Cooper's Rock, WV

For this year's birthday celebration, I wanted to get out of the city and get into the woods. Juan, my husband, and I have always loved to rock climb - well, i love it, he's obsessed with it - and hike. So we headed out to West Virginia with a friend to explore, shoot and hike around.

Although we were in the woods with some great natural light, I wanted to amplify what was available using off camera flash. Juan is lit here with a flash off camera left, and the ambient is lit with a second flash, gelled with 1/4 cut CTO. I wanted to work this shot a lot longer, but as soon as juan jumped on it...


a hold broke, and he fell pretty hard...


and tore up his hand...

I loved the potential of the shoot..so i am embarrassed to say that I really wanted him to give it another go. An inspired photographer is not always the most sympathetic or realistic spouse...but compassion prevailed and we moved on and found a few other cool shots and climbs.

In this shot, my VALS (voice activated light stand) Erin is lighting Juan with a snooted SB800 -




And here all the ambient light is cancelled out, and the underside of the rock is lit with one gelled flash, which then bounces all around, filling in the shadows really nicely.


another climber giving the same route a try (he made it)...


that's all for now, saludos from Coopers Rock, WV.

more to come...
sv.