Let's talk about a fun job!

There is a medical practice here in Austin for which I've been making photographs, video and written content for nearly thirty years. There is a constant roster of sixteen doctors and each one is also a partner in the practice. The jobs range from the typical "doctor in white coat looking congenial and concerned" to event coverage and photos of their different locations/buildings for their website. 

To a person they are all pleasant, collegial with me, and down to earth. When one doctor retires the rest take a good long time to interview, interview and interview potential new additions to the practice. It's fun to watch. They only want to bring in fellow doctors that they'd enjoy hanging out and socializing with. 

About fifteen years ago they decided they'd like to do a group photo for use on holiday cards and various promos. Their marketing staff decided on a location which had as its background the downtown skyline of Austin. It was on the front plaza of a big event center just south of Lady Bird Lake (which used to be named, Town Lake). The plaza has a  big arch and, in the late afternoon I could arrange for the group to be in open shade. Without the building the doctors would have been in the same sun angle as the downtown skyscrapers. The shade of the building kept the docs from being directly lit with harsh sun. 

The problem for the photographer to solve was that the open shade was three to four stops darker than the full sun on the buildings. A correct exposure for the buildings would leave the docs in the dark. Obviously, they needed to be lit to a level that would compete with the sun. We'd need powerful fill flash.

The first year we did this kind of photo I used a battery powered flash with two heads. It was called an Elinchrom Ranger RX. The battery powered generator put out 1200 watt seconds and the power could be evenly distributed as 600 watt seconds to each flash head. Nice. Powerful. Just right. 

With enough power you could distribute the light across 16 subjects and gain f11 @ whatever your highest sync speed might be. Enough to evenly light the foreground while maintaining a good exposure on the skyline. 

Over the years I made use of several different flash systems. After the Elinchrom I tried one year with a set of Alien Bees monolights and one of the Alien Bees battery power packs. Those power packs used sealed lead acid batteries which made the whole combination quite heavy. But it all worked. When it worked. 

The next time we did the images in that space (about once every four years) I used a Profoto battery powered system which consisted of a battery box/flash generator and two flash heads. The power was lower, at 600 watt seconds, but we were able to time the near end of day light on the buildings with the full power output of the Profoto units to get the right balance of exposure.

This year I used two Godox AD200Pro flashes firing into a dual, bare bulb head for my main fill light. It was less power than I'd used in the past but I knew we could make it work by