My all-time favorite assignment was my “Pigeon Culture” project I produced during my internship with National Geographic Magazine. To put into perspective how valuable some pigeons can be, auctions are held around the world where pigeons are bought and sold for over $200,000 and races are held in some countries with a top prize of $1 million to the winning flyer. I explain more in depth in my multimedia presentation about the amazing and beautiful sport of racing pigeons. I would like to share my techniques, settings, and my approach to three of my 10,000+ images I took during the assignment.
Butch and His Prized Trophies
Pigeon Racer Butch holds his prized trophies
I was kindly invited to Butch Gentile’s home in Spring Hill, Florida for dinner with two of his racing friends. I arrived and Butch was cooking swordfish with no shirt on. As the four of us sat down to eat, Butch still had no shirt on and I knew I had a great opportunity for a photograph. After dinner, I asked if he could show me some of his prized pigeon racing awards. With the help of the other two flyers, I starting taking photos. I used 3 Canon Speedlites and zoomed them to provide a “spot-light” look. I wanted a gritty and harsh feeling with the portrait to match Butch’s unique personality. One thing I failed to notice was how the trophies had magnified his nipples. Oops. Below was my approach:
Birds in Flight
Racing pigeons landing on a New York City rooftop
I am fanatical about clean backgrounds in my photos. Very rarely am I looking at the subject of my photo after I set my focus. My eyes are constantly scanning the borders of the frame to check for distractions. With this image, I had a NYC skyline in the background so the only way I could get a clean background was to get as low as possible. The sun was setting so I wanted to capture the gradient of the sky. Since it was getting darker, I decided to use a slower shutter speed which is why there is movement in some of the wings. This frame could have been better if the two pigeons in the middle had separation like the rest of the birds in the frame. Below you will see the cluttered background and how I used two Canon Speedlites to evenly light the birds as they landed:
Stealth Pigeon
A racing pigeon photographed in my mobile studio
This is always the image that gets the response, “HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?”
I rented a Jeep Commando, bought $300 worth of black velvet, and built a PVC pipe studio that I could travel with to the flyer’s homes. I set up 4 Canon Speedlite flashes synced with Pocket Wizards: 1 top left, 1 top right, 1 top center, and one on the bottom closest to the back of the jeep. I closed the back door, opened the hatch window and hung another piece of velvet from the window to make it completely black inside. The pigeon’s owner would toss the bird into the back and sometimes they would sit still, sometimes they would hop around, but they all eventually flew out.
My Settings:
Aperture = f 16
I used high aperture because it allowed maximum depth of field. There would be no way to automatically focus on these pigeons as they flew towards me. At f/16 aperture and shooting with a wide 24 mm lens, almost everything will be in focus. This allowed me to set a focus point somewhere in the middle of the studio and concentrate on my timing.
Shutter Speed = 200
With my Canon 5D and the flashes I was using, the fastest shutter speed I could use was 200, so I was stuck there. I wanted to use the fastest shutter speed possible to stop the motion of the wings.
ISO = 50
I always want to use the best quality ISO I can. With this set up, I can power my flashes up strong enough to use an ISO as low as 50.
Below are a few frames of the setup.
In this picture, Rob is using the large reflector to diffuse the light coming in from the skylight and the small reflector to cast a shadow on the back of peanuts.
As you can see, this allowed the peanuts in the foreground and in focus to really pop while the darkened background would allow the cover text to read better in the layout.
Rob used 
