Pool Shoot
Wet And Wild
We did our first pool shoot the other day and I actually ended up staying dry...this time.
I am not sure where or even when I saw it, but I saw a picture that really was stunning to me. I mean, it really made me stop and look at it. Generally speaking, the photo showed a cute girl in a pool getting her head wet. Specifically the girl was in the pool up to her chin, so all that you could se was her head. Above, on and around her head from the midpoint back, was a ribbon of water. Now when I say ribbon of water, I do not mean to say a waterfall, that is too harsh, too fractured. No, what I mean is a ribbon, like a sheet of glass or better yet, imagine the head of a ghost coming part way through a solid wall.
After looking at this captivating photograph, I thought to myself that I would like to be able to take this kind of a photo, then I said to myself: “Wait a minute, I can!” So I thought about it and how the shot might be pulled off, and the more I thought about it and the more I went over the possible ways that it could be done, I decided that I would try to do it.
I did not tell anyone about this shot that I wanted to get for a long time, then one afternoon while having lunch at Logan’s Roadhouse (our favorite restaurant where everyone knows our names--for real) I was talking with my good friends Krissie & Joe and telling them about different “themed” shots that Rob--our photo buddy--and I wanted to do. When I got to mine, the ribbon of water one, Joe stated that we could use his pool and take the shots there, and that he would be glad to help figure out how to pull the shot off. When I heard this, my mind began to race as to all the various ways to setup the shot just like when I first saw the photograph. Krissie even offered to help by being the test model. That was a big help, because without her help being the stand in, we could have never of gotten the shot right. It turns out that it isn’t just enough to have water and a cute face.
A week after our planning conversation at Logan’s, I went over to Joe & Krissies house and the three of us set about to build my water fall. Joe had some left over plastic sheets that came from his aluminum factory, and this we thought would make a good platform or trough for the water to run on. Now, we needed a way to keep the water from falling off the sides. Joe suggested that we use some corner molding, so off we went to Menards--a Midwest hardware store chain--to get our supplies.
We returned from the hardware store about 30 minutes later with one 8-foot section of corner molding, since we only really needed two 4-foot sections, Joe just cut it in half, then we glued it to the plastic with some industrial strength adhesive. We left that to dry out in the hot sun, and then went to go and find a pump. I wanted a continuos and steady flow of water for my waterfall, Joe suggested that we try a water pump that he uses to empty his hot tub. We tested the pump and sure enough it looked like a good candidate, it put out about the same as a normal garden hose would.
After testing the pump, Joe and I went back and retrieved the plastic water trough now that the glue had finished trying. We grabbed one of the poolside tables, and retrieved a couple of clamps from the garage and fasted them all together to form a water trough about 2 feet off of the pool cement and with a slight grade down with the help of some old scrap shims. We hooked up the pump to the AC outlet, then put one end of the hose in the pool and the other on the trough and turned it on, The pump made a couple of horrible sounding grunts and whirls, but then a nice, smooth pumping sound indicated that it had primed itself and the water began to pour out nice and steady. What do you know?! We had ourselves a make shift water fall.
I ran over to the other side of the pool so that I could see the waterfall in action from head on, and it didn’t look half bad. The one issue I spotted, right away, was that instead of a ribbon of water, it was more of a pouring of water. I ran back to the contraption and noticed that the plastic sheet was not staying flat, because of the weight of the water itself, the water was pooling in towards the middle and causing the plastic to sag. Hmm, now what to do?
Joe and I turned off the pump and undid the clamps and took our water trough back the garage. In the garage Joe found some left over vinyl fencing pieces, and we used them to be the ridged platform that the waterfall trough would sit atop. We took the version 2 of the waterfall back over to the side of the pool and once again affixed it to the pool table (not billiards kind) and turned on the pump. The pump whirled and sputtered and then started pumping out a nice steady flow of water, just like before, but this time our trough did not sag and I could tell that the water was running evenly over the end of the plastic. Yaa! I thought to myself, actually I probably said that out loud as I tend to get excitable when things are working. I ran over to the opposite side again to witness our new waterfall. It looked good at the top, it had a nice even ribbon effect to it and that is what I wanted. However, (does there always have to be a “however?”) the ribbon was not making it all the way to the pool water. What was happening was that the water was coming over the edge in a uniform ribbon but about half way down, it would morph into separate streams and droplets of water. Not the effect that I needed. Hmm, now what?
