52 Variations - Variation Five

Nerf Warrior

Let me start out by saying that my son is one of the gentlest children I have ever met. That is not just me, a proud father saying that, it is a common comment about him. That he is gentle to all things, almost to the point of harming himself so another won't be.

So it was a surprise to me when discussing this week's project shot when he said he wanted to show off his Nerf Dart side. I knew what he meant, he takes on a different attitude when playing Nerf Darts. He is so focused on eliminating his opponent it is amazing. By the way, that opponent is usually me and I'm a large enough target which means he rarely misses.

With the above in mind we decided to shoot him as a Nerf Warrior, someone intimidating and bent on victory. Below is our attempt at that. You will have to let me know if we were successful.

While executing the shot was not difficult, strobist info to come later, choosing a shot was hard. I ended up with two shots that have different feels to them. One was my favorite and one was my son's favorite. Below are the shots with a brief description as to why each of us chose them.

Shot #1:

Gustavo's pick because it made him look tough. In case you are wondering, and pick up on it a bit, yes he was growling when I took the picture. It was a cute growl you had to be there though.

Shot #2:

My pick because it shows a bit of the child he is while bringing out how serious he is about the game. I like how it reinforces his age. It could be his left hand or his face, I'm not sure, but it makes the capture for me.

What does everyone think? Which is the best and why?

Now on to the boring strobist stuff...

I was going for some dramatic lighting which I achieved using two speedlights. A 580 EXII above to camera right at 1/4 power with a 1/2 CTO gel and a 5" snoot to focus the light while giving some hard shadows. The second was a 430 EX level to his face and a touch to camera left at 1/2 power with another 1/2 CTO gel and a 1/8 grid to soften its shadows and act as fill and directional light at the same time. Below is the setup shot.

Yes, he was sitting through the shoot. It took me a while to get things how I wanted them so I let him sit so as to not tire him out. I just got on my stomach while taking the pics. Thank goodness the dogs were outside or I would have been licked to death.

So what does everyone think? Which capture is best and why? Most importantly, did we achieve the goal, does he look like a Nerf Warrior?

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As always go to the Flickr set for all project pictures by Clicking Here. You can also find a full explanation of the project along with an index of the shots by Clicking Here.