Location Lighting – Robert Seale's Blog

Sports and fitness photography with Kate Upton for Strong4Me Fitness

Model and actress Kate Upton photographed at her home in Houston, Texas for her new fitness brand, Strong 4 Me Fitness. ©2018 Robert Seale

I recently had the really cool opportunity to work with supermodel Kate Upton for the launch of her fitness brand, Strong4Me Fitness. Strong4Me is the brainchild of Kate and her personal trainer Ben Bruno and is designed to provide strength training and nutrition solutions for busy women on the go.

We were originally going to use a studio, but at the last minute, the shoot was shifted to Kate’s Houston area home which she shares with her husband, Astros ace pitcher Justin Verlander. The brief was to shoot portraits and workout shots that could be title and dividing pages on the Strong4Me site and app. Other models would fill in the blanks with the actual “how to” sequence shots.

Working in a home, no matter how well equipped and nice, provides some challenges, chief among them, finding enough wide open space to create light, bright, and open fitness scenarios. I was reminded of environmental portrait photographer Arnold Newman’s famous quote: “Photography is 5% inspiration, and 95% moving furniture.” That was certainly the case for assistants Travis Schiebel, Michael Klein and I as we cleared out spaces for these photos.

We created this look by covering the window outside with an 8×8 Scrim Jim, and firing some strobe from outside. The indoor key light was a Wafer Hexoval 140.

Once Houston makeup artist Misty Rockwell got her ready, we started with a white seamless background setup. One of the rooms in the house provided us with almost a perfect wide doorway scenario and lots of white walls, so we could set up a traditional white seamless without the need for cumbersome v-flats. Kate had her own ideas about the lighting and was very involved….after looking at a few frames on the digital tech’s monitor, she suggested a more contrasty look, so we switched gears, used a smaller key-light source (a medium sized Wafer Hex 140, instead of the huge box we were using before), and placed a large black velvet fabric on the ground in front of her to soak up some of the bounced light and create more shadow under the chin and neck area (her suggestion – which worked out great!).

Shooting someone of her talent and stature is an incredible thing…I’ve shot lots of models, famous athletes, and celebrities over the years, but no one like her. One second she’s talking to you, and everything seems pretty normal, but when the camera is raised, she brings it…..all the while making subtle adjustments to her pose, chin height, arm position, leg angles, to create perfect photos. It goes without saying, but she’s an incredibly talented pro….all I had to do was show up with a pulse and keep firing the shutter.

Kate’s dog Harley offered his own exercise tips to help us out with the photo shoot

After the white background scenario, we moved on to a “light and bright” airy high-key location in her dining room to do some shots with a workout bench and mat. Kate’s friendly boxer, Harley, who has his own instagram account, btw, wanted to be in most of the photos, so eventually we just went with it. Sometimes the spontaneous stuff is the most fun.

We next moved on to an outdoor setup, shot some exercise photos there, and finished with some shallow depth of field photos modeling the Strong4Me yoga mats available through her site.

A single application of Tramadol (Ultram) provides bioavailability at the level of 68%, this indicator will increase with regular exposure. A small proportion of the drug is excreted in the mother’s milk, so during breastfeeding, Tramadol is undesirable. Withdrawal of the drug is 90% provided by the kidneys, 10% by the intestines.

It was great working with her, and I wish her the best with both her fitness business and the recent birth of her daughter Genevieve. Harley might just have to share the spotlight next time around.

Check out the main portfolio site to see more of Houston Sports and Fitness photographer Robert Seale’s work.

Model and actress Kate Upton photographed at her home in Houston, Texas for Strong 4 Me Fitness. © 2018 Robert Seale

I don’t often do it, but this shoot called for a couple of crew photos with Kate. She was nice enough to oblige. ( L to R: Michael Klein, MUA Misty Rockwell, Kate, me, Travis Schiebel).

Kate Upton and Robert Seale….she’s really tall!

Sports and Fitness Photography with Carmen Morgan for Renew Houston

Fitness trainer Carmen Morgan, lit with a Profoto B-4 with a Plume Wafer 100 and a Lighttools grid.

