P#42: Twilight Through the Coal Miners' Eyes

Two Gentlemen in a Pair of Yellow Slickers

David Tejada: About 98% of the images that I create are all staged. I do not go for a grab shot. My clients are not paying me to get grab shots.

I am paid to come back with quality images for them. Like everything in life, you won't get it unless you ask for it in most cases. I set up everything. This very first image as an example was shot for Arch Coal. This is on the western slope of Colorado.

If you look very carefully on the bottom left hand corner, there are two gentlemen standing in a pair of yellow slickers. One of those individuals is Eric Lawrence, my assistant. I use my assistant in my photographs quite frequently. He has appeared probably on more covers of annual reports than I can imagine.

I was shooting this at dusk. I knew I wanted to do this because the lights were very pretty on this coal mine. I put a strobe up on the landing where the where the two individuals are. (click the image for a larger version)

I used a set of PocketWizards, which is a radio transmitter that is attached. One is a transmitter that fits on the hot shoe of my camera and the receiver portion of it is fastened onto the strobe. When I release my shutter on the camera, it fires the strobe even at this great distance.

Using walkie talkies, I'm able to position those two subjects on a silo and direct them to make hand gestures or to posture in different ways while I'm composing the shot and taking pictures from pretty much a quarter mile away. That's just an example of using walkie talkies, a non-photographic tool, and controlling the entire scene.

It may look as though somebody has just caught this thing happening but the chances of somebody walking out on the edge of that silo and standing there just where you want them, it's not going to happen unless you make it happen.

In Closing

In commercial photography, planning is the key to success. This shot of coal miners at twilight demonstrates the power of a well setup shot.