Joe, I and by now Krissie had joined us pool side, all collectively pondered our new dilemma. After several suggestions, all good mind you, none seemed like they would yield the results that I needed. I thought that what we really needed was more water. To test this theory, Krissie went and grabbed a nearby garden house and we combined its output with that of our spa pump. Sure enough, we had double our volume, but we also doubled the current so now instead of a nice ribbon of water falling over the edge we had a rapid of water shooting over the edge. Hmm, failure again. I thought, OK, what would Thomas Eddison do, after each thing failed, well, he would just keep trying something until it did work. Sounded like good historical advice, so we all started thinking again. Joe, or it might have been Krissie, then suggested doubling the size of our water trough since it seemed that we doubled our water current. Joe stepped away from our little think tank and came back with a big table top about 3ft by 4ft and a couple of 1x1 inch steaks and more clamps.
We fastened everything together and turned on the pump and the hose. U-oh, this was definitely not working now, although we all thought that it should have yielded much better results than we were now seeing. Hmm. I said to the group: I think we now need even more water and less current. Krissie, suggested a larger pump and Joe said that the other pump he had would be way too strong, then he smiled and said: “wait a minute” and walked off to the shed. He returned with a big roll of pool hose and handed me one end and too the other end over to the pool steps and reached in the water and told me to put my end down on the version 3 of the water trough. I put the opening of my end of the hose flush with the countertop and said: “OK” then Joe reached in the water and put his hose end over one of the water jets. I could hear the air being pushed out of the hose by the oncoming rush of water supplied by the pool pump and then after a few seconds the water started flowing out. At first I thought that it was going to be way too fast, but once it evened out it was a very nice flow and volume of water. I yelled over to Krissie, who was standing opposite me on the pool, and asked her how it looked, she said: “Really good!”
Joe pulled his hand out of the water and walked over to me and told me that he could give me even more water and pressure by manipulating the pool nozzles from the pump house. “Excellent,” I exclaimed in a diabolical tone, in my best Mr. Burns--from the Simpsons--voice. We fastened the hose to the new water trough with some more clamps and another piece of vinyl fencing (that stuff is really multi purpose) and tested it again. As with the prior tests, I ran over to the other side of the pool and looked at our new creation. This one looked great, it was the winner! Now to test it on a guinea pig...I mean test model. Oh Krissie dear!
I set up my camera and we turned on our pump machine, by Joe putting the end of the hose over the pool nozzle, and the water began to flow. Krissie got in the pool and walked over to the waterfall and stood in front of it. I told her, in a shouting voice so that she could hear me over the roar of the water, to just slowing back up into the waterfall. As she slowly backed into the ribbon of water, I started snapping pictures. When Krissie was all the way through the waterfall and now on the opposite side of it from me and the camera, I took another shot. It looked really strange seeing her shimmering and slightly distorted image thought the ribbon of water. There was something cinematic in it. I told Joe to remove his end of the hose from the nozzle, and when the water stopped I told Krissie that she did a wonderful job and lets go in and look at the pictures.
We all went in the house, after Krissie toweled off, and looked at the images on Joe’s computer. For the very first time at the test shot, they looked pretty good. If only Krissie had had her eyes open (I told her she could keep them closed) some of the shot could have been used for the final shot. We went through them all noticing the various effects of the ribbon of water and the position of Krissie in it, they all had their own qualities. We also noticed that one in a while there would be a nice, almost perfect circle about the size of a baseball in our otherwise complete ribbon of water. Still can’t explain that, but it was interesting to look at.
