ShutterSpeed

WTE Prep Athlete of the Week Lindsey Fearing led the Cheyenne Central Indians to a fifth place finish at the Wyoming State Championships last weekend in Casper. AAron Ontiveroz/staff

a troublesome shoot with an understanding subject is never as fun as having teeth pulled, but eventually things work out (i think).

for whatever reason, the lighting kit we use to shoot many of our portraits was giving grief to fellow wte staffer shauna stephenson and me during our previous couple of shoots. mine came at an inopportune time when i shot central’s lindsey fearing for our prep athlete of the week feature last tuesday.

Lindsey Fearing about to pop after I failed to work professionally. AAron Ontiveroz/staff

for the shoot i had a basic lighting scheme in mind, but when i set up the lights and had ms. fearing ready to go, the lights did not respond to my shutter firing. naturally, i panicked and told my subject that things weren’t working. although i am pretty sure she thought of me as a bumbling hack, ms. fearing showed little doubt in her belief that i knew what i was doing (i did not).

in a moment of doubt, i called photo editor mike smith and explained the situation with the non-firing lights. he suggested a few tricks to get them working again, but his advice was to no avail. the lights were as dead as pauly shore’s career… well, not really, they still worked, but not very well.

smith suggested a timed exposure, which would give me the chance to manually fire the lights without the use of a radio slave.

A two-headed Fearing is more frightening than the standard single model.

in the fearing photos provided in this blog, you will notice a great amount of motion blur, which resulted when i did not fire enough light into ms. fearing’s face. the finished product is the one that worked before an over-zealous coach turned on the gym lights and told me the shoot was done — no questions asked.

i’m pleased with the outcome of the photo, though i should probably just be thankful one of my 20 frames was usable.

as for ms. fearing, i don’t think the shoot affected her mindset negatively.

Technical Information:

subject: lindsey fearing, basketball player cheyenne central

location: cheyenne central fieldhouse

camera body: canon mark II

lens: 16-35mm (16mm)

ISO: 50

f-stop: f-14

strobes: yes — an umbrella right and an open head behind.

cons:

this is the only usable frame from the shoot. the remotes did not work due to a faulty cable and i panicked. at least i got something.