99 Bottles of Beer On The Floor, 99 Bottles of Beer… My Shoot With Megan Powell

When the entire set was completed, it was one of those moments when you stand back to look at what you’ve created and think to yourself, “Really? THIS is how awesome my life has gotten? Fuck yeah!” We stood back to look at the nearly $2,000 worth of beer strewn across the floor, and like proud parents watching their child walk across the stage to accept a diploma, we looked at our creation that has been months in the making with pride. This was going to kick ass!

I honestly can’t tell you how I met Megan other than to say “we met on Twitter, and the rest is history.” I’m not even sure when, but I started following her, or she started following me… it doesn’t really matter now. All I know is that it’s been a very great friendship, despite her passion for Ohio State (I’m a Michigan fan) and the New York Yankees (I… just can’t stand them. Or the Red Sox, so I guess that’s a push). What we DO have in common is a tremendous adoration for all things food and beer. Her site, Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain, is a great read for anybody who wants to wow party guests with seemingly complex dishes that are insanely simple to make. I’ll admit: I have trouble making it through a recipe without getting severely hungry.

Megan is working on revamping her site and wanted images to market herself, and I was more than happy to oblige, since it’s always a treat to me to work with a foodie. She had sent me a couple of images for ideas of what she wanted to do, and as my gears were turning, I remembered my friend’s place in SE DC that is being renovated, which would give her the rustic look she was going for. The brick walls in this building had a lot of personality and would add a richness and uniqueness that would make it more than just a shot of someone standing in front of a wall.

The one thing that made me a little nervous was the fact that there was a massive heat wave rolling through DC at the time, making temperatures reach the triple digits! Because this place was being renovated, there was no A/C, so we had to make do as best we could. When Megan arrived, I tried my best to make sure she would be comfortable as we went along, so I purchased some Powerade to help hydrate us as we went along. The best part was unloading her trunk, back seat, and passenger seat of all the beer she had brought with her for the shoot! As you can see, this was not a small task; the set up easily took nearly an hour to complete, as Megan had described she envisioned an image of her surrounded by nothing but beer. Done and DONE.

For the beer shoot (shown in the first picture of this post), I climbed up a ladder and shot from as high up as I could get. We made sure most of the labels were showing to display the exclusivity of the beer, but with a woman in a red dress lying in the middle, it’s hard to pay attention to the beer. As usual, I didn’t have an elaborate lighting set up and stuck to mostly natural light, since it was such a small space surrounded by windows that let in enough light to where all I really needed was my speed light and an open door. Granted, this meant I was shooting with a high ISO, but I honestly preferred it because it meant I’d achieve natural-looking results rather than bust out a strobe and soft box. And looking at the results, I’d say I achieved what I wanted to accomplish.

The rest of the shoot involved head shots, but Megan had one idea that was to focus strictly on the beer. She picked out a dark stout to contrast with the rest of the room (I wish I could remember which one it was – we drank so many that I can’t remember which was which!) and wanted me to put the beer in focus with her blurred in the background. Without needing more of a description, I knew what she was going for, so I busted out the 50mm f/1.8 and opened the aperture as wide as it would go to ensure she and the brick would be blurry. The resulting photo was apparently spot-on, as I only took two or three shots, but nailed it so that we could move on to the rest of the shoot!

It was getting insanely hot at this point, so after a couple of hours of shooting, Megan changed into her outfit and we moved upstairs where the lighting was ridiculously amazing, but decided to take a quick break. Her beer knowledge is impressive, so after being introduced to quite a few new beers that helped cool us down, we finished with the rest of the shoot. Because the lighting was sick, I didn’t use a flash of any kind – just used the natural reflectors of the floor and the walls and let my camera do the rest. I still kept a fairly high ISO (800), but I kept the aperture wide (f/4.5) and resulted in a pretty quick shutter speed that allowed a good contrast in my images without blowing out the highlights.

We wrapped up shooting for the day and enjoyed some delicious beverages at Churchkey on 14th Street after being subjected to ridiculous heat all day. It was nice to catch up, since we hadn’t actually hung out together in months, and with great food and beer, and even better company, it was a nice ending to the day. We discussed ideas for our next shoot the following week, which Megan wanted to be in the middle of a forest with a cake laying out as if it had been sitting out in the rain (you know, the title to her blog – did I tell you she has a blog called Someone Left The Cake Out In The Rain and you should check it out?). I figured Rock Creek Park would be a great location for this, but I was hoping for much better weather when we had to shoot outdoors, to say the least!

Fortunately, my prayers had been answered, and Megan and I got fairly mild weather (well, it wasn’t in the 90s, so that’s a win as far as I’m concerned). Megan had a black dress that would stand out nicely amongst the forest and brought a ridiculously large cake. We made our way around Rock Creek Park until we found an ideal spot, which required a bit of climbing, but Megan was a trooper and even in sandals and a dress, hiked up the steep incline until we reached our destination. I was petrified of dropping the cake, but somehow managed to make it without a hitch! I used my speed light again for fill-in flash, but because we were outdoors in the afternoon, all I needed to do was kick up my camera’s ISO to 800 and keep the aperture wide, especially since Megan wanted to be a blur again with the focus on the cake. After toying around with a few ideas and poses, we really hit our stride in the end, resulting in some kick ass photos!

At the end of the shoot, well… Megan was a little hungry. Maybe it was the heat exhaustion from all that climbing, but she decided she needed to not just eat the cake – she needed to dive in. As a result, I captured the incriminating evidence for your enjoyment! (You can click on the image for a bigger image of the sequence.)

It was a fantastic two weeks of shooting, filled with fun, beer, and more beer. Megan is definitely laid back and easy going, which made it really easy to shoot her and bounce ideas off her. I felt like both days of shooting were beyond enjoyable, since she already had the vision and all I had to do was make it happen! It was a great collaboration and I’d be thrilled to shoot her again! (Especially if it means more good times over all that beer!)

Until next time,

- Patrick

P.S. If you haven’t done so already, check out her website and follow her on Twitter (@megpowesq)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 at 12:09 pm. It is filed under behind the lens, photography and tagged with behind the scenes, head shots, Megan Powell, photo shoot, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.