Firebirds Photo Shoot

Ok, so I had this idea about 2 years back.  I have been shooting the Firebirds quite a bit of late and thought I would try to get my pic idea into action. 

I asked the Firebirds if they would be up for a shoot with a background of flames, of course they said yes as they happen to be fantastic to work with and are really happy to help.  So the next day I put a call through to a contact at the Queensland Fire Service who helped put me in touch with someone who would make it happen.

We arranged a date and time and started the wheels in motion.  The Firebirds players were all organised and then I got my hands on two portable packs of lights and soft boxes.  We arrived at about 5pm and were escorted down towards an area at the fire training facility near the Brisbane Port.  The firefighters walked me around this large structure of metal that created big gas and kerosine explosions.  We set up the lights and did some test shots.  Once the girls arrived at the location we hosed down the concrete to help get some reflection on the ground.  Then I stood the girls in place and the firies turned on the flame.  It made this large howling noise like a jet engine and made giving instructions a bit more difficult.  The shoot was quite quick so we had to work quite fast.  The shoot was done with a Canon 1D mark 4 and a 16-35mm lens on f14 at about 160th.  The apeture was high becuase I had to expose for the really bright flames behind.  The shoot was great fun and worked quite well.  With the help of the QLD fire fighters and the Firebirds.  Oh and my mate Rob Maccoll.  Thanks Robbie