20 Moments – Log Cabin
This is the second installments in the 20 moments of 2009 series.
Don and Yolanda Smith stand on the porch of their cabin which sits on property behind their home in Trinity. The cabin was first built an ancestor, Washington Parker, in 1865. Photo by Gary Cosby Jr. 1/11/09
Sometimes you have friends you don’t know you have. That was the case when I first showed up at Don and Yolanda Smith’s house in 2007 when they bought an old, disassembled log cabin. Yolanda used to work at a part time job with my wife and she remembered me. We had a nice reunion after all the connections were made and I asked to begin a project to follow them through the construction of their cabin.
I went back several times over the ensuing months until we finally arrived at this moment when they had completed the cabin. I wanted to do a bit more of a dramatic photo than just your everyday, run of the mill exterior shot even though I knew you had to see the exterior of the completed cabin in the lead photo. Taking my inspiration from The Strobist, I lit the cabin with six flash units. This is a hodge podge of strobes if ever there were one. Under the eaves of the porch are four strobes of the hot shoe variety, two Vivitars and two Nikon SBs. Another SB is clamped high up in the dog trot, that is the walk way between the two halves of the cabin for those city dwellers out there. Although it doesn’t come into play in this angle, I placed a Lumedyne in the upstairs to the right. It provides light inside the cabin when a wider angle of view is taken so the window in the end is not dead black. The key light is a Lumedyne to the left of the set up fired through a large Octobank providing light on Don and Yolanda and filling in some blanks on the cabin.
I have never been happier with a lit photo than I am with this one. Having the dusky light in the sky behind the cabin really just makes the image. The only thing I might do different if I were to re-shoot this photo is to move Don and Yolanda up the porch closer to me. I don’t know if doing that would improve the image but I would at least try it.
Photo copyright Gary Cosby Jr., The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
I’m not sure if moving them would help either, but I can see why you’d want to make them more prominent.
Looking at the space, I think they fit in best where they are, though, because there is something of interest everywhere along the porch.
If I were to move them, I’d probably change the camera position so that they’d be in the doorway.
As it is, the only thing I’d change is a warming gel on the strobe that lights the area where the small rocking chair is.
It seems to be a bit cooler than the other light.
But that’s only cause you brought it up. It’s always easier to see things when you get back to the office.
A great photo, either way.
Pete
16 Dec 09 at 4:47 am