After we were finished looking at the pictures, I took one last shot of the waterfall setup so that we could remember how it went together and then Joe and I put it away in his pool shed. We then all called it a day. Next step would be to find the models.
The next time we were eating at Logans, one of the waitresses--Grace--came up to us and asked when we were going to do another shoot with her. We had shot her not very long ago at the Botanical gardens and also at the train museum. I told her that we did have a pool shoot that we wanted to do and she said that she would be happy to do it. Great, we had our model. I told her to give me some dates that she was not working and she said this coming Sunday would be good, so we scheduled it right there and then.
Having “one” model is like having “none“ models because you can’t always count on them showing up which means you have to have a backup plan. My backup plan was to have at least two models, which is what we like to shoot anyway as it gives Rob and I one to alternate with and Dawn and Leslie can each help with the individual model. About this time “Miss C”, one of the old Logan’s waitresses who had moved to Arizona Facebooked me saying she was coming back and wanted to take me up on the offer to shoot her. I told her that we had a pool themed shot coming up and she could do that if she wanted. She did. Great, now we had our second model, our backup. When I sent her the directions she said that she would be back in town on that Saturday and that she would be there on Sunday. That seemed like cutting it kind of close to me, so I thought I had better find a third model; a backup to my backup.
Back at Logans Roadhouse again for lunch, we do eat there a lot, we ran into Kristine, another waitress, that we like to photograph. I told her about the pool shoot and she was interested and now we had our third model and double backup. While there I spoke with yet another waitress “Miss F” who was just finishing up cosmetology school. I asked her if she would be interested in doing the girl’s hair and makeup for experience and for the pictures to put in her portfolio. She seemed genuinely excited and said that she would do it. This was turning into a very good potential shoot.
I sent out directions to Joe & Krissie’s house and everyone responded that they would be there and were excited about the shoot. Great, I love it when the models are eager to do a shoot. On Friday, Grace sends me a text and tells me that she forgot to tell me that she ha to go out of town and can not make the shoot on Sunday. Hmm, good thing I had my two backups.
Sunday morning Dawn and I get everything ready for the shoot, including getting a tall latter to put in the middle of Joe’s pool, and borrowing a truck to put it in. We get to Joe & Krissies house and they are not there. Ok, we are early and it was a nice day and they were probably out on the river on their boat. So we waited. Did not have to wait long, they showed up quickly and we started to get things ready.
We set the shoot up to go off at 6 pm, about 6:15 Kristine arrives. Good, we have at least one to work with. About 6:30 pm I am starting to wonder about that other model and about our hair and makeup person. I sent them a text, and also a Facebook message, and called but did not get anything back. Oh o, looks like we have been stood up. I was getting a little concerned as well, I was hoping that nothing bad had happened to them. As of this blog entry I still do not know what happened to them, although I have seen them on Facebook, so I know that nothing bad has happened to them. But still, some common courtesy would be nice. This is why you have to have backups in the modeling business. If we had booked them through a modeling agency, I cold have just called them up and they would have sent out a replacement. Unfortunately, these were not professionals, so I did not have anyone to turn to, but that is to be expected and we take it in stride. But still.
The sun was setting in the sky, and there were no clouds to help soften the harsh sunlight that was making its way to the poolside. Unfortunately when you are shooting outside you are at the mercy of the elements. Kristine, put on a neon pink bikini and white cover-up and we set her on the side of the pool and started shooting. The light was hot behind her, but we made it work.
After several shot of Kristine by the poolside, she mentioned that she brought some shoes, so she went at got them. These were the shoes that she had purchased for a wedding just a few weeks prior to the shoot, and she had shown them to me on her phone one afternoon at, where else, Logans. The shoes were purple leopard skin high heels, and looked very nice.
