Joel Spring / Rxdesign Pro Media Services Blog
More about shooting, the people and the images we capture
Retirement Revelry for Dr. Reddick
Posted on October 2, 2014
I recently had the privilege to be assigned to cover the retirement celebration for Dr. Reddick at UTHSCSA. It was impressive to hear the accomplishments and accolades spoken on his behalf by his colleagues, students and direct reports as well as the president of the college.
I had covered events at this venue in the past and this time I thought to take advantage of a mezzanine area above by placing an Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX strobe with umbrella secured to the hand railing with a Manfrotto Magic arm and super clamp. The location positioned this light source approximately 60 feet from the podium and 25 feet above the ground floor. Unfortunately the podium was positioned close to the back wall but I went ahead and placed a Canon EX600RT as far back as possible and set the remote to manual at about 1/16th power. This produced a slight hair / rim light effect that gave a little more separation from the background. The rear strobe was triggered with a Pocket Wizard MultiMax and output adjusted using an Elinchrom SkyPort.
Recently I’ve started using a Gary Fong Lightsphere and have been pleased with the results.
Photos by Joel Spring / RxDesign.com
Covering BioMed SA’s 9th Annual Julio Palmaz Award Banquet – presenting to Dr. Francisco Cigarroa
Posted on October 1, 2014
The Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences was launched in San Antonio by BioMed SA, a non-profit corporation founded in 2005 to help grow and promote the city’s thriving healthcare and bioscience sector. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to advances in these fields. Dr. Palmaz accepted the first award, named in his honor, at BioMed SA’s Annual Meeting in 2006.
This year’s recipient is Dr. Francisco Cigarroa and here are some images from the celebration:
Cick here for more information about BioMed SA and the Palmaz award.
In an effort to get better control over lighting I used a ratcheting tie down to steady and secure a lightstand to concrete pillars that happened to be in an optimum location. Securing them in this fashion eliminated a need for sand bags and removed the hazard of expanded base legs to passers by since this venue is tight on space. I faced two Canon EX600RTs toward the stage from either side of the main table and faced two toward the speaker and audience (~45 degrees) to get some light back into the audience for candids. The edge/rim lighting adds something special to the shots of the speakers on stage.
Photos by Joel Spring / RxDesign.com
GEAR:
Canon 1Dx
Canon 600EX-RT
Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L EF II (USM) LENS
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS EF II USM LENS
Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack
Beautiful brides make beautiful pictures – easy…
Posted on September 28, 2014
Bridal sessions can be my favorite thing, especialy when the bride is as pretty as Helen. I was shooting with another photograher so it did not offer much flexibility and he did not want to spend time on lighting, nevertheless I made do and managed a few shots worth posting. In these situations I’ll experiment with gear and in this case I actually used a Canon 300mm f/2.8 II in addition to a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 II and Canon 85mm f/1.2. These all produce pretty “bokeh” at wide aperture though the 85mm is very touchy on precise focus at f/1.2. I make sure to get a few extra frames since at shorter distances the depth of field can be only millimeters – but worth it as seen in the sample photos.
All the images were post processed in Lightroom 5 and some were then manipulated further using OnOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite 8.
Photos by Joel Spring / RxDesign.com
GEAR:
Canon,
Canon 1Dx
Canon 600EX-RT
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS EF II USM LENS
Canon 85mm f/1.2 II
Canon 300mm f/2.8L EF IS II (USM) LENS
Canon WFT-E6a
Joel Spring / Rxdesign Pro Media Services Blog 