What is the best time to go swimming in a creek with a camera? How about in mid October when the water is ice cold. OK, so I didn’t go swimming, and that is never the goal when the camera is resting 6 inches above the chest deep water, on the tripod that you are also using to stabilize yourself when you move left or right to get the right camera angle.
The best news (for me) was this family portrait was created as a Christmas card for fellow Arizona Photographer Fred Ferguson. Part of my terms were that I could use his camera, lenses and tripod… at least $4K in Nikon gear he trusted me to keep dry.
I take no credit for the concept, the location or even the post production. Though this was a collaboration, Fred had the image in his head and told me enough to roughly get what he had wanted. It was a challenge to get the right angle & perspective while using hand gestures and shouting over the water to direct the family and assistant on shore.
All post production was done by Fred and the family was actually taken from a different image because the sun on the mountain changed several times and not all of the good expressions matched the landscape photo. I also created some images with a longer exposure as I was trying to get the “glassy water in motion” effect to merge with a family portrait later in post. (My concept was not always the same as Fred’s. A screenshot of this is at the bottom)
Location: Red Rock State Park – Sedona, AZ
Gear (that stayed dry) – Nikon D700 / 28-70 f2.8 Nikkor lens, White Lightning strobe & Tronix Explorer XT Pocket Wizard
Gear (that got wet) – A (now) rusty tripod & myself.
Assistant: Matthew Dutile – (moving the strobe on the shore)
Post production: f.ferguson photographers
