Welcome to Make it Monday!
Many
of us played sports growing up and my "sport of choice" was swimming.
If you've ever been to a swim meet, particularly in the Washington D.C.
area where every kid in the county seems to be present, you know that
there's a lot of waiting around that occurs before one actually gets to
compete. As a young swimmer, there are a few options to pass the time
while waiting for your event to be called: (a) listen to music (b) do
homework (c)
stretch (d) hang out with your teammates - or my personal favorite -
(e) borrow "mom's" camera and run around the pool deck taking pictures
of everything. I can confidently say that swimming got me into photography.
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| Photo By: Erik Isakson |
As
I became more interested in photography and spent more hours in a
darkroom, I began to spend less time in the pool. That being said, I've
maintain an active lifestyle in order to be a strong
photographer. Simply put: photo shoots can last any where from two to
twelve hours and as a photographer, I need to be on my feet the whole
time. I shoot in the field and
carry my necessary camera gear on my back, which can be quite heavy.
Throughout a shoot I'm walking, running, bending, kneeling, gesturing -
quite the "all day" workout.
If
you are like me and have a passion for swimming - or sports in general -
and photography, chances are good that you're also interested in sports photography. Based out of Southern California, commercial photographer, Erik Isakson,
has been creating what he calls "sports lifestyle imagery". In the
image below, we can see Isakson photographing a basketball player. One
of the main props that Isakson is using in this shoot is water.
In the
video below, Isakson explains how he used the PocketWizard Flex TT5 to
set off his Profoto8 strobes. When you watch the video, I'd like you to
notice how Isakson has back lit his subjects by placing the strobes
behind them. How does this lighting technique add to the content of
Isakson's photographs? How does this lighting technique effect the water
that is being poured - or thrown - onto his subjects?
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| Erik Isakson Shooting on Set |