Portraits at Bristol Shooters UK Meet
On Friday night I attended a local 'Instameet' in Bristol, set up by Dan Rose (@danrose95), founder of the Bristol Shooters UK page.
Attending the meet were a couple of local models and calisthenics athletes who were happy to pose and jump in front of the lens so the group could take shots.
The meet started around 19:30pm, enough time for me to shoot some natural light portraits using the Hasselblad X1D, I borrowed from Clifton Cameras for the weekend. I'd always wanted to shoot some portraits with a medium format camera after seeing the resolution on my own 50 megapixel monster, the Canon 5Ds.
I managed to get a few decent shots with the Hasselblad, using only natural light and a reflector. However, I did find it hard to nail focus shooting wide open on the 90mm f3.2 lens without the aid of eye autofocus that has made shooting portraits on my Sony A7iii a dream.
Below are a few of the final images shot using the Hasselblad.
For the second part of the meet, I wanted to shoot some of the calisthenics guys using my high speed flash unit to create a studio environment in an underpass allowing me to create some dramatic low key portraits on location.
As I didn't have a compatible trigger for the Hasselblad, I switched back to my trusty Sony for the rest of the meet. The below portraits were shot using a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens on my Sony and were lit using a Pika200 flash head fired into a reflective umbrella.
Overall I'm really happy with the shots I came away with from the meet. Instameets are a great opportunity to network with other creatives and to get out of your comfort zones!
Cheers to Dan for organising and to all the models/athletes that gave up their time on the night. You can find them on insta by following the below tags:
- @tyla_patonxox
- @kenfeeny
- @one.little.earthling
- @starboyasian_barsparta
- @sheldon.golding
- @ngc_aarontucker
-Craig