Disney at the Grand Canyon

Another week, another post about a photoshoot of the little ones we know as “children”.  The location for the photoshoot was none other than the Grand Canyon, a great big hole in the Earth that in all honesty, I had never seen in person before this photoshoot.  The campaign was a quick turnaround trip that found us driving up to the Grand Canyon and shooting at sunset, then waking up, shooting and returning to Phoenix to shoot the next day.

My assistant Wes and I decided to ride from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon in the RV that we staged out of on set.  We kicked back at the dining table in the RV and talked photography, life, and light.  We setup and tested gear and prepped for how we could shoot fast but hold quality as a priority.  We also cut down the locations for the first day to two judging by the light we saw driving in the the national park.  When we parked and walked out of the RV, we were completely dialed in on the camera and lights, truly efficient.

On the topic of lights, we knew that portability would be the deciding factor and went with IR triggered strobes.  This also made it possible to shoot directly at the sun and counter the ambient with the shutter.  I shot all primes which made life a little more difficult when hopping between ranges, so a photo waste pack with the 35, 50, 85 and 135 L lenses was worn at all time.

The shooting went smoothly, and the families we photographed were perfectly cast for their rolls.  We had a beautiful sunset for the background, an adorable group of kids for the foreground, and a crew that made my life easy.