PhotoNews Canada had the chance to go behind the scenes with Sandy Nicholson on set of his latest project, photographing exotic animals in the studio. You may have seen Sandy’s work before if you had the chance to see some of the 2012 Toronto Maple Leafs team photos. In his latest project, Sandy is photographing exotic animals inside Album Studios in Toronto.
The photos were shot on a Phase One 645DF with an IQ160 digital back. Lighting consisted of four Broncolor Scoro A4S power packs, three Pulso G lights, and a Pulso Twin head. For the straight on shots, Sandy used a beauty dish overhead, with diffused standard reflector coming from below. Two lights on the background rounded out the setup. For the shots from below, Sandy constructed a platform of Lexan connected to four light stands. A large Chimera softbox from overhead provides a backlit backdrop, with a beauty dish and standard reflector cross lighting from below, to avoid reflections in the Lexan surface.
Animals in order of appearance:
Shanequa – Caribbean Flamingo
Katija – Eurasian Lynx
Esmerelda – African Hornbill
Periwinkle and Pansy – Ret Foot Tortoises
Cherry and Quilliam Shatner – African Pygmy Hedgehog
Support Provided By:
Hands On Exotics – http://www.handsonexotics.com
B3K Digital – http://www.b3kdigital.com
Album Studios – http://www.albumstudiorentals.com
Broncolor Canada – http://www.bron.ca
