The Profoto From a Distance

The Ability of the Profoto Light to Operate at Longer Distances

Since starting to use the Profoto lights in about 2009 I’ve never stopped being amazed at how they can transform a regular picture to a spectacular picture. I could just write blog posts about using this light for weddings and portraits on this website. Apparently couples would find that boring and so I don’t only write about using it for my work.

This morning before leaving for my work at the Athletic Club of Bend outdoor swimming pool I went through a hard drive to find some pictures to do a blog post about and happened across an already sized and ready to go file of single images used for a past website with another photographer. What a stroke of luck! Going through old pictures really bores me and to see a pile of blog-ready pictures all in one place really made my day.

I shot this wedding of Angel and Alex a few years ago at a farm (?) near Dallas, Oregon. It was a long drive over there in our old RV Sprinter van with my young assistant riding in the back. The wedding was a small but fun affair at a barn with these rolling hills in behind the venue. It seems to me a couple can find any venue to suit their style and needs in Oregon. From the rustic elegance of Pronghorn to backyards in La Pine. They exist and only need to be found with some research. For my own wedding we needed a couple things: a centralized downtown location so people wouldn’t need to drink and drive and a reception hall we could stay partying at all night long. My wife found it at The Loft upstairs from Zydeco in downtown Bend. We partied until 4AM. People still talk about it to this day.

In photojournalism school and at newspapers we learned of three basic kinds of pictures: the detail shot, the medium shot, and the overall. A story of an event needs all three. I sometimes have difficulty spending the time to get the detail shots and also of the venue because my personal main focus usually involves looking for emotion and moments between people during the day. So I have to go out of my way for the details and overalls. Sometimes I write down the need to remember these pictures. Why? As a former newspaper photographer I’m used to only one picture running in a story. For only one picture a photographer needs to get a moment with emotion. So I’m very highly trained and practiced at seeing and making these kinds of pictures. My goal, as always, isn’t just to show the venue or even the event, it’s to show what it felt like to be at a wedding. The future you or your descendants won’t be too interested in what the flowers or cake looked like. You and they will want to know what you looked like. What you were feeling. How happy you were at your wedding. That’s my superpower.

When shooting a scene setter overall type picture I try to show the couple or some guests to get some humanity in an otherwise static scene. I saw this scene from the balcony of the barn they were in and thought immediately about the contrast between whatever these trees are and what they would look like with a beam of light hitting them. So I hid my Profoto with beauty dish and grid behind the tree to the left (always trying to match the direction of my light with the direction of the sun) and asked them to do some twirly dancing.

Boom! One minute later we were done and they could go back to their guests.

This picture is possible with almost any flash. But with the Profoto I know with absolute certainty the picture will turn out exactly the way I see it in my minds eye before even setting anything up. None of the many flashes I’ve used over the years can do this for me. The couples can know this kind of picture can happen 100% of the time when the situation presents itself.

It was fun discovering the file of premade pictures waiting for me to discover and be able to blog about while doing my part-time job at the Athletic Club. I’ve been wanting to say something about this picture for awhile and today it popped out while looking through the pictures. Being labeled Angel-Alex meant it was near the top of the files in the iCloud, so my work was made even easier. Plus I love talking about the lights I use for wedding and portrait photography because it truly is the single biggest game changer of equipment I’ve ever used as a photographer.