8x speedlights for surfers...

[specialman]

Don't know if anyone saw this via the Strobist blog but was blown away by the impact the use of flash has on the subject.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2010/12/hangin-eight-with-dave-black.html

Mind you, I don't think I'll ever be in the position to afford the gear this fella has but it's a useful insight into how using your noggin (and several thousand dollars) can help you attain a result that would otherwise be hard to acheiev any other way.

Surf shots are by far more impressive IMO than the moto-x stuff, simply because of the effect they achieve.

 

[david1701]

oooh I hadnt noticed the surf vid only the mx one

 

[david1701]

daaam the mx one was ok but those are outSTANDING

 

[Johnny Thunder]

Absolutely class photos.

 

[specialman]

You never quite know the exact shooting distance but hell, having that amount of power deffo makes things easier. I like the fact that he was shooting for the hell of it, rather than having some massive entourage (just his mate, a pole and a pair of rucksacks) and just capturing people getting on with what they do, rather than some staged event.


Man, I wish I had several grand to mess around like this

 

[Rough Edges]

Yeah that is a pretty cool setup... Pricey though.. I saw them on Youtube a couple of days ago...

 

[ash39]

Absolutely awesome photos, would love to have a go at that. Bet the surfers wondered what on earth was going on though

 

[whiteflyer]

Gets more interesting when you read the comments, and they start to ask why that set-up.

 

[Garry Edwards]

1st class.
I can't help wondering though whether a Profoto powerpack wouldn't do that job without the built in unreliability of having to use all those SB-900's, fibre optic gizmos and a truck load of batteries. Probably cheaper too.

 

[treeman]

1st class.
I can't help wondering though whether a Profoto powerpack wouldn't do that job without the built in unreliability of having to use all those SB-900's, fibre optic gizmos and a truck load of batteries. Probably cheaper too.

I think he's doing it so he can use the ttl and fp sync, but yes he could have got the same effect with an, off the shelf, powerful battery flash set up. Maybe he just happened to have 8 speed lights kicking around :shrug:

 

[HoppyUK]

It's all about HSS/FP flash, power, and auto-TTL flash metering to help with the constantly changing distance. Plus wireless freedom.

There's no other way to do it, though I think you could get something fairly similar for a lot less money.