2020 has certainly been an insanely challenging year for all of us - for photographers a time for introspection, of rethinking a million billion things, of looking back and forward, of finding new creative avenues and pathways. Stuck inside our homes, cut off from our clients, our models and our muses, unable to collaborate with all those people who give life to our ideas we were forced to look back to our past work and, in more ways than one, reevaluate it. At least, that was what I did and it led me to, well, think differently.
First, let me say that for me, 2020 was, in a way, an okay year. While my initial expedition and travel plans were certainly derailed massively in late February, I was able to scramble and, come June, put the results of my introspection and work review into action. I was able to plan and execute three trips (and, before you ask, without breaking or even slightly bending a single Covid law!) where not only was I able to put a lot of ideas into practice but also learn a LOT about myself - both as a person and as a photographer. Not only was I able to objectively review my previous work but also the work of other photographers I admired and through this attempted to create a new visual vision (!!) of where I would like to take my photography to. Did not know if it would work out but I thought that a relatively dormant period would be - if I could pull it off - a great time to try and see if it would. I would also use this time to maybe scout locations and evaluate different travel partners and fixers, test travel and workshop itineraries and much more. I would use 2020 as a preparatory, training and testing period.
My main goal - as I narrowed to it - would be to take my lights on location. To change travel images through the use of strobes, to try to craft images in all their aspects, as opposed to capturing them. Others have done it before - some amazingly well - so i knew it was technically possible. The question was: could I do it? And if I could, what would be my approach? My vision? As with all - well, almost all - photographic learning journeys, it started with research. A lot of it. I researched battery-powered strobes, the mechanics and logistics of carrying them in remote locations, ease of setup and take-down, battery performance, recharging times etc. Let me tell you something (spoiler alert): hundreds of hours of research and testing will STILL not prepare you for the countless challenges on the actual location. But I’m jumping ahead of myself.
August was time for the first trip - Tanzania - and it would be the first live test of my new approach: I packed three different strobes (two 200ws and one 300ws), 80 and 120cm soft boxes, travel stands, jumped onto a plane for 16 hours, mask and visor on, and I was in Africa. I was to visit 5 different tribal villages over the course of 10 days and attempt to create brand new images. It was a disaster. While I was successful in choosing the right partners and creating an itinerary which would allow me to do what I wanted, I was woefully unprepared. The highlights (or, actually, low points) were simple but brutal:
the power of the lights was nowhere near enough (by a really wide margin)
small, compact, light stands are simply not enough
Africa, around the equator, is brutally unforgiving in terms of light
good locations are immensely difficult to find, especially when you throw light angles into the equation
HSS (that’s High Speed Sync) is certainly not the way to go
I saw the extend of my failure when I returned, evaluated the mistakes (made tons new ones - please see the separate post here about those) and planned the second trip - Kenya. This time I up-ed the ante: bigger lights (one 600ws and two 300ws), bigger soft boxes, what I thought was better planning etc. The results, although better than the first trip, were still far less than I had hoped/planned. But at least, I could clearly see I was heading in the right direction:
discovered that a lot of the technical mistakes and resulting frustrations from the first trip could have been avoided by better framing
found out that even 600ws was not enough under the bright and relentless African sun
a proper light stand will always allow for more creative freedom when you cannot have a full-time assistant
I tried and learn to use a VND filter (and let me tell you, it makes a MASSIVE difference)
you can only trust the screen at the back of the camera so much. Not everything is what it seems.
I came out with images which, while still not there, I could see were getting there. So, 2 months later, the time came for the third and final trip. This time I felt I was ready. This readiness took the form of 1200ws of fully harnessed light, with sufficient battery power for over 800 full-power shots, a 150cm parabolic umbrella with a soft box cover and even more planning and careful timing. Logistics meant a new local fixer (but highly recommended) but, at the same time, a more compressed itinerary (as Covid-related developments meant I could only travel for a very short period of time). But, on the scheduled date, I once again jumped on a plane and I found myself in Ethiopia 10hrs later.
This time the lessons from the previous two trips proved absolutely invaluable. The combination of the lights and the correct use of the VND performed exactly as I had envisaged right from the first time, creating the images I wanted to create:
The harsh African sun stopped being the massive problem it was before and now provided a few additional creative avenues
Using the VND with the 1200ws light allowed for the right amount of ambient vs strobe control I wanted
when it comes to light modifiers and working on location, 8 times out of 10, bigger means better
I came out of the trip with a lot of solid, some even good, images, images I can say that I’m proud of and with even more lessons:
when in doubt, always feather the light. Always.
always pay very close attention to the background elements: how they are lit after your intervention, what is included and what not
early afternoon is better than early morning (more clouds, more flexibility but also more shadows you need to account for)
f/3.2 may create impressive bokeh and everything, but when you have 2 or more subjects, getting them both in focus becomes a challenge
I also came up with some more technical, practical, lessons - smaller, for sure, but in the future I’m sure will make the difference between a good and a great shot:
a pop-up soft box is quicker to setup and therefore much better in changing situations
preparing, in advance (at the hotel, before you even start the day), the entire light setup will always be better
put the light high up and angle it down. Always a good idea - well, almost always.
f/1.4 for portraits is excellent (I took some wonderful portraits at 1.4) but when working with strobes it limits what you can show and what not. Use with caution.
an egg-crate might sound like a good idea, but most of the time its really redundant
I am already planning trip number 4 in late February (assuming the world does not spiral further into madness until then) to actually put all the lessons into practice. 6-7 long days of constant shooting at locations where very few people have attempted this kind of photography before. A local fixer who now knows well what I expect and how I work, how to better work with the subjects and how to better communicate with them. Tried and tested equipment, from the lights to the stand and even the sand-bags. I hope this time will be the culmination of all this previous effort and I’ll be able to share these lessons in a lot more detail - both technical as well as creative.
What 2020 was for me a learning period - a harsh, merciless and brutal teacher who exposed my knowledge and technical gaps, which showed me a lot of my conceptual errors and forced me, I would like to think, to adjust my thinking and repurpose my approach to photography. I hope 2021 will result in more and better images for me and a migration from beautiful images to more targeted story-telling and a more coherent and tight body of work. That’s my goal anyway - I have the tools, the experience and the desire. The question is: do I have the skill and the vision to bring all those things together? I have 12 months, starting today, to find that out.