A Western Themed photoshoot with Hayley
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to work with Hayley again on a western/ cowgirl themed photoshoot. I had previously photographed Hayley in Oberlin last year as she performed some awesome dance and acrobatic stunts. She was great to work with and always is a great collaborator in creating images. Since she also runs a farmstead and has a horse named "Chicken," I knew the theme of western cowgirl would work well. Throughout the shoot I primarily used my Flashpoint Xplor 600 shot through a Glow EZ Lock 36" Octa Quick softbox as my main lighting source. Once we went into the barn I added a couple of Flashpoint eVOLV 200 lights as backlights and to help fill in the dark shadows of the barn.
The weather was fairly overcast for a majority of the shoot and helped to soften harsh shadows and create a really even and diffused fill light. With an overcast day you can shoot any direction and your lighting will generally be pretty even and easy to shoot in. Once the sun peaked out from behind the clouds, turning Hayley away from the sun and using it as a kicker / backlight, helped to add a little bit more punch and dimensions to the lighting.
The majority of the day I was utilizing my Sigma 24-70 and 70-200mm lens. Balancing the need for field of view and background compression, were the main deciding factors in lens choice in each scene. I am a big fan of using longer focal lengths to create background compression and a sense of separation of subject in order to draw focus and attention to the main focal point in each image. Sometimes, though, space restraints and overall setup limit the use of longer lenses and the 24-70mm lens becomes a great asset to take in the scene.
Take a look at some of the images we were able to capture:
