Portrait Shoot for Red Bull with Mike "Flamesword" Chavez - Behind the Scenes

Here's a couple shots from my portrait shoot with professional video gamer Mike Chavez for Red Bull.

Behind the Scenes - Rainwear photoshoot and creating fake rain

Last week we had a large commercial shoot outside Seattle, Wa in the foothills of the North Cascades. The shoot was for a large outerwear company's rainwear line. Usually, one thinks it's always grey and rainy in the Pacific Northwest… and usually it is. But when you're shoot requires that ABSOLUTELY MUST BE RAIN, you bring along backups in case mother nature doesn't cooperate.

Below are a handful of behind the scenes images from the shoot to give you a little idea of what goes into faking conditions. Will post the resulting shots as soon as possible.

Behind the Scenes - Womens Fitness Studio Shoot

Been spending some time in the studio working on some fitness imagery for the new website. As I always love checking out people's "Behind the Scenes" pics from shoots, I thought I'd post a few of my own. Look to the website to see some of the finished images from this. Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes: Columbia Sportswear Shoot

A few BTS shots from a recent Columbia Rainwear shoot. Sometimes you've gotta bring the rain with you… even when you're shooting in Washington.

Crossfit Shoot: Behind the Scenes

A couple weeks back I did a Crossfit photo shoot at a gym here in Seattle. This shoot was a personal shoot I produced for myself rather than for a client. Every once in a while I like to put together projects where I have complete creative freedom and can shoot whatever style I 'm feeling like.

Not only is it nice to be able to have creative freedom in the styling, but it also allows me to experiment with new techniques, styles or concepts. On top of that, it gives me the chance to tailor my portfolio to the kind of shooting I want to be doing in the future.

Check out the behind the scenes video of the shoot above. And I've attached a couple of my favorite shots here on the blog. But be sure to visit our main website www.iancoble.com to see more.

 

Behind the Scenes: Stevens Pass shoot with Bobby Brown, Gus Kenworthy and Poor Boyz Productions

Back in May I had the opportunity to do a massive park shoot at one of my home mountains, Stevens Pass. This shoot was for Poor Boyz Productions and highlighted ESPN X-Games gold medalist, Bobby Brown.

Check out the behind the scenes video from ESPN above. And I've attached a couple of my favorite out-takes of Bobby, Gus and Vincent from the shoot... shots I dig, but that are the B edits from the shoot. Look for the "A" selects in the magazines this coming winter.

Brooks Running : Track Shoot

Just finished a quick one day shoot for Brooks Running earlier this week. The shoot was aimed at capturing images of their track and cross country shoes and outerwear for their 2014 catalog.

A large crew of producers, art directors, stylists, assistants, digital techs and models comprised our group. Fortunately, everyone in the group was awesome! All the moving pieces coordinated well and our shot list was easy to achieve in our one day of allotted time.

As the catalog is still under wraps, I can't yet share any of the images from the day, but above is a shot of the crew reviewing pics on the iPad. This recent addition of gear/ technology to our arsenal is priceless in it's ability to wirelessly push images to an iPad for easy review by art directors and clients. So much nicer than having four or five people crowd around the back of the small LCD screen on camera. In the shot above, the iPad is coupled with a sun shade from sunhoods.com

Behind the Scenes Video : Powder Magazine & Pocket Wizard Interviews

I just recently took part in a behind the scenes video interview that just went live online today. Local athlete, Tyler Ceccanti and his filmer, Chris King have been producing their web series, Snow Chasers for two years now. Earlier in the season they approached me to see if I'd be interested in working with them on a behind the scenes look at what goes into shooting skiing.

Check out the resulting video above. If you'd like to see the write up on the video by Powder Magazine, you can check it out HERE .

Also got some additional love for the video from the good people at Pocket Wizard radio transmitters. Their interview about the piece can be found HERE .

Fly Low Gear Lifestyle Photo Shoot

We just wrapped up a shoot this past weekend for Fly Low Outerwear. This lifestyle shoot was done to showcase the 2014 line of gear. A moderate sized crew of myself, one assistant and 5 models made for quick travel time between locations... which was a good thing as the weather was horrible.

But all in all, everything went great. Super happy with how the shots turned out. Here's a preview of some of the work.

And a behind the scenes shot courtesy of model/ athlete Brian Hopper.

 

Thanks to all involved for making the shoot a success. Cheers!

Behind the Scenes: Street Basketball Shoot

Just got done shooting some new work for my portfolio. Here's a quick look at the "behind the scenes" of our recent basketball shoot in downtown Seattle.

To see the rest of the shots from this shoot as well as some of our other recent shoots, check out our updated website under the "Sport" tab. Here's the LINK

Shooting Action with Strobes Using Hyper-Synch

Lars Sternberg at Stevens Pass. Shot at 1/3200th of a second

This post is going to be super heavy on camera nerdy tech jargon.  If you're not a dorky photographer, this might not make a lot of sense... but please keep reading and enjoy!

