Summer decided to return after a short stretch of cooler temperatures, but I figured after sundown all of that would moderate some. Sort of, it did, except for the humidity which remained high. After about 45 minutes of shooting I was drenched in sweat and could barely see as my eyes were stinging from the salty moisture flowing into them. Even so, the evening shoot turned out to be a good one even though it was a short outing.
The Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green contains a wonderful collection of historical aircraft all of which have a connection to Bowling Green or to Kentucky. A few years ago I took on a project to photograph each of the displays in a unique way using dramatic lighting after the sun went down. Each of those shoots turned out to be some of the most exciting and dramatic photographs I've ever made.
The idea for this shoot was to use four speed lights and colored gels, three with blue gels and one with a red gel. I wanted to use blue gels to create a surreal, mysterious atmosphere surrounding the helicopter. As it turned out, a wonderful sunset greeted me and I was able to incorporate that into the one of the final images. It took a good number of test shots to get all the lights positioned correctly and to get the exposure correct, but even after doing so it became apparent the photo would need to blend two or more images together to allow for a complete shot.
Not enough space on here to describe the postprocessing involved, just that on one image two shots were blended and on the other five images were used to complete the final image.
Turned out to be a fun, but quick shoot and I hope to return to the scene again when it cools off a bit to try a different combination of gels.
