Photographer, Bristol UK

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Blog posts by Craig Pitts Photography

Portraits at Bristol Shooters UK Meet

On Friday night I attended a local 'Instameet' in Bristol, set up by Dan Rose (@danrose95), founder of the Bristol Shooters UK page.

Attending the meet were a couple of local models and calisthenics athletes who were happy to pose and jump in front of the lens so the group could take shots. 

The meet started around 19:30pm, enough time for me to shoot some natural light portraits using the Hasselblad X1D, I borrowed from Clifton Cameras for the weekend. I'd always wanted to shoot some portraits with a medium format camera after seeing the resolution on my own 50 megapixel monster, the Canon 5Ds.

I managed to get a few decent shots with the Hasselblad, using only natural light and a reflector. However, I did find it hard to nail focus shooting wide open on the 90mm f3.2 lens without the aid of eye autofocus that has made shooting portraits on my Sony A7iii a dream.

Below are a few of the final images shot using the Hasselblad.

For the second part of the meet, I wanted to shoot some of the calisthenics guys using my high speed flash unit to create a studio environment in an underpass allowing me to create some dramatic low key portraits on location. 

As I didn't have a compatible trigger for the Hasselblad, I switched back to my trusty Sony for the rest of the meet. The below portraits were shot using a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens on my Sony and were lit using a Pika200 flash head fired into a reflective umbrella.

Overall I'm really happy with the shots I came away with from the meet. Instameets are a great opportunity to network with other creatives and to get out of your comfort zones!

Cheers to Dan for organising and to all the models/athletes that gave up their time on the night. You can find them on insta by following the below tags:

  • @tyla_patonxox
  • @kenfeeny
  • @one.little.earthling
  • @starboyasian_barsparta
  • @sheldon.golding
  • @ngc_aarontucker

-Craig