The images I envisioned demanded that I shoot the action as it was happening. Somehow having my assistant push me in a wheelchair while I shot with a strobe strapped to the IV hook just didn’t seem to fit. I needed to figure out a way to keep myself and my lighting gear with the action. Enter my Subaru Outback wagon. I could have used a pickup–yes, I know–but I don’t own one, so I did what Mike does best: improvised.

By mounting an Elinchrome head with a beauty dish on a Bogen Superclamp I was able to attach the strobe to the strut on the rear hatch. Voila . . . A light stand and shooting platform that could keep up with the action. And with the Ranger power pack sitting next to me I could easily make adjustments on the fly. Now that I have tested this set-up I could see lots of potential uses on future shoots.

To really put the finishing touches on the photo at the top of the post I did a fair bit of post processing using Adobe Lightroom. I first used the Adjustments Brush to make localized adjustments to exposure, brightness, contrast and clarity. Then to give the image a grungy, desaturated look I simply reduced the overall saturation, warmed up the white balance and really cranked up the overall clarity. It’s a great technique for in-your-face type action.

Below is an additional image from the shoot.

Equipment Used: Nikon D300, 12-24mm Lens, Elinchrome Ranger RX Speed AS Battery Pack, Speed “A” Head with Beauty Dish, Pocket Wizards and Bogen Superclamp.