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Andy Biggs is an avid adventurer, conservationist, teacher, and outdoor photographer whose photography celebrates the African landscape and its rich wildlife, people, and culture. With a deep respect and understanding for African wildlife, Andy unfolds the world of the Serengeti onto our doorstep with striking emotional depth. His photographic safaris allow the traveler to not only enhance their understanding of photography, lighting, and wildlife, but to develop a life-long admiration for Africa 's beauty and culture.

In 2008, Banana Republic used thirteen of Andy's photographs as the cornerstone of their Urban Safari campaign, and his images were seen in all 750 stores around the globe, as well as in their billboards, catalogs and annual report. Andy was also the winner of the BBCWildlife Photographer of the Year in the 'Wild Places' category in 2008.

Andy launched Gura Gear in 2008, in an attempt to deliver lightweight camera bags to the market. Andy was looking for a lightweight camera bag to hold all of his photographic gear, and there was nothing desirable on the market that suited his needs. After spending 2 years with many prototypes, the Gura Gear Kiboko bag was born.

 

 

 

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« Leopard savaging a crocodile is caught on camera | Main | Photo of the Day »
Saturday
19Jul

My most recent photographic subject

DateSaturday, July 19, 2008 at 04:27PM

Well, as you might have read in an earlier post, Leslie, Christian and I welcomed Will to the family about 3 weeks ago. Life has been, well, interesting ever since. Mom is wiped out, baby is apparently happy, big brother Christian is realizing that he has competition for affection, our two greyhounds are bored out of their minds and are ready to go for a family walk at any moment, and dad (me!) is trying to get back to a normal work schedule.

I haven't taken that many photographs of Will since his birth, primarily because he is either in Leslie's arms for feeding time or all wrapped up and swaddled and sleeping. Not too many photo opportunities. I do take tons of family photographs, but my typical answer for whether I take people shots is: "If it doesn't have tusks, horns, hooves, spots or stripes, I probably won't be very good at it." So I decided to learn something today, and my area that I need work on is portrait lighting. Why not sit little Will in a basket, turn on the Pocket Wizards, get the black backdrop up, adjust the soft box and go to town. Unfortunately Will woke up after the first flash, and the next 10 minutes was filled with trying to keep a newborn comfortable. Not an easy task.

My equipment:

Canon 1DsMkIII + 24-70mm f/2.8

Canon 580EX II flash

Photoflex LiteDome small softbox

Two Pocket Wizards

Photek Background-In-A-Bag (black 8x12 foot) and companion support system

 071908162118_Will30-2.jpg
Will In a Box from above
 
071908161141_Will8-2.jpg 
soft box was from the left hand side. Oops. His rear end is brighter than his head. Time to readjust.
 
071908163343_Will70-2.jpg
Ok. Much better now. Let's strip him down, change to a different blanket and cover him up. Gotta show the feet, though.
 
071908163406_Will75-2.jpg 
Gotta go in for the closeup.
 
071908163437_Will80-2.jpg 
Ok. Looking for subtle differences in hand, arm and head position. Unfortunately, every time I would fire off a few shots Will would start arching his head backwards. So I had to put a rolled up towel behind his head to keep him from arching back too far. I guess he was distracted by the Bob The Builder tv show that Christian was watching during this exciting sequence.
 
071908164035_Will101-2.jpg 
Boredom has set in. I suspect this high fashion modeling shoot is coming to an end. Darned Hollywood types. They just don't make it easy on a wildlife photographer.
 
071908164109_Will106-2.jpg 
Well, looks like the shoot is over! Must have been a contract negotiation technique.
 
In summary, I really have little experience with infant photography, or artificial light for that matter. But it is all about experimentation. I have to kick myself to go out and learn new things, gather experiences to make myself a more competent photographer. All I can do is fail. But failure is not bad, as long as I can learn from the experience and apply that knowledge for the next assignment.
 

 

AuthorAndy | Comment4 Comments |
in

Reader Comments (4)

Andy,

A captivating sequence. Very well done and I imagine that you will spend years perfecting your technique. We have eight books for my daughters first year pics, six year two then steadily down to the point that I feel the only way I will get another picture of her is when she has children. She is 27 and loves to have other photographers shoot her picture...just not dad. I guess those long sessions when she was five with the Sinar Large format camera were a little much.

Beautiful black and white conversions...CS3 or another program? I wonder what a small reflector at the end of the basket would afford for fill light.

Again, great pics...

Regards,

Bob Moore

July 20, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBob Moore

Fantastic. And, a wonderful subject!

patti

July 21, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPatti

Hey! My comment ended up under a cheetah eating a gazelle, instead of a proud papa photographing the new arrival...hmmm, what does that mean, Mr. Freud?

July 26, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJane Photo

Hey I really enjoyed this post, so much that I decided to try to emulate the shots...

Noah's Basket

Canon 40D
EF 24-70 L 2.8
EF 50 1.4 USM
550EX & 430EX Snooted with ebay "el-cheapo trigger"

Thanks for the inspiration

December 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAlberto

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