KevinMurray

May 28, 2010

MDA Rogue’s Gallery-Live

We had -almost- as much fun as this years Ocala Country Club / Muscular Dystrophy “Lock Up” participants. Cindy, Heath and I photographed over 150 well meaning contributors and patrons in this years fundraiser. Proceeds from this event will go to establishing special summer camp tuition’s for regional youngsters, can’t beat that!

If you’d like you can view all our Rogue’s Gallery on our facebook page or, for folks interested in the full production can read on…

Pre-Production: Reasearch and Assets

Whenever possible we try to work directly with our clients in developing and producing photography sets, theatrical prop pieces and wardrobe. Sometimes clients can supply these assets but as often as not, it’s a mixed split. In this instance the client did have assets from previous years if needed the day of the event. As branding and theme are equally important (especially for media driven charitable events) we felt we could construct a more visually representational jail set than their existing one and enhance the participants experience at the same time.

Visualizing The Set

In the illustration on the right sourced from stock you’ll see a bit more detail and realism than the first which, quite honestly looks more like lawn furniture than jail bars. We want to build a facade that we can shoot through and also frame for human scale. Composition of theme-set elements play a significant role in our final images as we need to consider where the subject composites in the image (in this case, center of the image) and which elements are prioritized (eyelines and lower image quadrant). At the face and below at the hands holding their “Guilty” plaque. The photo below shows our set piece deftly mocked up.

The Build and changes in plans

Initially, we’d assumed our set would be positioned against the South wall of the ballroom however, day of shoot we learned it would instead front the main bay windows of the Country Club’s Dining room. It won’t be a problem to adjust lighting to balance that of ambient outdoors but there wasn’t going to be much I could do about specular reflection on the glass, `cept try to bury it as best we could while maintaining complimentary lighting on our subjects.

The Finals and The Ladies of MDA

Cindy, Heath and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves during the session and want to thank the great event coordinators and the rest of the wonderful staff and volunteers for all their help and assistance throughout the day’s event. We look forward to next year’s Lock up and are already thinking of ways to “amp it up” a notch.