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Ms. Traxxas



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"would you like to take a quick survey?"

"would you like to take a quick survey?"
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1 Comment | Report
BrunoHeeb PRO
 
BrunoHeeb February 10, 2019
Amazing shot
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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo at the Toronto Honda INDY in 2016 - Toronto CAN

Time

This was taken mid afternoon between qualifying races

Lighting

Natural lighting, slightly overcast if I remember correctly

Equipment

At the time I was using my Canon 5D MKII and for this shot I was using my Canon 70-200 vi 2.8 (hand held) - this was/is my favourite camera/lens combo, especially for sporting events. Since then I have sold all my Canon gear and gone with the SONY A7iii mirrorless, one zoom and 2 primes. It was a bit of an expensive upgrade (especially because I did invest in the 70-200 Sony G-Master - WELL worth the money, what a lens!), but I did kept my Canon 16-35 2.8 with adapter because for the Sony equivalent, I'd need to rob a Brinks truck. And with the 16-35, I'm not capturing action, so the slower focus rate with the adapter isn't really an issue.

Inspiration

Between races I enjoy walking around in the pit area shooting the mechanics working on the race cars and browsing the "midway" area to check out the sponsor's booths. In this particular case there was a booth for Traxxas remote control cars and they had a team of ladies with iPad's taking surveys (really just gathering your personal contact info for marketing purposes) in exchange for letting you try some of their toys. This woman asked if I'd like to take the survey, I declined, but she asked with some sort of Nordic(?) accent and I just about melted on the spot. I knew I had to have a shot of her, I walked away and scouted for the right spot. I didn't want to ask for a shot because I didn't want a trained posed smile, I wanted a candid shot that would show off her natural beauty. This was the result.

Editing

I try really hard to have my camera dialed in for the best possible shot I can get. I shoot JPG almost exclusively, (not RAW unless it's important to have both). I do as little post production as possible, but if needed I do enhance some colours and maybe a slight sharpen, but I like to keep it to the bare minimum. If you spend the time to learn the actual camera, its incredible how nice you can get your shots. I'm not a fan of over edited shots that come out of (mainly) lightroom. I use Photoshop CC for ALL my post production work. It's important to learn one or the other, or both? Both softwares are AMAZING in their own ways.

In my camera bag

Nothing has changed since I last answered this question in my explanation of the 1962 Mercury Comet photograph: I travel as light as possible, I use the LowePRO Slingshot 200AW, it seems to work best for me. I have tried various styles and sized bags, but I keep going back to this one, it's not perfect, but it's the one that suits me best. I wish it was a just a "little bit" bigger, the next available size up is too big (for me). Inside it I have my SONY A7iii, along with my G-Master 70-200, my Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART, and my Sigma 24mm 1.4 ART. I will occasionally swap out my Sigma 24mm for my Canon 16-35 2.8 with MC11 if I need the extra wide. (also batteries, lens cloths, a few extra memory cards, a power bar in case I get hungry, small bottle of water if it fits etc.)

Feedback

Advice? That's a tricky one in this particular case... I'm not sure if its ethically correct to take someone's picture without asking permission (feels kinda creepy). In this case, she was representing this toy company, dressed in their uniform, so you can make a case for her being out there for marketing & promotional purposes, so a photo of her, like this, made public, is a little different than shooting just a random person. I believe you should always ask permission (before or after) if the person is not representing a "brand" of some sort (does that make sense?). As a personal preference, I prefer candid shots of people over posed shots (for the most part). It's more of an "editorial" vs. "commercial" way of shooting. Both are good and equally as challenging to pull off, but I find the run & gun editorial approach can have a more interesting results than the "posed studio style" shot (that's just a personal preference). Also, always be aware of your surroundings and the subject's surroundings, don't just point & shoot, take your time. In this shot, I walked around a bit until I found the angle that gave me that little splash of colour behind her with the flag, that was a conscious consideration before taking the shot. I walked around candidly checking different angles before the shot. After I found the right angle, I waited until she was between surveys, then pulled the camera up to my face, framed, focused, took the shot, lowered the camera and kept walking (I didn't know if I actually got the shot until I got home, luckily I did). What you see in the foreground (bottom left corner) is the counter of another display booth that I was half standing behind, it was in the way for sure, but this was the angle I wanted and that little compromise allowed me to candidly take 2 seconds to frame the shot the way I wanted without getting caught.

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