Rally of the Dead - Technical

Whew! This was a whirlwind project. It was totally impulse and unexpected, but very fun. It was super fun to go out and shoot unrestricted and use gels to create color rather than color correction. I'll provide a little background about the Rally of the Dead and how this all came about.

In 2006, Jon Bailey approached me to photograph all the riders of his race on top of Hogsback ridge. But in true Bailey style, he took an idea and went one step further. He arranged for a pilot to fly me around the Hogsback to get a aerial shot of all the riders. It was super fun. I got sweet shots of everyone and a few riders descending the ridge. Yes, that ridge is as steep as it looks. And the guys riding it are BOMBING it!

A couple weeks ago Jon approached me to shoot aerials again for the race. It was my first weekend off from weddings and other work projects, so I agreed. As it got closer to the Rally weekend, I thought, why not document the whole Rally of the Dead and make something out of it. On Thursday, I told Jon that I would donate my time and efforts and document the weekend. A really big smile lit up his face.

My initial idea was to shoot portraits of all of the riders and participants of the fest. I knew that everyone dressed up for the race, so that would give a character to the portraits. Once Jon knew he had a photog for the weekend, the floodgates of ideas came spewing out. He excitedly started telling me about the gala, the awards ceremony, the awards themselves, and finally bike polo tourney. I think I just bit off more than I could chew. Oh well, If your gonna commit to something, might as well give it your best shot!

THE GALA

The Rally of the Dead kicked off with the zombie gala at the Powerhouse. The Powerhouse is an old powerplant that is going to be converted to a science museum, if they can ever get the funding. As for now, it is pretty much a big, open, empty building. Great place for a party. I showed up early to assess what I needed for lighting. There were two different rooms that I wanted to be able to shoot in, the big main room where all the dancing would be and a smaller boiler room where all the awards would be displayed and a band was play gothic lounge music for people as they entered the party. Mind you, there are really no lights in this building aside from some construction pigtails and some christmas strings along the trusses. It was going to require some enhancement for sure. Strobes were the only option for this scenario.

I started in the big room. One of the big issues here was that the only power source was an outlet coming of the main circuit box on a pole outside the building. I had to share this single power source with the DJ, Reverend Phil who was screening a movie that night. (More about that later), and all the existing lights in the room. One thing I've learned about shooting events is that we all have to work together. Nobody is more important than another and we are all there to do a job, so it is easist if we all discuss our needs and try to accomodate each other. After talking to the DJ and pulling out a lot of extension cords I was able to piggyback into some of their cords and then share another cord with the projector. I think my strobes might have blown the DJs lights later in the evening but he swore that it had to be something else.

At first, I started looking at the trusses and considering the options of clamping strobes so as they would be off the floor and couldn't be knocked over by drunk partiers. They would also give a better beam of light with the additional height. Problem with that is that I setting up in the daytime. Once it was dark and I could see the actual effects of my lights, I wouldn't be able to change power levels, gels or grids. Fortunately, there was all sorts stuff stacked around the sides of the room so it would provide a natural blockade. I could set my stands behind stuff and they would be out of the way of people dancing and stumbling around. I ended up setting three strobes in a big triangle in the room.

Next was gels and grids. I thought about the feel that Jon wanted to have for the building and gala. Deep red and blue seemed like the most obvious choices. I set up one strobe on a really tall stand with a red gel and a 30 degree spot aim at the middle of the room. Another strobe on a 8' stand with a blue gel and no grid (kind of a flood). The third strobe was set up behind one of the DJs light stands with a green gel and a 40 spot aimed right at the dancing area. Once it was dark, I shot a few test shots and felt that the blue flood didn't give the right mood and kind of washed out the ambiance that Jon was trying to create.

I switched the blue and red gels, so now the red was flooding the room and the blue was a little more directed at the main floor. Something about the red flood just made the photo better, can't put my finger on it.

Oh yeah, all strobes were controlled with Pocket Wizards. It's the only way to fly!

Next, I had to light up the small room. This was a little more complex as I only had one more PW for two 550 flashes. I set these flashes on channel 2 where the strobes in the main room were on channel 1. I did this because if I was shooting in one room I didn't need the strobes of the other room going off. I put a blue gel on one of the flashes and a CTO on the other. Since I only had one PW, I had to rely on the infrared slaves of the 550s. I will never rely on the infrared slaves of the 550s ever again.

1. The slave sensors have to look directly at each other. I had the strobes clamped on to pipes in the room and trying to get the flashes to look directly at each other was a pain in the ass.
2. There was a 1/2 sec second delay between the master and the slave. So if I shot at anything faster than 1/2 sec I would only get the master flash. If I shot over 1/2 sec the blurs from ambient were off the charts.
3. If the 550s are used in that configuration, they only work in ETTL mode. Call me a control freak, but I actually like to be able to control the power of my flashes. I tried to push the power up +3 but there was no change in the output. No bueno.

I ended up bailing on the slave flash and using only the master in the room. Not super desirable, but most of the action happened in the big room anyway. This is one major reason I decided to shoot this event, so I could learn these problems while not on the clients dime. This evening was an awesome learning experience for me.

PORTRAITS

Ok, fast forward 5 hours. It's 8 am and I am a bit foggy. I gotta get down to Bailey's house where he's going to register all the riders for the race. Race starts at 10 am and I have shoot a portrait of each and every one of the 70 riders. My sweet friend Cara volunteered to be an assistant for me this morning. She showed up in style with her Marge Simpson wig on. The rule of today is keep it simple stupid...and I am stupid this morning. There was a blank stucco wall on the side of the Cyclery with a little sidewalk that made a perfect little stage. An outlet right off the side made the power issue moot. I set up a large soft box camera right and an umbrella camera left for a bit of fill, shot some test shots of Cara and it was set. I also shot this way, because it focused everything on the cyclists, their costumes and their bikes.

BTW, if it sounds like I stumbled out of bed and decided to make a plan 20 minutes before I shot that would be a little misleading. 2 days before, I sat in the alley and worked out every little aspect of how I wanted the photos to look and what I would be dealing with that morning. I can't say as it was the most technical or advanced shoot, but shooting 70 people in under an hour with some bit of creativity requires preparation to some degree.

Let's go take a plane ride!

AERIAL
I'm no expert on aerials. I know they are a lot of fun though. Like most other aspects of photography, you think you got everything set and the rules change when you show up. This shoot was from a plane. If anybody wants to hire me for an aerial shoot in a helicopter, I am available! The pilot was Andy Gresh, really cool guy and I trust him as a pilot 100%.

I'll keep this brief. I used a Canon 20D with a 70-200(1.6 factor gave me a 300mm) Since I was shooting at relative infinity I shot wide open at f/4.5 and aperature priority. That resulted in a shutter speed of 1000-2000/sec. 1000/sec is too slow for a plane, big lens and low fly bys. 2000/sec is much better. Another thing, sit high on the seat and keep the lens inside the plane. I don't care how cool your IS lens is, it ain't gonna do squat with a 100mph crosswind hitting it. If I didn't mention it before, I am totally available to do aerial assignments especially in a helicopter.

OK, I'm tired of typing and you're probably tired of reading. I could go on about the next couple of days of Rally of the Dead but it was just plain silliness. Plus you can experience it next year when the Single Speed World Championships come to town in August. We welcome you. Trust me you will have a hell of a good time. These guys throw a awesome party that will keep you guessing the whole time.

Cheers
G