This was a very anticipated photo shoot for one of my faithful clients. It was also my first real world test with the Sony A7ii along with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 (Commlite adapter), Canon 50mm f/1.8 and Sony 28mm f/2.
Prior to the shoot we had a very solid idea for most of the shots we wanted and some locations. It was stylized to feature Fred Perry to be punk and urban with a touch of vintage to carry the essence of the couple. We met at my home and did the first run of images near the stair case. This is where I started to notice the ease of manual focus on the camera and how easy it was to capture the tender moments and the amazing connection this couple has.
Shortly after this, we headed over to Downtown Orlando, While I was reviewing the shots on the camera screen, I immediately knew this was going to be a good shoot, the connection was there and everything was just flowing. While in the car I couldn't resist and take a picture of them holding hands focusing on her ring. The lighting was perfect at that moment and managed to get some very candid moments of Glory looking a Danny while they talked.
When we left the parking lot and started walking we saw one of the many brick walls in Downtown. This was one of the essential elements they wanted for our planned images. As soon as I put my bag down they were already posing next to the wall. I can't stress enough how good it is to work with confident people. Planning, or at least having an overview of the shoot, beforehand is very practical. Here are more images from this section of the session.
We then moved a little off from the wall and got these other shots, these were a bit more improvised and just "vibing" the moment;
On these last ones I had the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 on the Commlite adapter and it was working great with the autofocus (up to 135mm), no hunting and locking in focus pretty quick, even more so than my previous Nikon D800 with the Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 even though for most of this part I ended up using manual focus. I never struggled using the manual focus with this Sony and was able to capture all the great moments that were happening. We quickly moved a bit down the road to one of the locations I had in mind, Church Street. Again, as soon as we got there, I told them where to stand to keep the symmetry (even though the sign on top is a bit to the side, is not the angle). In these, I used the autofocus because of the distance, I kept it in 135mm and just moved closer to keep the same frame I had at 200mm. Well, this magic happened;
Then we moved to a wall that was to the left of this street and the poses we did there were deemed the "Pinterest Wall". This is what we mean by that;
I can't figure out where I got the inspiration for this picture but I saw it once and wanted to replicate the concept of it. Basically, I stood on one side of the street and the couple on the other (yes with cars passing by), the trick is to use very slow shutter speed (I think this was a 1 second) to capture the motion blur from the cars and hopefully capture them through the open windows of a car passing by.
We saw one of the many alleys and did the mandatory "alley shot".
When we arrived to the final location, we were surprised at how much there was to shot in such a small area, the alley is grimy and moody, just what we were looking to accomplish Downtown - that punk, back-alley type feel. We had some shots planned for these stairs and they came out just as we wanted them.
I then strapped the 70-200mm again and did one of my favorite things to do (which got me labeled "ninja photog" by Jessyca Carr in a very fun Facebook group for Orlando photographers). That is to get a shot with an obstructed path, while leaving a small but clear view of the subject, like this;
Then we moved to the last section, the really grimy back alley, perfect for what the couple wanted. I strapped the Sony 28mm f/2 and worked wonderfully. I love the colors this lens renders!
For a second the "perfect" lighting, pose, background, well...everything happened, I switched to the Canon 50mm f1.8 because I knew I needed a nice bokeh and boom! This happened;
Over all, this was a great shoot, I had an awesome time, learned a lot about the Sony A7ii and all the lenses mentioned above. Really looking forward for my next one!
***PS: This couple is going on a missions trip this summer, please donate with what you can. For more information visit this LINK.***
This is my first blog EVER! I hope you had a good time reading this and enjoyed the images.
-Carlos "Chan" Perez