That disclaimer aside, I started working with Pocket Wizards to trigger my off camera strobes roughly 5 years ago. Last year, I was fortunate enough to get contacted by them to help in the Beta testing of their Flex TT5 and Mini TT1 units. I was super excited to start testing these as they promised the new ability to synch strobes above the normal 1/250th of a second shutter speed. For action shooters, this is a dream come true. The previous limitations of technology prevented photographers from shooting above 1/250th of a second. Instead, we had to rely on the flash duration of our strobes to freeze the action. Beyond just the ability to freeze action, it also prevented you from under exposing a scene to achieve a heavy dramatic look.



Although I've been working with the Flex and Mini units for over a year now, I was still having trouble achieving a proper hyper-synch. Occasionally they would work at speeds over 1/250th, but it wasn't always reliable. Fast forward though to last week and the game changed. With the release of Firmware Version 3.110, any issues I had previously had with the units disappeared. (There are some adjustments that need to be made in the Pocketwizard Utility in order to achieve accurate hyper synch. Below is a screen shot of how mine are set up for use with Elinchrom Ranger RX's).

I went out and shot with pro mountain biker, Lars Sternberg last week to put the Flex and Mini units to the test. The results were astounding! Shooting with a Nikon D800 and two Elinchrom Ranger RX packs (utilizing the S heads, NOT the A heads), I was able to get full synch at 1/1250th. A HUGE jump from 1/250th.

However, I was able to continue pushing synch speed higher with hardly any clipping. At 1/1600th I had very slight clipping at the base of the frame... and I mean hardly noticeable. As shutter speed was pushed higher, the clipping gradually grew, but very minimally. Even at 1/8000th of a second, the clipping was still very minimal (see reference files below).



I know some will look at the above and say that there is a bit of darkness at the tops of the frames that could be construed as shutter lag. However, it's affect is so minimal compared to normal shutter lag, that it can easily be compensated for by increasing the strobe's power or camera's f-stop by +1/2 a stop.

Additionally, with the huge file sizes being output by the D800 (36.2MP), the tiny clipping seen even at the fastest shutter speeds can easily be cropped out without losing the detail or size of the file.

A big thanks to the people at Pocket Wizard for working with me on the beta testing of these units. I'm excited to see the new possibilities that this will open for action shooters utilizing strobes. Hope this article helps some of you. Good luck and happy shooting.

1/3200th with no cropping of shutter lag at bottom of frame

Revo Sunglass Shoot for Factory Design Labs

 

(The crew at the base of Palmyra Peak in Telluride)

Last month I had the great opportunity to shoot a commercial campaign for Revo Sunglasses with their ambassador Jimmy Chin. Teamed up with the amazing people at Factory Design Labs, we had an awesome six day shoot in Telluride, CO and Arches National Park, UT.

While I can't yet share any of the images from the campaign, I can show off a few of the behind the scenes images from the week (courtesy of my assistant Pat... thanks buddy!).

(Everyone waiting for the light to"pop" in Arches National Park)

A big thanks to the folks at Revo and Factory for working with me on this. Additionally, a huge thanks to Jimmy Chin for all his hard work. Jimmy is an extremely talented photographer and athlete and it was an absolute pleasure to shoot with him. And finally, a huge shout out to my crew for kicking ass and taking names.

Will update the blog and website later with the finished campaign once it's available.

(Shooting in Telluride)

(A shot from Jimmy's perspective: via his Instagram Account. (Copyright: Jimmy Chin)

Fitness/ Workout Shoot

I did a personal shoot the middle of last month and I just got done retouching everything. I'd been wanting to shoot some edgy fitness imagery for my portfolio, so I called up two models I've worked with in the past and they were stoked to lend a hand. Really happy with the diversity of images we were able to shoot. A big thanks to Rachel Elizabeth and Stuart... you guys kick ass!

You can check out my portfolio website to see some of my favorites from this shoot, but I wanted to post a handful of the others I'm really digging that just couldn't fit on the main site.

(Behind the scenes of the lighting for the image below)

 Hope you all like how everything turned out.

Skateboard Shoot

More personal work that I thought I'd share with you all. I found this incredible location last month and I've been jonesing to shoot here ever since. Was finally able to make it happen a few days ago.

Here are a few quick shots from it. One to give you a taste for the action and the other to give you a behind the scenes look. (Thanks to my assistant Pat for standing in and being the lighting test subject here). Use your imagination and you'll have an idea what the final image will look like.

Stay tuned for the website re-launch in the very near future to see the finished images.

Thanks for checking in.

Track and Field Shoot

Been working on some personal projects lately and here's a few behind the scenes shots from my most recent one.

A little glimpse into how the shots were made.

I'm in the process of redoing my portfolio right now, so stay tuned to see the finished images from this shoot and many others.

ps. a little tip of my hat to Brad Trent for the idea of showing these pics. I was inspired by his "Artificial Portraits" series that showcased the behind the scenes of his shots, but with all the post processing done to them. Check out his site... pretty cool!

Location Scouting: Weather

With wrapping up my winter work from the ski, snowboard and outdoor industry, I've been spending countless hours in front of the monitor editing and retouching. Unfortunately, that doesn't make for a lot of great blog posts.