Although we’ve been doing more commercial photography for the last decade or so, I’ve spent over 20 years doing sports photography – particularly sports portraits for magazines like The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. I also used to do all the covers for the Houston Chronicle’s Health Magazine, but unfortunately, it went away a few years ago.

I was thrilled when I recently got the call from my friend, Features Managing Editor Melissa Aguilar to shoot for a new fitness product for the Chronicle titled “Renew Houston.” The new section would be a reboot of the Health Mag, but as a broadsheet section with fitness and health tips.

Our first subject was the stunningly beautiful and fabulously fit Carmen Morgan, a local certified fitness trainer with a ridiculous Instagram following of 620 THOUSAND followers. (@mytrainer carmen) She also has her own iPhone app available in the App Store.

I’m really into concrete backgrounds lately, so rather than shooting Carmen in a gym or crossfit studio, we decided to work with some superb concrete architecture generously provided by the Cindy Lisica gallery. Although we supplemented some of the photos with a Profoto B-4 strobe and Plume soft boxes, we shot many of the photos in the incredibly soft natural light tunnel at the gallery.

I have a dream to spend my wacation on the beach for a month. To have a beautiful shape I need to lose some wight. Phentermine is a real helper. It helped my sister to lose 10 lbs in two weeks. I hope to have the similiar result. Wish me good luck..

We sent Carmen through her paces in a couple of different outfits, all while Chronicle writer Joy Sewing interviewed Carmen about the keys to her success. It was a great shoot with great people. Hoping to hear more great things from Carmen in the future!

Carmen in her “Super Hero” outfit. Lit with a Plume Wafer 75 and a 30 degree Lighttools grid.

Carmen, lit with pure super soft natural light with my favorite concrete background.

Another available light portrait against the concrete – taken with a Canon 50mm/1.2 lens.

Panoramic Portrait Photography for ExxonMobil Annual Report

Cover of the ExxonMobil Summary Annual Report.

I’ve been really fortunate to work with ExxonMobil on their annual report photography and other corporate photography for the last ten years or so. It’s a great gig, and I’ve been able to document photographs of people and assets for their shareholders all over the world. I’m particularly proud of the work we did on this year’s version.

Cover of the ExxonMobil Financial and Operating Review.

Over that time, the books have been fairly consistent, with a vertical format layout, and often featuring traditional spreads of sprawling petrochemical complexes at dusk or at night. Although there’s always been quite a few people photos as well, this year was quite a departure in that the focus was completely on employee portraits. The marching orders were to create panoramic portraits of employees utilizing technology in their work environment. We’ve all seen the typical oil and gas photography, and it was fun to take it in a different direction and focus on the super smart people that make the company work.

Some spreads from the ExxonMobil Annual Report.

The format of the book was horizontal this time, to maximize the effect of the panoramic photos over a full two page horizontal format spread. The layouts were also adorned with quotes from the employees and helpful stats about the company. In the end, they used a mix of traditional environmental portraits, and some reportage working shots.

During our travels, we created most of the photographs with the 50 megapixel Canon EOS 5DS, and in several instances, we composited several frames to create the panos. We carried Profoto lighting, using the B-2 and the B-4 extensively. We also used some LED light panels on some of the photos. The cover shots and spreads I photographed were taken at sites in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Belgium, and Angola.

It was a break from the usual approach honed over many years, and was both a challenge and an honor to work on. I ended up with both covers (Both the Summary Annual Report, and the F&O), and a number of spreads. Hoping to do some more great content for them in the future.

(Ed. note: although it says “2017 Annual Report”, it is actually released around May of the following year (2018) with figures from 2017, so it’s really not as old as it looks…).

More examples of our panoramic portraiture below:

Guideposts cover shoot with Boston Marathon bombing survivor Rebekah Gregory

Rebekah Gregory, who was injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion

I recently had an inspiring shoot with Boston Marathon bombing survivor Rebekah Gregory for Guideposts Magazine.

