The Wall

So as not to be second-guessed, let me start off by mentioning this update has nothing to do with Pink Floyd. (Although it is true I'm a long-time Pink Floyd fan.)

Having said that, it is true this post is about a wall, that is, the wall my neighbors and I refer to as the wall.

Like the old man who lives on the hill (whom I wrote about yesterday) the wall also exists across the street from where I reside. For reference, the hill where the old man lives is to the left of where my little Canon point-n-shoot was focused when, just today, I shot the above pic of the wall.

The county built the wall last summer. Its purpose is to stop debris (from dead trees to discarded refrigerators) from washing down the canyon during a big rain storm. The canyon behind the wall runs for miles up into the hills and back-country, eventually leading to a lake and recreational area about 5 to 10 miles away. There's also a California condor sanctuary up there, not to mention deer, coyotes, mountain lions, and other fauna. The pic also looks towards the Pacific Ocean which is about 25 or 30 miles, straight ahead, that-a-way. Perhaps the wall is also designed to protect us from a really big Tsunami? (Which, according to the History Channel -- or was it NatGeo? -- isn't a matter of if it happens but when it happens.)

What does all this have to do with photography? I'll get to that in a moment.

To me, the wall looks like something out of that movie, "The Village." Or maybe something they built in "Jurassic Park" to keep dinosaurs contained. Either way, it's an interesting landmark. Most people comment on it when they come up this way for the first time. "What's that?" is the most commonly-asked question.

"The wall," I usually answer with a shrug.

Technically, I suppose, it's more a fence than a wall. But for some reason, calling it a wall has stuck with most folks up this way. Here's a closer look at the wall. For reference, the wall is about ten-feet high.


Walls and fences and such can be cool places to shoot pictures. I would love to shoot some pretty girl stuff in front of the wall but I don't think my neighbors would approve. I could go on the other side of the wall and get some pretty girl shots in relative privacy but the wall isn't as cool on the other side: Doesn't have those steel supports which, IMO, give it strength and character and visual interest. (Strength being the reason the county's engineers had them installed. I don't think "character" or "visual interest" was a consideration for them.)

In a few weeks I will be photographing an up-n-coming rock band for their publicity and art-work needs and I'm going to shoot them at the wall. The name of the band is "Paradise." They just signed a contract with some music company label. I'll be shooting Paradise, if all goes according to plan, late in the day. I'm planning to use strobes to fill the hard, shadowy, late-afternoon sun and for accent lighting. (Assuming it's a sunny day.) For some of the pics, I'll probably try overcoming the sunlight with my monolights. That should look cool, more so if there's some interesting clouds in the sky. Maybe I'll set a strobe behind the wall and throw some hard light between the horizontal planks? That might look cool too. Hmmm... Maybe some smoke from a fog machine? We'll see. Hopefully, we'll still be shooting when Golden Hour arrives. The sun will be setting behind the hills that are behind the wall, somewhat to the left-side of the canyon.

I didn't consider going the Strobist route while thinking about shooting the band. Strobist-style photography certainly has its place in the world of location shooting but it isn't all things to all shoots. Plus, waiting for small, Speedlite-type flashes to slowly recycle drives me nuts! I have a couple of Canon Speedlites in my bag, as well as a Vivitar 285 and a 283. They probably would might get this job done... barely. Instead, I'm going to string enough stingers together to reach from the garage, here at the house, to the wall. It's about 150 yards and, yeah, I have enough extension cords to get there. Man, do I want/need to get one or two of THESE BABIES for just this sort of work. Unfortunately, finances don't currently permit. (Without going the plastic route which I ain't gonna do.)

Since I'm writing about walls, here's a pic from a year or so ago shot against another wall, this one of a brick, Pink Floyd-ish, variety. I don't recall the model's name. I do remember that I used two strobes to light her. I think the pic reveals where the lights were (approximately) set.