Veteran's Day Tribute (and a how to fit a portrait studio into a Mini Cooper)

   Like so many of my stories, this one starts on Craigslist, browsing around for gigs. I saw a post asking for a local rehab facility looking for a volunteer photographer to shoot portraits of some of the Veterans they work with for a Veterans' Day tribute wall they were creating. While I am getting really tired of shooting and not making any money, as a current active duty officer with 17 years of service, I figured this would be a good chance to give something back and get something different for my portfolio at the same time.

 

  Of course, reading the post, what I saw in my head was younger vets who had been injured in recent conflicts, instead of older veterans in a retirement facility. This presented several unexpected challenges. First and foremost were my own hangups. I spent some time working as an EMT in LA while I was in college, and spent lots of time in various retirement homes. I am not sure if it is the certain distinct smell they all have, or being forced to face my own mortality and contemplate my future, but all I can say for certain is that they make me very uncomfortable. 

   That was the psychological difficulty, but in addition there were a few practical problems I wasn't prepared for. The main one was that there was quite a range of responsiveness between the subjects. Most of them were in wheel chairs, so the posing options were pretty limited, and there was quite a range of how open they were to direction. 

   As I start to add more portraiture into my repertoire and do more posed shoots vice just shooting live events, I am learning how to pose my subjects in order to present them at their best, but I am still new at it, and over the course of this afternoon there were many times I felt that I really wasn't up to the task in this environment. 

  I also wish that I would have had more time to hear some of their stories and maybe learn a little bit about who they were, because connecting with my subjects makes it easier to get good shots, but it seems I was smack in between lunch and movie time, so everyone wanted to get in and get out before the movie started. So I did the best I could. 

    At the end of the day I wound up shooting about a dozen of the vets, and a few members of the staff. It was a challenge, and although I don't really think I did the best job possible, I think I got some decent shots of them for their wall. 

   The day also gives me photographic evidence that everyone I shoot isn't a young, fit, flexible yoga model or circus performer. It isn't always about attractive naked women. It goes back to my goal of trying to find and showcase the beauty in everyone. If I can't do that, it means I failed. I think I at least broke even on this one. 

   On a technical note, I got to break in what I calling my portable portrait studio on this shoot. It isn't easy to fit a portrait studio into a Mini Cooper, but this one makes it easy. For large scale shoots I have a full size backdrop setup that can hold standard seamless paper rolls, muslins, whatever. But this is overkill for a quick portrait setup like I needed for this one, and it takes more time to set up and break down than I generally spend shooting a single subject. I figured I would try something new, and picked up a collapsible/reversible backdrop kit from Savage studios. It's what you see in each of the images attached to this post. It folds up like a pop-up sun shade and clips into it's own stand. Takes about 1 minute to set up or break down, it's around 5x6ft when open, and can easily be swapped between horizontal and vertical. The one I went with has the mixed shade I used in these images on one side and is dark grey on the reverse, although there are more color combinations you can pick. It's everything I like in a photography accessory: simple, versatile and quite effective. 

   Lighting wise, I did this with a two speed light setup, my main light was my Phottix Mitros + (which I reviewed in my previous post) with a wescott 43in Apollo Orb . My fill light was a regular Mitros with a westscott 26in rapid box with the beauty dish reflector. I will be posting a more thorough review of those two modifiers in an upcoming edition, so stay tuned, but as you can see above they provided some nice, soft light. 

   Other than being very quick to set up and break down, as well as easy to fit into my tiny car, this setup made the day go a lot smoother than it would have otherwise. If I had a full size backdrop and heavy duty strobes with either wires or battery packs, it would have been a pain to maneuver all the wheelchair bound vets around into position. As it was, I could just quickly move my lights out of the way, let the chairs roll in and out, and quickly move the backdrop and lights around my subjects as necessary, which I found much more efficient (not to mention less rude) than grabbing and re-adjusting their chairs if they were not on the mark. 

   So, I got to test some new gear, deal with some fears and psychological issues, shoot something besides gorgeous young women in spandex, meet some interesting people and give a little something back to my military community for Veterans day, all before it was actually Veterans Day, so that while you read this, I can kick back on the beach and enjoy my holiday with a tasty beverage or three. Happy Veterans' Day to all who served and well as those who are still serving, and to the care givers that provide for the Veterans who are no longer able to provide for themselves.