Gregory, then just 26, and her five year old son Noah were spectators standing only 3 feet away from the bombs near the finish line when the explosions went off on April 15, 2013 at the Boston Marathon. Her legs absorbed a lot of the bomb’s impact and shielded her son, likely saving his life.

Gregory and her son were both injured, and spent time apart in two different hospitals. After months of trying to rehabilitate and rebuild function in her injured leg, and scores of surgeries, she made the brave decision to amputate, and hasn’t looked back since.

A single mom at the time of the bombing, she’s since gotten married and had another child. She recently wrote a book, “Taking my Life Back: My Story of Faith, Determination, and Surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing,” with co author Anthony Flacco.

Rebekah Gregory, who was injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion, photographed with her family at her home in Texas.

We photographed her at her home, and part of the mandate for the Guideposts cover was a powerful portrait of her on white seamless. Luckily, her home featured a garage with a giant ceiling, so we set up our “studio” in there. We used a Plume Wafer Hexoval 140 boomed into the center, directly over the camera for the white background stuff. We used three Profoto B-4 battery powered lights as our light source (and we later added an Acute 600 Air also). My good friend Misty Rockwell did a great job with makeup.

We did some “happy” smiling photos, but I really wanted her to look resilient, and was more drawn to those tough and strong poses. Although it didn’t make the cut, we created some really strong tight portraits with a classic fashion cover lighting setup of Rebekah in a cool gray workout fleece, and used a small, lower light source below the camera as well as the Hexoval over the camera to really make the eyes pop.

Rebekah Gregory, with her son Noah, who were both injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion.

We also made some environmental portraits of her with her son in the driveway, and a family photo in the back with her husband and new baby, but my favorite shot might be her son hugging her on the white seamless, both of them with their eyes closed.

Rebekah is a class act who is using her platform as a survivor of this horrific event to promote and encourage others. You can’t spend time with her and not leave inspired to do better in your own life.

Rebekah Gregory, who was injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion, photographed at her home in Texas.

Rebekah Gregory, with her son Noah who were both injured in the 2013 Boston Marathon explosion, at their home in Texas.

Robert Seale speaking at Asian American Journalists Association convention

I’ll be speaking at the 2018 Asian American Journalists Association annual convention at the Marriott Marquis, 1777 Walker St, Houston, Texas, Room 2734.

In addition to the regularly scheduled lineup of writers, editors and TV correspondents, longtime AAJA member Darrell Miho has organized an additional educational curriculum for still photographers over the three day convention. I’ll be doing a lighting talk from 11:00-12:30 Friday, August 10th.

Here’s the list of speakers and subjects for the still photo program:

Thursday, August 9

11:00am Lisa Krantz, San Antonio Express-News: Photo Stories

4:00pm Richard Tsong-Taatarii, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Images from the Rohingya Crisis

Friday, August 10

9:00am Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle : Baseball and sports photography

11:00am Robert Seale, Houston Commercial photographer: Lighting for Impact

2:00pm Laura Elizabeth Pohl, freelance photographer:A Long Separation. Families Divided by the Korean War

Saturday, August 11

3:00pm Chang W. Lee, New York Times:2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics

4:30pm Portfolio Reviews/Photo Critiques

The Photo Hangouts are FREE to all AAJA18 attendees! If you’re not attending the convention and interested in just attending the Photo Hangouts please call or text Darrell Miho at 626.975.6349 or email us at aajaphoto@gmail.com

Chuck Norris put me in a headlock!

Actor and martial artist Chuck Norris on the family’s Lone Wolf Ranch in Navasota, Texas.

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

Chuck Norris has counted to infinity – twice.

There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.

I’ve loved reading these “Chuck Norris Facts” for years. It was pretty awesome when we actually got to meet the man in person recently when we photographed Norris and his lovely wife Gena for Houstonia magazine.

Actor and martial artist Chuck Norris and his wife, Gena Norris, have developed a new private-label bottled water manufacturing company called CForce Bottling Company on the family’s Lone Wolf Ranch in Navasota, Texas.

