This is from a shoot that I did for my friend and his family. They already knew they wanted the photos to be taken at San Onofre Beach near the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton in California. Now I knew of beaches as being notorious for harsh light and I checked the weather forecast and saw nothing except clear skies and sunshine to my dismay. One of my buddies had thankfully volunteered to be my assistant and help out which had made all the difference. Because the shoot was so close to my deployment, some of my equipment had already been packed away so I didn’t even have the one piece of gear I planned on relying on which had been my 5-in-1 reflector. Fortunately I still had my flash as well as a wireless control for it. I arrived on the spot about an hour before they came and scoped out some good places to shoot where I could include as much shade as possible, knowing this would work as a great source for soft light. The spot where this photo was taken was one of the main spots I used which was underneath a lifeguard tower. The shoot on a whole was a really good learning experience for me because of the difficulties the harsh light provided me with for one, and also because it was my first time working with kids. The kids both enjoyed the picture taking for the first few minutes which ended up all I needed for the shoot. I even got to experiement with my new favorite lens, the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4, which has an awesome depth of field. Overall the photo shoot was a success and my friend and his family were pleased with their photos. Thanks for having me as your photographer guys! This is a RAW image that was processed in Photoshop CS6.
