Ascension the sculpture

Artist Michael Dillon, based in Crabapple, Georgia, is known for architectural ironworks and distinctive sculptures.  He created “Ascension” for the Duluth Gateway Art Project  with the financial support of AGCO, an agriculture industry conglomerate.

The best pictures I saw of “Ascension” were in a gallery by Violet Key, a photographer in Suwanee, GA.  She has some very creative frames taken a few moments before the official presentation of “Ascension” on 4/19/2014.

My idea was to think up new settings or ways to display this piece such as inserting humans into the frame, and twilight and strobist treatments.  This blog is about my first attempts.

Equipment

While working on the fill flash assignment I realized I could use a second speedlight.  I shoot Nikon, and I have been using a SB-600 with Ni-MH batteries for about 2 years.  I am probably going make the SB-900 my next purchase along with a 9’ coiled extension cable.  Both units have similar features and operations, such as auto TTL exposure, FP or high speed sync, remote trigger via IR beam, and use in multi-unit lighting.  As you would expect the SB-900 is more powerful than the 600.  The guide number comparison is below for ISO 200 and 35mm zoom position.

SB-900           48m/157ft

SB-600           42m/138ft

Guide numbers indicate power and are also used in manually calculating exposure.