Part of the hook for the story was that Gena had recently fired up a full blown water bottling plant on their giant ranch property near Navasota to bottle water from the natural aquifer they found on their property. The plant is a state of the art facility and there is a charity component to their H2O endeavor. You can read more about it in the Houstonia story here.

Since we were there in sort of the middle of the afternoon on a sunlit partly cloudy day, we needed a big light and lots of power for the outdoor shots. We used a Profoto B-4 and a Plume Hexoval 180 for most of the outdoor shots.

Although we shot the bottling plant and did lots of still life shots of water bottles, the highlight for me was getting to make a cool environmental portrait of the former Walker Texas Ranger star and Gena on his awesome Texas ranch. We also shot in their horse stables, which had amazing light. Gena was a professional model, and the two of them together have a lifetime of experience in front of the camera and were just wonderful subjects to photograph. I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with two nicer, more accommodating people.

Actor and martial artist Chuck Norris in beautiful natural light in the horse stables on his Texas ranch.

Actor and martial artist Chuck Norris in the horse stables at his Texas ranch.

I couldn’t resist taking a romantic silhouette of Chuck Norris and his wife, Gena in the horse stable.

As we were loading the gear back into our vehicle, he came back out of the house and gave everyone in the crew a paperback copy of a Chuck Norris Facts book. I think he gets a big kick out of the cult hero status from all these “facts.”

Before we departed, Norris was telling us a story about going to Iraq to visit troops there. He was standing at the front of a long line of soldiers eager to meet him, shaking hands, posing for photos, signing autographs and such. When one of the soldiers (who was a particularly big strong guy) got to the front for his turn, the conversation went like this:

Soldier: “Ok, kick me in the chest!”

Chuck: “I’m not going to kick you in the chest…”

Soldier: “No, really, I want you to roundhouse kick me in the chest!”

Chuck: “Come on, I’m not going to kick you in the chest.”

The soldier wouldn’t let up, and was just dying to go back to the barracks and tell all his buddies that he survived a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the chest…..the line was starting to grumble from the delay.

Finally, Norris quickly grabbed the soldier, and in one quick motion the (at the time) 70 year old martial arts veteran spun him around backwards and put him in a choke hold and dropped the big guy to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

At this point all the other military guys standing in the autograph line, full grown men trained in combat, were yelling like little kids, “Put me in a choke hold too! Put me in a choke hold too!”

Of course….after hearing this story, what do you think I did?

“Put me in a choke hold! Put me in a choke hold!”

Here’s the layout of the article by (then) Houstonia art director Tanyia Johnson. She has an excellent eye for design, and I’m forever in her debt for sending me on such a cool assignment!

BuzzFeed photo shoot with Olympic Gymnast Simone Biles

With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio coming up, I thought this might be a good time to write about a shoot we did earlier this year with US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. Biles, who trains in Houston, is 4’9” tall and a three time world all around champion.

The media landscape is changing these days. This is the kind of shoot we might have done for Sports Illustrated once upon a time, but instead, this time we were commissioned by Buzzfeed to do this sports portrait shoot.

In the months leading up to the Olympics, the notable competitors (like Simone) have huge demands on their time. In addition to their normal training schedule, they are also doing interviews with various writers and television programs, and posing for photo shoots with not only media outlets, but potential endorsement partners. They are seriously busy, and it’s hard to stay focused on their training with all these various demands on their time.

To that end, we knew that we would have very little time to work with her, and that everything would need to be prepped carefully so as not to waste any of her time.

The photo editor wanted a classic, quiet portrait and sent several examples of gymnasts/fitness models on concrete walls and muslin backgrounds. Since Simone’s family-run training center was brand new and very modern, we knew we weren’t going to get the muted, moody industrial concrete wall background. We took a big muslin backdrop instead , and did a classic one-light portrait that stayed within the spirit of the comps.

