Our shot of the week this week is something completely different – we’re aiming to give you a varied and interesting diet in this series! We chose this shot because it was taken this week, its something a little more out of the ordinary as a photoshoot for us, and just because we love the shot.
A few weeks ago one of our clients, Purple Fish PR, got in touch and asked us to capture some night golf. When they first asked, we assumed this would be a floodlit course. As we did more planning for this shoot, we soon realised it wasn’t – night golf is literally golf in the dark at night, with just the golfer’s ball, plus the flag for the hole, illuminating the scene, combined with any ambient lighting that happens to be around. We knew working with such minimal lighting and capturing the golf and the people playing would be tough, but we’re always up for something different, new and challenging.
So on Wednesday afternoon we packed everything ready to head off to the St Pierre Marriott hotel & country club in Chepstow – cameras, flashes, tripods, location lights, remote triggers, lighting stands, video lights, torches, wellies, biscuits and the kitchen sink……you get the picture. You just never know what you might need on a shoot like this, so packing everything is the simplest, safest option!
We arrived, said hi to our lovely clients, had a swift coffee and then set up where the golfers would be teeing off at 7pm. On this particular spot there was virtually no available light except for the sky. We set up flashes on stands, tested the light and exposure, and by the time the first group of evening golfers arrived, we were ready to rock. The amazing thing about shoots like this is that once you get the ball rolling (no pun intended) it becomes fascinating and absorbing, just seeing how you can capture light and movement with different shutter speeds, exposures and flash, combined with ambient light. Two hours flew by, we followed the golfers to the last hole, and this is one of the resulting photographs.
We love this shot because we felt it captured the golfers swing, the amazing night sky, and the glow of the hotel and golf club which was the backdrop to this photoshoot. We love the light trail made by his ball as if flew away towards the final hole, the way the players body is rim lit by the light to one side of him. Oh and yes it made it to the green, but not quite a hole in one!
We hope you like it too – please feel free to share this post!
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