We shot many poses with Kristine in that very nice pink suit, then had her change into her next outfit, this time a purple bikini. Now, purple just happens to be my favorite color, so I was very happy to see this one. We added a fan and a “fan wrangler”--Joe, to our shoot to give Kristine’s hair a little action to it, and it was just the right amount I must say, the shots looked great!.
It was getting dark, so we brought out the strobe lights and set them up. We took some shots from poolside then decided to get out the big raft that Joe & Krissie had provided and put it in the water. We set up the ladder and I think I shot from just about every rung of the ladder. I think my favorite shot was shooting down on her with her hair all spread out on the raft. Interestingly enough, the shot that I took had her upside down put in the edited version I liked best, I flipped it so that she was right side up. Kristine has such a pretty smile it was getting lost by having her upside down.
Enough of having a dry model around a pool, now it was time to get wet! Kristine changed into her third suit, this one was a black and gold bikini and again she looked great in it. There was a shot that Rob wanted to specifically get so we turned off all the pool lights and strobe lights except for one strobe that we fitted with a snoot so as to constrain the light to just her face. We had Kristine get into the water, which was a warm 90 degrees by the way, and get down so that only her nose was above the water. We put a beam of light, from a flashlight, on her face so that Rob could focus, then I held the snooted strobe almost at water level and pointed it at her face the best I could and Rob started taking shots. They really did turn out nice. The pool water and background were very dark, but the water acted like a mirror and we got a nice reflection of her face. On interesting artifact that appeared in the finished image was a little rainbow looking streak in the water in front of Kristine’s face. We could not figure out where it came from, so it had to be coming from the main strobe light. We figured that the light must have been going through a ripple of water and refracting like a prism the light into its constituent parts of red, green yellow. It actually added something nice to the image. We took some more shots and then it was getting late, and I still did not have my shot, the shot that I had set up this whole shoot for.
It was time for my waterfall shot, and I almost could not contain my excitement. Joe and I got out our water trough version 3, and set it up. Rob set up the strobes and Joe set the vales back in the pool house and then stuck one end of the hose over the pool nozzle and we had our ribbon waterfall. I explained to Kristine what I wanted her to do and had Joe remove the hose so that the water would stop. I had Kristine move into position so that her head was just in front of the water trough and had her crotch down until her head was just above the water. When I had run to the other side of the pool to be directly in front of Kristine, I set my camera on a towel and got into position to take the shot. What was different about this position then my test shot with Krissie was that with Krissie I was actually in the pool, this time I was out on the concrete poolside laying on my stomach. In looking back on it, I should have gotten in the water like I had before. By doing so it would have made it easier for me to have framed and looked through my camera lens. Laying on my stomach straining my neck to look through the viewfinder was not an optimal photographic position. I will remember that the next time.
“OK, turn on the water!” I yelled to Joe. I could hear the rush of air wooshing through the hose, then I saw the water flowing and I started taking pictures. Another thing thing about this shoot that was different than the practice shoot, was that this time I was shooting in the dark as apposed to the mid day sun. Focussing was difficult and I did not know what the flash would look like in the final image, but as the water was flowing I continued to snap the shutter.
I had Kristine move in and out of the water and then move behind the water, and as with Krissie, having the curtain of water in front of Kristine made for an eery site. What also made for a site was that reflection off of the copper base of a pot behind the water trough rig. I did not see it when I took the picture, but when I looked at the image later, I could see it shining behind Kristine’s head and through the ribbon of water. It actually added a nice effect to the picture, I liked it. When Kristine was thoroughly drenched and her mascara was just starting to smudge, I called it a wrap. We ere done for the night. Rob had gotten the shot he wanted and I had gotten the shot I wanted. It was a good night.
The secret to a good shoot is planning, preparation, and execution. The shot was thought up ahead of time from a conceptual point, then thought through on how it could be pulled off. After that, the specifics that were needed for the shot were made, found and scheduled. The last thing was to just let it all come together and let the magic happen and snap the perfect moments. To quote John "Hannibal" Smith of the “A” Team: “I love it when a plan comes together!”