A couple years ago, a client engaged me to do a really fun and exciting project. It was a road widening in Kitchener. On the face, that doesn’t seem too exciting. What is fun is that the design included many elements that evoked the industrial and manufacturing history of the city.
Some of those elements were bridge capstones. Capstones were installed both at street level at the entrance to a railway underpass, as well as on top of the new rail bridge.
The capstones at grade were illuminated from inside, as in the photo below. You can see; however, in the one up on the rail bridge that those were not lit at all.
At night these don’t really show up at all in the photos. Similar to the technique used on the radio station and boat sculpture projects, I set my camera up with my wireless triggers on the camera and a handheld speedlight. Then, using a smartphone, triggered the camera and flash after walking up to the capstone and aiming the flash at the sculpture. It took a couple tries to get the positioning of the flash where desired.
The results, after blending the flashed image with my base image are shown below. My client was pleased and my client’s client was pleased with the end results.
This would not have been possible without a couple things. Most important, a conversation with my client about the design elements and asking questions about how the capstones were setup. Second, having a vision of how I wanted to execute these images. Third, coming prepared to the project site and anticipating what I may need to get the shots I wanted.
If you’re in need of a photographer who will work with you to tell the visual story of your projects, get in touch on 289-240-0949, or fisher(at)rf-photography(dot)ca.
Capstone illuminated by flash fired wirelessly and blended with base image
