Music to Life Song of the Week: Amongst the Waves by Pearl Jam

I was in San Diego for a few days for a conference, and in between meetings I did a few photoshoots with some awesome people. I brought a lot of gear with me just in case I needed it, and of course I didn’t. For the shoot, I used a Canon 5D Mark III and I either used the Canon 16-35 lens or the Sigma 85mm. I also used external flash which was the Profoto B1 with a 3′ octabox. Brittany was my model for this particular shoot, and we did a few concepts. I knew ahead of time that I wanted to interpret one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, Amongst the Waves. I thought it would be a cool idea to have the room flooded with ocean water while Brittany was sleeping. It’s as if she’s dreaming of waves crashing and it’s all coming to life around her.

How I Shot It

This fine art piece is a composite image where I took multiple images and I basically stitched those elements together in Photoshop. I shot Brittany with a wide angle lens and I used a gridded octabox to light her up. The reason why I used a grid on the octabox is so that I can concentrate the light on her and not have much spillage on the rest of the scene. After that, I went outside to the beach, and took some close up photos of the ocean water.

Play “Amongst the Waves”

If you’re interested in shooting a Music to Life series image, message me at contact@jimmybuiphotography.com and don’t forget to visit my website and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you so much!