We no longer own an automobile. Nor a bicycle. We transport ourselves or use buses/metros/trains/airplanes.
So the question arose as to how I could put together a serious studio kit and keep it portable enough to take on public transportation?
Our apartment is too small for the kinds of photo-sessions that I was used to when we lived back in the States. After looking around and talking with people, I found two dance studios that rented time by the hour. Since I had worked in Jane Archer's "Euphoria Studios" for bellydancers, I had a pretty good idea of how I could use those kinds of rooms to make images in.
Once settled into our new location, I was anxious to acquire a studio kit. Yet, it wasn't as easy as I first thought. You see, I was hoping to acquire another set of Paul Buff Einstein 640 monolights with stands and parabolic light modifiers. The closest outlet for this gear is in England and they charge a fortune for the gear. Just the Paul Buff equipment alone would have set me back well north of 4000USD, which is over twice what I paid for this stuff when we lived in the USA.
I know I could have built a very small studio kit out of Canon or Nikon
flash units and could eliminate the "need" for the robust, large, heavy
Elinchroms.. I knew the Strobist had talked with Rembrandt (the painter
- tongue in cheek, of course) and found that wall paper held to a wall
with temporary tape would eliminate the need for a back drop system. I
knew that Sony's NEX7 could make a very fine image in place of the old,
large, heavy Canon DSLR/24-105L setup. But somehow, I just couldn't bring myself to introduce such large amounts of change to my "known" workflow, never mind the costs of changing every element in that flow. I figured I'd better stay with what I knew.
As commented on in an earlier post, I found Elinchrom BX 500 Ri lights and stands could work well. To avoid the high costs of the PLM light modifiers, I would return to using bounce/shoot-through umbrellas. The basic Elinchrom kit that was being sold at a reduced price also included a pair of small softboxes.
I went to Amazon.fr and purchased three big umbrellas and a really nice light bounce kit. It's round and folds into a very small package. It includes white, gold, silver, and black surfaces to move light around with. Why hadn't I purchased one of these before? It's wonderful!
After figuring out how to lash 8mm umbrella rods to the 7mm-capacity Elinchrom system (no small amount of sweating blood, until I realized that funny little bump on the side of the post mount was what I was looking for), I tested the rig and waited for the rest of the studio kit to arrive.
The new backdrop system is very small and portable. The top rod comes in four sections and the stands are sufficiently strong to hold the cotton duck cloth that came with the kit. I then purchased a hand painted backdrop of a kind similar to what I used to own. It looked like I had all the parts of a studio kit that I needed.
I plopped the whole thing into the middle of the living room floor and stared at it awhile. How on earth was I going to haul this from the apartment to whichever dance studio I chose to rent? I nearly wished I'd changed everything and went with the smaller, more portable, less powerful kit.
A bit more digging around on the internet and I found a large "sports bag". On a whim, I went around the corner to a small shop. That's where I found what I was looking for. It's huge and was purchased from one of the great little "we have EVERYTHING" shops. If you live in Paris, you already know what these shops are like. They really do seem to have everything. The bag was cheap and came with wheels.
I loaded up the sports bag and scheduled a photo-shoot with a local model. The studio kit was hauled to the tram, and then from the tram to the dance studio. The shoot went well and I hauled the studio kit home. But there was a problem. The sports bag kept turning off the wheels and onto it's side. In the process, the bottom of the bag was being abraded and holes would soon appear if I didn't do something about it.
My wife and I visited Castorama. Castorama is a large "Home Depot" style hardware, home supply, fix it all kind of place. Jude found just what I needed. It's a medium sized metal cart that will haul upwards of 80 kilos. It folds down nice and compact. And when it opens up, the substantial wheels swing out with the bed of the cart.
Held in place with a little nylon strap, I put the sports bagged studio kit on the cart for a second photo-shoot.
Heading back to the tram I instantly knew I now had a completely portable, full sized, ready to roll photographic studio rig.
So the question arose as to how I could put together a serious studio kit and keep it portable enough to take on public transportation?
Our apartment is too small for the kinds of photo-sessions that I was used to when we lived back in the States. After looking around and talking with people, I found two dance studios that rented time by the hour. Since I had worked in Jane Archer's "Euphoria Studios" for bellydancers, I had a pretty good idea of how I could use those kinds of rooms to make images in.
Once settled into our new location, I was anxious to acquire a studio kit. Yet, it wasn't as easy as I first thought. You see, I was hoping to acquire another set of Paul Buff Einstein 640 monolights with stands and parabolic light modifiers. The closest outlet for this gear is in England and they charge a fortune for the gear. Just the Paul Buff equipment alone would have set me back well north of 4000USD, which is over twice what I paid for this stuff when we lived in the USA.
Canon DSLR
Canon DSLR (as backup)
3 Elinchrom BX 500 Ri with light stands
2 Elinchrom softboxes
3 105cm umbrellas (combo bounce/shoot-thru)
1 light bounce kit, large
1 backdrop system with stands
3 cotton backdrops
1 power supply extension cord
1 partridge in a pear tree... tra-la..
As commented on in an earlier post, I found Elinchrom BX 500 Ri lights and stands could work well. To avoid the high costs of the PLM light modifiers, I would return to using bounce/shoot-through umbrellas. The basic Elinchrom kit that was being sold at a reduced price also included a pair of small softboxes.
I went to Amazon.fr and purchased three big umbrellas and a really nice light bounce kit. It's round and folds into a very small package. It includes white, gold, silver, and black surfaces to move light around with. Why hadn't I purchased one of these before? It's wonderful!
After figuring out how to lash 8mm umbrella rods to the 7mm-capacity Elinchrom system (no small amount of sweating blood, until I realized that funny little bump on the side of the post mount was what I was looking for), I tested the rig and waited for the rest of the studio kit to arrive.
The new backdrop system is very small and portable. The top rod comes in four sections and the stands are sufficiently strong to hold the cotton duck cloth that came with the kit. I then purchased a hand painted backdrop of a kind similar to what I used to own. It looked like I had all the parts of a studio kit that I needed.
... from my first Paris shoot, with Javel Mortadelle...
I plopped the whole thing into the middle of the living room floor and stared at it awhile. How on earth was I going to haul this from the apartment to whichever dance studio I chose to rent? I nearly wished I'd changed everything and went with the smaller, more portable, less powerful kit.
A bit more digging around on the internet and I found a large "sports bag". On a whim, I went around the corner to a small shop. That's where I found what I was looking for. It's huge and was purchased from one of the great little "we have EVERYTHING" shops. If you live in Paris, you already know what these shops are like. They really do seem to have everything. The bag was cheap and came with wheels.
I loaded up the sports bag and scheduled a photo-shoot with a local model. The studio kit was hauled to the tram, and then from the tram to the dance studio. The shoot went well and I hauled the studio kit home. But there was a problem. The sports bag kept turning off the wheels and onto it's side. In the process, the bottom of the bag was being abraded and holes would soon appear if I didn't do something about it.
My wife and I visited Castorama. Castorama is a large "Home Depot" style hardware, home supply, fix it all kind of place. Jude found just what I needed. It's a medium sized metal cart that will haul upwards of 80 kilos. It folds down nice and compact. And when it opens up, the substantial wheels swing out with the bed of the cart.
... from my second Paris photoshoot, with Miss Stephanie Lee...
Held in place with a little nylon strap, I put the sports bagged studio kit on the cart for a second photo-shoot.
Heading back to the tram I instantly knew I now had a completely portable, full sized, ready to roll photographic studio rig.
2 comments:
Does Paris have the equivalent of Zipcar?
They do indeed. Haven't tried it yet, though.
Post a Comment