Techniques, Tips, Trips, and Musings about my Work

Image 1: Whirly Gigs in Waikiki. Shot with a Sony a900 and Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f2.8 for 1/8 second. Flash set for TTL High Sync Mode, bounced off ceiling.

Image 2: Whirly Gigs in Waikiki. Shot with a Sony a900 and Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f2.8 for 1/8 second. Flash set for TTL High Sync Mode, bounced off ceiling.

Image 3: Whirly Gigs in Waikiki. Shot with a Sony a900 and Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 70mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f2.8 for 1/8 second. Flash set for TTL High Sync Mode, bounced off ceiling.

I found a street vendor in Waikiki selling Whirly Gigs. A breeze was blowing off the ocean and they were really moving. The colors were amazing and I saw an opportunity to create a kind of abstract photographic painting. The vendors cart had some nice light but I used a flash unit set to Manual Mode with High Speed Sync and Rear Sync to add a little more light and to freeze some of the whirly gigs. The flash was aimed up to bounce the light off the inside ceiling of the cart. While in Manual Mode I experimented with the light output and finally settled on a 1/4 flash output so I avoided blowing out the image. 

This is the kind of shot where you can experiment and every shot will be different. I looked for compositions of color and size and shape within each shot. The three I posted today I really like bor their color, vibrance, and motion. They just might be next years Christmas Cards.

Though each RAW shot was full of color on capture I used Lightroom’s color sliders to help bring out the color details. All that was required in Photoshop was a little curves work and very light sharpening.