So I was going through some pictures and came across these from a shoot by my friend Robert Adamo for Palm Beach Illustrated. This is one of my moms favorite stories to tell her friends. Big Cypress Preserve is in the middle of the Florida Everglades. not the it looks like the everglades, not the outer edge of the everglades, the honest to goodness middle of the everglades. Fans of photography may know the name Clyde Butcher. Well our destination was Clyde’s property in Big Cypress. My understanding is that Clyde bought it many years ago and got grandfathered in when it became a preserve. Many of his iconic large scale photography was done here and at nearby locations.
So as we were heading east from Naples on the farthest south, east/west road one can take in Florida I decided to call my mom to tell her that we would be holed up in a cabin in the “swamp” for a few days and would not have cell reception. Just as I said the words the line went dead. So we arrived at Clyde’s property and started to walk around for a tech scout. The location had not been scouted in advance as it was so far away from every ware. So as our guide walked us around the property we were not seeing too many really great shots on what amounted to maybe and acre and a half to two acres of dry land surrounded by the river of grass and cypress. He, our guide was talking about these ecco tours they do what they call the “swamp walk” where they take the brave of heart out, way out into the swamp yes with the gators and snakes and something called a fish eating spider. As Rob and I looked out into the cypress swamp we felt the utter beauty of the real Florida. I posed the question to Rob what about doing a few shots out there? Rob being the outdoorsman he is was all about it and I know was thinking the same thing. But we said there's no way Katherine Lande (Fashion Editor) and our model will be game for this. None the less we went back to the main house where the girls and our hair and makeup artist were preparing. Well our model turned out to be a farm girl who was fascinated by the environment and wanted nothing more than to see some gators so she was down and Katherine who has come to trust Rob was not thrilled but wanted and trusted that that’s where the shots were. I said we can stand on the edge and look at it or we can get out there and be in it. Of coarse it was brought up about the gators one of which was just outside the front door in a pond near the house she was affectionately known as “Big Mama”. Our guide told us many times “don’t worry you are not on their menu, it’s not mating season anyway”. This did not make Katherine feel any better. Our hair and make up artist said no way no how I’ll be here on dry land when you need me. So as we prepared to grab a few outfits and head out into the swamp we were told to wear jeans and that the property had a stock of old sneakers we could use. The plan was to head out with a few looks shoot them then comeback, refresh, look at the shots and go back out.
A few tech notes. Rob Adamo is a great photographer partly because he is willing to do whatever it takes to get the shot done right. If that means 100 lights so be it, if it means one light so be it. However this location and being that it was just he and I, really did not allow for much in the way of gear. Rob had recently bought a California Sunbounce reflector which is a high end reflector that just puts out considerably more light than your average reflector. So we were gonna head out with that and the cannon 580 ex speed light to be remotely triggered and hand held. I was loaded down with the reflector, some extra cf cards, an Epson P5000 portable storage device, a lense cleaning device, a few lenses, and the speed light. As we headed out in to knee deep black water for the remainder of the day. We quickly found out that the speed light was not going to be able to keep up with the speed at which one shoots for a fashion shoot. It just could not recharge fast enough from the AA batteries even with an extra power pack. So for the first time since I’ve worked with Rob it was no lighting just the reflector and it turned out great! See here on the PBM site. Mind you we were going into the swamp with Gucci, Oscar de la Renta, Louis Vuitton, etc. clothes worth tens of thousands of dollars collectively.
See the story on the Palm Beach Illustrated site. and my pics below. I only took a rather cheap water proof camera with me to shoot behind the scenes shots, as I was going through them I decided to have a little fun with some creative post processing I’ve been working on. So indulge me in the playful processing of the shots below and keep in mind I was not working with anything I could control. literally point and shoot, no focus no settings of any kind aside from my crazy post processing.
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