“Quagmire” – Beautiful Woman in a Swamp
A formally dressed, beautiful, young, blonde woman in a quagmire with unlikely company holds a lantern and peers into the darkness while in a boat in a swamp near Tallahassee, Florida.
I had this image in my head for some time – a beautiful young woman in a boat, deep in a Florida swamp at dusk. She’s holding a lantern, peering out into the darkness, searching for something.
I enlisted McKenzie Burleigh, a model with whom I’ve worked several times in the past, to pose for me as the beauty in a cypress swamp outside of Tallahassee. Accompanying her was Ed Tiley, a local actor, posing as a drunkard with her in the boat.
Exposure with no flash. © Scott Holstein
I positioned them in the boat amongst the trees in the evening and shot beyond sunset, dragging the shutter to draw out the fading ambient light. The only strobes I used were speedlights hidden inside the lanterns, triggered with radio slaves. The short flash duration of the strobes froze the models in place despite the slow shutter speed of about 1/5 second.
I made the lanterns from home exterior lights by gutting the electrical innards and modifying them to hold the flashes. The speedlights are gelled with 1/2 cut CTO (Color Temperature Orange – a full cut converts daylight to tungsten) for warmth and are aimed straight up. I lined the top of lanterns with aluminum foil for bounce and taped copy paper to the sides of the lanterns to diffuse the light like a small softbox and to hide the flashes. This setup was not very efficient when it come to output, but it was just enough to work. The flashes were on manual at very near full power.
My talented videographer friend Carlin Trammel, of Stormspeed Entertainment, made this two-minute behind-the-scenes video of the shoot.
Excellent,
I read your bio and seen you assisted Joe McNally. He is my mentor though he has no idea who I am. I follow everything he teaches religiously. My style is very different, but I always look for ways to incorporate something he taught in what I’m doing.
You’ve got an excellent body of work, I found you through Sara in Destin. Her and I have shot together often (though lately we play more than we shoot) anyway I just wanted to tell you how great the images looked. Also I fully plan to steal the lantern idea. I have no shame.
Thanks, Tim! Joe is a wealth of knowledge. He recently wrote another book, too. Sara is great; I’ve photographed her a couple times now. She’s in the current issue of Emerald Coast Magazine. Let me know what you come up with with the lanterns.
I like Scott Kelby’s training too. I like how Joe steps thru the behind the scenes. It was valuable to my learning too.
Interesting setup for this shot. The BTS video is well put together. I like the warm tones of the lanterns in contrast with the mood of the scene.will definitely bookmark your site.
Thanks, Enrique! Glad you liked it. The video was produced by Stormspeed Entertainment.