One from the Archive – Don Elgin Shoot – Archive Tuesday

This was the 2nd of the two shoots. I had to do for the Toyota in house magazine – Trade Secrets in 2008. This one was to be a feature about Don Elgin a paralympian who competes in the Pentathlon. Don was born a amputee and as a result now wears a prosthetic limb, he has three different limbs for two different set ups. He has one leg which looks fairly normal and even has a foot shaped end on it, this is don everyday leg which he uses most of the time. When it comes to competition time he swaps over to a one off two high tech leg. See pics below of Don with two of his legs

Nikon D2x – 10.5mm – 1/8 f8 – 800iso. Lit with 3x Nikon SB800’s. One as master on camera and one each on either side of the camera.

The brief was to photograph him as he trained. Which was at a small park that lies in the shadows of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the leed up to the shoot I had spoken to Don and had already set up a basic plan for the shoot.
When I got to the shoot the sun was still a little high in the sky. So I started up shooting Don in the discus cage whilst training, trying to over power the strong sun with flash to get a dramatic shot.

Nikon D2x – 17-55mm – 1/125 f22 – 100iso – 3x Nikon SB800’s, one as master on camera and one on either side of the camera. Remote unit A & B had +1 stop of compenstation dialed into them.

Nikon D2x – 17-55mm – 1/125 f22 – 200iso – 3x Nikon SB800’s, one as master on camera and one on either side of the camera. Remote unit A & B had +1 stop of compenstation dialed into them

Next I got Don to change over from his normal everyday leg to his competition leg to do some portrait shots, whilst we still had sunlight.

The backgrounds werent that good around the area. So I used the sunlight to my advantage and metered for the background and dropped it down a couple of stops and then used 3 Nikon SB800’s to light Don. One SB800 on camera as a master and then one on either side of the camera. One bare flash and the other in a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe. Remote unit A & B had +1 stop of compenstation dialed into them

Nikon D2x – 17-55mm F2.8 – 1/250 f13 – 100iso

I wanted to do a start set up shot as I thought that would be a good option if they wanted a double page spread in the article or as a opening spread.

Just of to the side of the cage there was concrete walking path that was perfect for the set up.

I again set up 3 SB800’s, one on camera as a master and one of either side of the camera. One is mounted on the left of camera in a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe and the other was just bare flash

Nikon D2x – 70-200mm F2.8 – 1/250 f13 – 400iso.

The final couple of set ups I wanted to do were with Don and his two different legs.

So I set him up in different set ups. First sitting on a box with his racing leg on and him holding his normal foot leg.

Nikon D2x – 17-55mm F2.8 – 1/250 f18 – 320iso – 3x Nikon SB800’s, one as master on camera and one on either side of the camera. Remote unit A had -1 stop and unit B had -0.7 stop

The second was one of him sitting on the ground with his two legs in front of him. I had brought a ladder with me, so I used this to get some height and to look down on Don. I went back to one flash for this shot. The flash was set up on the right of the camera and fired thru the Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe using CLS.

Nikon D2x – 17-55mm F2.8 – 1/250 f10 – 400iso

By this time it was pretty much dark so that was the end of the shoot.

Don was fantasitc to work with and I wish him all the best in his future