Bubba was one of our recent grooms and Leonardo Dicaprio look a like. He's also a beast in the guy so I asked him, can we do a photo shoot with you and some friend. They happily said yes! This was my first Crossfit photo shoot. The lighting system that I chose was the AMAZING Profoto A1 strobes. I positioned both lights at eye-level using the dome diffuser on the rear light and a simple Wescott strip box for the main light. The main light also had a cut of CTO so I could bring a bit of blue gold balance to the image.
This shoot was tough because I went in not knowing what to expect. I went in expecting them to do posed shots. Instead, they planned out a full exercise routine which meant I had only seconds a each station instead of minutes to develop and excecute. The athletes and I were on two seperate pages, but instead of trying to wrangle them into doing what I thought I needed them to do, I fell back on my years of experience doing weddings and events and just went with the flow. I had my trusty wedding day assistant Anthony helping move lights and once we got a feel for what the athletes looked like (body and pose) I just cranked up the lights and tried to bring as much drama to each shot as I could.
This image was the only image created in this cycle of shots. I loved how everything lined up especially since by then, I had completely stopped thinking and just reacted instinctively. Don't ask me tech specs because my brain doesn't work that way. It's a big reason why I love the Profoto system. A painter doesn't think about how hard to press his brush to the canvas. I don't think a photographer should either. It should be instinctual, which is why I LOVED this shoot.