We also prepped a secondary setup on a balance beam to capture some rim-lit “action” shots of Simone doing her thing. For this we used big tall C-stands with two Profoto B4’s and one Profoto 7B. (Note to self: always be careful when setting up lights in a gymnastics facility….one false step and you might find yourself neck-deep in a Nerf-cube-filled landing pit….not that this happened to me or anything….).

We mixed in some available light practice shots (I was able to dust off my usually dormant Canon EF 300/2.8!) of Simone and her coach working together to round out the assignment and give the photo editor lots of options.

The backdrop session went very fast…about 6-10 minutes. The balance beam shot went fast too, but not by choice. The coach shut us down after just a few frames saying the strobes were a distraction to the other young gymnasts training there. Even though we prepped them for what we were doing, you really can’t argue in that situation with the person controlling your access…..you just have to say yes ma’am and move on. I knew we had some nice frames already, ( thanks in large part to Simone’s perfect technique on the first few frames – thanks Simone!), so we pivoted and quickly moved on to available light practice shots.

The new family-run gym, World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas is an incredible facility. Simone’s parents and brother work together managing the facility and they do it with class and good humor. We were surrounded by a steady stream of youngsters training at various stations who I’m sure were hoping to someday be the next Simone. A “WARNING” sign near the lockers read, “CHILDREN LEFT UNATTENDED WILL BE SOLD TO THE CIRCUS.”

Buzzfeed recently ran an extensive story and collection of the photos here. I thought the story and presentation turned out great! Because of the virtually unlimited space they were able to run many more photos than you would typically see in a normal magazine layout. We in the newspaper/magazine journalism world have been talking about this advantage for years….it was nice to finally see a media outlet exploit the web format to full potential.

Photographing an Industrial Deep Sea Diver for Scuba Diving Magazine

Brian Lacey, an industrial deep sea saturation diver for Scuba Diving Magazine.

We recently did an editorial shoot for Scuba Diving magazine for a special issue they put together on the “Dirtiest Jobs” in the SCUBA diving industry. The photographs were commissioned in various parts of the country by different photographers: a salvage diver, a diver from a nuclear reactor facility, a police investigator, an underwater logger, a croc-wrangler, and our cool assignment: an “industrial deepwater saturation diver.”

Our diver was a nice gentleman named Brian Lacey, and he travels all over the world diving deep underwater for the oil and gas industry, repairing rigs, working on pipelines, etc. He spends up to a month on the job, living like an astronaut in a small pressurized chamber. He’s been as far down as 900 feet, but on average works at around 300 feet below the surface.

I’ve taken many oil and gas portraits, but this was my first chance to photograph an industrial diver, and I was pretty stoked.

Photo assistant Michael Klein and I photographed Brian on a dock in Galveston with his super heavy deepwater dive gear. We used two Profoto B-4’s and one Profoto Acute 600B. I scouted the location previously, and due to the recent downturn in oil prices, several offshore rigs were parked in port, which provided us with a great background normally not seen next to shore. It worked perfectly for the story, and the photo gods blessed us with a wonderful colorful sunset to complete the assignment.

Brian Lacey, an industrial deep sea saturation diver.

The double truck layout from Scuba Diving Magazine's "Dirtiest Jobs" issue. — The double truck layout from Scuba Diving Magazine’s “Dirtiest Jobs” issue.

Sports Portrait shoot with Houston Texans star JJ Watt for Sports Illustrated

It’s been under wraps for a few weeks, but we’re finally able to show some cool portraits from a recent JJ Watt cover shoot for Sports Illustrated. We were lucky, in that we were able to get a little extra time with Watt since he was featured twice in the magazine. JJ’s been tearing it up as the star of the HBO behind the scenes series “Hard Knocks” featuring the Houston Texans during training camp.

