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Rangefinder
Magazine Rf Cookbook: Catching the Sirens… by Fernando Escovar
The Proposal: When I first came to the interview at the MGM Las Vegas, I had my own ideas about how they should approach photographing these beautiful actresses. One idea I proposed was shooting the girls underwater, but without my getting wet. This proposal caught the creative director’s ear. I explained that I had done these kinds of shots before—shooting through a window at a pool. I emailed him samples and got the gig. The Set: This pool had a 4x7-foot window—nice and big with plenty of space. I scouted the pool the week earlier and made some morning tests with my Canon 1Ds without strobes. I was getting readings of 1/100 at f/5.6 through a 1-in. piece of clear acrylic with a second pane of real glass one inch from that! This quality was amazing for being an underwater shot. I showed the director, and he was pleased and now he was positive we could pull it off. The Setup: I used my trusty Norman 4000 with three heads attached. They were all set at 800W/S with small Photoflex Multidomes, all white, pushed up against the glass. These were all on C-stands, and a third strobe was at my knees, also on the glass. I held the camera in my hand and took the lens shade off the Canon 17–28mm. I also placed the camera flush on the glass, so there would be no chance of reflection from the strobes. I had two models to shoot, but I hired an extra one to test the lighting and to motivate the other girls. Unfortunately, this plan backfired. It was 9:00 a.m. The model I hired got into the water but had trouble submerging near the window. The window was about four feet below the water line, and she was uncomfortable in the water. She held in too much air, making her too buoyant, so she was unable to maneuver herself to the spot. We had lifeguards on site, and they gave me the idea to use weights to get her to sink. She put on two 12-pound waist belts and down she went. But she still had no control in the water. I looked over at my client. and he had a not-so-happy look on his face. It got worse. The model came into the shooting room wearing a robe, crying, shaking, and yelling about how impossible this shoot is, so the other models got spooked. At this point my client was about to lose his hair, but I had a five-minute coaching talk with the second model, Brooke, and I tried to inspire her by recalling classic movies. Brooke got into her costume and went into the water. Right before our eyes, she transformed into a mermaid—smiling and relaxed, almost appearing to breathe underwater. I hit the glass with excitement as I clicked away. My client yelled, “Oh my God! There it is—the shot.” Brooke got out and asked, “Was that good?” We all freaked out and yelled together, “Do it again!” So we continued on and got this amazing image of a Siren from Treasure Island. Immediately after that, we were told our time was up. Another reason we had all been so nervous was because we had only until 10:00 a.m. to finish the shot. I put the CF card in the reader on my G4 Powerbook. I copied the images to my hard drive and used Photoshop to make some adjustments. I’ll never forget that day. INGREDIENTS
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Assignment: Capture the “Siren’s of Treasure
Island” for MGM’s M Lifestyles magazine.