One of the things that I love about living on the Cumberland Plateau is trail running in the winter time. The woods are open and light, but it is a hard thing to make a picture of. Runners tend to fade into the woods. In this photograph I've used studio strobes to brighten the runners and lift them out of the frame. Studio strobes are wonderful things to take out of the studio. They let you overpower daylight and brighten the subject.
In this photo I'm using a Elinchrom Ranger Quadra to light the runners. There is a 27" deep octabox attached to the strobe to control the light. The whole set up is set off by Pocketwizard radio slaves.
In the screen shot above by Stephen Garrett you can just see my assistant holding the octabox to the right of the runners. The octabox is really a softbox but I am using it here without diffusers. The deeply recessed box keeps the light from scattering everywhere.
I'm shooting into the sun with a deliberate amount of lens flair to lend mood and a certain cinematic look.
Stephen Alvarez
Sewanee, TN
Comments