It was hyped as one of the biggest shoots of 2009, and we delivered in full.
18 Athletes, 10 Photographers, 5 Models, 1 Designer and 1 Make up artist met at the University of Lethbridge Pool last Sunday for a full day shoot of everything wet.
It all started innocently enough as a discussion between likeminded photographers on flickr, a website for photosharing and photographer community. We had been discussing a similar European shoot and wanted to try it locally – but alone were without the resources to pull it off.
Slowly, we began discussing the idea with anyone who would listen. My old business partner is now a PADI certified rescue diver, the thought of assisting 5 beautiful models from Red Deer was incentive enough for him to drive the 6 hours and help out for the day. Calgary photographer Eric Au had connections in the fashion scene with wardrobe, makeup and talent – and I connected the dots with University of Lethbridge Sport & Recreation, as well as organized both local and out of town shooters.
We spent the early portion of the shoot creating portraits for the athletes of the University of Lethbridge swim team, then broke into smaller groups to shoot action shots of the athletes – and shoot some surface shots of our models.
[video://http://vimeo.com/3161288]
After a few failed attempts at lighting the pool, we found success in an 800 watt studio light (at full power) on a boom above our models in the water, combined with a 400 watt ringlight on half power – taped to the dive window. The cheers you see on the video are from the sweet spot – the perfect moment where our lighting was dead-on, and the models were comfortable enough to pose through a few cycles.
As a special bonus, we made the front page of the Lethbridge Herald the next day. Special thanks to Eric Au, Chris Caldwell (Northwest SCUBA), the Calgary Strobist Shooters, and the rest of the local team that showed up to make this THE shoot to beat for 2009!
A few initial frames from the shoot and more available on my flickr stream:
[flickr-photo:id=3272268478,size=-][flickr-photo:id=3265783416,size=-] [flickr-photo:id=3265880456,size=-]