For the first set of shots, we wanted to create a memorable and “tough” looking portrait of him. We were stuck working in the Texans practice bubble, which is not my favorite location, but sometimes you have to roll with it, and in this case, a studio portrait was in order anyway. In addition to JJ, SI commissioned four other regional covers for the NFL Preview issue: NY Giants receiver Odell Beckham, Chicago Bears RB Matt Forte, Bucs linebacker Lavonte David, and Seahawks QB Russell Wilson. SI art director Chris Hercik and Director of Photography Brad Smith wanted these to look consistent, so we needed lighting schemes that other photographers could duplicate in other cities, without worrying about backgrounds or ambient outdoor lighting.

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt posing for portraits in the practice bubble across from NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. © 2015 Robert Seale/All Rights Reserved. — Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt posing for portraits on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. Photo by Robert Seale

We utilized several different lighting schemes to give the editors a few looks to choose from. They ended up using a photo lit from the back on both sides by Plume Wafer 140 strip banks with Lighttools grids inside, with a small Chimera strip Bank coming from below on JJ’s face, to give him a “sinister” or intimidating look. Or, as Todd Rosenberg, the Chicago based photographer who photographed the Forte cover said: “Vincent Price lighting.” All the lights were Profoto – a combination of B4’s and one legacy 7B.

Our other setup was for a feature story where the editors of SI asked several different NFL players what position they would like to play, other than their regular position. JJ, of course, said he wanted to play quarterback! This led to a secondary setup where we ran JJ through a variety of quarterback action poses. He had a lot of fun with it (I’m pretty sure he had practiced these before – he looked REALLY GOOD! He even had the telltale slick QB crossover footwork on his drop back down cold.) For lighting, we knew the imaging department would be dropping the action shots into action scenes from actual games, therefore, I shot from a low angle (just like I would shooting game action on the sideline), and used one Profoto B4 with a Magnum reflector to simulate outdoor sunlight. We placed a 6 x 6 Scrim Jim in front of the Magnum reflector a few feet out in front of it to soften it somewhat…similar to what a movie crew might do. It worked great, and gave us a wide open, evenly lit area for JJ to do his thing.

JJ Watt quarterback — Check him out! JJ Watt at quarterback. I’m pretty sure this is every defensive player’s nightmare. Note the fancy crossover footwork on the drop.

Our crack assistants, Lauren Swanson, and Travis Schiebel had the lucky job of playing catch with JJ: Lauren threw the balls in to JJ, and Travis played receiver. I think JJ had a good time with it. He even did a Peyton Manning style scramble while pointing at his “receiver” (Travis) downfield.

Sports Illustrated even sent a video crew down to document the shoot. You can see the behind the scenes video here.

Lauren_JJ — Lauren with about half the gear we used on the shoot. Travis brought a truckload of stuff too.

Executive portrait photography for Barron’s

I recently had the opportunity to create some executive portraits for Barron’s magazine. Barron’s, founded in 1921 is a weekly publication published by Dow Jones, and each issue features a profile of a mutual fund manager. We’re pushed to shoot these fund manager portraits in an interesting way, often with an environmental portrait link to their hobbies or interests…something more creative than a person at their desk.

Our feature subject for the issue, Juliet Ellis, the Portfolio Manager of Invesco’s Small Cap Equity Fund, suggested a great location for her portrait, the Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute, where she serves as a board member. I was already familiar with the space and the personnel there, having photographed healthcare annual reports in the past for the hospital. In the morning, we knew that it would make a fantastic “light and bright” portrait location….definitely a welcome departure from the average trading desk photo.

Although we had fantastic natural light for most of the shoot, we supplemented the ambient with just a low power “kiss” of light from a Profoto B4 with a Plume Wafer 100. We didn’t want to disturb any of the cool natural shadows around her in the background on these, so we stuck with the small source and even added a Lighttools grid in some of these to focus our light and keep it from spreading everywhere.

We couldn’t have asked for a more lovely and patient subject, and our friends at Barron’s of course created a fantastic layout with excellent display.

Juliet S. Ellis, CFA, who is the CIO, US Growth Equities, and Sr. Portfolio Manager at Invesco Advisers, Inc., photographed at Houston Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. © 2015 Robert Seale/All Rights Reserved. — I thought the inset in the wall made a great composition, framing her face nicely.