There's something about photographing people doing what they love, in the place they love doing it, that never gets old.
That's exactly what happened a coyuple of weeks back, early morning when I met up with Pip, a local yoga teacher in Lyme Regis, for the latest instalment of my I Am Lyme project.
An Early Start on the Beach
Pip teaches beach yoga here in Lyme Regis, and there's no better way to capture that than actually being on the beach while the light is do`ing something special. So we met early, before the town had properly woken up, while the tide and the light were both in our favour.
The plan was simple. Get set up before Pip's students arrived, grab the shots, and get out of the way so she could get on with teaching her class. In reality, that gave us a matter of minutes. Her students were already turning up on the beach as we were shooting, which meant no second chances and no faffing about. Everything had to be right first time.
This is one of the things I love about the I Am Lyme project. It's not about staged studio perfection, it's about real people, in real moments, in and around the town. Pip fitting me in around her actual class, rather than a separate posed session, is exactly the kind of authenticity the project is built on.
The Lighting Setup
Shooting on a beach at sunrise sounds romantic, and it is, but it's also a technical puzzle. You've got a huge, ever-changing light source (the sky) and you need your flash to work with it, not fight it.
Here's what I used:
Camera right: A Westcott FJ800 fired into a Rapid Box Switch 4' x 3' softbox.
This was doing the heavy lifting as my main light on Pip.
Camera left, rear of Pip: A Westcott FJ400 II into a 1' x 4' Rapid Box Switch softbox.
This one was there purely to fake a bit of rim and separation, mimicking natural sunlight catching Pip from behind.
To get the aperture I wanted (f/2.8) at native sync speed, I dropped in a 4 stop NiSi ND filter.
Without it, shooting that wide open at sunrise would have blown out completely, even with the softer early morning light.
Both flashes were run in TTL, with the rear FJ400 dialled up to +1 stop compensation. That extra push made sure the rim light actually read as light, rather than getting lost against the brightness of the beach and sky.
Why It Worked
With only a few minutes to play with, having the lighting pre-set and tested before Pip even arrived (5.30am) made all the difference. There was no time to chase settings once she was in position, ready to switch straight into teaching mode. Everything from stands to softboxes to flash power was locked in beforehand, so once Pip stepped onto her mark, it was simply a case of composing, shooting, and trusting the setup.
It's a good reminder that a "quick" shoot still needs proper preparation behind it. The speed on the day only works because of the planning that happens before anyone presses a shutter button.
Part of Something Bigger
This shoot with Pip adds another face and another story to I Am Lyme, my ongoing project documenting the people connected to this town. Different job, different backdrop, same idea: real Lyme Regis people, captured as they are.
More shoots to come soon.