I was assigned to shoot a father/son portrait the other day for the District. It was a football playing combo. Marcus Turner (former Bruin and NFL player) and his son Marcus Turner Jr., a highschool football player at Cabrillo Highschool in Long Beach. Marcus (the elder) happens to be the coach at Cabrillo and is coaching his own son (the junior).
I came a little early to shoot some shots of the practice as supporting images to the story. The highschool I went to didn't have a football team so it was all new to me, so all I had of knowledge of football practice was from the movies. Usually, there is some new student (an outsider with a heart of gold) that is trying to fit in and gain respect from his weary teammates. Unfortunately, there was no such human drama to be witnessed at this practice. Just lots of running.
After the practice, I had to chase down Marcus and Marcus for the portrait. I could sense they were all ready to go home but I had to squeeze a bit of time from them to get some shots for the story. I tried a few of them casually walking down the field (father and son exchanging pleasantries and worldly advice) but knew I also wanted a nicely lit portrait that popped (in event of a cover story).
I quickly ushered them to the end of the field where my lighting gear was and threw up a strobe and an umbrella. Problem was, since it was still relatively bright out, I couldn't get enough light through the umbrella. So I tossed the umbrella and shot it with the bare flash, angling it down to get some nice shape on their faces and using the sun as a rim light.
All in all, not bad for a ten minute shoot.
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