Fiji – Day 1

One of the pools we were shooting and not swimming in. . .

As I sit in this warm and cosy bed, a lone ant marches erratically across my screen, just one of many of the little buggers that seem to be crawling all over this room at the Sheraton. Our gear is spread all over the room, and I swear that the amount of rechargeable batteries slowly drawing new life from the mains power is surely creating some kind of radioactive hotspot, that could possibly result in prize winning, oversized fruit and vegetables, anywhere within a 200 metre radius.

All that aside though, I am still alive and possibly even a couple of kilos lighter from the sweat I exuded today. For lack of a better word, it was a massive.

Perfect blue skies and light winds greeted us as we rose and after a killer breakfast we got stuck into shooting one of the models beside the pool, Sports Illustrated style, beside the pool. The 5D MKII was singing, well it was recording, the Sigma 50mm 1.4 was singing. And what a pretty tune it was. That lens copped an absolute beating today and never missed a beat. In fact the whole kit worked really well, even when showered with metho from the firebreathers. I have a feeling Canon’s weatherproofing is not quite tested against fuel and solvents. It still works though, so I guess that’s a good sign. We’ll probably wake up tomorrow and it’ll just be a pile of fuming slag. Here’s hoping not. . .

The weather really helped us get some cracking shots, real tropical love. The editor, Sean, is currently cutting an absolute mountain of footage and I’m pretty sure he is just spinning out on not only how much there is, but also how is going to get an edit out by the morning. Let me tell you, I do not envy him one bit.

The Sony EX1 did not even get taken out today. It was all 5D MKII, all the way. As I said, the Sigma 50mm got the biggest run, but there was also a host of other lenses that had their time. A bunch of nice Canon glass. . .Canon L 17-40 f4 for those classy wides, 70-200 f2.8, 100-400 f4, 14mm 2.8 even the the 15mm Fisheye (don’t ask!).

The model, who for the purpose of this post shall be henceforth known as Paris, was good to work with. It was her first time and understandably was a bit nervous, but is not scared to give it a crack and is putting it on for the camera.

The only bummer to happen, we ended up getting roped into shooting a room at about lunchtime. Trouble is this room should really have been shot on dusk, but time and availability were calling the shots, not the light, which is never good. Anyway, I shot this thing with the 5D and my wireless strobe setup that I have been using a alot lately, and despite the images coming up nicely, they just don’t smack of “Sheraton”. The lighting is nice and smooth and the colours are crisp and the shots are clean, but I am not happy with them as they just are nothing close to the classy, natural look of a proper dusk shoot. In my opinion, that’s the look the Sheraton needs.

Apart from that, it was a great day and a great start to the trip. I got a bunch more photo’s here to upload and much more to crap on about, but that has got to be all for now. . .I’m cutting into much needed sleeping time. . .

Much more tomorrow. . .