I have shot a zillion times in Miami during the course of my photography career, but never during the summer months. This week I was in Miami for a shoot on the beach and I now know why I've never been to Miami in the summer months. It's HOT!
To combat the heat, we started our day early to try and avoid the hottest part of the day. I scouted the location for the shoot the day before and felt good about it. Miami beaches are crowded during the summer so it took a lot of searching to find a location that was less popular and offered everything I wanted. My assistants who were local to Miami had never been to the location and were surprised to see it.
Having control of the light while working on location calls for planning ahead. Before leaving Los Angeles, I spoke with my assistants and went over the equipment list together. I planned to use the Profoto B1 strobe heads with a white beauty dish as my main source of light, but I also needed to block out the natural sun and protect my Nikon camera lens from any flare. We completed our equipment list and then made sure to include backup gear just in case.
When shooting in humid conditions you need to be aware of condensation on your lenses. I normally try and wrap my lenses in towels the night before and place them in the warmest part of my hotel room, which is usually the closet. This time I knew we had time for the lenses to adapt to the environment while my talent was in hair and makeup. The first thing my assistants did was to open the camera case to let my Nikon camera's adjust to the extreme humidity. We pulled the lens caps off and let them breath for about 20 to 30 minutes as we set up the lights for the first shot.
Throughout the morning, we moved from location to location, but before I started shooting, my crew and I walked around and I showed them where I wanted to shoot each image. This gave them time to think and prepare for each shot before I started shooting.
Whenever I'm shooting on location I try to have black flags on hand to block my camera lens from flare. My assistants make sure as I move around that the flag moves with me to block any sun from coming into the lens.
I'm looking forward to the next location shoot this month and sharing images from the trip. Until then, have a great week and keep shooting.
Always Dream Big
