Technically one of my most challenging shoots. Balancing a setting sun with strobes, with the blaze of the fire. Not. Easy.

Oscar has been learning to use a Fire Staff for a few months now, and I’ve been wanting to do a shoot involving fire for some time now. While we didn’t have proper fire performers’ “Firewater” to fuel the flames, we made do with good ol’ kerosene.

We got down to the beach at about 8pm, but it was still far too bright to light up and get a good exposure. We played around with a few backgrounds and lighting settings while waiting for the sun give us that ‘dusk’ look. It came and went all too soon, but we a few good shots while it was there.

Technically I had to on my A-Game. Forever constantly changing exposure, aperture and strobe distance/power. It felt like guesswork, but practice makes perfect!

Photographer: Rick McQuinlan of McZany Photography
Model: Oscar V Jones
Exposure: I can’t recall strobe settings, but respectively: Shot 1) 1/160, f/8, ISO 200. Shot 2) 1/5, f/9, ISO 100. Shot 3) 1/4, f/4.5, ISO 100. Shot 4) 1/4, f/4.5, ISO 200

I learned a hell of a lot about balancing exposures. Next time we’ll get some beauties