It was the hottest day of the summer this year. 113 degrees to be exact. And to those of you who don’t live in the desert like we do – yes, that’s a real thing! So what a perfect day for a day spent poolside, right!? That’s kinda what we thought when we arrived at a beautiful model pool built by longtime Arizona pool builder Shasta Pools!
Now we have to admit, we quickly realized there is a big difference between poolside and being in the pool! One of the biggest challenges of the day was keeping ourselves and our gear cool enough to function!
Our goal for this shoot with Shasta was to create custom imagery for their website and printed collateral. The market for stock imagery for pool builders is pretty limited so many companies end up with the same images across their websites and marketing materials. With their forward-thinking emphasis on marketing, Shasta decided that they wanted their own custom branded images to represent their brand.
We worked to photograph both the amazing pool they had built and the talent we had to work with for the day – kids! The energy and joy the kids brought to the session was naturally infectious and made our jobs a whole lot easier! It also presented its own fair share of challenges.
Our shoot was scheduled from 10AM-6PM which meant most of the light we’d be working in would be directly overhead and bright! Typically, we try to avoid this type of harsh light, but it fit naturally with the idea of being outdoors in the summer enjoying a pool. Complicating it further was the fact that working with children inherently means more movement by the kids and less control on our part. Throw them in a pool and that already limited level of control slips away pretty quick!
In order to have the most flexibility and least set-up and teardown time, we chose to harness the natural power of the sun instead of fighting it and used a 6’x6’ silver scrim to bounce natural light back on our subjects. We then supplemented that with very high power, fast recycling strobes with silver umbrellas. This gave us the light we needed to minimize unsightly ‘raccoon eyes’ and create some fun photos for their brand! See a few of the final results below!
Gear List: Canon 5D Mk III, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L is II USM, Profoto Pro8 2400 AirTTL Power Pack, Profoto ProHead, Profoto XL Silver Umbrella, Profoto L Silver Umbrella, Lastolite Scrim 6’x6′
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