However, this doesn't occupy all of our time. When we're not sorting through the work we've already shot, we're currently planning a series of new shoots in the coming weeks. So, in the name of getting some new info up, I've decided to do a series of posts on our photoshoot production. For this installment, we'll take a quick look at what we do regarding weather forecasting as well as share some of our favorite weather websites.

Nothing can ruin a shoot like bad weather. Be it rain, sun, heat, cold, wind... whatever you're hoping the weather gods will bring you on the day of your shoot, chances are, they'll bring the opposite.

Unfortunately, there's no magic bullet that will take care of everything. In the end it boils down to a lot of work and a little bit of luck. We usually spend several hours a day checking the different forecasts before a big shoot. You can't change the weather once you get a location, but it can help in your planning (wether that be the day you plan the shoot, or how you budget your time over the course of the day once you're already there). By keeping an obsessive vigil on the weather maps and taking an average of what you see, you can usually do a pretty good job of predicting what will be in store for the day of your next big shoot.

Following is a list of our favorite weather sites with a quick description of what each is good for.

Weather.com I know this site seems cliche given its popularity, but it's really pretty accurate

Weather Underground More detailed forecast than weather.com with some useful almanac info

NOAA If you're a weather dork, this is your holy grail. However, I've noticed their forecasts have been pretty inaccurate lately... not sure why.

Snow-Forecast For forecasting weather in the mountains, this is one of the best, by far. Great for predicting the strength of storms during the winter months.

Weather Spark This is a new site to me, but so far I'm really enjoying the graphing features and the overall layout. Time will tell how accurate it is though.

Red Bull 3D Shoot: "How to" 3D Tutorial

Just a quick post to keep people up to date. I did a 3D shoot for Red Bull earlier this past summer and as a result, got a ton of emails asking for a tutorial or behind the scenes look at how it was done. Well, without further ado, here it is. Check out the Red Bull Illume website HERE to see the interview and the quick rundown on what's involved in producing a 3D shoot.

If you're questions aren't answered in the article, feel free to post your questions below and I'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers!

Red Bull Kayaking Shoot: In 3D

To see the image in 3D, click HERE.

I just recently finished up a really fun shoot for Red Bull Energy Drink with professional kayaker Tao Berman. What made this shoot so incredible, wasn't just the sheer athleticism in front of the camera, but was the amount of creativity I was afforded. In organizing the shoot, Red Bull had essentially given me free reign to shoot this however I wanted.

For the last few months, I've been dying to try shooting something in 3D. Since I saw the James Cameron movie Avatar, I've wanted to test the 3D technology and see how it translated from video to still. When this shoot with Tao came before me, I knew this was the shoot to make it happen.

In doing my research for this shoot, I'd come across plenty of other 3D photos, but none of them were action or motion based. Everything I was coming across was static... whether a landscape, portrait or still life. Not finding any 3D (also called anaglyph) photos of sports left me really excited. This was going to be something relatively new, and it's always fun to be the guinea pig on new things as you never now what you're going to encounter or how it's going to turn out.

(A brief note: with new versions of Photoshop, it's now possible to create 3D images in post production with a single camera and manipulating the single resulting image. But that's not what I wanted to do here. With this shoot, I wanted to achieve a true 3D image, by shooting two cameras offset from one another. The advantage in using two cameras, is that the resulting 3D image has more depth and texture that it can draw out as it does not require photoshop to extrapolate and create new information.)

Given the inherent danger in running waterfalls, and not wanting to subject Tao to any more danger than necessary, we only had a few cracks at shooing this. With that in mind, we were running 3 cameras at all times, in order to ensure maximum coverage and guarantee differing angles and vantage points.

In the end, the shoot went off great. The resulting 3D image turned out better that I could have hoped. I'm excited to put this technology to use again on some more shoots in the near future... stay tuned.

If you'd like to see some of the other images from the shoot, you can see a small gallery HERE.

Final note: if you're interested in learning more of the details about how to shoot a true anaglyph/3D image, post a comment below. If enough people are interested, I'll follow up with a tutorial post later.

New Work: Road Running

I usually try to make at least one blog post every week. Recently though, I've been failing at that... miserably! For one excuse or another (traveling, shooting, and a mother board crashing) I've just been too busy to sit down for an hour to post my new work or other random industry musings. But that stops today.

Two weekends ago, I went out to do a road running shoot. Not for any particular client, but because it was something I just wanted to shoot. I firmly believe that every once in a while you need to go out and shoot, just for the sake of shooting. Not every time you pick up a camera has to be for a client. Sometimes it's nice to take a day or two and produce a shoot that you want to shoot, the way you want to shoot it. It's a great way to add to your portfolio while at the time, showing off your true, unconstrained style. All too often, when shooting for a client, you aren't able to shoot things exactly as you'd like. Whether that be because of branding visibility, layout issues, art direction or a slew of other reasons. It's nice to be able to show other creatives what your true style can be.

So with that in mind, I headed up into the Cascades of Washington with my fiance Karlee helping out with modeling responsibilities for the day. Here are a few of the resulting images. And for all you Strobist followers, the shot above will show you my lighting setup for the image that follows. Enjoy!