What do you do if you have a friend who strings lines across mountain chasms and walks across? Do you tell him to please stop? Or do you put a 500Ws flash in his face while he is walking across? Andrew Bydlon did the latter. And the result looks pretty darn cool.
Remember this? If not, here is the short version: On August 11, 2014, we announced the release of Air Remote TTL-N – the clever little divide that allows Nikon shooters to do TTL with the B1 Off-Camera Flash.
To celebrate its release, we asked you guys to pitch us your best idea for a shoot, and promised to send whoever came up with the most exciting idea a B1 and an Air Remote TTL-N. That someone turned out to be outdoor photographer Andrew Bydlon. Andrew wanted to shoot his friend Scott walking across a line stringed across a mountain chasm. But to do so, he needed something portable yet really powerful. And that he got.
Now, Andrew has done his shoot and returned to us with some pretty stunning shots and a short story about the shoot, both if which you will find below.
When you are done reading his story, head over to The Caveman Collective for more jaw dropping cool outdoor shots.
Behind The Scenes at 9.500 Ft.
By Andrew Bydlon
This is Scott. He’s a regular dude, but for his severely underdeveloped fear of heights and an unusual hobby. Scott strings line across high mountain chasms and walks across. This is called high-lining. Even his mom thinks he’s crazy. That’s what everyone thinks.
But we knew the beauty of these places he goes, and wanted to capture the sense of freedom and risk and exposure he feels out there.
Problem is, mountain light is variable – clouds one second, burning sunlight the next – so most images show him backlit with blown out backgrounds. Plus, conventional lights are too heavy to carry long distances on rough trails, and their batteries and cords mean they can’t be moved quickly when light conditions change.
With the Profoto B1 and the Air Remote TTL-N, our light was now portable. We hiked it in two miles, to an elevation of 9,500 feet in a place called Jurassic Park, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We set the highline and waited for the 60-mph wind to die down. Meanwhile, we turned on the Profoto B1 and put the Air Remote TTL-N on the Nikon D810 to shoot Scott’s portrait.
Then we took our moment: Scott walked out, nothing but 200 feet of air and a two-inch-thick line beneath him. One of our two-man photo team maneuvered into position near the edge to overcome the natural sidelight – into a place we would never dream of placing a conventional light – and lit Scott perfectly. As the sun came and went, our the light man was able to quickly adapt his position and prolong the shoot.
The result, this stunner: Scott in the full glory of high-mountain exposure with Lily lake shimmering in the background and enough texture on the rock to tell its granite.
Scott’s mom still may think he’s crazy, but now she can see what he loves about walking the highline.
Thanks,
Andew Bydlon
Website: The Caveman Collective
