Located on Bastimentos island in Bocas del Toro is the Eco bed and breakfast called The Firefly. Lauren and Ryan, the owners of The Firefly, turned what was originally just a single home nestled in the jungle just steps from the Caribbean into one of a kind accommodations that now includes a bar and restaurant, bungalows, an infinity pool, and a yoga studio. The goal of the shoot was to provide The Firefly with images of the rooms, bar and restaurant, and a hero twilight shot of the new pool and bungalow.
The twilight photograph of the bungalow shown above was the shot I had in mind before even arriving in Panama. The light painting method used for shooting this twilight image I learned from a Los Angeles photographer named Mike Kelley (www.mpkelley.com). Light painting entails using any form of light to illuminate a scene with the quantity and quality of light that is desired. In the video below, I'm shown individually lighting the scene with a handheld flash. Post-capture, all the images are brought into photoshop where masks are used to reveal the desired lighting. It is a very labor intensive and time-consuming method but the results are worth the effort.
