces of my subjects. The battery pack [25 lbs.] and my camera bag [20 lbs.] were attached to the light stand to insure that the wind would not topple everything. The Manfrotto light stand can handle the weight with ease and it has large knobs that work well as hooks. I can fire up over 500 shots per charge with this rig at full power. So it works well for location shoots.

Exposure details: Nikon D300 17-55 2.8 lens F/8 @ 1/250 sec. 100 ISO

It would have been nice to have a white reflector and assistant today. The reflector could have been used to the right of my subjects for fill lighting. Or, it could have also been used camera left as a scrim to block the sun from hitting their faces... thus allowing me to move the umbrella a little more toward camera position. But there are limits to what you can do on the streets of Hollywood before needing a permit to shoot. Short and sweet works… in this situation… done in less than five minutes.

The new KP Los Angeles Medical Center is pretty special inside. Click here to see some of the images.

Thank you Hutson for taking the shot of me down on my knees. Man, I need a haircut... or should I say gray cut!