Back in the old days (you know, when we were all shooting film) there was a time when I started doing fashion shoots for the newspaper I worked at. We were too cheap to hire models, so it always came down to the writer finding a friend to "model" for us. I remember how hard it was to get good photos.

In time, the paper found money to hire models. And then that bulb (a dim one, for sure) went off over my head - there's a reason people get paid to model. Someone who has modeling experience understands how to appear in front of a camera. They know how to stand, sit, hold their head, their hands, and even better, know how to do more than one pose. It was a pleasure to work with them, and always worth the extra cost. That came to mind a couple of weeks ago when teaching a photo workshop in Las Vegas, where we had two models to work with.

We started in mid-afternoon at Red Rocks National Conservation Area outside of Las Vegas. It's a beautiful area for photos, and having Elly and Chrissy to work with made it even better. With the sun beginning to drop, we worked with the natural side light (and shadows) it created, and then worked with reflectors to either kick light in to their faces or to shield the light from them.

As the sun dropped lower, we changed locations and started working with remote flash. Most of the better cameras now have wireless strobe capability, meaning no more cords or extra gear (radio remotes and such). That also means it's much easier to do lighting setups that used to be difficult. For the shot of Chrissy on the rocks we just had one strobe held to the left (see the highlight on her right arm) and a second to the right lighting her face and legs. Since the group was fairly large, we had people hold the lights, so we didn't even need to bother with light stands. Setting the camera to underexpose by about one stop made the sky a bit darker than normal. And Chrissy did a great job giving us a nice variety of poses.

Later we went out with Elly to do some night shots on the Vegas strip. She had a great outfit, and when I asked her to pose next to the fountain outside the Paris hotel, she hopped up onto it and gave us a great shot. Again, a pair of strobes, one to each side, gave nice light, and setting the cameras to work with "Slow Sync" meant the shutter speed would drop low enough to hold detail in the background (the fountain and tower). In standard flash sync most cameras won't go below 1/60 second. That helps avoid the chance of blur, but also means that backgrounds can go dark, if not totally black. Slow-Sync allows the shutter speed to drop as low as necessary.

It was a long day of shooting (and we had a 6AM sunrise shoot the next morning), but thanks to Chrissy and Elly's experience, we had a great time. If you get a chance to go to Las Vegas, try to get out to Red Rocks, and take your camera with you on the strip at night. Who knows, you might find a group doing a model shoot, and get a few frames yourself!